The Gilded Age (TV series)

The Gilded Age is an American historical drama television series created and written by Julian Fellowes for HBO that is set in the United States during the Gilded Age, the boom years of the 1880s in New York City. Originally announced in 2018 for NBC, it was later announced in May 2019 that the show was moved to HBO. The first season premiered on January 24, 2022, and the second on October 29, 2023. In December 2023, the series was renewed for a third season. The series has received positive reviews, with particular praise for the costumes and for the performances of lead actors Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Cynthia Nixon, and Christine Baranski.

Plot
The series follows Marian Brook, a young woman entering 1882 New York City's rigid social scene who is drawn into daily conflicts surrounding the new money Russell family and the old money van Rhijn-Brook family. The two are neighbors across 61st Street near Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side of New York. The series explores conflicts of the upper and upper middle classes, the African-American upper class, and the domestic workers who tend to all of their needs.

Main

 * Carrie Coon as Bertha Russell, determined to use her money and position to break into a polite society that resists change and newcomers at every turn.
 * Morgan Spector as George Russell, Bertha's husband, and a classic robber baron representing "new money."
 * Louisa Jacobson as Marian Brook, a penniless young gentlewoman whose circumstances force her to live with her estranged aunts.
 * Denée Benton as Peggy Scott, a young ambitious African-American writer who works as Agnes' secretary.
 * Taissa Farmiga as Gladys Russell, debuts in society at the end of season one, innocent and naïve, yet ready to be treated as an adult and bridles against her mother, Bertha's, plans for her.
 * Harry Richardson as Larry Russell, a recent Harvard University graduate eager to make his way in the world.
 * Blake Ritson as Oscar van Rhijn, Agnes' intelligent and charismatic son who is looking for a rich heiress to guarantee him a proper standard of living and act as a shield for his homosexuality.
 * Thomas Cocquerel as Tom Raikes (season 1), a sensible young lawyer, smitten when he meets Marian Brook, his late client's young adult daughter.
 * Simon Jones as Mr. Alfred Bannister, the Van Rhijns' self-aggrandizing English butler who keeps the rest of the staff in check.
 * Jack Gilpin as Mr. Church, the Russell family's butler, a supporter of Mrs. Russell, excelling at his job.
 * Cynthia Nixon as Ada Forte (née Brook), Agnes' spinster sister who is reliant upon her charity until marrying later in life. She is much sharper than is initially thought.
 * Christine Baranski as Agnes van Rhijn (née Brook), a proud and stubborn old money socialite, matriarch of the van Rhijn-Brook family.
 * Ben Ahlers as John "Jack" Trotter (season 2; recurring: season 1), footman of the Van Rhijn household.
 * Michael Cerveris as Mr. Watson (season 2; recurring: season 1), George Russell's valet with a mysterious past.
 * Celia Keenan-Bolger as Mrs. Bruce (season 2; recurring: season 1), the Russells' housekeeper.
 * Debra Monk as Mrs. Armstrong (season 2; recurring: season 1), Mrs. Van Rhijn's catty lady's maid.
 * Donna Murphy as Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (season 2; recurring: season 1), a prominent American socialite and de facto leader of the elite group of New York society known as "The Four Hundred."
 * Kristine Nielsen as Mrs. Bauer (season 2; recurring: season 1), Mrs. Van Rhijn's kindly cook. A German immigrant from Hanover who takes young Bridget under her wing.
 * Kelli O'Hara as Aurora Fane (season 2; recurring: season 1), Agnes' niece by marriage who helps both Marian Brook and Mrs. Russell break into society.
 * Patrick Page as Richard Clay (season 2; recurring: season 1), George Russell's loyal secretary.
 * Taylor Richardson as Bridget (season 2; recurring: season 1), the Van Rhijn housemaid, troubled by an abusive past.
 * Douglas Sills as Monsieur Baudin (season 2; recurring: season 1), the chef of the Russell household who initially presents himself as French before it is revealed that he is Josh Borden from Wichita, Kansas.
 * John Douglas Thompson as Arthur Scott (season 2; recurring: season 1), Peggy's father. As a well-to-do pharmacist, he is a pillar of the Black elite.
 * Erin Wilhelmi as Adelheid Weber (season 2; recurring: season 1), a German immigrant from Berlin, Gladys Russell's lady's maid.
 * Kelley Curran as Mrs. Enid Winterton (née Turner) (season 2; recurring: season 1), Bertha's ambitious lady's maid, who does not intend to be a servant forever. She is fired at the end of season 1, but re-emerges in season 2 as the much younger wife of a rich widower.
 * Sullivan Jones as T. Thomas Fortune (season 2; recurring: season 1), publisher of the weekly New York Globe.

