Where’s the Cast of ‘Spin City,’ 20 Years Later?
Long after his Family Ties and Back to the Future days, Michael J. Fox had a helluva second act as New York City Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty on Spin City. The ABC sitcom, created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, earned the actor his fourth Emmy and three consecutive Golden Globes.
But the show also featured other once and future TV stars as City Hall employees, including Connie Britton and Alan Ruck. As Fox eased back his screen time to deal with his Parkinson’s disease, producers brought in Heather Locklear to join him in Season 4, and when Fox left the show in 2000, Charlie Sheen took his place.
As we hit the 20th anniversary of Spin City’s series finale on April 30, catch up with the show’s longest-serving cast members in the gallery below.
Michael J. Fox (Mike Flaherty)
Fox spent the better part of a decade recurring on The Good Wife and spinoff The Good Fight, playing cunning lawyer Louis Canning on the two series. He also recurred as another attorney, Ethan West, on Designated Survivor. In his 2020 memoir, No Time Like the Future, the actor announced he was retiring for the second time, citing his difficulties filming those roles while contending with Parkinson’s symptoms.
Charlie Sheen (Charlie Crawford)
Sheen starred as two other Charlies—Charlie Harper in Two and a Half Men and Charlie Goodson on Anger Management—but has been in the news more for trouble in his personal life recently. That said, Deadline reported last month that Sheen was collaborating with Entourage creator Doug Ellin on a new, Hollywood-set dramedy series titled Ramble On.
Richard Kind (Paul Lassiter)
Kind is kinda everywhere these days! The actor has recurred on the TV shows The Other Two, Young Sheldon, and The Goldbergs, and he has voiced characters in Big Mouth and American Dad!, amid his dozens of roles in the 2020s.
Alan Ruck (Stuart Bondek)
These days, Ruck is best known for playing the would-be politician Connor Roy in Succession, though he also guest-starred on The Dropout as real-life ex-Walgreens executive Jay Rosan.
Michael Boatman (Carter Heywood)
Boatman currently stars as attorney Julius Cain on The Good Fight, a role he originated on The Good Wife. He previously recurred on Anger Management, reuniting with Sheen on that comedy, and starred on Instant Mom.
Barry Bostwick (The Mayor)
Bostwick had recent one-off roles on Will & Grace, The Goldbergs, and Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. He also starred in last year’s Netflix film Single All the Way.
Connie Britton (Nikki Faber)
Britton has become a bona fide TV star, starring as guidance counselor Tami Taylor in Friday Night Lights, haunted housewife Vivien Harmon in American Horror Story, country singer Rayna James in Nashville, con victim Debra Newell in Dirty John, emergency dispatcher Abby Clark in 9-1-1, and wealthy vacationer Nicole Mossbacher in The White Lotus.
Alexander Chaplin (James Hobert)
After a string of guest-starring roles on TV shows like Chicago P.D., Blue Bloods, Blindspot, and FBI, Chaplin will be back on our screens in a bigger capacity soon, with his recurring role in HBO Max’s upcoming Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.
Victoria Dillard (Janelle Cooper)
Dillard (seen here in 1998), who like Fox is living with Parkinson’s, shared the screen with Will Smith in the 2001 biopic Ali and guest-starred on procedurals for the rest of the 2000s. She then retired from acting and turned to dancing, as she told Brain & Life in 2017.
Heather Locklear (Caitlin Moore)
After Spin City, Locklear had recurring roles on Hot in Cleveland, Too Close to Home, and the Melrose Place reboot, as well as a starring role in Season 3 of Franklin & Bash. After two widely-reported arrests in 2018, the actress returned to the screen last year in the Lifetime TV movie Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: The Kristine Carlson Story.
Jennifer Esposito (Stacey Paterno)
Esposito has worked steadily since her Spin City days, appearing in the Oscar-winning 2004 film Crash and starring as Special Agent Alex Quinn in NCIS. More recently, she recurred as CIA director Susan Raynor in The Boys, NYPD sergeant Phoebe Baker in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and potential mother-in-law Brenda in Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens.
