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Blythe Danner, Sarah Bolger (The Tudors) and Madeline Zima (Californication) are the first actors cast in Gilded Lillys, ABC’s period drama pilot written/executive produced by KJ Steinberg and executive produced by Shonda Rhimes. Set in 1895 New York City, Gilded Lilys is described as an epic love story that follows the opening of the first luxury hotel in the city 
and the intermingling of love, treachery and disdain between the classes. It centers on the rich Lily clan that owns the hotel. Bolger will play the rebellious Violet Lily. Danner will play Violet’s grandmother Caroline Lily, the family’s wickedly funny matriarch widow. Zima will play Violet’s personal maid. The project hails from ABC Studios and Rhimes’ studio-based Shondaland. Brian Kirk is directing.
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Can you say “Downton Abbey?” What an utter disappointment ABC’s pickups were. One more derivative than the next…
Or go further back and say “Can you say Upstairs, Downstairs?”
Please tell me this isn’t gonna be a “Lilly” white cast
What’s wrong with that? You need to be less racist and disgusting.
Is it just me or are the networks really being run by monkeys in suits? Am I missing something here? What planet are the networks operating from?
Gilded Lillys…that title’s right up there with “Rural Juror.”
Downton Abbey itself is “derivative” — of the 1970′s Upstairs, Downstairs. But so what? It is a good premise well executed. The Gilded Lillys project obviously only exists because of the success of Downton Abbey on PBS in America, but the premise is somewhat different from DA’s — the setting is a hotel, not a family home, and the time period is a bit earlier than the one in DA.
The interesting thing to me, and why I hope Gilded Lillys goes to series, is that American TV has really never (at least to my knowledge) done a series set in late 19th century that isn’t a Western. In fact, bizarrely, if one were to learn one’s history of the United States by what the US film and TV industries have given the public, one could be forgiven for thinking there was no such thing as a “city” (as opposed to a small town) in America until the 20th century, and well into the 20th century at that. (The movie The Gangs Of New York is the sole exception to the rule that comes to mind.) Thus it is quite irrelevant how much like Downton Abbey Gilded Lillys is. In the context of AMERICAN television, Gilded Lillys may well be one of the most ground-breaking shows that any network is considering this pilot season.
‘RURAL JUROR’ love it… just LOVE it!! ABC needs The Problem Solvers!!
You’re all so mean. And Sarah is the best young actress out there.
Did Execs not learn this season from their copying of MAD MEN?! Obscure shows that critics love but the mass market does not love will produce cancellations much like PAN AM, and PLAYBOY. Come on, ABC, be original. Do other REVENGE-like shows & ONCE UPON A TIME-like shows. Oh wait a minute, lol…
This sounds hot! NOT! Unless its at a bordello, how droll can they be, esp with three hot ladies?
I don’t think Lisa is the one who needs to be “less racist and disgusting.” I’m sick of seeing all White and all Black casts, lets mix it up already! This is America and we certainly aren’t a monolith!
Are you a Republican? Uh I’m caucasian and I don’t think I’m racist if I’d like to see more diversity on tv. There are too many shows with a completely white cast or 95 percent. There isn’t one show on the major nets with an all African Anericab cast like there was with The Jeffersons or even more recently with My Wife and Kids. So nice try to spin me as racist when I’m asking for more inclusion and more people that reflect the real world than what’s currently on TV. I’ll bet your a
This previous comment was supposed to be in response to Chrispy who accused me of being racist when I wanted more diversity
It’s “The Age of Innocence” meets “Downton Abbey.”
Does anyone recall the disastrous BEACON HILL?
Beacon Hill aired in 1975 — 37 years ago. Tastes change over, well, DECADES. We really won’t know how something like Gilded Lilys will do with a 2012 American audience since nothing like it has been tried in — let me say it again — THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS.
“Danner will play Violet’s grandmother Caroline Lily, the family’s wickedly funny matriarch widow.”
And with that sentence I know this show is going to be terrible.
Excuse me but Blythe Danner is an amazing actress and if anyone can make that part feel fresh, it’s her.
Wasn’t bagging Danner, just the ridiculously derivative writing. That said, as good as Danner is, can she hold a candle to Maggie Smith and Eileen Atkins in Downton and the Upstairs Downstairs reboot playing the same archetype?… probably not.
Just a little historical perspective:
CBS tried an Upstairs, Downstairs knockoff back in 1975 called Beacon Hill. Lasted just 13 episodes. (Upstairs, Downstairs was Downton Abbey before there was Downton Abbey.) Stars included Edward Herrman, Nancy Marchand, Holland Taylor and many more.
PBS Masterpiece in 1978 aired a BBC series, The Duchess of Duke Street (starring Gemma Jones), about woman who ran a fancy hotel in London in the early 1900s. The show was created by John Hawkesworth, who’d earlier created Upstairs, Downstairs.
If ABC’s strategy here is to ape Downton Abbey’s “success,” they need to hire better accountants. Downton Abbey’s audience is 4M-4.5M range. That’s cancellation level on a broadcast network that has to pay to produce the series themselves, which PBS does not have to do.
If this goes to series, it will be Pan Am all over again. Broadcast needs to find a way to compete with cable while getting better than cable-level audiences.
I love LOVE a good period piece. Thank you for taking a chance on this, ABC. Personally, I’d prefer it set in 1880 in order to bring the Old West into it somehow, but I’m on board with the Edith Wharton thing.