Caroline in the City

Caroline hires Richard as her new colorist, and takes Annies advice to try getting a date by throwing fruit out her window.

Richard takes his paintings out of the closet when Caroline and Annie convince a gallery owner to consider them for an exclusive show - which turns out to be for gay artists only; Annie becomes entangled in Carolines search for a new hair dresser - and her old hairdresser (Lerner) spots her at the gallery opening party.

Being too picky could cost Caroline the chance to reclaim money she lost at a malfunctioning ATM, since she doesnt really want to bank staff to see her picking her nose on the videotape record of the transaction. Meanwhile, Richard may end up in the doghouse after he attempts to dump the clinging Shelly on the pretext that he is allergic to her beloved dog.

Caroline is annoyed that Del refuses to accompany her to the opera; then her interfering Aunt Mary arranges a blind date with an old high school classmate of Carolines, who turns out to be handsome, successful and rich.

Annie is really in love with her new boyfriend, a recent ex-con who did time for breaking and entering - and who is the obvious suspect when Carolines apartment is burgled. Richard is upset because one of the stolen items was his painting of his mothers womb.

Dels unexpectedly generous Christmas gift - a pair of ugly but valuable earrings - makes Caroline question his intentions. Richard paints a commissioned nude portrait of a beautiful woman (Udenio) who has a well-connected husband - well -connected in ""the Family,"" according to a frightened Remo. And Annie cant remember her New Years Eve party at which she met a man who has since telephoned her to confirm their date.

Carolines parents (Holliman & Hartley) roll out the red carpet when she visits her home town for a ceremony in her honor, but something smells fishy when her brother (who has upstaged her all their lives) arrives with big news of his own.

Del asks Richard to join him on a double date with two gorgeous models; Caroline meets a man buying a sweater, but he turns out to be a paranoid bore.

Ultra-competitive Del has feelings of inadequacy after meeting Carolines debonair ex-boyfriend Marco, especially when the towels come off at the gym; Caroline and Richard are hired to paint a mural for the bedroom of Martin Lapper, a demonic spoiled rich kid.

Caroline, Richard and Annie are cast as extras in a film, leading to some surprising developments for its star (Benson) and director (Landis) when Annie turns out to be a Benson fanatic - and Richard becomes insanely jealous of the extra who is to kiss Caroline. Meanwhile, Dels Porsche is towed, and when he claims it from the DMV, he gets someone elses Gremlin instead. When he tracks down the Gremlins owner, the poor man pleads for more time - hes got a hot date with a woman who was really only impressed by the Porsche.

Richard faces some childhood traumas when his mother (Ashley) makes a surprise visit: it seems she is given to claiming to know celebrities personally, and Richard has never quite gotten over her promise to have Salvador Dali look at his paintings. But Caroline doesnt know this when Natalie promises to get her own NBC Saturday morning cartoon show.

An ominous dream, an inexperienced priest and a surprising love letter threaten Carolines wedding.

Three months have passed, and Caroline is thinking about advertising for a new assistant, so Charlie tries to demonstrate he would be perfect for the job and knocks Salty out the window. Sparks fly between Caroline and the vet who treats Salty, despite her fears that at 24 he is much too young for her. Meanwhile Richard, having failed as an artist in Paris (his only customer is knocked into the Seine just before buying some paintings), returns to New York and is forced to take a menial job in an ice cream parlor, where he just misses seeing Caroline on her first date with Joe, during which they helped raid an animal experimental laboratory and were arrested. (One of the participants is Shelly, still wistful about Richard, in her final appearance to date.) Caroline wakes up in bed with Joe and is unable to sneak out before he wakes and demands to see her again that evening, and on her way home she and Richard suddenly meet face to face.

Richard tries to adjust to his new apartment, where he is plagued by noisily amorous neighbors; Joe tries to adjust to the fact that Caroline plans to remain friends with Del; and Annie frantically tries to adjust her financial records when she is notified that the IRS is auditing her for 1993, a year she barely remembers. Her bad-tempered auditor is under fire for being too lenient with his clients, but when he learns she is a dancer in Cats, he strikes a deal: shell ""never have to pay taxes again"" if she can get him an audition for the show. Enter producer Del and director Charlie. Meanwhile, disturbed by Joes jealousy, Caroline makes up her mind to break a date with Del by telling him shes been called out of town.

