It seems like ancient history now, but once upon a time, there was a little backdoor pilot that dreamed of growing up to be a full-fledged reality television spectacle. Its name was “Vanderpump Rules” (you may have heard of the headline-making scandal it recently produced), and it was developed as a spinoff of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” the lustrous crown jewel of the Bravo network’s most popular franchise. While “RHOBH” documented the glitzy lives of the women inhabiting one of America’s most famous zip codes, “Vanderpump Rules” focused on the working-class drama of the staff at SUR — one of “Beverly Hills” star Lisa Vanderpump’s handful of restaurants.
When a cheating scandal concerning a staff member at Vanderpump’s restaurant became fodder for a “RHOBH” storyline, Bravo execs made the brilliant decision to let an episode of the show’s third season bleed directly into the series premiere of “Vanderpump Rules.” For the first two seasons of “VPR,” the two shows would air back-to-back in a two-hour programming block that allowed viewers to traverse metropolitan California’s wealth spectrum. The Housewives let audiences immerse themselves in the 90210 fantasy before leaving through the golden gates of Beverly Hills to indulge in the familiar drama of real-life service workers. The pairing was an instant sensation.
