Lunch Break Video: When Michael Tolliver meets Dr. Jon Fielding on “Tales of the City”

Few television experiences were as wonderful and memorable for me as a gay man as the first time I watched Amistead Maupin’s Tales of the City on PBS back in January of 1994. It was like this delicious treat and had a cast to die for that included Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis,  Barbara Garrick, Chloe Webb, Thomas Gibson and Paul Gross.

Best of all, it had Marcus D’Amico as the sweet and adorable Michael “Mouse” Tolliver and Billy Campbell as his lover Jon Fielding.

In this clip, we see how the two meet: at a roller rink! It’s so sweet. We also see part of a scene with Linney who played Mary Ann Singleton and Chloe Webb who played the bisexual Mona.

“I was really lucky to fall into job and the people were wonderful and they are people who I have remained friends with for 20 years now,” Linney told me in an interview last fall.  “It was just fantastic writing about fantastic people, people who loved each other and I adored it. I knew when I was making it that it would be very special.”

It’s hard to believe now but the miniseries was quite controversial at the time and PBS backed out of making the sequels. Showtime stepped in and made 1998’s More Tales of the City and 2001’s Further Tales of the City. Linney, Campbell, Dukakis and Garrick were in all three but D’Amico did not return as Michael Tolliver. The role was taken over by Paul Hopkins.

Since Mouse was such good friends with Mary Ann, I actually asked Laura which Michael she preferred!

“I loved them both,” she said diplomatically. “They were both different.”