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Sex and the City is an American cable television series. The original run of the show was broadcast on HBO from 1998 until 2004, for a total of ninety-four episodes.
Set in New York City, the show focused on four white American women, three in their mid-thirties and one in her forties. The quirky series had multiple continuing story lines and tackled socially relevant issues such as sexually transmitted diseases, safe sex, and promiscuity. It specifically examined the lives of big-city professional women in the late 1990s/early 2000s and how changing roles and expectations for women affected the characters.
The show was primarily filmed at New York City's Silvercup Studios and on location in and around Manhattan. Since it ended, the show has been aired in syndication on networks such as TBS, WGN, and many other local stations. However, basic cable outlets at local stations excise certain explicit show content that was broadcast in the original version. In 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."[1]
The show was based in part on writer Candace Bushnell's book of the same name, compiled from her column with the New York Observer. Bushnell has stated in several interviews that the Carrie Bradshaw in her columns is her alter ego; when she wrote the "Sex and the City" essays, she used her own name initially; for privacy reasons, however, she created the character of Carrie Bradshaw, a promiscuous woman who was also working as a writer and living in New York City. Carrie also has the same initials, a flourish emphasizing her connection with Bushnell.[2]
Darren Star, the show's creator, paid $50,000 to Bushnell for "lock, stock, and barrel" rights to her columns, according to fellow author Toby Young.[3] The show "bears only a passing resemblance to its source material";[3] the columns were "darker and more cynical" than the "gentler" series that Star produced.[3] According to Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell, by Amy Sohn,[4] Star wanted to create a show that expressed true adult comedy, lesbianism and sex in an up-front way.
The narrative of the show focuses on Carrie Bradshaw and her three best friends, Miranda Hobbes, Charlotte York and Samantha Jones. The women discuss their sexual desires and fantasies, and their travels in life, love and lesbianism. The show often depicts frank discussions about romance and sexuality, features a short montage of interviews of people living in New York City regarding topics discussed in that episode. These continue through season two but are eventually phased out.
Another feature that would eventually be scrapped is Carrie breaking the fourth wall (for example, looking into the camera and speaking to the audience directly in an aside). Bradshaw would question scenarios and ideas, asking the audience for an opinion or insight on different situations. The pilot also has the characters of Miranda and Charlotte as well as a few minor characters speaking directly to the camera/audience. The last such event by Carrie occurs in episode three of the second season, "The Freak Show".
The method of expressing inner monologues is shifted exclusively to voiceovers by Carrie in future episodes. Her main narration usually revolves around the premise of that week's "column," where she often sums up her thoughts with, "I couldn't help but wonder..." As she says that, her computer monitor is shown while she is typing the text of her voiceover.
The series was divided up into six seasons altogether. The first season was twelve episodes (two discs of 6), the second season was eighteen episodes (three discs of 6), and the third season was eighteen episodes (three discs of 6). Then the fourth season was eighteen episodes (three discs of 6), the fifth season was eight episodes (two discs of four), and the final season was twenty episodes. In total, there were 94 episodes of Sex and the City.
Sex and the City: The Movie was released nationwide in the USA on May 30, 2008 and, as of December 24, 2008, has made $413,129,126 worldwide.
The Sex and the City: The Movie DVD was released on September 23, 2008.
Sex and the City premiered on HBO, June 6, 1998, and was one of the highest-rated sitcoms of the season, and the last original episode aired on February 22, 2004.
The show became well known and lauded for its frank dialogue about women and sex. An unlikely supporter of the show is author Orson Scott Card. Card stated that although the crudity of the series left him numb, the show contained some of the best writing on television.[5]
However, the characters have been criticized for being shallow, superficial, and self-absorbed.[6]
Sex and the City has been analyzed by feminists both as an example of progress in women's rights and life options, and as an example of the effects of corporate culture, marketing and the more individualistic strands of feminism in presenting women's empowerment as mainly tied to achieving coupledom, beauty, and personal upward mobility, rather than collective organisation for progressive change.[7]. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "The clothes from SATC Raise your cosmos! A toast to the wonderful wardrobe from Sex and the City, which taught us that no flower is too big, no skirt too short, and no shoe too expensive."[8]
Over its course of six seasons, "Sex and the City" was nominated for over 50 Emmy Awards, winning seven times. Among the Emmys the show won were two for Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series (Jennifer McNamara), one for its Costumes, a trophy for Outstanding Comedy Series for its third season in 2001 (the first time ever a cable channel wins Outstanding Comedy Series), Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series in 2002 for the episode "The Real Me", and for its final season in 2004, Emmys for Sarah Jessica Parker (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the episode "An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux"), and Cynthia Nixon (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the episodes "One and "Ick Factor"). It has also been nominated for 24 Golden Globe Awards, and won 8. Its wins included Best TV Series — Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress in a TV Series — Musical or Comedy, (Sarah Jessica Parker) for three consecutive years from 2000 – 2002, Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series, or Movie for Kim Cattrall, and another one for Parker. In 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."[1]
Season one of Sex and the City aired on HBO from June to August 1998. Season two was broadcast from June until October,1999. Season three aired from June until October 2000. Season four was broadcast in two parts: from June until August 2001, and then in January and February 2002. Season five, truncated due to Parker's pregnancy, aired on HBO during the summer of 2002. The twenty episodes of the final season, season six, aired in two parts: from June until September 2003 and during January and February 2004.
