Broadcast from until , the original run of the show had a total of 94 episodes. Throughout its six-year run, the show received contributions from various producers, writers, and directors, principally Michael Patrick King. Set and filmed in New York City and based on Candace Bushnell 's book of the same name , the show follows the lives of a group of four womenβthree in their mid-thirties and one in her fortiesβwho, despite their different natures and ever-changing sex lives, remain inseparable and confide in each other.
Starring Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw and co-starring Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones , Kristin Davis as Charlotte York , and Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes , the quirky series had multiple continuing storylines that tackled relevant and modern social issues such as sexuality , safe sex , promiscuity , and femininity , while exploring the difference between friendships and romantic relationships.
The deliberate omission of the better part of the early lives of the four women was the writers' way of exploring social lifeβfrom sex to relationshipsβthrough each of their four very different, individual perspectives. Sex and the City has received both acclaim and criticism for its subjects and characters, and is credited with helping to increase HBO's popularity as a network.
The series placed fifth on Entertainment Weekly 's "New TV Classics" list, [2] and has been listed as one of the best television series of all time by Time in and TV Guide in The series still airs in syndication worldwide. The show was based in part on writer Candace Bushnell 's book of the same name , compiled from her column at The New York Observer.
Bushnell has said in several interviews that the Carrie Bradshaw in her columns is her alter ego ; when she wrote the "Sex and the City" essays, she used her own name initially, but for privacy reasons, later created the character played in the series by Sarah Jessica Parker.
