ARMISTEAD MAUPIN’S FURTHER TALES OF THE CITY is the third installment of Maupin’s classic saga of San Francisco life. Set in 1981, the four-hour miniseries involves the residents of 28 Barbary Lane in a racy and rollicking adventure/mystery that leaps from Golden Gate Park to the home of a Hollywood icon to a remote island in the Alaskan wilderness. As usual in Maupin’s world, romantic entanglements abound. Landlady Anna Madrigal (OLYMPIA DUKAKIS) is stunned by her mother’s sudden arrival. Mother Mucca (JACKIE BURROUGHS) who runs a bordello in Nevada is in town to take care of personal business and meets a man from her past, Royal Reichenbach (JOHN MCMARTIN). When Mother Mucca introduces Anna to Royal, they find themselves in a rivalry over him. Madrigal’s tenants have their own stories from the past to unravel. Michael Tolliver (PAUL HOPKINS) is working at a nursery called “Best Laid Plants.” He tries to get over being dumped by his former lover Dr. Jon Fielding (BILLY CAMPBELL) who went off to work on a cruise ship.
Exploring his sexuality full tilt, Michael embarks on a series of sexual escapades involving cowboys, cops and Cage Tyler (JOHN ROBINSON) a closeted movie star. Michael’s friend and neighbor Mary Ann Singleton (LAURA LINNEY) is challenged with a relationship problem of a different kind. Her boyfriend and upstairs neighbor, Brian Hawkins (WHIP HUBLEY) who has spent most of his adult life as a womanizer, comes to the realization that he wants to marry her. She, however, is hesitant to take the next step as she is focused on her career. Longing to become a serious reporter, but not given a chance by her station manager, she is forced to work as a daytime host of the “Bargain Matinee” show. Mary Ann’s late boss’ widow, socialite Frannie Halcyon (DIANA LEBLANC) is tormented by her daughter DeDe’s (BARBARA GARRICK) apparent demise in the Jonestown Massacre. Living on Mai Tais and sleeping pills, she refuses to accept that DeDe and her children, Little Anna and Edgar were killed. She seeks advice from psychics to help her find her missing daughter. When a fortune-teller convinces her that DeDe is indeed alive, she asks for the support of society columnist Prue Giroux (MARY KAY PLACE) to make her story public. When Prue refuses to get involved, Frannie calls Mary Ann to share her secret. Since Mary Ann is always searching for a good story, she is eager to meet in hopes of finally getting a break on the evening news.
Meanwhile, Prue meets a mysterious homeless man, Luke (HENRY CZERNY) in Golden Gate Park. Immediately drawn to his intense charm, she falls madly in love with him. Little does she know that she’s opening Pandora’s Box when she attempts to bring him back to society with the help of flamboyant celebrity priest Father Paddy Star (BRUCE MCCULLOCH). Luke’s past is far more sinister than Prue could ever imagine. Then it’s revealed that DeDe Halcyon Day has spent three years in Cuba with her lover Dorothea (FRANÇOISE ROBERTSON) after escaping the massacre in Guyana. She ends up in a camp for gay Cuban refugees in Fort Chafee, Arkansas and finally calls her mother Frannie in San Francisco to tell her that she wants to come home. Through DeDe’s unexpected reappearance and a twist of fate, the storylines begin to intertwine and all of the characters in Maupin’s tales find themselves in the midst of an unpredictable adventure.
Buy “Further Tales of the City.” For Only $10.74
April 17, 2008
#1
A very poor sequel to the original “Tales of the City” Poor production values, poor directing, and just a generally cheap imitation of the world of Barbary Lane. Many of the ororiginal characters have been recast, and aren’t nearly up to par as the original players. Briam, Michael Mouse, and Mona have all been recast. Thank heavens Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis repeat their roles as MaryAnne Singleton and Mrs. Madrigal, which saves the movie from total obscurity.
April 17, 2008
#2
This third installment from Tales of the City was sadly never shown on TV here in the UK (don’t know why, the other two were partly made through UK’s channel 4)so I didn’t know what to expect when I ordered the DVD, but I wasn’t let down, it is as funny, touching and wonderful as the previous two!
April 17, 2008
#3
what sounds to be a good deal with the two disc set, heres what you get.
the disc jacket wasn’t even made for two disc.
disc one; no scene selection, runs straight through.
disc two; commentary, blah, blah, blah.
April 17, 2008
#4
It’s a nice soap-opera about the 80′s,still worth wile watching. Though – after seen Tales + More Tales – it’s actually more or less enough! It’s good the producers didn’t do the others volumes of the book. You can see where the writers/producers of Queer as Folk got their inspiration from.
April 17, 2008
#5
I’ve loved the books since they came out. I’ve read the series at least 5 times over the years.
The video adaptations are OK. Sometimes hot. Sometimes WTF? One WTF? was the casting of NED.
TOTALLY wrong. This NED is nothing like this in the book..The FURTHER Video edition really missed the mark with their NED.