'Downton Abbey' creator says HBO's 'Gilded Age' is the 'absolute opposite' of his PBS hit

Few people can deliver an icy zinger quite like Christine Baranski.

And boy, does she have a lot of them in HBO's "The Gilded Age" (premiering Monday, 9 EST/PST), Julian Fellowes' long-gestating follow-up to PBS period drama "Downton Abbey," his 15-time Emmy-winning hit that ended its six-season run in 2015.

Set roughly 30 years earlier than "Downton" in 1880s New York, "Gilded" follows an acid-tongued socialite named Agnes van Rhijn (Baranski), whose penniless niece, Marian (Louisa Jacobson), comes to live with her and her sister, Ada (Cynthia Nixon). Meanwhile, a new-money railroad tycoon (Morgan Spector) and his social-climbing wife (Carrie Coon) move into a resplendent mansion across the street from Agnes, who stubbornly tries to turn high society against her nouveau riche neighbors.

"She's such a marvelous snob," says Baranski, 69, best known for playing Leonard's mom on "The Big Bang Theory" and attorney Diane Lockhart on CBS' "The Good Wife" and its spinoff, Paramount+ drama "The Good Fight."

"There's some exchange between myself and my niece where she says something like, 'Servants deserve some time off, too, Aunt Agnes.' I slightly pause and say, '...Why?' (Laughs.) Just one word says so much, doesn't it?"

Fellowes conceived of "Gilded" nearly a decade ago, at the peak of "Downton's" popularity. The series was first developed for NBC before entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt moved to HBO and the show went along with him. (He's since left that network.)

Despite the shows' similar focus on the scandalous gossip and power plays of the ultra-wealthy, Fellowes says "Gilded" has a "different energy curve" than the England-set "Downton," whose first season started with the sinking of the Titanic and moved into World War I.

"'Downton' had a melancholy about it, which was rather charming. It was partly about the decline of the control of the (British) aristocracy," he says. "This is the absolute opposite: It's the arrival of the new guys in town who came to New York in the 1870s and ’80s and built their palaces up and down Fifth Avenue. They threw money at everything because they had money."

Throughout the nine-episode first season, conflict and tensions arise between "the old families, who were on the brink of losing their power, and the new families, who were just gaining it."

Fans of both dramas may find some parallels between Baranski's Agnes and Maggie Smith's Violet Crawley, the spiky dowager countess of "Downton."

"They're both walking declarative sentences," Baranski says. "They come from a place of absolute certitude about the world and their place in it and have low opinions of much of what is passing as modernity. They are wary of progress – maybe even anxious about it. Yes, they're grand in their manner, but they're also both extremely bright, intelligent women who make these witheringly funny remarks."

The "Gilded" cast is filled out by a dizzying array of Broadway stars, including Denée Benton, Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara, Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy – many of whom Baranski has previously worked with. In fact, Nixon, 55, played her daughter in the original production of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" nearly four decades ago. ("Can you imagine?" Baranski recalls with a laugh. "And here we are playing sisters.")

Jacobson (Meryl Streep's youngest daughter) is the greenest of the bunch, making her TV debut in "Gilded" as the idealistic, headstrong Marian. Along with Benton's Peggy – a young Black woman and aspiring writer – Marian moves to New York with big dreams after her father's death. But she quickly finds herself stifled by societal expectations and traditions.

As outsiders to this rich world, Marian and Peggy become "guides who take you through the show," Fellowes says. "Most of the audience hasn't lived like this, and they need people onscreen for whom (the experience) is new so they can empathize with them. Marian has quite a big role in that."

Baranski, who co-starred with Streep in 2008's "Mamma Mia!", had met Jacobson a few times over the years, but was struck by her confidence on set.

"It's quite a feat for a young actress, and she didn't have a lot of experience," Baranski says. "I had to try to convince her that I was not as intimidating as my character. Apparently, she said to Meryl, 'Oh my God, Christine terrifies me.' And I said, 'I don't mean to terrify her, I'm just playing my role!' Maybe in between takes, I stay a bit in character, but eventually, I think she realized I was very much on her side and wanting her to feel comfortable."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Gilded Age': 'Downton Abbey' creator brings new drama to old NYC