"Filthy Rich" (1982)TV series 1982-1983

Director:

Wes Kenney

Writers:

Barry E. Blitzer (writer)
Jim Brecher (writer)

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

9 August 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

When Big Guy Beck dies, the heirs to his estate are given a stipulation (via a pre-recorded video will) before they inherit his wealth...

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Dixie Carter	...	Carlotta Beck (15 episodes, 1982-1983)
Delta Burke	...	Kathleen Beck (15 episodes, 1982-1983)
Charles Frank	...	Stanley Beck (15 episodes, 1982-1983)
Jerry Hardin	...	Wild Bill Westchester / ... (15 episodes, 1982-1983)
Michael Lombard	...	Marshall Beck (15 episodes, 1982-1983)
Nedra Volz	...	Winona 'Mother B' Beck (15 episodes, 1982-1983)
Ann Wedgeworth	...	Bootsie Westchester / ... (15 episodes, 1982-1983)

Runtime:

30 min (15 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Columbia Pictures Television

Trivia:

Dixie Carter auditioned for the role of Bootsie Westchester, but she gave such an impressive audition that she was given the role of series heavy Carlotta Beck.

Quotes:

Mother B: That girl causes nothing but trouble. I say we call the pound and have her picked up!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Designing Women Reunion (2003) (TV)

"We don't serve gristle!"

There's no way to italicize Dixie Carter's delivery of the word "serve" with this particular forum, so that I will have to characterize it in prose. When Bootsie Westchester (breathily played by Ann Wedgeworth) worried aloud about what she would have to do if she got "a piece of gristle" at an upscale dinner party, Carlotta Beck (Dixie Carter's never been more caustic and haughty, but fun...) did a slow burn, and said, "We don't (shudder) *serve* gristle."

This sums up the basic us vs. them premise of "Filthy Rich." However, there were really two different rivalries for control of the family's wealth. Carlotta and Stanley were the Established, Recognized members of the family, but hated the gold digging Kathleen (Delta Burke, in her first former beauty queen-with-a-penchant-for-tiaras-at-the-dinner-table role), who was married to the recently departed "Big Guy." The second family feud was between these three "legitimate" characters and the "trailer trash" Westchesters, who recently discovered that Wild Bill was the Big Guy's illegitimate son,

and was in line for an inheritance, if they could all get along...

As a raw parody of "Dallas" and other night time soaps, the show was absolutely perfect in its timing. It appeared as a summer replacement program and was wildly popular. Critics hated it, but audiences demanded that the network put the show in its regular lineup in the fall.

Unfortunately, the show couldn't maintain the level of interest that it generated in the slow, dull, dog days of summer. Maybe the show was too "one joke" to sustain extended audience interest, plus the competition was providing new material, and it was no longer the only new fish in the pond.

The writing was bawdy, brilliant, and satisfying when U.S. audiences couldn't get enough of oil-rich families fighting and trying to out-maneuver one another. It's a shame that it never got the chance to grow.