And yea, NBC created Seinfeld, a show about a group of friends, and the Neilson ratings saw it was good. And so, again yea (and verily) Seinfeld begat another show about a group of friends called... well, Friends (yea, this begatting was not direct begatting but, come on, we all know where NBC was begetting the concept) and they saw that, again and surprisingly, it was good too. Next thing you know NBC and all the other networks were begatting more of this ilk all over the schedule till you couldn't flip the dial without running into smart alecky "buddies" of various levels of quality, most not so good. It was enough to make one look heavenward and ask, "When God? When will this flood of second rate Seinfeld/Friends knockoffs recede???" And after 40 shows and 40 episodes, the flood did recede. So it is written, thank God that's done. Here endeth the lesson.

   But here don't endeth this page. See, before all the knock offs went away the networks did everything they could to bolster them to try and get Seinfeld/Friends ratings. For NBC, home of both these shows, the obvious answer was to try and get fans of Friends to watch the other clones by crossing them over (No way they were getting Seinfeld to dirty his show with such goofiness just to try and promote a bunch of wanna be shows). The result was a number of quick cameo crossovers between Friends, Caroline In The City and The Single Guy (left out of the mix was Suddenly Susan - the only show not set in New York).

   But did you catch the context there? They didn't do full blown, plot entangling elaborate crosses. They did minimum effort crosses. Heck when Leah Thompson appeared on Friends they were so lazy they just cast her in a bit part without actually having her play her character from Caroline In The City. But Matthew Perry's character Chandler Bing from Friends did appear on Caroline In The City making for a definite link between these shows. But the scene had no real impact on the episode. It was a throwaway bit. Caroline's friend Annie goes to the video store where she runs into Chandler. Chandler tries hitting on her by showing how sensitive he is renting a chick flick. Then he sees that Annie is actually going to rent the same sort of cheesy schlock he would normally rent and says, "So, I could've actually just been myself." Annie tells him he should try hitting on her again as himself. He chokes under the pressure and runs out. Kinda funny but it would've been nice to see them do something more. Especially since Caroline In The City was one of the better of these knockoffs. I'm not calling it a classic by any means but it had good characters some funny moments and more potential than most of the others.

   Later in that same episode Caroline also crossed over with The Single Guy, another Friends-ish clone starring Johnathan Silverman as, well, a single guy. Right from the start that show was asking for trouble with its title alone. Never give a show a cute title that is going to hamstring you very quickly by forcing you to maintain certain plot elements. Clearly this show is going to be about a single guy and his romantic life. Only guess what? Since the show is called The Single Guy you came pretty much guarantee none of his relationships will work out. Even if he gets a long term girlfriend, they're going to break up. They have to. Going to do a cliffhanger where he may or may not get married? Not going to work. Why? Well folks will go in predisposed that he won't get married given the title thus deflating any tension the writers were hoping for. Plus if the outcome is in fact that he doesn't get married, everyone is even further let down by the writers taking the chicken easy way out. Lots of groans of, "Yeah I knew it!" from living rooms around the country as they flip the dial. On the other hand, if he did get married, then the show would have to change its title and its premise. Then that would confuse the identity of the show for viewers which would again only hurt it. What do you call it in syndication now... Yikes! Too much trouble. Good show or not, it shot itself in the foot with that title.

   But I'm getting off topic. The main plot of this episode of Caroline In The City had Caroline preparing to meet her boyfriend Del's parents. She and Del are going to have dinner with them. Before Del arrives, Caroline runs into his folks at Remo's, the show's requisite hangout restaurant. Various wackiness ensues as Caroline manages to piss off and alienate the parents and the parents prove to Caroline what jerks they are. That's when Del arrives and we discover, whoops, those aren't his folks. They are somebody else's parents who just happen to be in the place waiting to meet their kid's significant other. Del and Caroline will be meeting Del's folks elsewhere. Enter single guy Jonathan. It turns out these are his girlfriends parents. And of course now not only are they jerks, they're jerks who are already annoyed and worked up over all the crap with Caroline. Seeing the whole situation as she is leaving and Johanathan is arriving, Caroline wishes him good luck as she leaves. Badda Boom! So two crossovers in the same episode that really weren't all that involved or inspired, but at least the second one it served as a nice surprise topper for the show's main joke. So points for that.

Other Caroline In The City Crossover Links
Caroline In The City and Frasier

Other Friends Crossover Links
Friends and Hope And Gloria
Friends and Joey
Friends and Mad About You
Friends and The Single Guy

Other Single Guy Crossover Links
The Single Guy and Friends

Links To Caroline In The City Web Sites
Sarah's Caroline In The City Page

Click here to return to main Crossover List

Buy these shows on Amazon.com and support this site at the same time! Check out Caroline In The City and Friends on DVD! Check out Chandler and The Single Guy's crossover with Caroline In The City on the Caroline In The City Season 1 DVD set!






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