"The most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous."
And just like that, on February 22, 2004, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her stilettos strutted the New York City pavement for the last time on HBO's Sex and the City. Ah, but what a journey it was.
Adapted from Candace Bushnell's 1996 compilation of her newspaper sexcolumns, the HBO comedy chronicled, ahem, newspaper sexcolumnist Carrie and her super-stylish best friends Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon). With each episode that aired Sunday nights on the cable network, the four explored the NYC dating scene in saucy, relatable and hilarious ways; on Monday mornings, their exploits were discussed and dissected. Yet amid all the breakups and makeups and Cosmos and clutches, our heroines come to realize their true loves are each other. And though SATC spawned movies and a Max sequel series, those original adventures remain iconic.
In honor of the finale's 20th anniversary, we couldn't help but wonder how the numbers stack up.
Number of seasons: 6
Number of episodes (and sex scenes): 94
Number of episodes of the sequel series, And Just Like That: 20 and counting (the series will return for season three in 2025)
Number of SATC movies: 2
Emmy nominations: 54
Emmy wins: 7, including Parker's win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Actress in 2004
How much HBO paid Bushnell to option her SATC columns in The New York Observer and subsequent novel: $100,000
Viewers who watched the first episode, which aired June 16, 1998: 3.7 million
Number of Carrie nude scenes: 0, per Parker's no-nudity clause in her contract
Number of pun-ny relationship questions Carrie poses aloud while typing her columns: 92
Amount per word that Carrie is paid to write articles for Vogue, circa 2001: $4.50 a word
Episodes in which Carrie and Miranda indulge in cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, which led to a mammoth sales boost and franchise: 1, in Season 3's "No Ifs, Ands, or Butts"
Number of great loves, according to Charlotte, that every person has in a lifetime: 2
Number of times Charlotte gets married in the series: Twice (to Kyle MacLachlan's Trey MacDougal and Evan Handler's Harry Goldenblatt)
Number of times Miranda breaks up with Steve (David Eigenberg) before marrying him in Season 6's "The Ick Factor": 2 (they divorce in AJLT)
Number of times at least one of the characters ventures outside New York state: 6 (Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Connecticut, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Paris)
Guest stars in Season 4's "The Real Me," which features an NYC fashion show: 5 (Alan Cumming, Heidi Klum, Margaret Cho, Kevyn Aucoin and Ed Koch)
Episodes in Season 5, which wrapped early because Parker was pregnant: 8
How much money Carrie says she has spent on designer shoes in Season 4's "Ring a Ding Ding": $40,000
Price of Carrie's silver Manolo Blahniks that get swiped from her friend's baby shower in Season 6's "A Woman's Right to Shoes": $485
Price of a leather Birkin bag that Samantha procures in Season 4's "Coulda Woulda Shoulda" — which client Lucy Liu ends up taking for free: $4,000
Price of the Atelier Versace gown that Carrie wears in Paris in the series finale, "An American Girl in Paris (Part Deux)": $80,000
Viewers who watched the finale: 10.6 million
Number of times Carrie calls "Mr. Big" (Chris Noth) by his first name: 0, though "John" pops up on her studded cell phone in the last moment of the finale