Recurring

 * Audra McDonald as Dorothy Scott, Peggy's mother.
 * Nathan Lane as Ward McAllister, arbiter of social rules and style in old New York.
 * Ashlie Atkinson as Mamie Fish, American socialite and self-styled "fun-maker."
 * Ward Horton as Charles Fane, Aurora's husband and one of the city's aldermen.
 * Claybourne Elder as John Adams, Oscar's secret lover.
 * Jeanne Tripplehorn as Sylvia Chamberlain, a socialite excluded from high society due to past actions. (season 1)
 * Katie Finneran as Anne Morris, determined to keep new money out of her circle. (season 1)
 * John Sanders as Stanford White, an up-and-coming American architect (season 1).
 * Linda Emond as Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. (season 1)
 * Zuzanna Szadkowski as Mabel Ainsley, George Russell's secretary. (season 1)
 * Amy Forsyth as Carrie Astor, the comely daughter of Mrs. Astor. (season 1; guest season 2)
 * Robert Sean Leonard as Luke Forte, an unmarried clergyman from Massachusetts (season 2).
 * Jeremy Shamos as Mr. Gilbert, a financier working to open the new Metropolitan Opera House. (season 2)
 * Laura Benanti as Susan Blane, a widow with whom Larry Russell becomes romantically involved. (season 2)
 * Nicole Brydon Bloom as Maud Beaton, a young and wealthy socialite who attracts Oscar van Rhijn's attention. (season 2)
 * David Furr as Dashiell Montgomery, a widowed cousin of the van Rhijns and Aurora Fane. (season 2)
 * Matilda Lawler as Frances Montgomery, Dashiell's teenage daughter. (season 2)
 * Ben Lamb as the Duke of Buckingham. (season 2)
 * Dakin Matthews as Joshua Winterton, a rich, elderly widower who marries Turner, Bertha Russell's lady's maid. (season 2)

Guest

 * Bill Irwin as Cornelius Eckhard who, looking for a rich wife, attempts to court Ada Brook, a childhood acquaintance. (season 1)
 * Michel Gill as Patrick Morris, Anne's husband and one of the city's aldermen. (season 1)
 * Tom Blyth as Archie Baldwin (season 1)
 * Jordan Waller as Oscar Wilde (season 2)
 * Amber Gray as Gloria Valentine (season 2)
 * Melanie Nicholls-King as Sarah J. Garnet (season 2)

Development
In September 2012, The Daily Telegraph reported Julian Fellowes as saying that he was working on a spin-off prequel of Downton Abbey. Initially conceived as a book, it was then planned for pick-up by ITV. At the time, Fellowes planned to focus the show around Lord Grantham and Cora's romance and eventual marriage as the Earl and Countess of Grantham.

Production and writing for The Gilded Age was updated in January 2016. Asked whether he'd written the script yet, Fellowes said, 'No I haven't, no. I'm doing that this year', before adding: 'And then hopefully shooting at the end of the year.'"

On June 4, 2016, Fellowes was asked by the Los Angeles Times, "Where does The Gilded Age stand?" Fellowes replied, "It stands really with me up to my neck in research, and I'm clearing the decks, so that when I start Gilded Age, I'm only doing Gilded Age. These people were extraordinary. You can see why they frightened the old guard, because they saw no boundaries. They wanted to build a palace, they built a palace. They wanted to buy a yacht, they bought a yacht. And the old guard in New York weren't like that at all, and suddenly this whirlwind of couture descended on their heads. They redesigned being rich. They created a rich culture that we still have—people who are rich are rich in a way that was established in America in the 1880s, '90s, 1900s. It was different from Europe. Something like Newport would never have happened in any other country, where you have huge palaces, and then about 20 yards away, another huge palace, and 20 yards beyond that another huge palace. In England right up to the 1930s, when people made good money, they would buy an estate of 5,000 acres and they'd have to look after Nanny. The Americans of the 1880s and '90s didn't want too much of that."

The final confirmation the show would be produced was announced by NBC in January 2018. NBC originally announced that the show would consist of ten episodes and premiere in 2019. About the show, Fellowes stated: "To write The Gilded Age is the fulfillment of a personal dream, I have been fascinated by this period of American history for many years and now NBC has given me the chance to bring it to a modern audience. I could not be more excited and thrilled. The truth is, America is a wonderful country with a rich and varied history, and nothing could give me more pleasure than be the person to bring that compelling history to the screen."

In May 2019, the series moved from NBC to HBO, with a straight to series order. The series premiered on January 24, 2022, and consists of nine episodes.

On February 14, 2022, HBO renewed the series for a second season.

On December 21, 2023, HBO renewed the series for a third season.

Casting
In September 2019, the production announced an initial cast consisting of Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Amanda Peet, and Morgan Spector.

In November 2019, it was announced that Denée Benton, Louisa Jacobson, Taissa Farmiga, Blake Ritson, and Simon Jones would be joining the show. In January 2020, Harry Richardson, Thomas Cocquerel, and Jack Gilpin were cast as series regulars, with Jeanne Tripplehorn cast in a recurring role.

In April, Carrie Coon was cast as Bertha Russell to replace Peet because of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This caused the costuming team to change their approach, using the way Coon presents herself as inspiration for more metallic-colored dresses intended to evoke the burgeoning machine age.

