That Downton Abbey Magic is Coming to NBC

Daniel D'Addario — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:57:32 -0400

Resurgent NBC--which, courtesy of football, The Voice, and sci-fi series Revolution, has reversed years of bad fortune in a single season--is looking to get into the Julian Fellowes business. The creator of PBS's Downton Abbey is to write The Gilded Age, a soap opera of wealth and class in Edith Wharton-era New York (across the sea and slightly earlier than the Downton manor house, but presumably bringing similar themes into play). This isn't the first time NBC's borrowed the playbook from smaller channels in order to be in step with the zeitgeist; last season, NBC used the swaggering 1960s aesthetic of Mad Men on its slightly dumber series The Playboy Club, which didn't last long. But no one from Mad Men was actually involved in that show's creation; Mr. Fellowes will join a small club of people writing concurrent series on multiple networks (including Ryan Murphy, whose The New Normal airs on NBC thanks in large part to the success of his Glee on Fox).

Shonda Rhimes Goes Back to the Gilded Age

Daniel D'Addario — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:16:29 -0400

Shonda Rhimes (Getty Images)

Someone's been reading her Thorstein Veblen!Deadline reports that Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey's Anatomy, is working on a TV series about 1895 New York and a luxury hotel therein. Ms. Rhimes is known for creating series for ABC, including the successful Private Practice, the forthcoming (in 2012) Scandal, and the canceled Off the Map--all of which take place in the present day, albeit in an alternate universe where everyone is gorgeous and promiscuous. Historical TV dramas are risky, in terms of tone and accuracy: for every Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman, there's a Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer. May we suggest Steven Millhauser's novel Martin Dressler for research about the turn-of-the-century hotel industry?

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_

Observer » the gilded age

That Downton Abbey Magic is Coming to NBC

Shonda Rhimes Goes Back to the Gilded Age