High Society aired from October 1995 until February 1996 on CBS.
Ellie ( Jean Smart) was an earthy, uninhibited, highly successful romance novelist-she had just finished her tenth novel-living the good life in Manhattan's literary world and cafe society. Dott ( Mary McDonnell), her best friend since college, was both her publisher and her drinking buddy. Dott had taken control of the publishing firm as part of her divorce settlement and depended on her partner , Peter ( David Rasche) and her chic gay Italian assistant , Stephano ( Luigi Amodeo), to keep the business running smoothly. Dott's son, Brendan( Dan O'Donahue), a Young Republican, was so conservative that he just about drove her crazy-she was forever trying to get him to do something, anything, spontaneous or unconventional. Also living in Dott's swank penthouse was her mother, Alice ( Jayne Meadows), who criticized almost everything she did. Into their lives came former college classmate Val ( Faith Prince), who moved in with Dott after separating from her husband. Val, who was pregnant, was the antithesis of Dott's friends. She didn't care about status and society trappings and was so unpretentious that it made Dott Uncomfortable and Ellie sick.
A Review from The New York Times
TELEVISION REVIEW;It's Monday, So It Must Be Women
By CARYN JAMES
Published: November 06, 1995
As escapist sitcom heroines go, I'll always choose a champagne-swilling, man-hungry romance novelist or a vain, tart-tongued book publisher over one more mousy former housewife looking for her identity. It's a mark of what's right and wrong with "High Society" that it cautiously gives us all three. Intermittently funny and promising, the season's first replacement series wants to be outrageous and sophisticated but is too timid to say anything rude.
The second episode will be shown tonight at 9:30 on CBS, as part of its all-girl ghetto of comedies. (It joins "The Nanny," "Can't Hurry Love" and the once-outrageous "Murphy Brown" in a Monday lineup that should be called "At least it's not football.")
From the opening credits, "High Society" announces itself as aggressively retro. "The Lady Is a Tramp" is heard in the background (sung by Chaka Khan) as the heroines make their entrances at a glamorous Manhattan party. Jean Smart (Charlene of "Designing Women") is the trampy Ellie, a Jackie Collins-style writer who drips diamonds even during the day, when she wears purple suits and silly hats that look both expensive and garish. Mary McDonnell ("Dances With Wolves") is Dott, her chic, ladylike best friend and publisher. The divorced Dott is also the smart one, which means she remembers to check her makeup in a silver compact as she enters the party. Then there is Faith Prince, so fiery on Broadway in "Guys and Dolls" and so like a dishrag here, as their old college friend Val, who uses her party time to empty the ashtray. As if neatness counts.
In last week's opening episode (the series replaces Elizabeth McGovern's quickly canceled romantic comedy, "If Not for You"), "High Society" set itself up as a "Cybill" and "Absolutely Fabulous" wannabee. When the show works, it's so deliriously far from reality that you can laugh at its most irreverent subplot: the voracious Ellie has her eye on Dott's barely adult son, Brendan (Dan O'Donahue), a good-looking Young Republican. But then Val turns up, pregnant and penniless, betrayed by her adulterous husband. Dott welcomes Val into her home; Ellie thinks Val is not fit to live.
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