This diary was immediately set off by an article on p.2 of the Philadelphia Inquirer by Dianna Marder discussing Downton Abbey.
The somewhat gushy article discusses the story so far, costumes, attraction of the series to younger PBS viewers, etc. But nowhere that I can see does it, or a few other articles I've seen cite it's 1970s predecessor [set in early 20th Century England] (and recent followup featuring Rose [Jean Marsh] set in the late 1930s.
More below.
This omission seems a bit odd to me, since there are such obvious parallels in the two series. The upstairs people are generally on a par with each other:
Upstairs Downstairs: Richard Bellamy and Lady Marjorie, James Bellamy and his middle-class wife Hazel, Georgina Worseley
Downton Abbey: Robert Crawley, Lady Crawley, daughter Mary Crawley, 3rd cousin once removed :) Matthew Crawley.
The Downton Abbey Downstairs staff, with the exception of Carson the butler (an equal to Mr. Hudson in Upstairs Downstairs) seems to me a bit weaker, and considerably less likable then the Upstairs Downstairs crew of maids Ruby, daisy, and Rose (and let's not forget Sarah!) cook Mrs. Hudson, etc.
I would think reams of articles, papers (even theses :) ) could have been penned on comparisons but just about nada. One way I think Downton Abbey comes off poorer (at least in the U.S.) is no Alistair Cooke type to introduce and summarize each episode, with the occasional asides and music hall selections to illustrate the times.
Also, it becomes quite clear why the Titanic sunk. There must have been millions of people on board. Lady Marjorie of UD, the DA heir, for that matter the 1970s series The Captains and the Kings Joe Armagh's consiglieri Harry Zieff, and I believe much of the cast of Time Bandits.
Either series is quite watchable, and can get you hooked a la soap opera land, DA is much shorter in overall screen time (I believe UD had 68 episodes in all), but (to my perhaps biased view) DA's plot twists seem more contrived. But then I do have on tape the UD Christmas episode where Georgina and Daisy "got a lot of 'splainin to do" after they visit Daisy's parents in a London slum.
Given that Upstairs Doenstairs is much older, but in the U.S. had Alistair Cooke to mediate the series, the poll on preference should be interesting.