Sex and The City biography
sex and the City pictures Gallery
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 six seasons.
Set in New York City, the show focused on four women, three in their mid-thirties and one in her forties. The quirky drama/comedy had multiple continuing story lines and tackled socially relevant issues such as sexually transmitted diseases, safe sex, heartbreaks, multiple partners, and promiscuity. It specifically examined the lives of big-city professional women in the late 1990s 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 edit out certain explicit show content that was broadcast in the original version.
Premise
The show was based in part on writer Candice 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 woman who was also working as a writer and living in New York City. Carrie also has the same initials, which reiterates her connection with Bushnell.[1]
Darren Starr, the show's creator, paid $50,000 to Bushnell for "lock, stock, and barrel" rights to her columns, according to fellow author Toby Young.[2] The show "bears only a passing resemblance to its source material";[2] the columns were "darker and more cynical" than the "gentler" series that Starr produced.[2] According to Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell, by Amy Sohn,[3] Starr wanted to create a show that expressed true adult comedy and sex in an up-front way.
The narrative of the show focused on Carrie and her three best friends. The women discussed their sexual desires and fantasies, and their travels in life and love. The show often depicted frank discussions about romance and sexuality, particularly in the context of being a single woman in her mid-thirties. Each episode in season one featured a short montage of interviews of people living in New York City regarding topics discussed in that episode. These continued through season two but were then phased out.
Another feature that would eventually be scrapped was 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 had 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 was shifted exclusively to voiceovers by Carrie in future episodes. Her main narration usually revolved around the premise of that week's "article", where she summed 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.
| Character | Actress |
|---|---|
| Carrie Bradshaw | Sarah Jessica Parker |
| She is the narrator of each episode. Each episode is structured around her train of thought while writing her weekly column, "Sex and the City," for the fictitious newspaper The New York Star. A member of the New York glitterati, she is a club/bar/restaurant staple who is known for her unique fashion sense (particularly footwear, Manolo Blahniks to be exact). This is evident in the episode "The Real Me" in season four, when she is asked by Lynne Cameron (played by Margaret Cho) to be in a New York fashion show. She works on her PowerBook in her apartment, writing newspaper articles focusing on the different aspects of a relationship. In later seasons, her essays are collected as a book and she begins taking assignments from Vogue and New York Magazine. Carrie is house-proud; her one-bedroom, rent-controlled apartment is in an Upper East Side brownstone. Despite several long-term boyfriends, Carrie is entangled with "Mr. Big" (Chris Noth) in a complicated, multifaceted on-and-off-again kind of relationship. | |
| Samantha Jones | Kim Cattrall |
| She is the oldest and most sexually confident of the foursome. Samantha is an independent businesswoman, with a career in public relations. She is confident, strong, outspoken, and calls herself a "try-sexual" (meaning she'll try anything once). One of Samantha's best qualities is her loyalty to her friends. She believes that she has had "hundreds" of soulmates and requires that her sexual partners leave, "an hour after I climax." During the course of the show it is revealed that Samantha's glamorous, impenetrable facade and dismissive approach to love actually hides a sensitive, caring nature. Samantha has a number of relationships in the show . In Season 6, Samantha's character further develops when she is suddenly diagnosed with cancer when visiting a plastic surgeon for a breast implant consultation. An operation and chemotherapy challenge Samantha, but she beats cancer and it becomes clear the experience has renewed her with a new perspective on life and love with her most permanent and fulfilling relationship yet, with a younger man, the handsome model/actor, Smith Jerrod. In the movie, Samantha is still in love with Smith, they are living in California, where both of their careers are running fast. She begins to ask herself if a stable relationship is really for her. | |
| Charlotte York | Kristin Davis |
