If the Kardashians moved into “Downton Abbey,” they might look som♑ething like the Bellacourt sisters.
The main characters of Comedy Central’s new historical/satirical scripted series “Another Period” (episode 2 airs Tuesday at 10:30 p.m.) are a pair of rich, debaucherous aristocrats p✤ioneering the famous-for-nothing ethos of reality-TV families — this time in Gilded Age Newportꦐ, RI.
“Beatrice and Lillian [Bellacourt] are spoiled and essentially useles𒀰s. They’re all id — they have sex with whatever they see, they eat and drink and do drugs,” says series co-creator/star Riki Lindhome. “꧟They’re both desperate to be famous, which is very hard in 1902.”
Lindhome, be🐟st known as half of the comedy-musical duo Garfunkel & Oates, created the series with Natasha Leggero (“Chelsea Lately”), who plays the older sister, Lillian. The friends started brainstorming the show three years ago as “Downton Abbey” was captivating American viewers — inspiring Lindhome and Leggeroto to mine the inherent comedy in the small tragedies of the uber-privileged.
Th𒈔ey’re all id — they have sex with whatever 🐎they see. They eat and drink and do drugs.
- ‘Another Period’ co-creator Riki Li🔜ndh🐷ome
“This [entitlement💜] was happening in America at the same time period and it just does🉐n’t get talked about much,” Leggero says. “People weren’t paying income tax, they were living like rappers and it was insanity.
“That kind of level of wealth … Thosဣe are the fun c💖haracters to play because they are just oblivious.”
The comedy’s ensemble cast includes Michael Ian Black, Thomas Lennon (“The Odd Cou꧃ple”) and Jason Ritter. (Snoop Dogg wrote the theme song.) Christina Hendricks also co-stars as new maid Celine, whom Beatrice (Lindhome) degradingly renames “Chair.”
“I still can’t believe it,” says Lindhome of nabbing the a༺ctress in her first post-“Mad Men” role. “We had this one partꦅ that wasn’t cast and we needed someone who was a real actor, not a stand-up. She was really excited and hilarious.”
Leggero and Lindhome wrote for each of the actors’ comedic sensibilities, in addition to doing extensive research on the period. To really get into the heads of Gilded Age “Real Housewives,” the two took audio tours of the historic Newport mansions, where they picked up a wealth🐼 𒉰of weird-but-true historical facts to use for laughs.
“Sometimes when you watch comedy on TV, it feels like everything’sꦡ already been done — this just hasn’t,” Lindhome says. “There hasn’t been a comedy show about a human vs. a cabbage and a baby in a beauty pageant, but we have that episode because it was real.”