Megan Blake - CindyAfter a 12-year separation, Luis is reunited with his beloved younger brother, Carlos, whom he remembers as a fat kid who idolized him - and who arrives from Cuba all grown up into a handsome, charming gay man. When Luis has trouble accepting this, Todd and the others persuade him to take Carlos to a country and western gay bar, where big trouble erupts. Meanwhile, Susan also has trouble accepting some news: her ex-fiancé Kip's engagement is announced in the society pages, and although Susan should care less, she finds she is losing sleep over it; and Jack continues to pursue sex in extremely dangerous locales with his new girlfriend.
Air DateDespite the series being set in San Francisco, this is the only episode to date that deals more than peripherally with that city's prominent gay presence.
Workplace situation comedy centered on the character of Susan, a "somewhat sheltered" magazine writer who has dumped her rich fiancé at the altar and must now cope with being suddenly single - complicated by the fact that her boss at hip San Francisco magazine The Gate is her ex's brother Jack. He has promoted her from copy editor to writer of a column on being single in the '90s, thus irritating her co-workers: caustic lifestyle columnist Vicki, Cuban playboy photographer Luis, and rock critic Todd (whose limited attention span after years of MTV necessitates his being celibate). Susan's main support is her loving grandmother Nana.In highly publicized trouble before it ever aired, Suddenly Susan had to switch formats from a bookstore (shades of Ellen) to a magazine workplace setting - sort of Mary Richards going to work for Lou Grant at the Trib. Despite some bright writing and reasonably funny performances (especially from Brooke Shields, who got surprising mileage out of the problems inherent in being very tall and attractive), the show never quite jelled, perhaps because the characters were never even remotely credible as functioning journalists. Susan was put on hiatus to make room for NBC's retooling of The Naked Truth. It later returned to the NBC schedule in late February 1997 and subsequently did well enough to be renewed for the Fall 1997 television season.
Here's how the series was originally described by NBC: "Brooke Shields ("The Blue Lagoon") makes her debut as a comedy series star as Susan, a bright, attractive senior editor at a busy publishing house, who suddenly becomes single again after ending a longtime relationship with her live-in boyfriend. Now back in the dating game, Susan learns everything she never wanted to know about single life from her co-worker and best friend, Marcy (Maggie Wheeler, "Friends"). At work Susan's vain boss Eric (Philip Casnoff, "Sinatra") has assigned her to work with a wildly eccentric, best-selling romance novelist, Charlotte Sinclair (Elizabeth Ashley, "Evening Shade"), who lives up to her barracuda reputation. Nancy Marchand ("SabrinaLou Grant") stars as Susan's spunky and loving grandmother, Nana. "Suddenly Susan" is from Warner Bros. Television. Billy Van Zandt ("Anything But Love"), Jane Milmore ("Anything But Love") and Clyde Phillips ("Parker Lewis Can't Lose") are executive producers; Barnet Kellman ("Mad About You," "Murphy Brown") is the director." Production Notes written by: Russell Wodell.