| She works in an art gallery and has had a conventional Connecticut upbringing. She is the most optimistic of the group, the one who places the most emphasis on emotional love as opposed to lust, and is a true romantic; always searching for her "knight in shining armor." She scoffs at the lewder, more libertine antics of her friends (primarily Samantha), presenting a more traditional attitude about relationships, usually based around "the rules" of love and dating. Despite her traditional outlook, she has been known to make concessions (while married) that even surprise her more sexually liberated girlfriends. Charlotte was a "straight A" student who attended Smith College where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma majoring in Art History with a minor in Finance. During the series, it is also revealed that Charlotte was voted homecoming queen, prom queen, "most popular," student body president, track team captain and was active as a cheerleader and teen model. In the 2008 movie, Charlotte is still in love with her husband and they are the parents of a lovely Chinese girl of 4. Never been able to get pregnant, Charlotte adopted a little girl and named her Lily, her favourite flower. Nevertheless, Charlotte gets pregnant at the end of the movie and gives birth to a girl. The baby is named Rose. | |
| Miranda Hobbes | Cynthia Nixon |
| She is a career-minded lawyer with extremely cynical views on relationships and men. A Harvard Law School graduate from Philadelphia with two siblings, she is Carrie's best friend, confidante, and voice of reason. In the early seasons, she is portrayed as masculine and borderline misandric, but this image softens over the years, particularly after she becomes pregnant by her on/off boyfriend, Steve Brady, whom she eventually marries. The birth of her son, Brady Hobbes, brings up new issues for her Type A, workaholic personality, but she soon finds a way to balance career, being single and motherhood. Of the four women, she is the first to purchase her own apartment (across the park from Carrie, on the Upper West Side), and later a home in Brooklyn. In the 2008 movie, Miranda is dealing with the choice of either divorcing Steve or forgiving him after he admits that he has had sex with somebody else outside their marriage. | |
Also starring
| Character | Actor/Actress | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. Big | Chris Noth | Seasons 1 - 6 + Movie |
| "Mr. Big" is a pseudonym for the charming, attractive, sarcastic, and wealthy love interest for Carrie Bradshaw. He is the reason for many of Carrie's breakdowns as he never seemed ready to fully commit to Carrie. During the course of the series he marries Natasha, who is ten years younger than Carrie. An affair with Carrie destroys Big's marriage and Carrie's relationship with her other major love interest, furniture designer Aidan. In the final episode, Mr. Big realizes that life without Carrie is nothing. He is a big jazz fan and a heavy cigar smoker with plenty of money to burn. His name was not revealed until the end of the series finale. | ||
| Steve Brady | David Eigenberg | Seasons 2 - 6 + Movie |
| He is Miranda's on and off boyfriend throughout the series since he was introduced in the second season. He eventually marries Miranda at the end of Season 6, after they had a child together at the end of Season 4. He is one of the few men on the show meant to counter-balance all the emotionally unstable men encountered throughout the series, as he is a constant and sensitive male character. His alcoholic mother, Mary Brady, played by Anne Meara, is also a prominent recurring character. | ||
| Aidan Shaw | John Corbett | Seasons 3 - 4, 6 |
| Manhattan furniture designer Aidan is Carrie's next serious boyfriend after a breakup with Mr. Big. Carrie met him when her friend Stanford Blatch noticed his photo in the newspaper, and insisted that they visit his store. Their first relationship ends when Carrie confesses, on Charlotte's first wedding day, that she had an affair with Mr. Big. Later in the series, Carrie and Aidan get back together and become engaged. However, Carrie breaks off the engagement when she realizes that she is not ready to get married, and he is unwilling to wait for her. He appears for the last time in Season 6, with a baby and a wife much to Carrie's surprising delight. | ||
| Stanford Blatch | Willie Garson | Seasons 1 - 6 + Movie |
| He is Carrie's best friend outside of the three women. A gay talent agent from an aristocratic family with a sense of style paralleled only by Carrie's, viewers receive the impression that they have a long-standing relationship built within their younger, wilder days in the New York City club and bar scene in the 1980s. He had said that they have been friends since Carrie was riding the subways and wearing Candie's. The only supporting character to receive his own storylines on occasion, Stanford represents the show's most constant gay point of view to sex on the show, generally based on the physical insecurities and inadequacies of someone who does not "have that gay look." In the last two seasons of the show, he is partnered with Broadway dancer Marcus Adente, however in the movie, he is single. He is sometimes associated with Anthony Marentino, a gay wedding planner, and friend to Charlotte. | ||
| Smith Jerrod | Jason Lewis | Season 6 + Movie |