In January 2021, Nathan Lane joined the cast in a recurring role.

In April 2022, it was announced several members of the recurring cast had been upgraded to series regular status for the second season while Cocquerel will exit the series.

Filming
Following the move to HBO, the series was expected to begin filming in March 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic delayed production.

Filming of the series began in Newport, Rhode Island in February 2021, at the mansions Chateau-sur-Mer, The Elms, and The Breakers. A casting call for Rhode Islanders to work as extras on the series was made in December 2020 prior to the production setting up in the city.

In April 2021, filming continued at the Lyndhurst mansion in Tarrytown, New York and the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York. In May 2021, filming continued in Troy, New York in its Central Troy Historic District, where multiple city blocks were transformed to resemble a Victorian era street.

During filming, a horse died on set and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asked for an investigation. HBO subsequently issued a statement confirming the death in late June, saying, "a horse collapsed and died, likely of natural causes, according to a veterinarian’s preliminary findings."

Filming for season two began in August 2022 at various locations around White Plains, New York, including Manhattanville College's Reid Hall, which was used for various locations, including offices, a home parlor and an art gallery/museum. Reid Hall was designed by Stanford White and built in 1892 for the family of newspaper publisher and diplomat, Whitelaw Reid.

Other New York locations included Albany, Cohoes, Troy and on Long Island, and the series also filmed in Philadelphia. Scenes set at Susan Blade's home were filmed at Kingscote in Newport. The street backlot is near to Old Bethpage, New York in Long Island.

The third season is set to begin filming in June or July 2024.

Controversy
On May 21, 2021, the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) filed a charge for unfair labor practices against HBO and its Gilded Age production. The union claimed musicians were fired after asking they be represented by AFM. Two days later HBO agreed to cover the members "on an AFM basis".

Real-life events
Although The Gilded Age is a work of fiction, Julian Fellowes worked to accurately represent certain realities of the time period.

Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, also known as "The" Mrs. Astor, ruled New York society in the late nineteenth century. Descending from Dutch settlers, the "knickerbocker" married relatively new money William Backhouse Astor Jr. At the time the series takes place, Astor (Donna Murphy) and her husband are largely estranged. Dismayed by the chaos caused by the end of the Civil War and the rise of new money, and armed with her own distinguished lineage and her husband's fortune, she became the gatekeeper to high society. She and her associate Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane) decreed that members of respectable society must be separated by at least three generations from the origin of the family fortune, as she herself was. McAllister, Mrs. Astor's right-hand man, spent years across the Atlantic absorbing culture, details of European courts, and society news. Although some recognized his devotion to preserving elegance and tradition, others saw him as an unapologetic snob.

Two characters, Bertha and George Russell (Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector), appear to be at least partly based on the formidable Alva and William K. Vanderbilt. Alva Erskine Vanderbilt (later Alva Belmont) came from a wealthy Mobile, Alabama, family that lost its money after the Civil War. Determined to regain her social status, she married a scion of the immensely wealthy Vanderbilt family in 1875, but the Vanderbilts were considered too "new money" by Caroline Astor and were largely ignored. In order to ascend to the upper echelons of society, Alva Vanderbilt set out to impress Caroline Astor. Among her strategies, she hired society architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a luxurious mansion on Fifth Avenue, then hosted an enormous, extravagant ball for 1,000 as a "house-warming." The details of the festivities were leaked in advance to the press, and young society waited breathlessly for the upcoming ball — including Caroline Astor's daughter, Carrie. Caroline Astor was forced to call on Alva Vanderbilt to ensure her daughter received an invitation. The ball a success, the family was officially welcomed into New York high society.

Other historical figures who appear in the series include Clara Barton (Linda Emond), founder of the American Red Cross, and T. Thomas Fortune (Sullivan Jones), a man born into slavery who would become one of the leading Black journalists of his day. In his editorials, he wrote passionately about civil rights and denounced racial segregation and discrimination. He also helped found a predecessor to the NAACP, the Afro-American League.

Release
The series premiered on January 24, 2022, on HBO and HBO Max. In Australia, Paramount+ acquired the series as a "Paramount+ Exclusive", premiering on January 26, 2022. This also marks the first time a recent HBO series has skipped Foxtel in Australia, premiering on a non-Foxtel service as Foxtel has an output deal for HBO shows.

Home media
The first season was released on DVD, on July 26, 2022.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a 79% approval rating based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Julian Fellowes' brand of upstairs, downstairs intrigue makes a seamless transatlantic transition in The Gilded Age, with an outstanding cast making the travails of the rich a compelling watch." At Metacritic, the season has a score of 68 out of 100, based on 38 reviews.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season holds a 94% approval rating based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "More topical than before while also owning its frivolous appeal with unapologetic splendor, Julian Fellowes' operatic soap enters its own halcyon age." On Metacritic, the season has a score of 73 out of 100, based on 21 reviews.