Upset that Carolines strip is not being merchandised aggressively, Del finally stands up to his father who promptly replaces Del as president with his sister, who in turn immediately fires him. Excited about forming his own company (with Charlie as his sole employee), Del assumes that Caroline will jump ship with him, particularly as he kept forgetting to renew her contract with his fathers company. When Del calls his former cartoonist clients to a meeting in his crummy new office, they promptly desert him, leaving Caroline in the lurch how can she tell Del she values her income more than their friendship? Meanwhile, Richard is excited about being chosen to paint a mural for the city, even when he discovers he was the only applicant, but hes not prepared for the hostile reaction by the local denizens of the hood in question. He finally wins them round by agreeing to incorporate both Dennis Rodman and one hoods girlfriend into the mural, and even Annie is impressed at the unveiling

Annie poses as a man to prepare for a ""Victor/Victoria"" audition.

When Salty begins behaving oddly, Mark recommends that Caroline consult a cat therapist. Although the woman is a complete fruitcake ""not allowed to practice on people any more,"" she accurately pinpoints the problem as Richards fear of caring for animals. He confesses that he suffered a childhood trauma at the hands of his teacher, Mrs. Fox, when both the class gerbil and rabbit died while in his care and she condemned him as an ""animal killer."" Annie, who has been fixed up by her mother on a blind date with a peculiar forest ranger, helps Caroline track down the retired Mrs. Fox and convince her to make amends with Richard. This doesnt work out quite as planned, since Mrs. Fox also bites the dust.

When a doodle of a porcupine drawn by Richard gets into a stack of Carolines greeting card designs by mistake, Del tries to convince Richard to develop the idea into a character of his own - but Richard protests that he is a real artist, not a cartoonist, throwing Caroline for a loop. Annie cant seem to shake a recurring five dollar bill with ""Repent"" written on it, and her mother tries to convince her its a sign from God that she should return to the Church. When Caroline accidentally gets locked inside the laundry room overnight, her encounter with a bum who used to be a trucking magnate convinces her she has made the right career choice. Richard succumbs to Dels monetary temptation and produces a series of increasingly gloomy and unusable porcupine cards; and he finally apologizes and admits that he admires Carolines professionalism as a cartoonist. Meanwhile, when a telegram stripper shows up at Dels office by mistake (she was supposed to be at a law firm), Del hires her as r

Annies sister Donna, who has come to town in hopes of reviving her singing career, discovers Richards secret love letter to Caroline (inside Annies diary) and uses it as inspiration for a new song, to Richards horror and Annies fury, since she has been using the letter to blackmail Richard into taking her mother to electrolysis appointments. Caroline is preoccupied with her perfect plain black pumps, which she left in Joes apartment; after a fruitless quest to replace them, she sneaks in to retrieve them, and is found by a repentant Joe. Meanwhile, Del and Charlie get snowed in - inside Dels Porsche, with the keys and his cell phone locked in the trunk by Charlie.

Richard wins a chance to make his dreams come true by sinking a $100,000 three-pointer during a Knicks game.

When Caroline calls her out on always blowing her off for male dates, Annie makes a deal: they will go away together for a weekend skiing trip and ignore men. Naturally, both immediately spot exceptionally interesting men: an old school chum of Carolines who confesses to having had a mutual crush, and for Annie a handsome tycoon. Meanwhile, Richard is hoping that his relationship with a fellow philosophy student wont remain Platonic, but the tryst he arranges in Carolines apartment while she is away is invaded by Del and Charlie, who intend to make themselves at home to watch sports.

Del asks Caroline to help him woo one of his fathers biggest clients, a greeting-card store magnate who misunderstands what the cartoonist has to offer. Meanwhile, Annie resents Richards relationship with her mother, and a friendly game of bocci turns ugly.

When Caroline learns that an obscure upstate newspaper has dropped her syndicated strip, she drives up with a reluctant Richard to find out why. Naturally Richards car breaks down, and the two wind up playing marriage counselor to the only local mechanic and his on-the-point-of-leaving wife. Meanwhile, Annie recognizes an obnoxious diner at Remos as the theater critic who gave her the worst review of her career, and hatches an elaborate revenge plot that involves Del, Charlie, and a cab driver/actor with his own ax to grind.

