Tales of filthy rich are fun as nighttime soaps

August 15, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television Critic

There are so many wealthy heroes and villains on the fall TV schedule, I don't know if I earn enough money to watch TV anymore.

Last season, people burned through cash on "Brothers & Sisters," "Desperate Housewives" and "Ugly Betty." This fall and winter brings "Big Shots" and "Cashmere Mafia" (CEO types), "Dirty Sexy Money" (drunk and drugged elitists) and "Private Practice" (L.A. doctors).

And those are just ABC's shows. CBS debuts "Cane" (rich family). The CW starts up "Gossip Girl" (uppercrust kids).

"Gossip Girl" proves the kids of "The O.C." just didn't have enough bank, judging by the comments of Josh Schwartz, "Gossip Girl" producer and former "O.C.'er."

"The sort of money that those kids in Orange County grew up with was nice," he says. "But compared to these kids and these families [on 'Gossip Girl'], it's chump change.

"This is really royalty, or the closet thing we have to it -- these sort of young socialites-to-be. You have to be born into this level of wealth."

You heard it here first. The entitled, sometime rapists/ constant boozehounds of "Gossip Girl" are royals. The American Dream has become "Gatsby Gone Wild."

What's odd is listening to creators of shows, like John Harmon Feldman of "Big Shots," explain how rich people are "relatable" to We the Rabble, the other 99 percent of America.

"They have the same issues that any guy might have," Feldman says. "It makes the characters, in a way, more relatable because they have the same problems as everyone else."

Yeah, and maybe you can relate more to "Dirty Sexy Money," where the family members are the wealthiest billionaires in New York, and their nemesis is "the third-richest man in the world."

My indignation is a wee bit cheeky. "Dirty Sexy Money" and other new Richie Rich shows merely fit the revamped formula for nighttime soaps.

"There's a real fun to it," says "Dirty Sexy Money" producer Greg Berlanti. "I think I probably represent the person who sort of watched more 'Dallas' than you humanly should."

ABC President Stephen McPherson says network execs are just giving viewers what they want, the "wish fulfillment" of elitists swimming in green.

There are two societal upsides. For one thing, women also get their day in the gold-encrusted sun, especially in ABC's midseason "Cashmere Mafia," which is like "Sex and the City" goes to the boardroom.

And in CBS' "Cane," a soap about a wealthy rum-running family in Florida, Latino characters get elevated into the upper ranks of wealth without much fuss.

"It's the first time, as far as I know, that you will ever see a successful, educated, beautifully dressed, articulate Latino family" on TV, co-star Rita Moreno says. And they "don't necessarily talk like this all the time," she says, inflecting a heavy accent.

The downside is there are no new "Roseannes." Look for poor people, and you'll see the CW's "Everybody Hates Chris," NBC's "My Name Is Earl" and Fox's new "K-Ville." In the middle-class spectrum, there's ABC's "Carpoolers," plus a few other spots.

One place where money is less important is in sci-fi. The comic-book nature of "Heroes" makes it so Hiro and his pals rarely deal with bills, though they do fight VIP villains. The same is essentially true for Fox's new "The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

Then again, in "Bionic Woman," Jamie Sommers won't be a tennis player turned teacher, as she was in the 1970s' "The Bionic Woman." Instead, she starts as a bartender. As you know, hot bartenders make more dough than teachers do. You can take that to bank.

CORRECTION: In Monday's review of "Weeds," I referred to the show's creator, Jenji Kohan, as a "he." She is a she.