For over 35 years I told anyone who asked, and sometimes anybody who didn't, that my all-time favorite television show ever was the 1970's British drama, "Upstairs, Downstairs."
I never missed an episode during the five years that it was broadcast on PBS. I believe, in fact, that I would have killed to be in front of a television on Sunday evening when it was on. Luckily, that never became necessary, but it is a clear indication of how much I loved that show.
It also indicates how stupendous a moment it was when I threw over "Upstairs, Downstairs" and proclaimed that my all-time favorite television show ever is "Downton Abbey," currently in its third season on PBS.
There are parallels between the two programs, of course. Each one involves an upper-crust British family (upstairs) and their servants (downstairs). Each has a likable if imperfect upstairs patriarch with a formidable wife (Richard and Lady Marjorie Bellamy, Robert and Cora Crawley, Earl and Countess of Grantham), and a downstairs patriarch in the steadfast and steady butler (Mr. Hudson, Mr. Carson). Each has a wholesome and worthy head housemaid (Rose Buck, Anna Smith), strong-willed, scandal-prone children (James and Elizabeth Bellamy, Ladies Mary, Edith, and Sybil Crawley), a cheerless, uppity lady's maid (Roberts, O'Brien), and an imperious, acid-tongued cook (Mrs. Bridges, Mrs. Patmore). Both families suffer mightily from the sinking of the Titanic, fight their way through World War One, and lose someone to Spanish flu.
Both shows have magnificent casts of actors who play characters you love or love to hate, and both have continuing story lines that blend drama and comedy. So why did "Downton Abbey" replace "Upstairs, Downstairs" in my affections?
It has to be the creator and writer of the show, Julian Fellowes. The guy is brilliant. And it probably doesn't hurt that he has Maggie Smith to deliver all his best zingers.
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