Armistead Maupin's chronicles of the sex lives of San Franciscans made for an addictive mini-series, produced by Working Title for Channel 4 and PBS, who weathered outrage at the relaxed depiction of relationships in every possible gender combination and were rewarded with critical and popular acclaim.
The Tales see naive Ohio secretary Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney) arrive in anything-goes 1976 San Francisco. She moves into a rambling apartment house, where bohemian landlady Mrs. Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis) dispenses pot and life wisdom to the young and restless. The touching autumnal love affair between Madrigal and Mary Anns dying boss (Donald Moffat) runs parallel with quests for love by Mary Ann, womanising Brian (Paul Gross), bisexual Mona (Chloe Webb) and gay Mouse (Marcus DAmico).
Along with juicy roles for up-and-comers, there were choice bits and cameos from an extraordinary all-sorts including Karen Black, Ian McKellen and Rod Steiger. Almost everyone gets a great bit of dialogue and, since Maupins Tales were originally written as a newspaper serial, the adaptation keeps that episodic feel, tormenting you with mysteries such as just what the hell creepy stalker Norman (Stanley DeSantis) is up to in the top flat. Director Alastair Reid made an understated art of genre-bending and pays recurring crafty homages to Vertigo.
More Tales Of The City picks up the stories six weeks later but was made five years on, necessitating heavier make-up, more nudity, several cast changes and a new director, Pierre Gang. Everyone is still looking for Mr. Right; the Hitchcock references are now to Rear Window. The action fans out less satisfactorily from Barbary Lane, but remains incestuous as Monas road trip results in one of the more far-fetched coinkidinks in a series full of them, Mary Ann and Mouse find lovers old and new on a Mexican cruise, and Brian has an affair by binoculars with a woman youll NEVER guess who in a window.
Like the books, the tales grew thinner and more sour as characters entered the 80s and Mary Ann became ambitious. Thus, Further Tales Of The City (2001) came and went to few cries of Fantabulous!. But such soap, sex and suspense shenanigans as Desperate Housewives owe a debt to the groundbreaking Tales.