Newport's downstairs tours catching on

NEWPORT, R.I. (WPRI/AP) -- "Nothing succeeds like excess," the Dowager Countess of Grantham, portrayed by Dame Maggie Smith, says in the third season of "Downton Abbey," the PBS television hit costume drama, before a lavish dinner determined to impress.

The mansions of Newport have long been demonstrative of that. If the Countess's family, the Crawleys, were all American, they could easily summer in the "city by the sea."

"Downton" has gained wild stateside success with its storylines about post-Edwardian aristocrats and their live-in help, and it's piqued interest in the life of servants in the Gilded Age mansions of Newport.

A tour about servants in one of Newport's most picturesque houses, The Elms, has become one of the city's most popular tours of late. The servants in Newport carried on a lively social scene, just as the Downton servants develop relationships downstairs.

An American character -- the mother-in-law of Lord Grantham -- who's portrayed by Shirley MacLaine, has a home in Newport, and the city has been mentioned on the show from time to time.