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SPIN CITY: GOODBYE {SEASON FOUR FINALE} (TV)

Summary

One in this comedy series about the Deputy Mayor of New York City and his co-workers at City Hall as they deal with problems both professional and personal.

Mike goes to see his therapist, and has to settle for a last-minute replacement. He discusses his feelings about Caitlin and the uncertain nature of his relationship with her. He recounts their experiences the previous few days, when they planned to have sex for the first time. In the office both of them become impatient to get out and go back to his apartment together. Meanwhile Nikki is visited by her new boyfriend Tony, who gets along quite well with everyone in the office. Mike returns to his apartment and is soon joined by Caitlin, who finds that Mike has gone out of his way to create a romantic atmosphere in the apartment. They prepare to make love, but Caitlin’s mood is spoiled when she learns that Mike fired the city’s longtime director of parks and services earlier that day. She decides that they need to wait and leaves. The next day they have an argument about the matter in the office, disguised as an argument about an unrelated matter. Later that day Mike is visited by Wayne Sheridan, a reporter whom Mike describes as his “nemesis.” Wayne claims that his next story will involve linking the mayor to organized crime, which Mike finds preposterous. He names Tony as a mobster wanted for racketeering, and Mike goes off in secret to discuss the matter with Nikki. He soon discovers that everyone in the office has done favors for Tony, constituting a larger entanglement than he had anticipated. The situation becomes worse when Mike learns that Tony is tied to a sanitation company that the mayor just awarded a lucrative contract to.

Mike informs the mayor of Tony’s association with the mob and tells Caitlin about the situation. There appears to be no way out for the mayor, and the only solution Mike can devise is to blame the whole thing on one of his staff, although he is extremely reluctant to do so. He explains this to the therapist and seeks some sort of assurance from him that he is doing the right thing, although the therapist says he needs to have good reasoning for what he does. Everyone attends a press conference, many of them believing that they will be the one to take the fall for the mayor. Mike speaks at the press conference and blames himself for the association with Tony and assumes sole responsibility for the favors bestowed on him, leaving the rest of the staff and the gathered press in shock. That night Caitlin visits Mike, who explains that any of the other staff would have been “buried” by the allegations, and claims that his political savvy will allow him to recover. They make another attempt to have sex, but it is hampered due to Mike’s sudden bout of insecurity. Mike decides not to come in to the office for a time in order to let the scandal filter out of the press. However, the staff finds it difficult to proceed without his leadership. They decide to go to his apartment in order to brainstorm a solution to the scandal with him.

They find Mike and Caitlin awakening from their escapades the previous night, much to their embarrassment. He insists that he will be able to extricate himself from the situation without their assistance. However, Paul switches on a news report where Wayne reveals that he has obtained a photograph of the mayor and Tony together on a fishing trip, making it more difficult to deny the mayor’s involvement. Mike assigns everyone various tasks in order to distance themselves from Tony and close off the mayor’s office from reporters. He notes that the paper trail from the incident should be redirected to his desk, and Caitlin fears that this will have dire consequences for him and his career. Mike meets with the mayor in private and tells him that the only way to resolve the situation is for the mayor to fire him. The mayor refuses to do so and says he will take the blame himself, but Mike points out that if he does the entire staff will suffer. He notes that he wants the mayor to continue making a difference to the city and will even sacrifice his own job to preserve that. The rest of the staff soon learns about Mike’s plans and Carter confronts him about it in his office. Mike makes his reasoning for his actions clear and calls Carter his best friend, and they share an emotional moment with each other. Everyone in the office gathers around as Mike exits his office and prepares for the press conference to announce his departure.