| He is a young waiter Samantha seduces. She tries to maintain her usual sex-only relationship with him, but he slowly pushes for something more. He is a wannabe actor whose career Samantha jump starts using her PR connections (including changing his name to "Smith Jerrod" from "Jerry Jerrod"), getting him a modeling job that turns into a film role. Just when she thinks Smith's age and experiences aren't enough for her, he gives her unconditional support during her fight with breast cancer. In the final episode, Smith flies back from a film set in Canada just to tell her that he loves her, which she counters with "You have meant more to me than any man I've ever known," which, for Samantha, is a far greater statement than it might be for anyone else. | ||
| Harry Goldenblatt | Evan Handler | Seasons 5 - 6 + Movie |
| He is Charlotte's Jewish divorce lawyer who is incredibly attracted to her from the beginning. She is not attracted to him initially, but tries to pursue a sex-only relationship with him, which leads to one of exclusivity and love as opposed to her relationship with Trey, which was reversed in this aspect. After her conversion to Judaism and one big argument that sends them in separate directions for a few weeks, the two marry and begin trying to have/adopt a child. In the end, they are approved for a Chinese adoption and adopt a girl. | ||
| Aleksandr Petrovsky | Mikhail Baryshnikov | Season 6 |
| Referred to by Carrie occasionally as "The Russian", he is a famous artist who becomes Carrie's lover in the final season. He sweeps her off her feet with huge romantic gestures and shows her the foreign pockets of New York that she has never seen before. Her relationship with him brings up all sorts of questions in Carrie's mind about finding love past "a certain age" and whether or not she wants children. When he's preparing to return to Paris for a solo exhibit he invites Carrie to come live with him, which, after several deliberations (and one fight) with her friends, she does. After spending some time there, she realizes that he will never reciprocate the level of emotional involvement that she offers because his life and career will always come first. | ||
Episodes
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.
| Season | Ep # | First Airdate | Last Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 12 | June 6, 1998 | August 23, 1998 |
| Season 2 | 18 | June 6, 1999 | October 3, 1999 |
| Season 3 | 18 | June 4, 2000 | October 15, 2000 |
| Season 4 | 18 | June 3, 2001 | February 10, 2002 |
| Season 5 | 8 | July 21, 2002 | September 8, 2002 |
| Season 6 | 20 | June 22, 2003 | February 22, 2004 |
Sex and the City: The Movie was released nationwide 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.
Opening theme
- Because of the 9/11 attacks, shots of the World Trade Center Towers were replaced by the Empire State Building during the opening sequence midway through Season 4.
- An edit involving New Yorkers on a bus, then suddenly disappearing from the bus, has become a popular blooper in entertainment history.[citation needed]
- The opening theme seems to be the same one from the 1994 film Eat Drink Man Woman. The raising is played about halfway through the movie.[citation needed]
Viewer response and impact
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.[4]
However, the characters have been criticized for being shallow, superficial, and self-absorbed.[5]
Criticism
It 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[6].
Awards and recognition
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.
Broadcast and distribution
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.
Broadcasters
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. In 2006 repeats of the series aired on Channel 6 and in 2009 on 3e.
Channel 4 originally aired the series in the UK with the first episode shown in early 1999. As of March 2009 a double bill of the show airs each weeknight at 10pm on Paramount Comedy 1 and a triple bill airs on Wednesdays from 9pm on Fiver
| Country | Date of Premiere | Channel |
|---|---|---|
 USA | June 6, 1998 - February 22, 2004 2004 - present | HBO Syndication TBS |
 Australia | 1999 - June 2004 2005 - 2007 | Nine Network Syndication W. Channel Arena |
 United Kingdom | 1999 - 2004
| Channel 4 Syndication Paramount Comedy 1 E4 Fiver |
 Poland | Re-run. Sep 20, 2008 2008 - present | HBO TVN Comedy Central |
 Turkey | 2000 - 2004 2006 - 2008 2008 - present | Cine 5 ComedyMax MyMax |
 Greece | 2002 -2008 2009 - present | Alter Alpha |
 Hungary | 2003-present | Viasat 3 |
 Slovenia | 2002 - 2008 2009 - present | POP TV |
 South Korea | 2008 - present | OnStyle |
 Brazil | 2004 -2006 2006 - present 2007 - present | Rede 21 Fox Life Multishow |
DVD releases
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. Oceania's edition came 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.
- The Best of Lust: Contains the episodes "The Fuck Buddy", "Running with Scissors", and "The Turtle and the Hare".
- The Best of Mr. Big - Contains the episodes "Sex and the City", "Ex and the City", and "I Heart NY".
- The Best of Romance: Contains the episodes "Baby, Talk is Cheap", "Hop, Skip and a Week", and "An American Girl in Paris (Part Deux)".
- The Best of Breakups - Contains the episodes "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", "I Love a Charade", and "The Post-it Always Sticks Twice".
