Before Mr. Big, Aiden and even Manolo Blahnik, there was another man in Carrie Bradshaw‘s life — Manhattan.
The CW’s new show The Carrie Diaries — a prequel to HBO’s Sex and the City — follows a teenaged Carrie, played by AnnaSophia Robb, in 1984 as she navigates through friends, relationships, heartache and falling in love for the first time — with New York City.
Even though the series doesn’t premiere until January 2013, Celebuzz got a sneak peek of The Carrie Diaries at the show’s New York City premiere this past Monday.
Here are five things all Sex and the City fans need to know about Candace Bushnell‘s The Carrie Diaries.
1. Even at a young age, Carrie Bradshaw did not get along with technology.
“Do I need to type? Because I’m not very good at that,” says Carrie in the pilot episode of The Carrie Diaries. Yes, even when she was a teen, Carrie wasn’t very tech savvy. And that’s not the only Easter egg executive producer Amy B. Harris has planned for the series.
“There are a lot of fun Easter eggs there for Sex and the City fans,” she said during the Carrie Diaries panel Monday night. “For instance, we’ll learn why she doesn’t like to cook and then there’s why she wears a “C” necklace instead of a “Carrie” necklace.”
2. Carrie is going to make a lot of mistakes.
“I think the character is a real individual,” said author and executive producer Bushnell, who created the character of Carrie. “She’s not necessarily a follower. She blazes her own point of view in life.”
During the pilot, Carrie skips her high school dance to party with chic New Yorkers at the city’s hottest club. However, when she returns to small-town Connecticut, she finds the guy she likes, Sebastian (Austin Butler), with another girl. It’s a classic Carrie situation — except she hasn’t quite grown into her Manolos yet.
“She’s experiencing so many stories that so many women go through,” said Bushnell. “She makes really human mistakes. The young Carrie gets to make even more mistakes. She can make every mistake in the book because we don’t have the same liberty, as 50-year-old women, to make the same mistakes as an 18-year-old. That would be called The Real Housewives.”
3. Meet the Bradshaws!
As Sex and the City fans know, Carrie was a bit of a mystery. Viewers knew very little of Carrie’s family, other than the fact her father left her when she was younger. However, The Carrie Diaries focuses on Carrie’s relationship with her family: her father Tom (Matt Letscher) and rebellious little sister Dorrit (Stefania Owen). The series picks up one month after the death of her mother.
“We didn’t talk about Carries family a lot because once you’re in New York, your friends become your family,” said Bushnell. “This is going to be different than [Sex and the City] and that’s OK.”
4. The Carrie Diaries will avoid the Baby Muppets syndrome
“We didn’t want to do the Baby Muppets syndrome — ‘Oh it’s baby Samantha! It’s baby Miranda!’” said Harris. “There would never be a Charlotte because everyone’s been a Charlotte until they’ve had their heart broken 3 times.”
“These are all characters that are different than the Sex and the City characters,” she continued. “Those archetypes are still there. You can see how she became friends with Miranda and Samantha.”
Instead, the series centers on young Carrie and a whole new cast of characters, including two BFFs named Maggie (Katie Findlay) and Mouse (Ellen Wong), a male friend Walt (Brendan Dooling) — “Walt is one of the four girls,” said Bushnell — and a love interest named Sebastian.
However, if fans stick around for future seasons, the writers wouldn’t be opposed to cameos from Sex and the City cast members. As for nods to SATC characters, it may be a while before Carrie meets Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte in the city.
5. Sarah Jessica Parker has officially passed the torch to AnnaSophia Robb.
“She sent me a really lovely note of encouragement, passing the torch,” said Robb. “It was really nice.”
There you have it, Sex and the City fans. Even SJP approves of the PG-13 prequel!
The Carrie Diaries premieres January 2013 on the CW.
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