Following the press conference, Mike and the rest of the staff go out to a bar. He assures Janelle that it is “not the end of the world” and tells Nikki not to blame herself for what happened. She notes that working in the same office as him was painful after they broke up, but that it will be even more so after he is gone. He joins the others as they try to determine what Mike’s “proudest moment” in his career was, and he relays a heartfelt story about meeting and hiring James, and says that he is equally proud of each and every one of them. He notes that bringing them together as a team is his “greatest accomplishment.” Everyone is touched by this and they all start crying, and eventually Mike leaves. He returns to his apartment and find Caitlin waiting for him there with a home-cooked meal. He tries to assure her that he will be fine, but now feels that his life is without purpose and that he may not be able to recover so readily. Caitlin says she doesn’t care about his career, promising that she won’t abandon him. The next day Mike goes in to say goodbye to the mayor, who has difficulty expressing his feelings but says that Mike has been “like a son” to him and expresses his pride and appreciation for him. With this, Mike is given his final farewell. Six weeks later, Mike sends Caitlin an email from Washington D.C.: he has been working there as an environmental lobbyist and enjoys his new profession. He promises to come up that weekend to visit her. Includes commercials.

The episode also includes a message from Michael J. Fox asking for support for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, hoping to find a cure for Parkinson’s Disease.

Details

  • NETWORK: ABC
  • DATE: May 24, 2000 9:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:59:02
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: B:60349
  • GENRE: Comedy
  • SUBJECT HEADING: LGBT Collection; Comedy
  • SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1996-2002
  • COMMERCIALS:
    • TV – Commercials – Apple computers
    • TV – Commercials – Burger King restaurants
    • TV – Commercials – Chevrolet automobiles
    • TV – Commercials – Cool Whip whipped topping
    • TV – Commercials – Domino’s pizza
    • TV – Commercials – Excel telecommunications
    • TV – Commercials – FreeInternet.com internet service
    • TV – Commercials – French’s mustard
    • TV – Commercials – HP printers
    • TV – Commercials – Investor’s Business Daily newspaper
    • TV – Commercials – Keri skin lotion
    • TV – Commercials – Lime-A-Way bathroom cleaner
    • TV – Commercials – MSN internet service
    • TV – Commercials – Nokia cell phones
    • TV – Commercials – Pedigree dog food
    • TV – Commercials – Pepsi soft drinks
    • TV – Commercials – Pontiac automobiles
    • TV – Commercials – Saturn automobiles
    • TV – Commercials – Visa credit cards
    • TV – Commercials – eToys toy shopping website
    • TV – Commercials – “Chicken Run” motion picture
    • TV – Commercials – “Mission: Impossible 2” motion picture
    • TV – Commercials – “Small Time Crooks” motion picture
    • TV – Promos – “20/20”
    • TV – Promos – “Assassins”
    • TV – Promos – “Clerks”
    • TV – Promos – “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”

CREDITS

  • Andy Cadiff … Executive Producer, Director
  • Richard Day … Executive Producer
  • Richard S. Rosenthal … Executive Producer
  • Michael J. Fox … Executive Producer
  • Tom Hertz … Co-Executive Producer
  • Steve Rose … Producer
  • Christopher Case … Producer
  • Tim Hobert … Producer
  • Jon Pollack … Producer
  • Tad Quill … Producer
  • David Ronn … Producer
  • Jay Scherick … Producer
  • John Michel … Co-Producer
  • Randall Winston … Associate Producer
  • Danelle Black … Consulting Producer
  • Bill Lawrence … Created by, Writer
  • Gary David Goldberg … Created by
  • Sarah Dunn … Writer
  • Shelly Palmer … Music by
  • Michael J. Fox … Cast, Michael Flaherty
  • Richard Kind … Cast, Paul Lassiter
  • Alan Ruck … Cast, Stuart Bondek
  • Michael Boatman … Cast, Carter Heywood
  • Connie Britton … Cast, Nikki Faber
  • Alexander Chaplin … Cast, James Hobert
  • Victoria Dillard … Cast, Janelle
  • Heather Locklear … Cast, Caitlin Moore
  • Barry Bostwick … Cast, The Mayor
  • Michael Grossman … Cast, Dr. Peterson
  • John Bedford Lloyd … Cast, Wayne
  • Peter Rini … Cast, Tony