Driveways of the Rich and Famous

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous was an American TV show whose reruns seemed to air pretty much constantly between 1985 and 1994. So, when John Cunningham was looking to make a parody show for low-budget PBS television in the United States, the sycophantic show inspired him to create Driveways of the Rich and Famous, in which he would mimic the original’s celebrity obsession. However, lacking the privileged access of Lifestyles, he would basically be filmed photographing their locked gates and rummaging through celebrity bins. 

Cunningham would hang about the driveways and specialised in prising tidbits of information out of neighbours, doormen and pizza deliverers. The information was not exactly celebrity gossip (what toppings were on the pizza and what price was paid) but that was part of the joke. In the days before celebrities tweeted every random thought and instagrammed pictures of every meal, it was funny to get a tiny insight into the ordinary lives of the stars from the folk entering and exiting their driveways.

Occasionally, Cunningham would get lucky and encounter a genuine celebrity. Madonna rebuked him, “You’re in my driveway.” He came face to face with Kirk Douglas who asked him, “Have you got enough?” as he examined the Spartacus star’s garbage cans. He was chased by Bette Midler’s gardener brandishing a rake and David Hasselhoff's words for him were characteristically unprintable. 

The driveways themselves featured more heavily than the celebrities. Glimpsed over locked gates, Ella Fitzgerald’s was a typical example, described by a Wall Street Journal article about the show as “...magnificent: long and curvy and overflowing with cars, including a gold Rolls Royce.” 

You don’t need a gold Rolls Royce to enjoy the driveway your car deserves. At Knight’s Paving and Landscaping, we can provide you with a brickweave driveway that will add class and style to your property. For further information on what we can do for you, please contact us on 01603 360548.

Image: Videomaker