Soundtrack releases
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.
- Sex and the City - Soundtrack [Import]
- 2000/2001/2002
- Sire Records
- Includes the main theme from the show, written by Douglas J. Cuomo and features Mark Berman on keyboards
- Sex and the City - Official Soundtrack (two disc set)
- March 1, 2004
- Sony TV
- 36 Hits, including the likes of Kylie Minogue, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Cyndi Lauper, Jamiroquai and Aretha Franklin, among others.
- Irma at Sex and the City - Part 1 - Daylight Session (two disc set)
- April 19, 2004
- Irma Records
- Ambient and chilled sounds from the show's soundtrack
- Irma at Sex and the City - Part 2 - Nightlife Session (two disc set)
- April 19, 2004
- Irma Records
- House and electronica sounds from the show's soundtrack
- "Sex and the City: The Movie- Labels or Love by Fergie"
- website for the song (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20194808,00.html)
- Movie's soundtrack
- "Sex and the City: The Movie Volume 2
- Movie's soundtrack
The following are quotations from the TV special, Sex And The City: A Farewell, that aired introducing the final episode: "An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux"
- Michael Patrick King, Executive Producer::"People thought, oh it's just about sex or it's just about fashion. And then slowly over the years people start to see it's really about love ... and relationships ... and sex ... and basically the battlefield of trying to be in love—whether it be with another person or with yourself."
- Sarah Jessica Parker::"What the show has to have, and has had to have in order to survive six years, is a soul... if the show was a heart and you split the heart in two, one half would be the four women, and the other would be Carrie, alone, and her life in the city with her friends."
- Cynthia Nixon::"These women would never wear the same outfit twice."
- David Eigenberg::"They were honest about sex, they were honest about the humor of sex."
- Kim Cattrall::"The show is a valentine to being single. ... Being single used to mean that nobody wanted you; now it means you're pretty sexy and you're taking your time deciding how you want your life to be...and who you want to spend it with."
Films
A feature film based on Sex and the City, written produced and directed by Michael Patrick King, has been produced.[7][8][9] 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.[10]
Michael Patrick King wrote and directed, and the four lead actresses returned to reprise their roles, and Chris North 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 disributed 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.[9][11][12]
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.[11]
Evan Handler, David Eigenberg, Jason Lewis, and Willie Garson reprise their roles.
Filming of the Sex and the City movie was completed early December 2007.[13]
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 U.K. 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.[14]
In November 2008, Cattrall confirmed that a second movie was in the works and is expected to begin filming in the Summer of 2009.[15] 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.[16]
Pop culture references
- MADtv parodied the show as "Sluts and the City." The HBO slogan "It's not TV, it's HBO" became "It's not TV, it's porn (with Emmys)." MADtv's Michael McDonald appears as Carrie in drag with a visible crotch bulge. Nicole Sullivan, Mo Collins, and Alex Borstein also appeared in the sketch as Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda.
- Jennifer Aniston portrayed Carrie on Saturday Night Live with a fake nose. Other sketch shows have made fun of Miranda being color blind for her bright hair dye color, Samantha (played by Christina Aguilera) coming out as a transsexual, and the women confusing sex with shoes.
- In Charmed, Paige wonders if one of the women in Sex and the City slept around a lot, to which Phoebe suggests she was a free spirit. At the time, Jason Lewis (who played Smith Jerrod, one of Samantha's lovers in later episodes) was a new cast member on Charmed.
- Sex and the City brought to the greater public eye the now wildly-popular cosmopolitan cocktail, originally known as a pink Kamikaze.
- In the movie In Her Shoes, there was a scene in the old folks' home when they were watching TV and you could hear Carrie narrating. The old folks were also drinking cosmopolitans, an homage to the TV program.
- In the TV series Alistair McGowan's Big Impression, the show was parodied as "Sex and Man City," focusing on the love life of the oblivious former England football team manager Kevin Keegan and his issues with new manager Sven Göran Eriksson.
- On The Simpsons episode "Half-Decent Proposal," the show was parodied as "Nookie in New York." Patty described it as "a show about four straight women who act like gay men."
- The TBS sitcom My Boys, episode "Douchebag in the City," parodied the four female lead characters of Sex and the City by having the former editor of female main character PJ Franklin coming to Chicago to visit. The friend/editor displays very overt characteristics of what one would presume would be an attempt by a New Yorker to emulate Carrie Bradshaw, down to having cultivated friendships with three caricatures of Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha, whom she brought along to Chicago. The point of the comparison is best nailed home when a passing bus splashes water on her and she turns around shocked, in slow motion, as in the opening credits of Sex and the City.
