New York News | CBS | 1995

September - November 1995

CBS | 13 episodes (5 unaired) | Drama

WATCH EPISODE TWO | MORE INFO

WHO'S IN IT? Mary Tyler Moore, Madeline Kahn, Melina Kanakaredes

SYNOPSIS: New York News is the story of the fictional New York Reporter, a struggling tabloid in the US's largest, most competitive newspaper market - New York City.

VERDICT: ★★★☆☆

The saxophone theme tune, the fashion, the newsroom as a setting...could this be anymore 90s?! 

Mary Tyler Moore, the woman who can “turn the world on with her smile,” leads the cast as the tough-as-nails newspaper editor Louise Felcott, so disliked that she’s universally known as “the Dragon.” Mary apparently felt that her character's storylines were not fully fledged and wanted out of her contract, though she enjoyed the opportunity to play against type.

In this episode, Madeline Kahn's character, gossip columnist Nan Chase, sets up a date with the uber-90s media personality Fabio so he can give his side of the story after she writes in her column: "Shirley MacLaine last night with Fabio twisted around each other like two pretzels!". After she's schmoozed by Fabio and a correction submitted, she's later stood up. Furious, Nan dashes into Louise's office to demand that they stop the presses so she can edit her column into a vicious Fabio evisceration, even offering to "pull the lever" herself. Looking for support, she asks Louise the last time she was stood up. "I'm not sure I ever was stood up," she answers. Nan takes a beat, and then says, "Oh...thank you for that." Of course, "The Dragon" is having none of it and tells her: “If Jesus himself were to walk through that door to announce his second coming, I wouldn’t stop the press.”

CANCELLED TOO SOON? I liked it but there may have been too much going on at one point. There were about 3-4 different storylines running at the same time - the Fabio one, one about sweatshops in Chinatown, another about a cross-dressing congressman, and then Louise being forced to submit to an efficiency evaluation from a new middle manager. Not only that, another character was shot at the end of the episode. Was it drama? Comedy? Comedy-drama? I wasn't sure. The show was aired on the same night as Seinfeld during its 7th season, yes The Soup Nazi season, so it's no wonder it didn't catch on.