Sarah Jessica Parker as the original Carrie in “Sex and the City.”
It’s 1984 and Carrie Bradshaw, the style icon from “Sex and the City,” is a small-town high school girl with an itch for the big time.
That’s the setting of “The Carrie Diaries” — the CW’s hotly anticipated prequel to “Sex and the City.”
The new series doesn’t start until January, but the copies of the pilot episode began circulating this week among reporters.
The first episode shows Carrie (AnnaSophia Robb in the role that Sarah Jessica Parker originated), a teenager living in suburban Connecticut, discovering the Big Apple.
She is on the cusp of finding that questioning voice that will serve her so well later in life.
Based on Candace Bushnell’s young adult book of the same name, the hour-long drama — instead of the original half-hour comedy format — picks up three months after Carrie’s mother has died from cancer, leaving behind responsible Carrie, rebellious younger sister Dorrit (Stefania Owen) and nice-guy dad, Tom (Matt Letscher).
The action is split between Carrie’s high school life and the Wall Street law-firm internship Carrie’s father sets up in an effort to help her get past her mother’s death.
During a lunch-hour shopping trip to Century 21 for nude pantyhose — totally ‘80s! — Carrie meets fabulous fashion stylist Larissa (Freema Agyeman), who just happens to work for Interview, Carrie’s favorite magazine.
Through Larissa, Carrie is introduced to the famed hotspot Indochine and meets her first gay men.
Carrie’s school time is occupied by her trio of best friends, who seem to be obsessed with the topics of sex and relationships, exactly what the grown-up Carrie and her trio of best friends talk about over brunch.
(The younger generation’s conversations have been relocated to the school library, though.)
Taking the place of Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda, are studious Mouse (Ellen Wong), experienced Maggie (Katie Findlay) and her Rob Lowe-obsessed boyfriend, Walt (Brendan Dooling).
“Carrie” even has its own version of Mr. Big, the new kid in school, rich bad boy Sebastian Kydd (Austin Butler).
Where “SATC” was always very fashion-forward — it turned Manolo Blahnik into a household name and sparked the trend of grown women wearing tutus — “Carrie’s” look is appropriately dated.
The series takes on the styles of yesteryear, pastel sweaters, cropped denim jackets, high-waisted pants, Laura Ashley florals, Material Girl party dresses, eye-popping fluorescents and shoulder pads.
Fans of the original series will recognize that “Carrie” also relies heavily on a her narration — voiceovers that are equal parts touching and forehead thumping.
(Example: “Maybe it was the realization that I might have lost my innocence, my virginity, and not to the guy I had hoped, but to a different man — Manhattan.”)
Fourteen years separate the CW’s prequel from the original show’s events, but Carrie’s big, curly hairdo remains unchanged.