Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
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Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous is a television series that ran from 1984 to 1995. The show featured the usually extravagant lifestyles of wealthy entertainers, athletes, and business moguls. It was hosted by Robin Leach; Leach was joined by Shari Belafonte in 1994, and the show was renamed Lifestyles with Robin Leach and Shari Belafonte. Robin Leach ended each episode with his signature phrase champagne wishes and caviar dreams.
Lifestyles was one of the first shows to capitalize specifically on Americans' interest in the lives of the wealthy. Later shows such as MTV's Cribs and VH1's The Fabulous Life Of continued this concept.
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Parodies/allusions
- Lifestyles was parodied on Sesame Street with Lifestyles of the Big and Little, hosted by Dicky Tick.
- Lifestyles was also parodied on Saturday Night Live with Lifestyles of the Relatives of the Rich & Famous, Lifestyles of the Rich, Famous and Scary and Afterlifestyles of the Rich and Fam'.
- In the film Shrek 2, Donkey says "champagne wishes and caviar dreams from now on" upon first seeing the kingdom of Far, Far Away–a reference to Leach's catchphrase.
- In the DuckTales episode "Down and Out in Duckburg", Scrooge McDuck gives an interview to a version of this show.
- The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Lifestyles of the Sick and Twisted" revolved around Dr. Robotnik's desire to be a featured guest on a program titled Lifestyles of the Very Good. When he is rejected in favor of Sonic, Robotnik makes the host, Throbbin Screech, interview him by kidnapping his unnamed niece, after which he changes the show's title to that of the episode itself, and later to Lifestyles of Robotnik Only. Also on the episode "Momma Robotnik's Birthday", Sonic refers to the old home as "I've seen this place in the Lifestyles of the Mean and Rotten."
- The Earthworm Jim episode "The Book of Doom" featured an intermission segment where Professor Monkey-For-A-Head is featured on Lifestyles of the Rich and Villainous.
- An episode of the second season of Garfield and Friends titled "Lifestyles of the Fat and Furry" had Garfield winning the lottery and being featured on the titular program. At the end, though, Garfield loses his fortune because he was underage (he was 11 years old at the time the episode aired), and the winnings are given to the Robin Leach look-alike (played by Robin Leach himself), who is thrilled that he can now "stop hosting this stupid program and talking in this stupid voice!"
- The Circus Circus hotel in Las Vegas features "CTV" (Circus Television) on each TV in each room, with the same exact programming repeated every few hours. Among this programming is Lifestyles of the Rich and Tasty hosted by a clown named "Rubin Leach" and it promotes the various restaurants of the hotel, with Robin Leach's hosting techniques heavily parodied.
- The science oriented educational TV show Newton's Apple has a section called "Science of the Rich and Famous."
- An interlude on the Ice Cube album Death Certificate features a character named "Robin Lench" whose show "Lifestyles of the Poor and Unfortunate" takes listeners on a tour of one Los Angeles' poorer neighborhoods.
- On Fergie's single "Glamorous" featured rapper Ludacris uses the line "champagne wishes, caviar dreams" and slightly later on claims a "lifestyle so rich and famous" that it would make Robin Leach jealous.
- World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) recently started their own broadband network channel on their website where you can watch exclusive videos of the WWE Superstars doing what they do outside the WWE ring. One of the shows they have on their new broadband network channel is called Lifestyles of the Built and Dangerous. While the show's title is a parody of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, it has been said to have more of an MTV Cribs feel.
- Britney Spears in her single "Piece of Me" sings "I'm Mrs. Lifestyles of the rich and famous, You wanna piece of me?"
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
