<p>Watch “Upstairs, Downstairs” the old series from 1971 on youtube. Downton Abbey is a remake of that. Julian Fellowes gets way too much credit I think for a plot line that has already been done. The characters on DA even look like the USDS cast. You’ll pick out everybody right away. They even went to the beach in the last DA episode–just like they did in USDS. I still like DA but USDS was even better. </p>
<p>As to DA–I like Mary and feel sorry for Edith since she lives under Mary’s shadow and can’t seem to escape it.
Not sure Bates killed the guy but nobody feels sorry he’s gone. Maybe he went to “talk” to him and THEN he ran in front of a car.
Think Sarah had to go upstairs on the balcony to check it out to make sure it was proper for speech making and that pictures from that vantage point would look good. </p>
<p>I used to be a devoted Upstairs Downstairs fan. Maybe my memory serves me ill, but I seem to recall that the series focused more equally on the lives of the two groups than Downton, where the emphasis is on the family’s issues. I don’t remember any major plotlines that are copied in DA. And didn’t one of the sons on UD impregnate a servant? Impossible to imagine that sort of shenanigan on DA!</p>
<p>I did rewatch an UD episode a few years ago and found it to be disappointing. The production values were so shabby compared to DA, and the acting fell short. I find it’s better not to revisit past favorites. They never hold up to our memories. You can’t go home again…</p>
<p>MommaJ: No, but on Downton Abbey one of the servants impregnated one of the residents instead. (even if they WERE married…)</p>
<p>I havent seen Upstairs Downstairs and might like to try it. I am caught up with Call The Midwife and don’t have enough to watch anymore, and we just watched the last episode of The Paradise a few days ago. I’m so bummed that one was canceled. </p>
<p>No plot lines except the murder trial (Bates) and Anna , sister (Sybil) marrying below her class and then dying, same staff to the point of looking alike, same chauffeur and war scenarios, Mary, Edith…same well, pretty much everything…I recognized every character immediately. .I watched USDS after finishing first season of being hooked on DA. Anna could have been a twin. Same for Dad.
DA took USDS and distilled it a bit–got rid of a brother sibling to make it easier but kept most of the stories. The second season of DA was no surprise to me because I’d already watched USDS. Like I said–gee! they went to the beach for a day out–just like USDS.
Hey! I’m watching DA! I enjoy it. Just saying it’s not as original plot-wise as a lot of people think.
The characters were already in place-- a bit like fan fiction.</p>
<p>Yeah the production values are different–in fact the first few episodes of USDS are B&W before they re-did them in color. I do love the costuming, scenery etc. But the story is what keeps it going.</p>
<p>Hmm I wonder if Call The Midwife is aired differently in different places, too, I have been having new weekly episodes for at least a few weeks now. My schedule is always messed up because my fiance finds streams for me to watch, we don’t have TV anymore. I need to know if I have to watch my mouth about that show, too…</p>
<p>I think of Call The Midwife, Downton Abbey, and The Paradise my favorites are, in order, 1. Call The Midwife 2. The Paradise, 3. Downton.</p>
<p>I was totally fixated on Downton for season one, I’m not sure if it’s the huge gaps in seasons with Downton or if it’s the show that makes it fall down in favor for me. The huge gaps hurt. I haven’t had that problem with the other two shows due to when I started watching them, I had a lot of backlog to watch so I’m not even aware of how big the gaps between seasons might be. I am only casually interested in Downton now and I didn’t feel that way however many months ago it was that it aired in the UK and I watched it, but this is just too damn long to hold my attention.</p>
<p>Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey are of course similar because they both deal with a rich and titled English family and their servants in the early decades of the 20th century. So naturally events such as the Titanic and WWI will loom large in the stories as will the social customs and expectations of the day plus the social upheavals such as class struggles and women’s suffrage. But to my thinking Downton is much more of a soap opera than Upstairs Downstairs. </p>
<p>Both are soap operas but Downton is much more over-the-top about it. Upstairs Downstairs is a classier sort of soap opera. For example, Upstairs Downstairs does not have any relentlessly-evil villains the way Downton does in O’Brien and Thomas. All Thomas needs is a mustache to twirl and he’d be the very embodiment of Snidely Whiplash. Upstairs Downstairs characters are portrayed more humanly and less cartoonishly in that they are often mixtures of good and bad. Downton even stoops so low as to employ the trusty soap opera trope of mistaken identity brought upon by a case of total amnesia. How many cases of total amnesia have you ever encountered in your life?</p>
<p>Watched Upstairs Downstairs on Netflix recently. The sets look like cheap theater or 1950s TV compared to the lushness and reality of using a real grand estate. No comparison. </p>
<p>OMG I did not notice that! I was just watching clips from Divergent this morning. We had tickets to a screener a few weeks ago and the theater overbooked by about 600 people so we didn’t get to see it. </p>
<p>Who had total amnesia? (oh was it that burned cousin who maybe really have been a scammer? As I type that I see how soap opera-y that sounds, yes)</p>
<p>Even more soap opera-y was when Matthew was paralyzed but managed to jump up and save his fiancé when she tripped on the corner of the rug! What a laugh!</p>
(even if they WERE married…)</p>
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