‘Downton Abbey’ fans gear up for a jolly good show

The success of “Downton Abbey” has spilled over to other dramas on PBS as well, especially the other British period pieces that make up the rest of “Masterpiece,” such as “The Paradise,” “Mr. Selfridge” and “Call the Midwife.”

“We’re seeing good audience growth for dramas,” said Andrew Russell, chief operating officer at PBS SoCal, the Costa Mesa-based station that is the PBS flagship for Southern California. The result has been a huge lift in PBS’ ratings fortunes.

For the 2013-14 television year, the nonprofit broadcaster came in at No. 5 among all cable and over-the-air networks in average prime-time ratings, trailing only CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. In 2011-12, PBS ranked 11th.

The increased ratings for PBS come as virtually every other network is seeing overall declines as the number of options for viewers increases. It wasn’t too many years ago that TV watchers were limited to channel surfing. Now, there are Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, et al., not to mention that stack of recordings stashed on the DVR (which stop counting toward the ratings after seven days).

Achieving that has taken more than just the few hours of “Downton Abbey” each year.

“It has been a concerted effort on the national level,” Russell said, noting that PBS had begun strengthening its prime-time lineup seven to eight years ago. The network started “branding” nights around themes: the dramas of “Masterpiece” and “Masterpiece Mystery” on Sundays, documentaries and news Tuesdays, science and nature Wednesdays.

Russell himself was a key part of that, having been the network’s senior vice president for strategy and research before taking the job as chief operating officer at PBS SoCal.

The Four Seasons

(Spoilers ahead)

“Downton Abbey” weaves many interlocking plot lines involving a couple of dozen characters. Here is the barest of outlines.

Season 1 takes place April 1912 to August 1914 Downton Abbey, the estate of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham, and his American-born wife, Cora, can only pass to a male heir, and they have three daughters. The eldest, Lady Mary, is engaged to the heir, her cousin James. James and his brother die in the Titanic disaster. The new heir is a distant cousin, Matthew Crawley, a solicitor.

The servants’ lives are roiled by the arrival of John Bates, the earl’s former military aide and new valet.

Romances develop between Matthew and Mary and between Mary’s sister, Lady Sybil, and the chauffeur, Tom Branson.

Season 2 takes place 1916-20 Matthew and Tom enlist in World War I. Matthew is now engaged to Lavinia Swire, even though he is still in love with Mary.

Matthew becomes paralyzed and returns to Downton to be cared for by Mary. Tom comes home and elopes with Sybil. Bates and Anna, the housemaid, strike up a romance that is cut short when Bates is wrongly accused of the murder of his ex-wife.

Matthew’s paralysis miraculously disappears. The Spanish flu epidemic arrives to kill his fiancee. Matthew proposes to Mary. Sybil becomes pregnant.

Season 3 takes place 1920-21 Lord Grantham learns that his wife’s money has been lost to his bad investments, leaving him near bankruptcy. Lavinia’s father dies, and Matthew learns that he is the heir to that large fortune. However, he declines it, thinking that he is the heir under false pretenses. Matthew and Mary quarrel over this decision.

After misplaced letter surfaces, Matthew accepts the inheritance and uses it to bail out the earl.

Bates is convicted of his wife’s murder. The Crawleys’ third daughter, Lady Edith, becomes engaged to a much older man. Tom and Sybil return from Ireland to Downton Abbey to escape the Irish police. Sybil dies in childbirth.

Lady Rose, a young relative of the Crawleys, is sent to live at Downton. Edith’s fiance calls off the wedding. Anna manages to get Bates freed from prison. Mary gives birth to a boy. On his way home from the hospital, Matthew dies in a car crash.

Season 4 takes place 1922-23 Tom, now manager of Downton Abbey, battles with the earl over the handling of the estate.

Another lost letter surfaces, this one proclaiming Mary as Matthew’s sole heir. She, Tom and the earl eventually settle into joint management of Downton.

A visiting lord’s valet rapes Anna. Mary is pursued by two new suitors.

Bates finally learns Anna’s secret. Shortly after, the rapist is found dead. Edith strikes up a romance with a newspaper publisher. She becomes pregnant. The publisher mysteriously disappears. Edith goes away to have the baby and gives her up to be raised by a local couple.