The Alternate ‘Sex and the City’ Opener Was a Nod to Another Classic Show
Sex and the City has one of the most iconic intros in television history. In the intro, Carrie Bradshaw walks down a Manhattan street wearing a tutu-style dress. In the final seconds of the scene, a bus drives by and splashes her with water. Anyone who has seen the show is familiar with the opening sequence, with its upbeat music. While it became truly iconic, it wasn’t the only intro filmed for the show. A second opening sequence was filmed with Carrie in a completely different outfit. Carrie’s outfit wasn’t the only thing different about it, either. The alternate Sex and the City intro attempted to pay homage to another classic TV show.
‘Sex and the City’ had an alternate intro
Carrie in a tutu is all most people think of when they think about the Sex and the City intro. It is understandable. It’s the only intro most people have ever seen. Still, an alternate was filmed.
Darren Star was initially nervous about Patricia Field’s decision to put Carrie in a pink tutu for the intro. He almost nixed the idea. Instead, he told the famed costume designer Carrie could rock the tutu, but only if an alternate opening sequence was filmed. In the second intro, Carrie wore a sedate blue dress with a high neckline and white shoes. It was a pretty dress but decidedly un-Carrie.
In the alternate ‘Sex and the City’ opening, Carrie Bradshaw trips
Darren Star was never sold on the idea of the tutu. Patricia Field agreed to offer up a secondary outfit to get Star to agree to the tutu. The cast filmed an alternate intro with Carrie in a safer outfit, but it didn’t make sense just to change her clothing. Carrie’s movements in the alternate intro are different, too.
In that alternate scene, Carrie is seen briefly walking down Fifth Avenue. As she walks close to a bus bearing her image, she trips over her feet, stumbles, and looks around to ensure no one noticed her falter. When she looks up, her picture is plastered on the bus waiting at the curb for riders to disembark. While it was a subtle stumble, it meant something to Darren Star.
Darren Star said the sequences was supposed to honor ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’
While the alternate Sex and the City intro went into the archive in favor of Patricia Field’s much bolder intro outfit, Star still liked what the alternative offered. He told Entertainment Weekly he always thought of the alternate sequence as a nod to The Dick Van Dyke Show.
The similarities are obvious when you look at the two intros next to each other. Season 1 of The Dick Van Dyke Show used an intro that featured still photos, but after that, two filmed intros were used intermittently to open the show. In the first intro, Rob Petrie enters his New Rochelle, NY home and trips over an ottoman. In the alternate introduction, he sidesteps the ottoman only to trip over his feet, just like Carrie Bradshaw does in the alternate Sex and the City intro.
