'Sex and the City:' The early days

With insomnia last weekend, I dug into the On Demand menu and watched the pilot episode of "Sex and the City." It was good TV, with definite potential, but after watching these characters for years, seeing them from the start was a strange experience. In many ways, they were far more three-dimensional than the New York Ladies caricatures we've come to know. Samantha was sex-starved, but a little bit muted; Charlotte was romantic, but less goopily so; Carrie was more outwardly-focused and less self-absorbed. (Miranda was as sarcastic as ever.) But the biggest difference? The clothes! Where were the clothes?! Not a Manolo in sight; Carrie turned up once in a blue knit shirt that looked like it came from The Gap; Samantha appeared at a girls' night event wearing one of those long sweaters with a belt. This show would never have had the same effect if the wardrobe had come from the Passaic Mall.