(November 29, 2000) — Everyone knows it is hard being the new guy—whether it is in a town, at a school or at a job. Now, imagine having to be the new guy and at the same time having to fill some of the biggest shoes in all of television. That is exactly the task given to Charlie Sheen when he joined the cast of “Spin City,” taking over the role of Deputy Mayor of New York, which was played for the past four years by Michael J. Fox who left the show due to his current bout with Parkinson’s Disease. In a season full of cast replacements and additions to major TV shows, like “Law and Order” and “The X-Files,” Sheen has turned out to be the least pleasing of all of them. His character, Charlie Crawford, is much too shallow. Almost every one of the plotlines he’s been involved in since the season’s start has dealt with Charlie being a ladies man who only judges women by their looks. “Spin City’s” writers definitely need to broaden the character’s range in order for Sheen to succeed. A wider variety of plot involvement is the reason Fox did so well on the show. However, Sheen coming to “Spin City” has had some positive effects. This gives the show’s supporting cast a much bigger chance to shine. In fact, the supporting cast is now the only reason to tune in every week. Even with the loss of two cast members in addition to Fox, those remaining are still excellent at what they do. The continuing cast includes Richard Kind as Paul Lassiter, the Mayor’s press secretary; Alan Ruck as Stuart Bondek, the Mayor’s chief of staff; Michael Boatman as Carter Heywood, the Mayor’s special assistant for minority affairs; Barry Bostwick as Randall Winston, the Mayor; and the new addition of Lana Parilla as Angie Ordoñez, Charlie’s secretary. They all play marvelously off one another. There should be more additions to the supporting cast in the coming weeks, one of which is expected to be Beth Littleford, reprising her role as Deirdre, Stuart’s pretentious ex-girlfriend, but this time becoming a regular character. The show’s biggest and most noticeable flaw of the season—and this one came not as the fault of any of the cast or crew, but as scheduling error—has been the fact that three of the program’s episodes were shown out of order. While this may not seem like a huge mistake for a sitcom, it was for “Spin City,” since one of the episodes shown out of order was the one that introduced the new character of Angie. Because of this, her character seemed to show up out of nowhere on the show. Viewers first saw Angie two weeks before her character’s formal introduction was aired. This was very confusing and definitely threw the show off balance. Despite Sheen’s weak and shallow character, “Spin City” is certainly still a show to be watched—if only for the supporting players. But trust me, they will make it well worth the time. “Spin City” airs on ABC Wednesday nights at 9:30. “Spin City” is also in syndication every weeknight at 7 p.m. on UPN.