(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
PERIOD PIECE: After passing on PBS’s hit “Downton Abbey” (top) NBC commissioned “The Gilded Age,” dealing with a family like Cornelius Vanderbilt’s (above right). (
)
Two years after it turned its nose up at “Downton Abbey,” NBC has signed its creator, Oscar winner Julian Fellowes, to create an American version.
“The Gilded Age,” the working title for the new show, will be set in late 19th century New York City and focus on the rising — and plunging — fortunes of “the princes of the American Renaissance,” according to the network.
NBC originally passed on “Downton,” which is produced by the same studio that owns the network, believing that Americans would never warm to a costume drama about Edwardian England.
The commercial and critical success of “Downton Abbey” took American television producers by surprise when it premiered two years ago on PBS.
Hollywood caught on quickly, awarding the series six Emmy awards, including two for Fellowes and two for the show’s undisputed scene stealer, Dame Maggie Smith, who plays the withering Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham.
“Downton Abbey” is a high-end soap focusing on the fortunes of the aristocratic Crawley family and the fabulous Yorkshire house they live in (the real Highclere Castle in England.
The plot includes the romances of star-crossed lovers, references to real-life tragedies like the Titanic, and the struggles of the family’s many servants.
“The Gilded Age” is still in the development stage, but sources at NBC said it could be on the air as early as fall 2013.
Period pieces have been hit or miss on American television, says Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media, who cites ABC’s “Pan Am” as one recent failure.
Still, Adgate believes that Fellowes’ track record — and not to mention those Emmys — makes him a very attractive collaborator.
“He knows how to write a successful hit series,” Adgate says. “He’s one executive producer people have heard of and respect. There is a lot of anticipation for Season 3 of ‘Downton Abbey,’ and a green light for Season 4.”