A Short-Lived American Soap Opera that was a continuation of Loving that follows the surviving characters starting a new life in SoHo.
The series starred Morgan Fairchild, George Palermo, Laura Wright, Ted King, Roscoe Born, Randolph Mantooth, Debbi Morgan, and Catherine Hickland.
It aired on ABC for two seasons.
Tropes for the series:
- Asshole Victim: Jared, kicking off the Masquerade Serial Killer storyline. Between raping his wife, plying The Alcoholic Nick with booze, humiliating Azure over her transgender status, etc., pretty much everyone had motive to kill him.
- Back for the Dead: Sydney leaves The City for London. In the show's final episode, she tries to call the gang, only to be stopped. . .by Molly, who has escaped from prison and somehow made her way to London to kill her.
- Big Applesauce: Takes place in the SoHo neighborhood in New York City.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sweet, pretty, slightly ditsy Molly Malone is revealed to be the Masquerader.
- Bolivian Army Ending: In the finale, everyone gets a Earn Your Happy Ending, but psycho Molly has escaped from prison and killed Sydney who was trying to warn them, meaning it's only a matter of time before she returns to New York and resumes her rampage.
- Bookends: The last scene of Loving was of Jacob and Angie leaving Corinth. The first scene of The City is of them arriving in New York.
- Continuity Snarl: When Cooper showed up to reconcile with Steffy, absolutely no one made any mention of his entire family being slain by his Aunt Gwyneth, who herself was also dead.
- Cross-Cast Role: Azure C., ultimately revealed to be a transgender woman, was played by the cisgender actress Carlotta Chang.
- Crossover: Like its parent show, this was part of the Shared Universe with the other ABC soaps, with All My Children's Jackson Montgomery making an appearance as an ex-lover of Sydney's, and General Hospital's Tracy Quartermaine taking over for Sydney after being exiled from Port Charles.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Jocelyn admits to Alex that her father let his friends take turns molesting her. Furthermore, she paid for law school by working as a prostitute.
- Dead-Hand Shot: We realize Sydney is dead when we see Molly kicking at a pair of boot-clad legs, her signature item of clothing.
- Driven to Suicide: Azure is on the verge of killing herself following the humiliation of having been revealed to be Transgender before Bernardo tracks her down and talks her out of it.
- Forced Out of the Closet: Bernardo learns Azure used to be a man when he picks up a tabloid with a headline that reveals this.
- "Friends" Rent Control: There is no way any of these people could afford to live in that SOHO building.
- Get Back in the Closet: The reveal that Azure C. was a transgender woman went over like a lead balloon, not helped by the actress' poor performance. She was promptly written off and left town, though on the plus side, she and her boyfriend reconciled.
- Hello, Attorney!: Jocelyn.
- Immediate Sequel: The show essentially picks up where Loving left off, with the last scene being if Angie and Jacob leaving Corinth, and the first scene of The City being of them arriving in New York.
- May–December Romance: Danny and Sydney hook up, despite her being roughly 20 years older than him.
- Marital Rape License: Jared to Sydney.
- Old Friend, New Gender: Gorgeous model Azure C. confessed to her landlord Bernardo that she'd had a crush on him since high school. This confused him, as he didn't remember her. Shortly after they consummated their relationship, he learned that she was Transgender. It was the pre-transition version of her who'd had the crush on him, developed after he protected her from bullies.
- Phoney Call: Molly is on the phone with her mother. She puts it down to turn off the kettle, and at this point, the audience hears the operator's message "If you'd like to make a call please hang up and try again. If you need help, hang up, and then dial your operator..." Molly returns and proceeds to pick up the phone and continue talking the way she was before, thus revealing herself to be completely delusional - and the Serial Killer who has been offing various characters for the past several months. In a later scene, her boyfriend Danny realizes this when he picks up the extension while she's talking to her "mother", only to hear the same operators message.
- Private Detective: Alex and Tony start an agency, after having been cops back in Corinth.
- Retool: The show moved from Loving's suburban setting to New York City. The retooled show wasn't any more successful than the original, and the show was soon cancelled.
- Serial Killer: Roughly a year after "The Loving Murders" storyline that resulted in everyone fleeing Corinth, the characters were plagued by another one of these, known as "The Masquerader".
- Spin-Off: Of Loving, which had most of the show's remaining or surviving cast members leaving Corinth to move to New York City, presumably to escape the painful memories.
- STD Immunity: When Sydney goes to Angie for a rape exam after being raped by Jared, she is very adamant about being tested for HIV and STD's (this is a standard part of a rape exam regardless), given his penchant for infidelity, though she fortunately tests negative.
- Trans Relationship Troubles/ Trans Tribulations: The City was the first Soap Opera to tackle this topic, with the gorgeous model Azure C. being revealed to have been born a man, resulting in her nearly being fired from the agency where she worked and her boyfriend Bernardo denouncing her as a "freak". Unfortunately, negative fan reaction and the actress' poor performance nixed the storyline, but on the plus side, the characters reconciled and left town happily.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: After consummating his relationship with Azure—having taken her virginity, no less—Bernardo goes out to get some coffee and sees a tabloid headline revealing that she used to be a man.
