There, she undergoes a transformation of both body and soul, first losing weight, then gaining Parisian style under the guidance of Liliane, the elegant French woman who is her hostess.

It is her first intimate love affair, but when the aristocratic but impecunious Edouard discovers that Billy is just a poor relative of the Winthrop family, he shows his true colors and ends the relationship.

However, Ellis later suffers a stroke, and Billy moves them from Manhattan to the exclusive Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles for the better climate.

A power struggle later ensues when Curt Arvey attempts to confiscate Vito's film before it can be finished, and keeps it locked in the studio's vaults.

It launched a cycle of similarly opulent and melodramatic, female-centric miniseries productions based on bestselling novels over the next decade, including Bare Essence (1982), A Woman of Substance (1984), Lace (1984), Hollywood Wives (1985), Sins (1986), Crossings (1986), If Tomorrow Comes (1986), Roses Are for The Rich (1987), and Lucky Chances (1990).

[1] Several other popular miniseries of this era were adapted from other Krantz novels, including Mistral's Daughter (1984), I'll Take Manhattan (1987), and Till We Meet Again (1989).

Due to the success of the Scruples miniseries, a pilot for a potential weekly series (featuring a different cast including Shelley Smith and Dirk Benedict) was produced in 1981,[2] but was unsuccessful.

In 2012, another pilot for a potential weekly series was made, starring Claire Forlani and Chad Michael Murray, but this, too, was unsuccessful.