High Society (1995 TV series)

High Society is an American sitcom television series starring Jean Smart and Mary McDonnell that aired Monday nights on CBS from October 30, 1995, to February 26, 1996. It was added to the CBS schedule as a replacement for If Not for You, a sitcom that was cancelled after a few episodes. The theme song was "The Lady Is a Tramp" sung by Chaka Khan.

Its premise was similar to the campy British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous.

Storyline
The series revolves around two New York City women who acted in an outrageous, campy, and decadent manner. Ellie Walker (Jean Smart) is a successful author of trashy romantic novels, and her best friend and publisher is Dorothy "Dott" Emerson (Mary McDonnell). Emerson is a divorced mother with a preppie college-aged son, Brendan Emerson (Dan O'Donahue), a College Republican, who resists Ellie's relentless sexual advances. At the publishing house, the women worked with a flamboyant gay male secretary named Stephano (Luigi Amodeo) and a sleazy publisher partner named Peter Thomas (David Rasche)

In the pilot episode, the women's small-town former college friend, Val Brumberg (Faith Prince), arrives after she decides to leave her philandering husband, Mitchell, one of Ellie's many exes. Val moves in with Dott, much to the chagrin of Elle, who stops speaking to Dott because of this. Val later reveals the other reason she came to Dott is because she is pregnant and needs someone to help her through her pregnancy. Aside from the situational comedy that arose from Ellie and Dott's campy antics, the storylines often centered on the notion of family. Val started to become something of a mother figure to Brendan. However, she was written out of the series without explanation after the sixth episode. The series then centered more on the campy lifestyle and antics of Ellie and Dott.

Cancellation
Despite garnering decent ratings, the series was canceled after 13 episodes and replaced with Good Company.

Main

 * Jean Smart as Ellie Walker
 * Mary McDonnell as Dorothy "Dott" Emerson
 * Dan O'Donahue as Brendan Emerson
 * David Rasche as Peter Thomas
 * Faith Prince as Valerie "Val" Brumberg (episodes 1–6)
 * Luigi Amodeo as Stephano

Recurring

 * Jayne Meadows as Alice Morgan-DuPont-Sutton-Cushing-Ferruke

Guest stars

 * Barry Bostwick as Michael
 * Bronson Pinchot as Fred
 * Doris Roberts as Maggie
 * Paul Dooley as Harry
 * Tom Arnold as Tony