"Caroline in the City" features fictional cartoonist Caroline Duffy (Lea Thompson), who makes a rival strip. The relationship between Caroline and Cathy is described as "oily rag, lit cigarette". In the season 1 episode "Caroline and the Bad Back", Caroline hurts her back and is unable to meet a deadline. To prevent the newspapers from double running "Cathy" strips, Del (Eric Lutes) and Richard (Malcolm Gets) create one for Caroline. The strip is presented as being only funny to men. Upon seeing the strip, Caroline declares that: "Cathy is gonna have a field day with this".