The first season of '' Sex and the City'', an American television

romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

, aired in the United States on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

from June 6 to August 23, 1998. Based on the eponymous book written by

Candace Bushnell Candace Bushnell (born December 1, 1958) is an American author, journalist, and television producer. She wrote a column for ''The New York Observer'' (1994–96) that was adapted into the bestselling ''Sex and the City (book), Sex and the City'' ...

, the series was created by

Darren Star Darren Star (born July 25, 1961) is an American writer, director and producer of film and television. He is best known for creating the television series ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (1990–2000), ''Melrose Place'' (1992–1999), ''Sex and the City' ...

and produced by Darren Star Productions, HBO Original Programming, and Warner Bros. Television. Star, Barry Josen and Michael Patrick King served as the series' executive producers. The show follows the relationships and sexual escapades of Carrie Bradshaw, a sex columnist for the fictional ''New York Star'', and her friends Samantha Jones,

Charlotte York Charlotte York (formerly Charlotte York MacDougal, later Charlotte York Goldenblatt) is a fictional character on the HBO-produced television series ''Sex and the City''. She is portrayed by actress Kristin Davis, who received two Screen Actors G ...

and

Miranda Hobbes Miranda Hobbes is a fictional character on the American HBO television series ''Sex and the City'', its subsequent film spinoffs, and HBO Max revival '' And Just Like That...''. She is played by actress Cynthia Nixon. Nixon received an Emmy Awar ...

. Season one, comprising 12 episodes, aired on Sunday nights at 9:00 p.m.

Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...

, except the pilot episode which aired at the same time on a Saturday night. The season garnered mixed reviews from critics. The first season garnered strong ratings for HBO in America, as well as Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, where it landed among the top 30 weekly most-watched programs. The show received several major award nominations, including an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe, and a SAG award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for Parker.

Episodes

Crew

The first season of ''Sex and the City'' was created by

and produced by Darren Star Productions and Warner Bros. Television, in association with HBO Original Programming. The series is based on the book of the same name, written by

, which contains stories from her column with the ''

New York Observer New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

''. The show features production from Barry Jossen, Michael Patrick King, and Star. Season one featured writing credits from Star, King,

Jenny Bicks Jenny Bicks is an American television producer and screenwriter, most notable for her work as a television writer on the HBO series, ''Sex and the City'' and the creator and writer of the ABC series, ''Men in Trees''. Her production company is Pe ...

, Michael Green, Jenji Kohan, Susan Kolinsky, and Terri Minsky. The season was directed by

Michael Fields Michael David Fields is an American film and television director. He has directed episodes of ''Veronica Mars'', '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', ''Law & Order: Criminal Intent'', ''Third Watch'', ''Gossip Girl'', '' Homicide: Life on the ...

, Matthew Harrison, Nicole Holofcener,

Alison Maclean Alison Maclean (born July 31, 1958) is a Canadian-New Zealand film director of music videos, short films, television (episodes of ''Sex and the City'', ''The Tudors'', '' Homicide: Life on the Street''), commercials and feature films. Her works i ...

, and

Susan Seidelman Susan Seidelman (Born December 11, 1952) is an American film director, producer, and writer. She first came to notice with '' Smithereens'' (1982), the earliest American independent feature to be screened in Competition at the Cannes Film Festiva ...

Cast

Season one featured four actors receiving star billing.

Sarah Jessica Parker Sarah Jessica Parker (born March 25, 1965) is an American actress and television producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 1 ...

played the lead character Carrie Bradshaw, a writer of a sex column, "Sex and the City", for fictional magazine and the narrator of the series. Kim Cattrall portrayed Samantha Jones, a sexually confident public relations agent who follows the same relationship rules that men do. Kristin Davis played

, an optimistic art museum curator who holds traditional views on relationships. Cynthia Nixon portrayed

, an acerbic lawyer with a pessimistic outlook on relationship and a distrust of men. The season featured a number of recurring guest appearances.

Chris Noth Christopher David Noth ( ; born November 13, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Mike Logan on ''Law & Order'' (1990–95), Big on ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), and Peter Florrick on ''The ...

appeared as the slick, elusive business man and Carrie's love interest known as Mr. Big.

Willie Garson William Garson Paszamant (February 20, 1964September 21, 2021) was an American actor. He appeared in over 75 films and more than 300 TV episodes. He was known for playing Stanford Blatch on the HBO series ''Sex and the City'', in the related fi ...

portrayed Carrie's gay best friend and talent manager Stanford Blatch. Ben Weber played Skipper Johnson, Carrie's friend and Miranda's on-off friend with benefits.

Reception

Critical reviews

Season one garnered mixed reviews from television critics, receiving an aggregated score of 52 (out of 100) at

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. Caryn Lucas of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the series "slight, breezy", "fresh and funny" while highlight Parker's performance. Terry Kelleher of '' People Weekly'' praised Parker in her role, but was against the elements of New York mixed with the theme of sex. Phil Gallo of '' Variety'' gave a mixed review of the series, criticizing the script but praising the performances of the main cast. Gallo also deemed the subplot of Carrie and Mr. Big's attraction "compelling." Earl Crassey of DVD Talk deemed the DVD release of season one "Highly Recommended", writing that "However those not easily offended should give it a spin; you will find an enjoyable and refreshing new comedy series from HBO." Crassey noted that the frank sexual dialogue and topics discussed in the series set it apart from the other sitcoms.

Viewership

In the United States, ''Sex and the City'' debuted on June 6, 1998 at 9:00 p.m.

(Saturday) with the premiere episode "Sex and the City". The episode garnered a 2.9 household rating, translating to 2.8 million households. The encore episode achieved a 3.0 rating (2.96 million households). The episode was watched by 3.84 million viewers. The season finale "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" was watched by 4.44 million viewers. The first season averaged a total viewership of 6.9 million viewers. In the United Kingdom, the series debuted on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

on February 3, 1999 to 4.53 million viewers, ranking as the third most watched program on television on the week ending February 7, 1999. The following episodes attracted between 2.5 and 4 million viewers.

UK ratings

All viewing figures and ranks are sourced from BARB.

Awards and nominations

At the

56th Golden Globe Awards The 56th ceremony of the Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 1998, were held on January 24, 1999, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The nominations were announced on December 17, 1998. Winners ...

, Sarah Jessica Parker received a nomination for award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. At the

50th Primetime Emmy Awards The 50th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 13, 1998. It was broadcast on NBC. When ''Frasier'' was announced as the winner of Outstanding Comedy Series, Emmy history was made. The NBC sitcom became the first show to win one o ...

, the series was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series while Parker received a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. ''Sex and the City'' received seven nominations from the Online Film & Television Association for the OFTA Television Awards, including awards for Best New Comedy Series, Best Cable Series and Best Ensemble in a Cable Series.

Home media release

The DVD boxset for the first season was released by HBO Home Video in the United States on May 23, 2000, nearly two years since it completed its broadcast on television. The season boxset, in addition to the twelve episodes, includes features such as commentary from the cast and show creator, episode previews, and an inside look at the show. The boxset was popular in the United States, selling 1.1 million copies by 2003.

References

{{Sex and the City 1998 American television seasons Sex and the City