Caroline in The City - Premise

Premise

Caroline Duffy is a cartoonist living in a Manhattan loft. She is shown in many episodes spending a lot of time with her dates or lovers and meddling in the lives of those around her. The series began shortly after she had broken up with her boyfriend Del, who quickly found a date. She hires Richard Karinsky to be her new colorist in the first episode, and he pretends to be her new boyfriend during a dinner to prevent her from being embarrassed over Del's moving on. Richard develops feelings for Caroline throughout the first season.

Caroline's success as a cartoonist is well displayed throughout the first season, as she gets her own balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, has a park dedicated to her in her native Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and is offered her own cereal. She tells a date that her career began with doodling as a copywriter, a job she took after dropping out of college. In one episode it is revealed that her cartooning began as a child drawing violent pictures of her brother Chris. A meeting with her agent showed that it took less than five years for her cartoon to become nationally syndicated. A clerk at a pharmacy said he saw her on The Today Show.

Following a date with a conspiracy theorist, Caroline meets Del at Remo's, an Italian restaurant which appears in most episodes. He give her a ride home, and he proposes marriage. Richard is distressed by this and searches for a new job, but he does not find one. Although Richard kept his feelings secret, Annie and Remo are able to figure out that he loves Caroline.

The day before her wedding, he writes her a love letter and leaves it in a pile of wedding 'thank-you' cards. In it he tells her to meet him at Remo's if she loves him. She arrives, and Richard kisses her, but does not explain himself. It turns out that Caroline did not get any letter. Richard realizes that, since Caroline is about to marry Del, there is no place in her life for him and decides to leave Manhattan. Caroline and Del decide not to marry, unbeknownst to Richard. Caroline visits Richard's apartment only to find that he has left, and since she did not read the letter, she does not know why.

The second season began with Richard failing to sell enough paintings to stay in Paris, and moving back to Manhattan. Caroline gave the box of 'thank-you' cards with his love letter to a friend, and it ends up at her apartment. Richard tries to find and destroy the love letter, first by sending Charlie and later by going himself. He tosses the thank you notes out the window, only to have Annie find it. She makes several copies and plans to show it to Caroline, but Richard convinces her not to. Richard resumes his old job as her colorist. Annie uses the letter to blackmail him, but ceases doing so after her sister uses the note for the lyrics of a song.

Later, Caroline discovers that she has feelings for Richard, only to have Richard marry his Italian ex-girlfriend Julia, whom he met in Manhattan, but when Caroline left a message on his answering machine telling him that she loves him, Julia erases it. Then Richard and Julia get married, prompting a bitter love triangle between the three.

Towards the end of the series, Caroline and Richard do start dating. However, the show ends on a cliffhanger note – as Caroline is about to get married to another man (Randy), Richard (who has broken up with Caroline over not wanting children, once he discovered he has fathered a child with his Italian ex-wife) is shown at the wedding. Since the program was canceled after that episode aired, the cliffhanger is never resolved.

The show was filmed at CBS Studio Center.