- Logo's original series Noah's Arc is sometimes referred to as being the gay version of Sex and the City.[citation needed]
- The song "'03 Bonnie & Clyde," on Beyoncé's album Dangerously in Love and Jay-Z's album The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse, includes lyrics about Beyoncé from Jay-Z. He states that, "The only time we don't speak is during Sex and the City. She gets Carrie fever, but soon as the show is over she's right back to being my soldier."
- On Will and Grace, the season 6 episode "No Sex 'n' the City" includes a scene of Karen and Jack talking about the Sex and the City finale. Karen declares, "Honey, I am so glad that Carrie ended up with Mr. Big instead of that 70-year old ballerina!" (referring to Baryshnikov) Jack admits he was "crying like a little girl" at the ending.
- In an episode of Will and Grace, Rosario and Karen go shopping and Rosario refers to a pair of blue 'strappy' shoes as "too Sex and the City."
- On Family Guy, the show was mentioned in the Stewie Griffin Movie, with Chris being tortured by Lois because he cannot remember the four Sex and the City women's names.
- On Family Guy the show is mentioned in an episode where Brian is attempting to get a petition signed to stop a ban on gay marriage. Brian states that to get signatures he did "some things in West Quahog [he's] not proud of" and the screen flashes to him, presumably watching the beginning of Sex and the City with two gay men, upon which he states "So it's a show about three hookers and their mom?"
- On Family Guy there is a brief scene where Kim Cattrall as Samantha is about to go to bed with another man, when her leg creaks. She uses an oil can to lubricate her leg, then invites the man to jump on top of her. When he does, she shatters.
- The tagline of the Showtime series The L Word—"Same sex. Different city"—parodies the show's title.
- The magazine Time Out New York released a cover mocking the overmilking of Sex and the City and the lack of reasons for creating a movie, by showing the four main characters of the series being gagged, along with an accompanying article about why many New Yorkers are sick of the show.[17]
- Entertainment Weekly has named the show #5 on its list of the best shows in the past 25 years.[18] It also named Sarah Jessica Parker's outfit in the opening credits of the show #2 on its list of the top 50 Pop Culture Moments that rocked Fashion.[19] It has also named the theme song #8 on its list of the top 25 TV show theme songs in the past 25 years.[20]
- In the episode "Bachelor Party" of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, Robin buys Lilly a vibrator as a present for her bridal shower. When Lilly's grandmother sees it she instantly recognizes it as the one that Miranda gave to Charlotte, and then all the guests in the bridal shower say how much they like the show and which one of the characters is most like them, with Lilly's mother saying to the grandmother that she's such a Samantha
- In 2004, the popularity of Tasti D-Lite frozen dessert was bolstered as a result of appearances in episodes of Sex and the City, Season 6, Episode 88.[citation needed]
- In the song "Dangerous" by Akon, Kardinal Offishal raps "Bad heels like Jessica P... I'm trying give homegirl sex in the city-tittie"
- On an episode of Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cyrus) says that "Carrie Bradshaw is to Hannah Montana and Sarah Jessica Parker is to Miley Stewart."
- In the episode "That Damn Donna Reed" of Gilmore Girls, Babette asks Rory to look after her new kitten Apricot. She says that she got cable and Rory could watch TV and listen to "those four girls talk dirty".
- In Disaster Movie, Jason Boegh played Carrie Bradshaw as a drag queen who fights with "Juney" (Crista Flanagan) for her refuge in a city that is being destroyed.
- In 30 Rock on the episode entitled "Cleveland," Jenna tells Pheobe (Jack's fiance at the time) and Liz over lunch that they are just like the girls on Sex and the City, saying, "Wow, how Sex and the City are we right now. I'm Samantha, you're Charlotte [to Phoebe], and you're [to Liz] the lady at home who watches it."
- In the pilot episode of Ugly Betty, Amanda refers to Betty and the "Uglies" as "No Sex and the City."
- In the Futurama movie Bender's Game, Mom's three goons come to the Planet Express door, looking like The Three Stooges. Farnsworth says, "Three stooges are at the door!" to which Leela responds, "I don't like The Three Stooges. Now Sex and the City, that's funny!"