Caroline and Annie are overjoyed to learn that Carolines agent has arranged for her to promote her new book on the Jay Leno show; then Annie reminds Caroline that she will need an entertaining story to tell. Enter Richards mother Natalie, carrying a jacket that belonged to Jerry Garcia and revealing that the dead rocker was Richards real father. But Richard, hiding in the stairwell until his mother leaves, isnt impressed: theres hardly a celebrity that Natalie hasnt maintained fathered him. While Caroline and Annie fly to Los Angeles, Del tries to teach Richard how to pick up women during Happy Hour at Remos (Richard: ""Im not sure I can do that - I mean, be happy for a whole hour.""), and Charlie goes in search of his father, whom an adoption agency locates instantly: a bumbling waiter in a fashionable restaurant who is overjoyed to meet Charlie, even though their reunion gets him fired two weeks before his retirement. While waiting to appear with Leno, Caroline is warned that s

Conclusion. Julia arrives at ""Richard and Carolines"" apartment in tears, announcing that her engagement is over and demanding to spend the night on the sofa - which means Richard and Caroline have to spend the night together in her bedroom. A nude Julia reveals that seeing the happy couple has revived her feelings for a non-plussed Richard; meanwhile, Caroline consults Del about the possibility of a relationship with Richard, and an uncharacteristically thoughtful Del advises her to follow her heart. Annies first day on the set of the Shadoe Stevens series doesnt go well, as she is totally unable to master her complicated medical lines, until the director and writer agree to switch her to the part of the hard-bitten female cop (resulting in even more unspeakable jargon). Del is in despair over the impending loss of his company, until Charlie bails him out with the trust find his father has maintained for him all these years - on condition that he becomes Dels partner. Caroline phon

When Richard shows up wearing a ridiculous shirt Julia forced him to wear, Caroline advises him to talk to her frankly about the compromises inherent in marriage - and Julia leaves him. Meanwhile, Charlie is upset that Del still treats him as an underling rather than a partner, and Annie tries to cope with unemployment by finishing The Grapes of Wrath - which she started in eighth grade.

Julia throws a surprise birthday party for Richard by inviting everyone in his address book, under the impression that they are his friends, which results in a gathering chiefly of his ex-therapists - one of whom is interested in Annie, to Richards horror. Meanwhile, the discovery that she has been getting illegal free cable for years puts Caroline in a moral spin, since the rest of the building is hooked into her outlet and anxious for her not to do the right thing.

Carolines former colorist Jeannie comes back to town on a mission: she and her husband cant conceive, so she wants Caroline to donate an egg; Annie naturally seizes the opportunity to make Richard paranoid that Caroline plans to re-hire Jeannie. Meanwhile, Del has a close encounter with his old Porsche and gets himself hired as a male escort for the company that now owns his former automotive love.

While they wait for Chinese takeaway delivery, Richard shows Caroline a family wedding ring he was planning to give to Julia, and soon after, the heirloom seemingly disappears from her apartment -leading Fong to accuse, and throw out, his delivery boy son Tim, who takes up residence in Carolines living room. Meanwhile, Del and Charlie scheme to climb to the top of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree to place a large ad for Carolines line of holiday cards; and Annie develops a cabaret act and is attracted to hunky guitarist Paul, while oblivious to pianist Seths growing infatuation with her.

Del gets excited over commercial possibilies when a civic politican mentions Carolines cartoon strip in a speech, but Richard pours cold water on the idea: the man has a terrible record for opposing funding for the arts. His opinon changes slightly when Del drags the wily politico over for a meeting, whereupon Lake goes wild over Richards recently completed painting and buys it. By the time Richard thinks better of selling his first work to a man he despises, Julia has already spent the money on a honeymoon trip to Hawaii; so Caroline steps in to prove she is not as politically naive as everyone assumes. Meanwhile, Annie, trying to cope with her cousin Jennifer who has dropped out of high school to find an acting career in Manhattan, goes ballistic when she discovers the girl has met a man claiming to be a movie producer who has promised her a role opposite Keanu Reeves - and sets out for the guys hotel room to tell him off....

When Carolines parents are stranded in Wisconsin by a snowstorm, Caroline reluctantly accompanies Del to his dysfunctional family Christmas - especially after he tells her that his mother still resents her never having brought a hostess gift the first time they met - leaving Charlie to house-sit Salty and attempt to spend some quality holiday time with his father. Meanwhile, while Richard tries to be enthusiastic about a delayed honeymoon trip to Hawaii, Annie tries to help Julia overcome her fear of flying with some tranquilizers that work all too well - and while defending herself to a furious Richard, lets slip the little fact that Caroline is ""still"" in love with him....

