- Awards
- 7
Wow! I remember this being announced around the same time as The Gilded Age. I thought Gilded Lilys would just be a cheap Downton knockoff whereas The Gilded Age would have a bit more class and gravitas because Julian Fellowes was involved. Little did we know, it’d be ten years before either of them would surface.
This reminds me of another upscale New York soap from the early 00’s that never got off the ground. Three versions of Gramercy Park aka 111 Gramercy Park were devised, with none of them making it to air on ABC. The first version featured a cast including Joel Grey, Jaleel White and Tippi Hedren and, as per the blurb below, fancied itself as a Dallas / Dynasty for the new millennium
“The neo-classical facade of 111 Gramercy Park looks down upon the streets of Manhattan. But within this grand residential building, the rooms and hallways are alive with high and low drama. And no one knows more about the secrets of its "upstairs" residents than the nannies and doormen "downstairs." Ken and Cathy Wilton are a growing, picture-postcard family. Wealthy, worldly, and attractive, their estrangement has plunged them into a world of hurt and revenge. Turk Karnegian is a Wall Street raider who never learned the meaning of "enough." He has the money and power to destroy anyone who dares stand in his way – even his own son. Likeable, easygoing Nick Granville is heir to a fortune, but you'd never know it by his blue jeans and workshirt; he's not the man to let his millions stand in the way of true love. And high above in the penthouse perches the unchallenged ruler of the roost – Eleanor Granville, society doyen, toyer with lives, maker-breaker of dreams. Her secret is the most explosive of all. Below stairs, the building hums. Outspoken social philosophers Gus and B.J. tend the leaky old pipes and chauffeur pets to their groomers. William, the all-seeing, all-knowing master of the foyer, defends the privacy of the residents and smoothes the kinks from their silky lives. Maddy, the nanny for anxious new parents Mimi and Jack Phillips, has a lot to learn about life. But she already guesses that the Karnegian's dazzling young nanny Brynn is not who she appears to be. With an electrifying cast led by Frank Langella, 111 GRAMERCY PARK delivers high drama in the tradition of Dallas and Dynasty, with a distinctive new-millennium twist”
The full pilot for this first version is available online. A reworked second version never got as far as the casting stage and a third version featured a cast including Milo Ventimiglia and Samaire Armstrong and shifted it’s focus to three nannys working for the wealthy of Gramercy Park (see blurb below). Most of the third version’s pilot is also available online.
“There are the wealthy. The very wealthy. And then the obscenely wealthy. They would be the residents of 111 Gramercy Park. Old money, new money, married into money. The only thing they care about more than money is spending it well... and naturally, having children to inherit what's left. Now meet the overworked, underpaid staff, the nannies who are the only ones allowed to see what really goes on behind closed doors. More intimate than friends, yet still strangers. They have keys to their homes and share secrets about who's nice, who's mean, who's cheap, who cheating, who's abusive, and who's an outright criminal. Enter a world where the normal rules just don't apply – where power and passion fuel ego. Picture the Carringtons, the Colbys, the Ewings, their nannies and help all living together in one perfect Manhattan apartment building. Upstairs and downstairs collide in a true drama of the classes”
