All 24 episodes from the debut season--including "Pilot," "Pride and Prejudice," "The High and the Mighty," "Deaf Becomes Her," and "Mayor Over Miami"--are presented in a four-disc set. 10 1/2 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English. **24 episodes on 4 discs. 10 1/2 hrs.**
Features:
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Spin City is a true American sitcom and ran from 1996-2002 on ABC. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION Rating: NR Age: 826663110234 UPC: 826663110234 Manufacturer No: SF11023
Product Details:
Actors:
Michael J Fox, Connie Britton, Alan Ruck, Michael Boatman, Richard Kind
Average Customer Review:
( 19 customer reviews )
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5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Subtitles/CaptionsFeb 27, 2009
By B. Cedric Great show, love it. I taped it on VHS. I'm so glad it's on DVD now. Only problem : there are no subtitles or captions for the hearing impaired (or non native english speakers) for whom they're a great help and sometimes the (fake ?) laughs cover the pun or punch line. I hope the next installments will provide this sometimes much needed feature.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Spun goldNov 18, 2008
By Thomas A. Heald
"tomalhe"
The release of "Spin City" on DVD could not be more timely. Not only was Michael J. Fox's character smoothing out the wrinkles in his boss (Barry Bostwick)s' debut term as mayor of New York, but the newest hire in the Mayor's office was black gay activist Carter Heywood (Michael Boatman) as head of minority affairs. Early episodes not only dealt with Carter trying to increase AIDS funding, and establish a needle exchange, but seven shows into the run he staged a mock wedding to protest the mayor's stand against gay marriage. Plus, Boatman and Fox's characters share an onscreen kiss to make guest star Luke Perry (Carter's bisexual ex) jealous. The jokes all hold up surprisingly well a dozen years later, thanks to cocreators Gary David Goldberg (who previously worked with Fox on "Family Ties") and Bill Lawrence (who went on to launch "Scrubs.") While "Ellen" and "Will & Grace" top most people's lists of gay sitcoms, it's perhaps easy to forget the GLAAD awards that "Spin City" racked up by not only making the black gay man not only one the smartest characters on the show, but by giving him the same amount of depth as its lead.
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
God Bless America, what took so long????Nov 02, 2008
By Wandakitty
"wandakitty1974"
Us spin city fans have been waiting many years for this to finally come out on dvd. We long ago wore out the DVD's of Mike's favorite episodes, and while they were of course awesome, I didn't think they would ever put out the entire seasons on DVD. It's about time, what a long and leisurely process it has been, when plenty of other less worthy shows immediately go to DVD when they end.
13 of 18 found the following review helpful:
Campaign for great TV!Nov 04, 2008
By Robin Orlowski
"political activist"
Having made his initial TV debut years earlier as Republican Alex P. Keaton, Michael J. Fox blatantly crossed the political aisle in his triumphant TV return.
Now he is playing Democratic New York Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty. Flaherty is a curious combination of Al Gore and George Stephanopoulos with lots of requisite/inevitable `Kennedy family' references tossed in.
His boss is Mayor Randall Winston (Barry Bostwick), a more-or-less transparent spoof of Bill Clinton. In terms of physical structure at least, there is a fair resemblance. Vocal-inflection and intelligence, I don't see a comparison, but hey, politics is the game of compromise. You take what you can get.
Basically, this is a small-screen version of Primary Colors: a warm-hearted but satirical look at Democratic politics. And the 24-episode season won't make you incur a personal deficit in order to own it!
A favorite episode is "Kiss Me Stupid" where another childhood crush, Luke Perry returns to his former boyfriend Carter Heywood--with some very important but unexpected news. After having dated each other for a while, Luke's character now dates women, even planning on marriage. Spence Kamer wants Carter to be his best man for this impending ceremony. Perry's apparent comfort with publically delivering `flirty' lines to another man sincerely impressed me, having grown up seeing him merely as a `teen idol'. Instead of Sheen in the later seasons, the production crew for this series should have convinced Perry to sign on as a replacement for Fox. Who knew he was capable of successfully delivering sitcom work? I certainly hadn't.
Being a disability advocate, I easily imagined myself in "Deaf Becomes Her". Misunderstandings about the Mayor's intention towards the deaf community (and more generalized, the disability community!) eventually get successfully resolved. Arriving at mutual ground, Mike and the city's leading deaf advocate realize they do share a mutual desire to help people--and maybe more.
Mike is a politician, but he's also on the prowl only for true and lasting love. An ongoing storyline this season is his romance with news reporter Ashley Schaeffer (Carla Gugino)---and how sincerely heartbroken he becomes upon their breakup ("Bye-Bye, Love"). Rather than a temporary fling with the inevitable `campaign trail...etc' woman, Mike concedes that he is looking for something deeper and safer ("Striptease").
This is exactly why Mike is so charming; he is political without being `sleazy' or the stereotypical know-it-all. He's still our lovable `guy-next door'!
After Mike (duh), my second favorite permanent staff member has to be Carter Heywood (Michael Boatman). As the Mayor's "Diversity Liaison" (who comes on in the "Pilot"), he is supposed to perform outreach with and for `diverse' community organizations. Otherwise, presumably these groups would not have their fair share of representation at City Hall. For it's not that the other staff are insensitive or `not diverse' they just juggle multiple `other concerns' in the ever-compartmentalized world of public service. There is always too much to do and never enough time or money.
Perpetual pulls between his previous "outsider" grassroots community organizing and now being on the `inside' gets best illustrated in "Pride and Prejudice". The same needle exchange program which Carter believes would halt (or even eliminate) the spread of AIDS throughout New York ultimately must get withdrawn for political expediency. It's a powerful lesson for Carter to concede that the `edgiest' public policies will not always work the best in the staid world of bureaucracy. Carter is passionate about his causes, but he's also genuinely intelligent and articulate--rather than being a `token' who is appointed merely to fill a slot.
Since Boatman and the other actors merely could have been one-dimensional tokens for Fox and Bostwick to bounce their one-liners off of, it's appreciated that they have substantive plots of their own throughout this season (and the series). Technically it's 'his' show, but Fox is the type of leading actor who sucessfully demonstrates that he can and is not afraid to share the limelight with other actors.
Extras for this season include a retrospective featurette by the cast and crew: they are also contributing to fond memories about this perpetually awesome series. And Michael J. Fox and Gary David Goldberg themselves provided a seminar to what was then the Museum of Television & Radio. It explained how the creation of this series successfully came into fruition between the two of them.
Please, please, cast your vote for this release so we get (at least) all the seasons with Mike elected into production--and on the market!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Love Every MinuteJun 06, 2010
By NLV I still am a huge fan of the show. I have seasons 1 to 3, and I have watched all three seasons four times in the first two months of owning it. I am only disappointed in the fact that the studio never released seasons 4 to 6, and that season 3 end on with you wanting to know what happens next.....Other than all this, I'm lovng it.
based on 19 reviews
( 19 customer reviews )
