Throwback Thursday– Sexy Summer Binge Edition: 28 Barbary Lane Was The Place To Be!

Take a mental vacation to beautiful and swinging 70's San Francisco!

Hey Fleshbot fans! It’s the gross, sticky, hot, and humid dog days of summer where I am, and I like nothing better than to appreciate my air conditioning with a fine and engaging long-running TV series, especially one full of sexy humans and intriguing plotlines, so I’ve picked a couple to write about this summer.

My first pick is the various TV adaptations of Armistead Maupin’s Tales Of The City novels. The first miniseries adapting these books aired in 1993 on PBS, of all places, who came under fire for airing something so spicy and, well, more than a little bit queer, but the series did very well, ratings-wise. We open on Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney), a young college graduate from Cleveland who has decided to strike out on her own and move to San Francisco, to the chagrin of her conservative parents. She doesn’t want to stay permanently with her slutty friend Connie (Parker Posey) so she scours the papers for apartments for rent and winds up moving into 28 Barbary Lane, a group of apartments owned by the fabulous and enigmatic Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis). Anna is #lifegoals for me, and is the coolest landlady you’ll ever meet, you will be sad that she is fictional. Mary Ann’s new neighbors include her future gay BFF Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, free-spirited bisexual Mona Ramsey, and lone straight dude Brian Hawkins. The story meanders beyond this core group into the people Mary Ann works with and other connections, and everything is soapy, dishy, sexy, and a great escape.

One of my favorite things across all of the Tales series is that each and every character is significant and the connections between all of them are revealed as the series goes on and it follows a twisty winding plot. Much like real life, the world can be very small sometimes. These stories will suck you in and keep you hooked. Tales takes us to a legal brothel in Nevada and the Jonestown cult in Guyana, for example. Those are places you weren’t really expecting! The 2019 Tales series, produced by Netflix, starred some of the principal characters and original actors, but also brought in a new crop of younger residents at 28 Barbary Lane including Elliot Page. I would spoil you if I told you who his character is, so I shan't!

My snack recommendation for a Tales Of The City binge obviously includes some very good sourdough with quality butter. Order right from San Francisco if you’re feeling decadent, but as the pandemic taught us it’s easy to make it yourself. Use this as the basis for a cold supper/picky plate/girl dinner or whatever you want to call it of cheese, veggies, fruit, and deli meats. It’s just too hot to cook! Serving up a plate of joints to accompany it all a la Anna Madrigal is definitely a plus if you’re so inclined but a nice bottle of wine works just as well.

The original Tales Of The City (1993) can be found (at press time) for free streaming on Tubi and the Roku Channel. More Tales of The City and Further Tales of the City can reliably be found on that site that rhymes with ShmooBoob. The 2019 Tales Of The City limited series is available for streaming on Netflix.