"The Riches": Something New and Different on FX

An ambitious and highly original blend of comedy and drama, "The Riches" stands head and shoulders above most of the formulaic programs crowding this year's TV schedule. The show is funny and smart in a way that few TV shows ever dare to be, telling viewers just enough to keep them interested but not enough to leave them feeling as if there's nothing more to know. The show's creator has suggested that "The Riches" combines elements of "The Sopranos" and "The Beverly Hillbillies," and there is some truth to this assertion. Like "The Sopranos," "The Riches" is an extremely well-written and well-acted show about an unconventional family operating outside the law on the outer fringes of normal society. And like "The Beverly Hillbillies," it's a story about poor folks who suddenly find themselves living in an alien culture of wealth and privilege. Beyond that, however, comparisons begin to falter.

The Malloys are neither heartless criminals nor clueless hicks. Whatever folk wisdom the Clampetts may have been privy to, they are no match for the streetwise Malloy family. In their own strange way, the Malloys are far more sophisticated than the ordinary, law-abiding types-those they call "buffers"-as whom they find themselves posing. God help Jethro and Elly May if they ever found themselves in a battle of wits with the likes of Cael, Di Di, or even young Sam Malloy.

Unlike the Clampetts, of course, the Malloys did not innocently stumble into their elevated social position by accidentally striking oil. The Malloys belong to a clan of itinerant con artists called Travellers, about whom I'll have more to say in a moment. After Dahlia Malloy is paroled from prison, her husband Wayne steals money from the clan and flees with his wife and kids in the family's RV. When a car accident results in the death of wealthy attorney Doug Rich and his wife Cherien, the Malloys assume the couples' identity and move into the Riches' new mansion in a suburb of Baton Rouge. As members of the elite Rich family, Wayne begins a legal practice, the drug-addicted Dahlia seeks a life more exciting than that of the typical upper-middle-class housewife, and their three kids find themselves attending school for the first time in their lives. Meanwhile, the family must struggle to conceal its true identify while avoiding retribution from the Traveller community they have stolen from and abruptly left behind.

The Cast
Dmitry Lipkin is the creator and, along with series star Eddie Izzard, executive producer of "The Riches.". Born in Russia in 1967, Lipkin was transplanted to Louisiana at the age of ten and learned English by watching American television. After achieving theatrical success with such works as "Baton Rouge" and "Cranes," his play about Soviet Jews in America, Lipkin moved his family to California and set to work on his first television project, "The Riches."

Eddie Izzard (Wayne Malloy) was born in Yemen in 1962 but grew up in Wales and Northern Ireland. The brilliant one-man comedy shows that he first presented in London's West End in 1993 rocketed him to fame and led to his highly successful acting career on both stage and screen. His show "Dress to Kill" was presented on HBO in 1999 and earned him two Emmy awards the following year. An avowed heterosexual, Izzard is well known for his cross-dressing proclivities both on stage and in his personal life.

Minnie Driver (Dahlia Malloy) was born in London in 1970 and raised in Barbados. Her many credits include roles in such films as "GoldenEye," "Grosse Pointe Blank," "Good Will Hunting," and "Return to Me," as well as a recurring role on TV's "Will & Grace." In both her film work and on "The Riches," Driver has demonstrated a brilliant mastery of diverse American dialects.

Shannon Woodard (Di Di), Noel Fisher (Cael) and Aidan Mitchell (Sam) play the Malloy children. Woodward was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1984. Her first TV appearance was on "Clarissa Explains It All" in 1991. She has since appeared on many shows, including "Drew Carey," "Malcom in the Middle," and "Boston Public." Fisher was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1982. He made his screen debut in 1999, and appeared in several TV and theatrical films before landing his current role on "The Riches." Mitchell, who portrays the Malloy's cross-dressing younger son, was born in Boston in 1993. He made his stage debut in "Oliver" after moving to Ireland with his family in 1997 and began pursuing a film career after returning to the US in 2004. Mitchell is interested in writing as well as acting.

Who Are the Travellers?
Most viewers of "The Riches" know little or nothing of the Traveller culture. Unfortunately, the show makes little attempt to remedy that situation. In reality, the Travellers are an ethnic minority from Ireland who are generally scorned and discriminated against both in England and in their native land. There are estimated to be some 25,000 Travellers in Ireland, 15,000 in England, and as many as 10,000 in America, most of the latter group living in the southeastern states. Like the Roma people, commonly known as gypsies, the Travellers favor a nomadic way of life and tend to be viewed as untrustworthy by the settled population.

Unlike the Roma, the Travellers are not a foreign population transplanted to Ireland; rather, they are a native group who speak a unique Irish dialect and maintain their own distinctively Irish cultural traditions. Travellers have functioned as a separate cultural entity in Ireland for at least 800 years. Living in extended patriarchal families, they rarely marry outside of the group and stubbornly resist all attempts at assimilation into settled society. Earlier generations of Travellers roamed the Irish countryside as itinerant tinsmiths and horse traders. It was from these traditional occupations that they earned their derogatory knicknames of tinker and knacker.

On "The Riches, the Travellers are represented as a disreputable group of social misfits who make their living as petty thieves and con artists. The real Travellers in Ireland today tend to be younger, poorer, and less educated than the general population, sometimes with unfortunate cultural consequences. Of course, this does not mean that Travellers as a whole are any less honest or law-abiding than any other ethnic minority, but persistent poverty, lack of education, and cultural discrimination do tend to create a breeding ground for antisocial behavior. Sadly, individuals who are continually treated as socially inferior sometimes revert to the very behavior that has been unfairly ascribed to them by their oppressors.

In popular culture, images of the Travellers have been presented in such films as "Traveler" (1997), starring Bill Paxton, and "Into the West" (1993), which tells the story of two young Traveller boys in Ireland who run away from home. Factual information about the Travellers can be found at these two websites:

http://www.itmtrav.com

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/ireland/travellers.htm