Beggars and Choosers is a comedy-drama

Comedy-drama

Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

 series broadcast by Showtime. Developed by Peter Lefcourt

Peter Lefcourt

Peter Lefcourt is an American television producer, a film and television screenwriter, and a novelist.Lefcourt's early career involved writing teleplays for primetime series such as Cagney and Lacey, Scarecrow and Mrs. King , Eight is Enough, and Remington Steele, among others...

 and Brandon Tartikoff

Brandon Tartikoff

Brandon Tartikoff was a television executive who was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, Miami Vice, The Golden Girls, Knight Rider, The A-Team, St...

, the series was a comedic

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

, behind-the-scenes look at network television. Its 42 episodes aired between June 19, 1999 and December 12, 2000.

Synopsis

The tongue-in-cheek

Tongue-in-cheek

Tongue-in-cheek is a phrase used as a figure of speech to imply that a statement or other production is humorously intended and it should not be taken at face value. The facial expression typically indicates that one is joking or making a mental effort. In the past, it may also have indicated...

 series centered on Rob Malone, President of LGT, and his efforts to boost the network's sagging ratings with Lori Volpone, the scheming Vice-President of Development, and Malcolm Laffley, a gay

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 man who came out of the closet

Out of the Closet

Out of the Closet is a nonprofit chain of thrift stores whose revenues provide medical care for patients with HIV/AIDS. The chain is owned and operated by AIDS Healthcare Foundation , a Los Angeles-based global organization that provides medical, preventative, and educational resources for patients...

 to clear himself of sexual harassment

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...

 charges levied against him by a woman. Each episode provided amusing insight into how a network runs, from how its executives deal with temperamental stars to how they make big budget deals while trying to keep the network financially stable.

Cast and characters

• Rob Malone (Brian Kerwin
  Brian Kerwin
  Brian Kerwin is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kerwin won the Theatre World Award in 1988 for the off-Broadway play Emily. His Broadway theatre credits include the 1997 revival of The Little Foxes and the Elaine May comedy After the Night and the Music in 2005...
  
  )
• Lori Volpone (Charlotte Ross
  Charlotte Ross
  Charlotte Ross is an American actress, who is perhaps most widely known as a cast member of NYPD Blue from 2001 to 2004.-Early Years:...
  
  ): The ambitious Vice President of Development for LGT
• Malcolm Laffley (Tuc Watkins
  Tuc Watkins
  Tuc Watkins is an American actor. He is known for his role as David Vickers on One Life to Live and for his role as Bob Hunter on Desperate Housewives .-Personal life:Watkins is of Welsh descent and is the son of Charles Curtis Watkins II, a salesman, and a...
  
  )
• Cecile Malone (Isabella Hofmann
  Isabella Hofmann
  Isabella Hofmann is an American actress, born in Chicago, Illinois. She is best known for her lead role on Homicide: Life on the Street as Lt. / Capt. / Det...
  
  ): Rob's wife
• Brad Advail (William McNamara
  William McNamara
  William West McNamara is an American actor.-Early life:Born in Dallas, Texas, McNamara is the son of a professional race car driver for the Ford Motor Company and an interior designer. He attended Columbia University and studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute...
  
  ): An agent who is a thorn in Rob's side
• Parker Meridian (Paul Provenza
  Paul Provenza
  Paul Provenza is an actor, comedian and filmmaker, a self-professed skeptic currently based in Los Angeles.-Early years:...
  
  ): The egomaniacal star of the hit LGT show Parker's Pals who is romantically involved with Rob's daughter Audrey
• Audrey Malone (Keegan Connor Tracy
  Keegan Connor Tracy
  Keegan Connor Tracy is a Canadian actress known for her roles as the ill-fated Kat Jennings in Final Destination 2 and Dawn/Molly in Blackwoods .She was born in Sarnia, Ontario...
  
  ): Rob and Cecile's slightly flaky 21-year-old daughter
• Emory "E.L." Luddin (Bill Morey): The frequently comatose founder and former CEO of LGT
• Lydia "L.L." Luddin (Carol Kane
  Carol Kane
  Carolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane is an American actress. Kane has worked on the stage, on the screen and in television. She appeared on the television series Taxi in the early 1980s, as the wife of the character played by Andy Kaufman. She received two Emmy Awards for her work...
  
  ): E.L.'s wife, whose plans for an eponymous variety show
  Variety show
  A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
  
   are thwarted when Dan Falco buys the network
• Casey Lenox (Sherri Saum
  Sherri Saum
  - Biography :Saum got her start at a Model Search America convention near her home in Kettering, Ohio. She was discovered during high school, modeling mostly during summer breaks until she decided to move to New York and work full time with the New York modeling agency Images Management. Her career...
  
  ): A young ambitious new-hire at LGT that Lori Volpone fears could threaten her career path
• Dan Falco (Beau Bridges
  Beau Bridges
  Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
  
  ): A Buddhist who acquires ownership of LGT after obtaining 53% of the company's stock during a power struggle between the Luddins

Production notes

The series was created by former NBC television executive Brandon Tartikoff who based the series on his own experiences. Tartikoff, whose wife Lily served as a producer on the series, died of Hodgkin's Disease two years before the series debuted.

Filmed in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, Beggars and Choosers was produced for Showtime by Granada Entertainment
USA and distributor by Buena Vista Television.

Reception and cancellation

Beggars and Choosers garnered positive reviews from critics and, according to Showtime executive vice president of original programming Gary Levine, had a loyal audience, but ratings for the series remained low. Showtime canceled the series after two seasons in December 2000.

Award nominations

Year	Award	Result	Category	Recipient
2000	Casting Society of America	Nominated	Best Casting for TV, Comedy Pilot	Marc Hirschfeld, Meg Liberman, and Joel Thurm
	Emmy Award Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...		Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series	Carl Reiner Carl Reiner Carl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...
2001	Canadian Comedy Awards Canadian Comedy Awards The Canadian Comedy Awards, founded by , are an annual awards ceremony celebrating notable English speaking Canadian comedians for achievements in Live, Radio, Film, Television and Internet media over the previous year...		Television - Pretty Funny Direction - Series	Charles Winkler
	GLAAD Media Awards GLAAD Media Awards The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives...		Outstanding TV Comedy Series	-