Privileged Premieres on the CW

New Show Based on Zoey Dean's Book How To Teach Filthy Rich Girls

Jan 17, 2009

Privileged premiered on the CW in 2008. Starring JoAnna Garcia (Reba) and based in Palm Beach, Florida. Garcia plays a tutor helping rich girls get into college.

In 2008, the CW network premiered the show Privileged, staring JoAnna Garcia (Reba) as Megan Smith. Garcia plays a budding journalist working for a tabloid magazine in New York to stay ahead of her expensive Yale student loan payments. When her boss (played by Debbie Mazar) offers her an opportunity to move to Palm Beach, Florida to tutor Rose and Sage Baker, Palm Beach royalty, Smith accepts. What she does not expect, is a whirlwind ride into Palm Beach rich life, sisterhood, piecing together her broken family, and finding love.

How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls

The show Privileged is based on the book by Zoey Dean, titled How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls [Warner Books, 2007]. In the book, Megan Smith finds herself living in a small New York apartment with a zany roommate and a half-committed rich New York lover. When her apartment catches fire and she does not get her promotion at the tabloid magazine she had been working for - her boss gives her the opportunity of a lifetime, to journey to Palm Beach, Florida by private jet and take on the task of tutoring to stubborn and filthy rich high school seniors.

If Rose and Sage Baker can pass their SAT's, their grandmother, head of a multimillion dollar makeup corporation, will pay Smith's outstanding Ivy League student loans. If not, she will be back where she started, with tutor to the rich on her resume.

The book is witty, succinct and heartfelt. Dean leaves the cliches and focuses on humor and originality.

Privileged on the CW

The adaptation of Deans novel is outstanding this first season. The characters are as finely drawn as they are in the book, with the main character, Megan Smith, played by the funny and heartfelt JoAnna Garcia, formerly of CW's Reba, bringing to life all the quirky qualities of the Megan Smith of the Dean novel.

In comparison and possibly for the first time in television history, this show has stayed close to the original storyline. The changes are subtle and made for obvious and intelligent reasons, such as longevity and creating more complex storylines.

Some big adaptations are the ages for Rose and Sage Baker, who, in Dean's novel, are in their last term in high school, but for practical purposes in the show have just entered their junior year in high school. Additionally, Smith's family, who, expect for her sister Lilly, took a backseat in the novel, are front and center in the book. Other than this, many of the same characters, including the caring and wise chef and his boyfriend, Smith's idol and the twin's grandmother, and Will, all make appearances.

Cast of Characters

Besides JoAnna Garcia, who plays the incomparable Megan Smith - Privileged has been blessed with a whole host of talented cast members including:

The future looks bright for Privileged, the hour-long drama/comedy based on the Zoey Dean book How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls [Warner Books, 2007]. So far, the plot has not strayed too far from the book. Most importantly, the cast has brought to life Dean's finely drawn and humorous interpretation of rich life in Palm Beach. This is definitely not your typical rich girl story.

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