Filthy Rich

[Georgia's on my Mind]

Ok Does anyone know/ remember the Tv show "Filthy Rich" With Delta Burke in it???

[owepar]

Filthy Rich was covered on this board not that long ago...but here's a rehashing. It was a hysterical show and the predecessor to Designing Women. In addition to starring Delta Burke, it also starred Dixie Carter and was created/written by DW's Linda Bloodworth Thomason. The show was a send-up of prime-time dramas like Dallas, which were quite popular at the time (1982/83).

Big Guy Beck (Slim Pickens, later Forrest Tucker) died and was cryogenically frozen, but he recorded hundreds of videotapes prior to his death to instruct his family on what they had to do to inherit his vast fortune. First and foremost, they had to accept, and live with, his hick of an illigitimate son, used-car-salesman Wild Bill Westchester (Jerry Hardin), and his "charming and whimsical wife, Bootsie" (Ann Wedgeworth from Three's Company). Delta Burke played Kathleen Beck, the gold-digging second wife of recently deceased Big Guy. She spent her days lusting after Big Guy's youngest son, independantly wealthy Stanley (Charles Frank), who was the only family member with his head on straight. Stanley spent much of his time in the bathtub, wearing his cowboy hat. Dixie Carter played Delta's (also gold-digging) step-daughter-in-law, Carlotta. Carlotta was married to Big Guy's eldest son, Marshall (Michael Lombard), who was a pretentious, spoiled brat. Mother B. (Nedra Volz, generally remembered as Mrs. Garrett's replacement on Diff'rent Strokes) was Big Guy's crazy first wife, who ran away from the nursing home early in the series to live with the rest of the Beck/Westchester clan in the family home, Toad Hall. George Wilhot (David Healy, later Vernon Weddle) was Big Guy's lawyer, who watched over the Beck/Westchester clan to see that they were adhering to Big Guy's wishes. Kathleen, Carlotta and Marshall spent most of their time trying to avoid being embarassed by the Westchesters and Mother B, and trying to milk any money out of Stanley and Big Guy's estate that they could get.

The pilot for the series was taped nearly a year before the show debuted, and because of the wait, they lost Slim Pickens when episodes started being produced. It's been rumored that he really died, but he didn't actually die until after the show was off the air, so I'd guess he was working on other projects. His replacement, Forrest Tucker, didn't play the character half as goofy as Pickens did, which was kind of a let down. Filthy Rich started out as a 4-week summer replacement series in August of 1982, and got such good ratings that it secured a slot on the fall schedule. After the series came back in October, CBS bumped the show around to different nights, and the show never found an audience who was willing to follow it's schedule changes (they did the same thing to Square Pegs and Tucker's Witch too). The last time the show aired was in June of 1983.

Carter and Burke's characters were basically extensions of their characters from Designing Women (Burke as the former beauty queen & Carter as the outspoken, domineering one). Some of the dialogue that's always remembered from DW (case in point: "If sex were fast food, there'd be an arch over your bed!") actually originated on this show and was recycled a few years later. When Bloodworth went to CBS with the idea for Designing Women, she wanted to cast Delta and Dixie -- but CBS didn't want both ladies to star in another of their shows. A problem with the actress who was going to play Suzanne Sugarbaker arose at the last minute, and Delta lucked out and snagged the role that was written for her in the first place -- she got to appear in the DW pilot episode. The rest, as they say, is history.


Check out this page for a Filthy Rich cast photo and links to related sites:
http://www.geocities.com/owepar1/FilthyRich.html

[BonniesLilCutiePie]

I love that show!