<P> Set and filmed in New York City and based on the 1997 book of the same name by Candace Bushnell, the show follows the lives of a group of four women--three in their mid-thirties and one in her forties--who, despite their different natures and ever - changing sex lives, remain inseparable and confide in each other . Starring Sarah Jessica Parker (as Carrie Bradshaw), Kim Cattrall (as Samantha Jones), Kristin Davis (as Charlotte York), and Cynthia Nixon (as Miranda Hobbes), the quirky series had multiple continuing storylines that tackled relevant and modern social issues such as sexuality, safe sex, promiscuity, and femininity, while exploring the difference between friendships and romantic relationships . The deliberate omission of the better part of the early lives of the four women was the writers' way of exploring social life--from sex to relationships--through each of their four very different, individual perspectives . </P> <P> Sex and the City has received both acclaim and criticism for its subjects and characters, and is credited with helping to increase HBO's popularity as a network . The series has won several accolades, including seven of its 54 Emmy Award nominations, eight of its 24 Golden Globe Award nominations, and three of its 11 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations . The series placed fifth on Entertainment Weekly's "New TV Classics" list, and has been listed as one of the best television series of all time by Time in 2007 and TV Guide in 2013 . </P> <P> The series still airs in syndication worldwide . It spawned two feature films, Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010), and a prequel television series commissioned by The CW, The Carrie Diaries (2013--2014). </P> <P> The show was based in part on writer Candace Bushnell's 1997 book of the same name, compiled from her column at The New York Observer . Bushnell has said in several interviews that the Carrie Bradshaw in her columns is her alter ego; when she wrote the "Sex and the City" essays, she used her own name initially, but for privacy reasons, later created the character played in the series by Sarah Jessica Parker . Carrie Bradshaw was a writer living in New York City . Carrie Bradshaw and Candace Bushnell have the same initials, a flourish emphasizing their connection . Moreover, just as Carrie Bradshaw eventually gets her articles for the fictional' New York Star' published as a book in later series, the entire Sex and the City series is based on a compilation of Bushnell's own columns for the' New York Observer .' </P>

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