Rating: NR
Genre:
Comedy Drama
Release Date: 02/25/2003
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 300 Minutes
Flags: Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language, Adult Humor, Sexual Situations
Distributor/Studio: Acorn Media
Author
Armistead Maupin's serialized tale of sexual infidelity and identity in 1970s San Francisco becomes a sprawling comic
melodrama in this much-acclaimed miniseries. Produced by
PBS and Britain's
Channel 4,
Tales of the City covers in its five hours the interlocking stories of more than a dozen main characters, many of whom reside at 28 Barbary Lane, a quaint multi-apartment house overseen by the open-minded but enigmatic
Mrs. Madrigal (
Olympia Dukakis). Among her stable of residents are the acerbic, unlucky-in-love
Mona Ramsey (
Chloe Webb) and her occasional roommate
Michael Tolliver (
Marcus D'Amico), who's her constant companion -- that is, when he's not shacked up with one of an endless series of short-term boyfriends.
Mrs. Madrigal's newest charge is the apple-cheeked
Mary Ann Singleton (
Laura Linney), a naïve young woman from the Midwest who's come to San Francisco to visit her friend
Connie (
Parker Posey), but ends up staying, in search of both a career and a husband. It isn't long before she finds the former; unfortunately, along with it comes the unwanted advances of her boss
Beauchamp Day (
Thomas Gibson), a philandering executive unhappily married to
his boss
Edgar's daughter,
DeDe (
Barbara Garrick). Meanwhile, the regal
Edgar (
Donald Moffat) happens to be conducting an affair of his own with none other than
Mrs. Madrigal. Also starring
Bill Campbell and
Paul Gross,
Tales of the City was first aired on
Channel 4 in the spring of 1993 and made its
PBS premiere in the winter of 1994, when it garnered some of the network's highest ratings ever, amidst vocal protest of the show's risqué content.
~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
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