Annies been dating Seth Rudetski for six weeks now, and hes decided its time for her to meet his parents, an intellectual couple who run ""Nothing Trivial,"" a quiz show broadcast to colleges on public radio. They turn out to be big fans of Carolines strip, and persuade her to appear as a celebrity contestant - a decision that revives her childhood trauma (seen in a flashback) of freezing under the pressure of a state spelling bee. While Del and Charlie try to coach her through her anxiety, she appeals to Richard - and Julia steps in with a solution of her own. Meanwhile, Annies feeling pressure of a different sort: from the excessively close relationship between Seth and his doting parents. (.)

In a surreal take-off on both The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, Caroline insists that Richard work late once too often for Julia, who accuses Caroline of being an inconsiderate employer and says that she should ""walk a mile in my shoes."" Caroline instantly finds herself doing just that, since everyone now sees her as Julia and Julia as Caroline, while (in the best touch) Charlie narrates a la Rod Serling. Caroline discovers the advantages of being the gorgeous Julia - the customers at Remos dont care that shes an incompetent bartender so long as they get to ogle her behind her back - but is frustrated in her attempts to take advantage of the ""special thing"" Richard wants Julia to do with him as soon as they get home.

Richard gets a chance to have a painting exhibited at the New York Public Library, but falls victim to on-line addiction at a cyber cafe. An outraged Caroline files a complaint against a rude cabbie, but Richard is her only witness (""A rude cab driver in New York? Whats next, tall buildings?"") and fails to show up at the hearing. Meanwhile, after literal years on the waiting list, Annie finally gets an appointment with famous hair stylist Olaf, only to have Del and Charlie invade her session with a ridiculous scheme to market the hair sweepings of the famous - which Olaf loves.

For insurance purposes, Del and Charlie pretend to be gay, but then Del meets a beautiful woman at a party, and in trying to pursue her gets himself and Charlie invited to be the couple of honor at a gay pride rally. Meanwhle, Richard reluctantly agrees to change his appearance so that hell be picked for jury duty, and Annie lies to her mom about her dads fiancée.

Caroline and Jo Anne Worley agree to stage a feud after the cartoonist is blamed for having a deli sandwich named for Worley being renamed in her own honor. Meanwhile, Richard agonizes because Julias regained wealth has given him painters block; and Annie shows a reluctant Richard that his new $12,000 gold Rolex watch gives him shoppers credit in the stores that formerly scorned him.

Synopsis needed: I caught this in a New York hotel room and then lost my notes.

On the eve of their moving in together, Caroline leaves Trevor alone as she dashes off to Spain, with Annie in tow, in an attempt to repair the damage she has done to Richard and Julias marriage. Lunching at Remos, they have seen Remos new waitress wearing a diamond bracelet and realized it was she making love to José during the party. Richard arrives in Spain and the hotel maid, who hates Julia, directs him to the ""matador bar"" on the corner; but when he demands to speak to a ""worthless matador named José,"" every man in the bar stands up. By the time Caroline and Annie arrive, Richard has traced Julia to Pamplona, where she has gone to see the running of the bulls; unaware of the event, and distracted by the arrival of Caroline, Richard flees for his life and is trampled by the bulls - only mildly, as we discover. Meanwhile, Del suffers through endless bad pitches thrown by Monicas son while Charlie explains why he wont let the hopeless kid into the game, and discovers an unexpec

When Carol can no longer stand the pressure Del is putting on her to work out of her new corporate office instead of her home, a reluctant Caroline discovers that Richard has been sleeping there: his vengeful father-in-law has stripped him of apartments, possessions and credit cards, and Charley has been using Richards old apartment as a makeshift hotel for visiting Russians. Then Richard falls afoul of the militaristic office manager Plum, who subjects him to standard employment tests, including a visit to the staff psychologist - who finds Richards behavior a little odd.

Its just not Annies day: she gets fired from Cats after eight years and is immediately dumped by her agent. To get back some self esteem, she agrees to go out with her dry cleaner to his dry cleaners annual banquet, but when she attempts to strut both their stuff on the dance floor, she succeeds only in fracturing his leg. Meanwhile, since sales of her greeting cards are down, Del talks Caroline into attending a focus group which some wild new ideas about Carolines cartoon strip. Richard is aghast to find Caroline seriously considering some of them (turning Salty into a dog, giving Caroline super-powers); then Del announces that all greeting card sales are down, Carolines less than most.

