Julian Fellow's new series, The Gilded Age on HBO this spring fascinated so many viewers

because of the glamorous over-the-top drama of some of the period's most famous real-life characters

from Mrs. Astor to Stanford White to Ward McAllister.

And it was pretty hard not to stay glued to the plotting and the planning of our social

climbing couple, George and

Bertha Russell, well particularly Bertha, who acted an awful lot like Robert Barron Jay Gould

and Alva Vanderbilt. And then the stories of Peggy Scott and her family, along with some of

the downstairs staff, were revelations about just what really did

happen in Gilded Age, New York. It seems that there was far more than we ever knew. The season

left us wondering just what was going to happen to them all, and perhaps best of all, sent so many

of us back to our history books, websites, and to new sources

that most accurately shed light on the whole gilded age. But now, in the middle of the summer,

aren't we all in a little bit of withdrawal? We decided to revisit the show and talk about

some of our more lingering points of curiosity and interest.

Today, I'm lucky and honored to have Tom Myers of the Bowery Boys join me for this special

show to do just that. Tom was co-host with Turner Classic movies Alicia Malone of HBO's

official Guilded Age podcast, which every week

gave us the backstory and the inside story on particular moments in history and the real-life

characters we saw in the show. And there was that really special treat I looked forward to each

week. Each podcast featured in-depth live interviews with the cast and

the creative team. I invite you all to go back and listen to those episodes now with all the

details and explanations that Tom and Alicia shared along with the fantastic cast interviews,

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