Showtime Celebrates 25 Years of 'Tales'

Long before Carrie smoked her first cigarette on "Sex and the City," that other city was churning out tales.

Showtime will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Armistead Maupin's book "Tales of the City" by airing "Armistead Maupin's Further Tales of the City," beginning May 6 at 10 p.m. The third miniseries in Maupin's saga of San Francisco life stars Olympia Dukakis, Laura Linney and Billy Campbell.

Set in 1981, "Further Tales" picks up four years after the conclusion of "More Tales of the City." The original "Tales" was first dramatized on Britain's Channel 4 in 1993. Its American debut on PBS in 1994 stirred controversy over its depiction of nudity, drug use and homosexuality, but went on to win a Peabody Award and two Emmy nominations.__zap2it.com (April 16, 2001)