A mile in their shoes

A cultural touchstone as much as a television show, “Sex and the City” has such a rabid following that most viewers are already intimately familiar with the romantic ups and downs of this group of sexy New York singles.

Of course, that didn’t stop fans from attending the first in a series of marathon screenings at the Museum of Television & Radio over the weekend. Beginning last Saturday and continuing through Feb. 22, the day of the show’s finale on HBO, the museum is screening all 86 episodes in order, airing one season’s worth of shows each weekend.

The event’s kickoff was a three-hour binge of the first six episodes, which introduced audiences to the characters, their dilemmas -- and their wardrobes. We meet Samantha, the sex-kitten PR exec; Charlotte, the goody-two-shoes gallery assistant; Miranda, the no-bones-about-it lawyer; and Carrie, the sexual anthropologist around whom the series revolves. All of them parading around on dates in high fashions and needle heels.

With the exception of a feathered mule or two, some mingy tube tops and other late ‘90s attire, the show felt surprisingly undated. Six years after its debut, the subjects of “toxic boyfriends,” “married pigs” and “modelizer” men who only date supremely beautiful women continue -- perhaps unfortunately -- to resonate. It’s these universal truths of singledom that helped propel the show to heights of popularity, while sparking debate on what it means to be single and sexually active in modern America.

“What I love about the girls is that it kind of changed everything,” said Tracey Verhoeven, a single thirtysomething who traveled from Sherman Oaks to watch the first six episodes Saturday even though she’d seen them all before. “In your 30s, you could still show your midriff, you could still be sexy, you could still be single, you could still be having fun,” she said. “It’s great for all of us women because it kind of lets us all know that we’re not dead and dried up by a certain age.”

Verhoeven was one of about 20 attendees -- a mixed-gender crowd of younger loyalists and older newcomers who had heard the hype but never seen the program.

A 78-year-old woman who was more orthopedic shoe than stiletto heel seemed to be getting a kick out of it. “I think it’s kind of fun,” she said after watching the first episode. “I like the clothes and the atmosphere.”

Jack Weiss, a senior who in the past had only caught snippets of the show, said, “It’s very funny. It’s like being in the women’s locker room.”

The appeal of characters who swear often and openly, who dish freely about their and their friends’ sex lives and who spend extravagant sums of money to feed their shoe fetishes apparently runs wide.

“It’s four women that actually talk the way woman friends talk,” said Barbara Dixon, vice president and director of the Museum of Television & Radio in Los Angeles. “I don’t have a woman friend that I know of any age, young or old, who doesn’t love this show and feel sad that it’s coming to an end.”

According to Dixon, the screenings “seemed like the right thing to do leading up to the last episode.” The museum is running the “Sex and the City” screenings at both its Beverly Hills and New York locations.

Where the New York event drew almost 200 visitors over the weekend, Beverly Hills attracted only a handful. But those who turned out were enthusiastic. There were belly laughs as the crowd watched Samantha endure slights on her “cute wrinkled neck” from a significantly younger boyfriend and Charlotte struggle with a boyfriend who wanted to engage in a sexually questionable activity.

This weekend, in the second season’s 17 episodes, Carrie continues her romantic rollercoaster ride with Mr. Big and Charlotte experiments with puppies as “man replacement,” while Samantha dabbles with various sexual deviants and Miranda takes a breather before diving back in to the dating pool.

“It speaks to me,” said Wendy Krueger, a single 51-year-old from West Hollywood. “All the dilemmas, all the things you question in your mind every time you have a date or don’t have a date. What am I doing wrong? What are they doing wrong?”

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‘Sex and the City’

Marathon Screening Weekends

Where: Museum of Television & Radio,

465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills

When: Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 31- Feb. 1 and Feb. 7- 8, 12-4:30 p.m.; Feb. 14-15, 12-4 p.m.; Feb. 21, 12-5 p.m.; Feb. 22, 12-1 p.m.

Cost: $10 suggested contribution

Info: (310) 786-1000 or www.mtr.org