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After saving some of your favorite series (hello, Lucifer!), Netflix is throwing it all the way back to the '90s (and beyond) for its newest revival. Netflix's Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City is the newest small-screen adaptation of Maupin's stories about LGBTQ residents of San Francisco, which he began writing as a serialized column in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1978.
Multiple novels (the most recent released in 2014) and three TV adaptations later — a 1993 series produced by U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 that aired on PBS stateside; a 1998 Channel 4/Showtime production, More Tales of the City; and a 2001 Showtime continuation, Further Tales of the City — and the Peabody-winning story of the residents of 28 Barbary Lane is returning in new hands.
Netflix's adaptation continues the story of the original characters — a ragtag group of misfits taken in by matriarch Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis), including some original cast members reprising their roles — along with a new generation of Barbary Lane residents. Helmed by Orange Is the New Black's Lauren Morelli, the series sees Laura Linney's Mary Ann Singleton return to the city by the bay on the occasion of Anna Madrigal's 90th birthday, where she reconnects with friends from her past and new people in the Barbary Lane orbit.
While the Tales of The City cast features plenty of LGBTQ folks on-screen, the behind-the-scenes crew is filled with members of the community as well. Morelli and original series producer Alan Poul hired an all-queer writing team for the ten-episode first season that is comprised of Andy Parker, Patricia Resnick, Marcus Gardley, Jen Silverman, Hansol Jung, and Thomas Page McBee for the series.
Read on to get to know the returning players, the newcomers, and the rest of the characters from the drama — and find out where you've seen them before.
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