Groundbreaking '90s TV Series Premiered 28 Years Ago Today-Why We're Still Talking About It Decades Later
It's been 28 years since Carrie Bradshaw and her New York-based besties made their debut on Sex and the City. The Emmy-winning HBO comedy-drama series premiered on June 6, 1998, introducing the world to newspaper columnist Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her pals Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall).
Based on Candace Bushnell's book of the same name, the groundbreaking series revolutionized modern-day dating and single-girl friendships, complete with frank sex talk. The first of its 94 episodes featured Carrie meeting the mysterious Mr. Big (Chris Noth), a man who would take her on a roller-coaster romantic ride for years.
Bushnell once reflected on the early seasons of Sex and the City, telling Bustle her favorite episodes were when "Samantha dates the modelizer, when Carrie dates the younger guy and then goes to his house and he has no coffee filters or toilet paper, when Carrie gets caught smoking pot by that guy's parents."
"In those early episodes, the characters were a little bit more bada--, and that was really the way women were in New York," the author shared. "We weren't trying to fit in and be part of society, we weren't being good girls, we weren't sugar and spice and everything nice. It was the woman vs. society thing. That worked so well in those first two seasons."
Sex and the City aired for six seasons, ending its initial run in February 2004. But that was far from the end of the road for the series.
Not only has the show aired continuously in syndication and on HBO channels ever since, but SATC turned into a full-on franchise, with two big-screen movies released in 2008 and 2010. While a third feature film was scrapped, a spinoff series, And Just Like That… aired for three seasons, from 2021 to 2025, and featured the return of all but Cattrall. The movies and reboots also added more diverse characters.
Parker has long said she never believed the end of the original SATC series would be the end for the famous characters.
"I think the first time that [writer /producer] Michael [Patrick King] and I arrived at the very difficult decision to end the initial series, we never thought of it as finite," she told Entertainment Tonight in early 2026. "And it was the same this time [with And Just Like That]. It was a version of agony to decide to end the show this time. But it's simply because we love it. And even, you know, I think being comfortable can allow you to stay. And that's not the reason to do it. You have to have something to say."
Still, there could be more to come. When asked for the odds that the Sex and the City ladies could return to screens in the future, Parker didn't say no. "You ask a lot of an audience; they pay to have you in their homes. And we take that seriously on principle. So who knows?" she told the outlet. "Who knows?"
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This story was originally published June 6, 2026 at 5:58 AM.