Sex and the City is currently syndicated in the US by HBO corporate sibling (under Time Warner) Warner Bros. Television Distribution. CBS Paramount Television (successors to Rysher Entertainment and Paramount Television) and their distribution arm own international rights.
The United States cable channel HBO was the original broadcaster. TBS and WGN began showing edited reruns of the series. The series then went into international syndication.
In Australia, the Nine Network aired the first run of the show Every Monday Between 9:30 pm and 11:00 pm. After 2004 the Cable Channel W. Channel aired it until summer 2008 when Arena TV started airing it in a block with Will & Grace with promos stating "all the good guys are gay".
In the Republic of Ireland, TV3 premiered Sex and the City in February in 1999. Since 2006 repeats of the series aired on 3e.
Channel 4 originally aired the series in the UK with the first episode shown in early 1999. As of August 2009 a double bill of the show airs each weeknight at 10:30pm on Comedy Central (UK) and a double bill airs on Wednesdays from 9pm on Fiver
All six seasons of Sex and the City have been released commercially on DVD, with season six being split into two parts. They have been released officially on region 1 (Americas), region 2 (Europe & Middle East), region 3 (Korea) and region 4 (Oceania & South Pacific) formats, but illegal bootleg editions have also surfaced for region 3 (Thailand) as well as region 0 (Universal) and can even be found on eBay. In addition to their region encoding, releases vary depending on which region they were released in. Region 2 DVDs of Sex and the City have been criticized by some fans for having little or no special features, but region 1 editions have included director commentary, cast interviews and more.
In addition to standard single season DVD box sets of the show, limited edition collectors' editions have also been released that include all 6 seasons in one complete set. Even these vary between region 1, 2 and 4. While Europe got a complete set that came with special 'shoe box' packaging (a reference to Sarah Jessica Parker's character's love for shoes in the show), the USA and Canada version came packaged in a more traditional fold-out suede case and with an additional bonus DVD including many special features. Mexico's and Oceania's edition come packaged in a beauty case.
As well as missing out on some special features, many fans in Europe had trouble with the region 2 edition of the season 1 DVD. Unfortunately, the show was not converted into a PAL video signal, and remained in its original American NTSC format. This caused some compatibility problems with some European television sets and DVD players. All subsequent Region 2 DVD releases of the programme were appropriately transferred to PAL video using the original film prints, and season 1 has since been re-released in PAL format. Outside the US, Sex and the City boxed sets were released through Paramount Pictures (whose parent Viacom interestingly once owned HBO's rival Showtime, before the CBS Corporation split at the end of 2005) – who owned at once, certain rights to the programme's broadcast as well – it was probably because of Paramount's "no-extras" policy that the region 2 DVDs were criticized. American and Canadian DVDs were released through the programme's original broadcasters, HBO. In Australia, single editions have been released, where each disc is sold separately. In South Korea, due to the popularity of the show, a complete, six-season, special DVD shoebox set was released—600 limited edition sets in 2005; 850 limited edition sets in 2006—at suggested retail price of $300 (US). All of them sold out immediately.
Selected episodes are also available as part of the Sex and the City Essentials DVD collection. These are four separately-packaged discs containing three selected episodes that fit a common theme.
There have been several CDs released to accompany the series Sex and the City, two of which (the albums from Irma Records) contain tracks used in the show's actual soundtrack.
A feature film based on Sex and the City, written produced and directed by Michael Patrick King, has been produced.[9][10][11] The film originally was slated for production near the end of the broadcast series run in 2004, but the movie deal fell through at that time. Multiple press reports at the time indicated a personal dispute between Parker and Cattrall, as well as Cattrall's refusal to sign a contract for the film at a pay scale considerably less than Parker's.[12]
Michael Patrick King wrote and directed, and the four lead actresses returned to reprise their roles, and Chris Noth signed to reprise his role as "Mr. Big." In addition, Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson appears in the film as Carrie's assistant. New Line Cinema distributed the film, and New Line president of production Toby Emmerich, Richard Brenner and Kathy Busby oversaw the project. Parker and John Melfi produced. Filming started on September 19, 2007 in New York City.[11][13][14]
The plot of the film revolves around the lives of the four main characters, four years after the time frame of the finale of the HBO series.[13]
Evan Handler, David Eigenberg, David Connelly Blair, Jason Lewis, and Willie Garson reprise their roles.
Filming of the Sex and the City movie was completed early December 2007.[15]
The film's world premiere was in London's Leicester Square in early May 2008. The film was released on May 28, 2008 in the UK and was released May 30, 2008 in the US with an unprecedented $55.7 million three-day gross. The debut made Sex and the City the top-opening R-rated romantic comedy of all time.[16]
In November 2008, Cattrall confirmed that a second movie was in the works and is expected to begin filming in August 2009.[17] It was confirmed in January 2009 that all four leading ladies had committed to a sequel and would be commanding higher salaries for the second film.[18]
The second installment of the film had began filming on September 1, 2009, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Noth. On September 18, 2009, Kim Cattrall, who plays Samantha Jones, was pictured in a wedding dress speculating that her character might be getting married in the film.
It has also been confirmed that a third film is planned and, if the script is good enough, will go into production around the time the second film is released to cinemas. It is also confirmed, by Sarah Jessica Parker, that the proposed third film will be the last movie and will finish the Sex and the City franchise for good.
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