2020 Preview: TV Vets Return in ‘Filthy Rich,’ ‘Avenue 5’ & ‘Dispatches From Elsewhere’

TV Insider Staff January 10, 2020, 10:00 am

Untitled design (1) — Alan Markfield/FOX; Alex Bailey/HBO; Jessica Kourkounis/AMC

The holiday season is over, but TV has some new gifts you’ll never want to return. Settle in for 12 months of fan-favorite stars (Fran Drescher, Edie Falco), inspiring physical feats (the Olympics), new streaming services, and another must-see season of Outlander.

A new year means new shows — and in some cases, familiar faces taking on new roles.

Here are some TV vets coming to your screen in 2020.

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Filthy Rich

Let us pray, because the wealthy New Orleans–based Monreaux family is gonna need some heavenly help to survive what’s coming their way.

First, patriarch Eugene (Gerald McRaney, This Is Us), who owns the popular Christian TV Sunshine network, dies in a plane crash, forcing his heartbroken widow, Margaret (Kim Cattrall, Sex and the City), to carry on without him. The Oprah Winfrey–esque host of a hit faith-based program called Wings of a Dove, Margaret works to keep the business afloat with the help of her best friend/lawyer (Steve Harris) and her ambitious son, Sunshine VP Eric (Corey Cott).

(Alan Markfield/FOX)

But news of Eugene’s death brings three illegitimate adult children — opportunistic Ginger (Melia Kreiling), marijuana grower Jason (Mark L. Young), and single dad/boxer Antonio (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) — out of the woodwork.

All “vastly different from the Monreaux family,” they still want a piece of the lucrative pie, says creator Tate Taylor. But Margaret is no pushover — rather, she’s whiskey in a teacup. “She’s a survivalist,” Cattrall confirms, “and she has so much power.”

—Jim Halterman

Filthy Rich, Series Premiere, Spring, Fox

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Avenue 5

“Does it sound like I want to get off this planet?” executive producer Armando Iannucci says, laughing.

His follow-up to the biting HBO political satire Veep is this sci-fi space-tourism comedy set 40 years in the future, when Google has folded and the moon is a jail. When a mishap occurs on the Saturn-circling maiden voyage of the galactic cruise ship Avenue 5, the 6,500 passengers and crew discover Capt. Ryan Clark (House‘s Hugh Laurie) isn’t exactly the most reassuring skipper.

(Alex Bailey/HBO)

“People start to think, ‘I know officially I’m below you in status, but if I behave as if I’m above you, what can you do?'” Iannucci says.

—Kate Hahn

Avenue 5, Series Premiere, Sunday, Jan. 19, 10/9c, HBO

Dispatches From Elsewhere

It’s been 49 years since she took wing as The Flying Nun and eight years since she nurtured the Walker family on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters. Now Sally Field returns to TV in the AMC drama Dispatches From Elsewhere. The anthology series, which was created by How I Met Your Mother‘s Jason Segel, follows a group of people (including Field’s suburban mom Janice) selected by a mysterious organization to take part in a curious and possibly magical game.

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“The game forces Janice to ask difficult questions of others, and of herself,” showrunner Mark Friedman says. “She is trying to discover her identity.”

—John Russell

Dispatches From Elsewhere, Series Premiere, Sunday, March 1, 10/9c, AMC