Del has hired Caroline and Annie to provide the voices for his new promotional video, but when he comes to pick them up it turns out they have to perform it for the boss first as a puppet show - about menstruation. While Annie is in her office, Caroline searches in Richards desk for a highlighter and finds his divorce papers, and Richard angrily denounces her invasion of his privacy. Of course Annie immediately lifts the papers, is forced to hide them from Richard, sees them dumped down the corporate mail chute, and has to enlist Carolines help to wheedle them back from the bizarre and hostile mail room staff - leaving a reluctant Richard and a strangely eager Charlie to act out the puppet show for Mr. MacDermott, who reveals that he is only doing the animated cartoon as part of a community service sentence. Discovering that the divorce papers are two months old but that Richard has not yet signed them, and is therefore technically still married, Caroline confronts him - and he confe

Jealousy between Richard and Annie reaches a new height when Richard wants to attend an operatic recital to which Caroline invited Annie months ago. The two squabble so childishly that an infuriated Caroline tells them off loudly - and the insulted diva walks off the stage and refuses to return. When Caroline sneaks into the stars dressing room to apologize and beg her to finish the recital, she winds up rubbing her feet and getting drunk with her on champagne, and returns home to find that Richard and Annies mutual anxiety about her whereabouts has produced a sort of truce. Meanwhile, Del finds himself taking a reluctant ethical stance when he is invited to an executive charter jet weekend on condition that he persuades cartoonist Reg to introduce a white character into his black-only post-apocalyptic fantasy world; and a furtive pair of nerdish animators fall madly in love with Caroline but are unable to speak in her presence.

Richards Aunt Frieda announces that before she moves to Florida and wants to see Richard go through with the bar mitzvah he abandoned, and is willing to pay him $5,000 for the privilege. While an embarrassed Richard returns to Hebrew school, Caroline and Annie prepare a mocking party in his honor -- until Richard confesses to Caroline that he is doing it for the money only because he is humiliated by her having to pick up the tab for everything they do together. Meanwhile, Del gets a great deal in expensively tailored Italian suits, but wont admit they are several sizes too small for him.

Caroline becomes upset over what she sees as Richards refusal to share his private life with her -- which comes to a head when Reg Prestons girlfriend kicks him out and he moves in temporarily with Richard. Meanwhile, Del and Annie forge a temporary truce and attempt to find dates for each other at the gym. Del strikes out, but Annie finds an obliging man mountain shed ""like to hire a team of sherpas and climb.""

Caroline is appalled to discover that Del (currently obsessed with buying a new Porsche) is paying his partner Charlie to stay at home so that his bizarre ideas wont compromise Dels career. When she persuades Del to let Charlie attend a planning meeting, the plan backfires big time: Charlie is fired. Charlie decides he wants to travel in Europe, and Del does the right thing and gives him the money for his Porsche as severance. Meanwhile, Richard gets Annie a job posing for a cartoonist who starts dating her, but the deal is fishy: it turns out he is only interested in her when she is dressed as the bizarre science fiction heroine of his strip.

Caroline and the gang visit her familys home in Wisconsin and learn her parents are selling the house. Distraught, she prolongs her stay (while Richard unwillingly bonds with the locals), and ultimately decides to preserve her childhood memories by buying the house herself.

Carolines plans to rent out her house in Wisconsin hit an unexpected snag when Grandma Duffy refuses to leave, forcing Caroline to return to Wisconsin, where she is surprised to learn that her former boyfriend Randy will be her new tenant. Meanwhile, Richard has his hands full in New York when he agrees to take Carolines place by caring for Annie (who is sick) and Del (who thinks his girlfriend may be cheating on him).

Caroline gives Richard a matrimonial ultimatum; but on his way to propose to her, he is taken hostage in a video store holdup. He decides that escape will prove his manhood and worthiness of Caroline -- and when he is wheeled in by paramedics, he does indeed propose.

As Caroline and Richard prepare to leave for Italy to visit his newborn son, Richard makes a confession that gives Caroline second thoughts about their future together: he never wanted to have children. But when he arrives alone in Italy, Richard discovers that Julia has abandoned the baby, and slowly becomes a model father. Meanwhile, Annie and Del begin a clandestine relationship. Flashing forward six months later, the series finale finds Caroline headed to the altar with Randy, when an unexpected guest arrives during the wedding ceremony: Richard, holding his infant son...