TV families can be many things: Comforting, unbreakable, toxic. But there’s an added layer of fun when they’re rich. Watching characters throw cash around like it’s Monopoly money can provide satisfying wish fulfillment, especially when the excessive wealth adds to the families’ dysfunction.
As TV has grown and evolved as a medium, series have continued to raise the bar when it comes to just how overflowing one family’s bank account can be. The very richest among them form a highly exclusive circle; no one is gaining membership to this club with much less than a 10-figure net worth. The trust funds, portfolios, and corporate holdings have been tallied. Here are the 10 richest families in television history, ranked from “can buy a small country” to “more money than God.”
10 The Clampett Clan
‘The Beverly Hillbillies’
The first major television hit to showcase wealth doesn’t just feature a rich family; it features a family that strikes it rich by striking oil. When The Beverly Hillbillies follows the Clampett family’s ascension from the Ozark Mountains to America’s most famous zip code, the show provides the ultimate wish fulfillment for its audience. Fear not, Middle America! The key to a life of luxury could be buried underneath your front lawn.
By the end of the series run, the Clampetts have grown their fortune to $100 million, which would be worth $800 million today. Most would agree that this sum is enough to live comfortably, but the cost of being a wealthy TV family has inflated even faster than the price of crude oil. As the decades pass, TV continues to up the ante over the original rags-to-riches fantasy.
9 The Bass Family
‘Gossip Girl’
In the world of Gossip Girl, where teenage heirs and heiresses jockey for supremacy of their Upper East Side high schools, Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) steals everyone’s lunch money. Serena Van Der Woodsen (Blake Lively), heiress to a shipping fortune, and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), daughter of a luxury fashion house owner, seem middle class by comparison. Even Nate Archibald’s (Chase Crawford) ties to the Vanderbilt dynasty can’t compete with Chuck’s family wealth.
When Chuck’s father, Bart Bass (Robert John Burke), dies, Chuck becomes the majority owner of his real estate empire, Bass Industries. Between the company, valued at over $1 billion, and his father’s other assets, Chuck ascends to billionaire status before he graduates from high school. The influx of wealth fuels Chuck’s self-destructive behavior, and he would probably burn down his own hotel if he learned he just barely joined the upper echelon of TV family wealth.
8 The Crawleys
‘Downton Abbey’
The old money of the British Aristocracy combines with the new money of good, old-fashioned, American consumerism to form the wealth of the Crawley family in Downton Abbey. As the Earl of Grantham and heir to the Downton Abbey estate, Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) defines generational wealth. The Crawleys live in a literal 200-room castle that Robert’s family first acquired in 1772 and are waited on by a staff of at least 20.
When Robert married American Cora Levinson (Elizabeth McGovern), heiress to a dry goods fortune, the family net worth increased to an estimated $1.1 billion, adjusted for inflation. The future of the family’s wealth is called into question, however, when Robert loses the bulk of Cora’s inheritance on a bad investment. But by the end of the series, the ownership of Downtown Abbey is retained by the Crawleys, with Mary Crawley’s (Michelle Dockery) son George as the designated heir.
7 The Ewing Family
‘Dallas’
Premiering in 1978, Dallas could be considered the Godfather of all fat cat family dramas. The series centers on the Ewing family, whose oil company and cattle ranch are estimated to be worth $2.8 billion. Led by eldest son J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), the Ewings’ scope of influence extends beyond Texas into the global oil market.
Though much of the Ewings’ feuding is reserved for the Barnes family, their oil industry rivals, some of their worst vitriol is reserved for their own. As their dirty dealings turn the Ewings against each other, they become one of the first families on TV to demonstrate how wealth can tear apart even the most powerful bonds.
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6 The Graysons
‘Revenge’
Within the exclusive kingdom of the Hamptons where Revenge takes place, Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe) is queen. With the family’s hedge fund, Grayson Global, valued at $4.7 billion, Victoria commands respect and deference from even her most elite neighbors. That is, until Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) returns to the Hamptons to avenge her father, whom the Graysons had framed for their crimes.
Vengeance is expensive, and Emily’s mission to destroy the Graysons turns a game of billionaire cat-and-mouse into an arms race. Bankrolled by affluent family friend Nolan Ross, Emily proves to be a formidable foil to the typically untouchable Graysons, even embedding herself within the family by marrying Victoria’s son, Daniel Grayson (Josh Bowman). By the end of the series, nearly all the Graysons are dead, proving that money may buy revenge, but not immortality.
5 The Lyons
‘Empire’
Centered on a family jockeying for control of patriarch Lucious Lyon’s (Terrence Howard) wildly successful company, Empire was Succession before Logan Roy ever muttered his first, “F— off.” After receiving an ALS diagnosis, Lucious pits his three sons against each other to succeed him as CEO of his record label. His wife, Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson), then complicates matters when she also vies for the crown after her release from prison.
Though Lucious and Cookie come from humble beginnings, Lucious parlayed a successful rap career into Empire Entertainment, establishing himself as a bona fide music mogul. Howard himself stated that his character’s net worth reached $5 billion. The Lyon children were raised in a life of luxury that Lucious never had, but he creates a dynamic where family is competition. Empire declares that, when it comes to winning the “Lyon’s share” of generational wealth, even the children of the 1% are at the mercy of their parents’ approval.
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4 The Queens
‘Arrow’
When it comes to being a vigilante, it helps to have rock hard abs, a city riddled with crime, and a family that’s absolutely loaded. Such are the circumstances for Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) in Arrow. Though his family’s wealth almost became his undoing when their yacht sank and stranded him on an island for five years, Oliver returns to Star City with a mission to help run global corporation Queen Consolidated by day and fight crime as a hooded archer by night.
Trick arrows and torpedoes don’t come cheap, and Oliver’s undercover operation benefits from the backing of a biotechnology company and an estimated $7 billion family fortune. However, not every member of the Queen family shares Oliver’s good intentions. His own mother, Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson), embezzles money from her own company to fund the Undertaking, a manufactured disaster in Star City that leaves over 500 dead. In the Queen family, sharing wealth doesn’t translate to sharing morals.
3 House Lannister
‘Game of Thrones’
While there is no formal conversion rate from Gold Dragon coins to U.S. dollars, the wealthiest family in Game of Thrones would assuredly give Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk a run for their money if they resided here on planet Earth. With their homeland, Casterly Rock, sitting on a literal goldmine, the Lannisters easily amassed a sum of wealth that couldn’t be touched by anyone in the Seven Kingdoms.
Though Cersei Lannister (Lena Heady) declares that, “Power is power,” the Lannisters owe their position of considerable influence to their wealth. Their loans to other houses keep competing families in their pockets, even House Baratheon after Robert (Mark Addy) captures the Iron Throne. Robert marries Cersei largely to secure the family’s loyalty, a move that results in the Lannisters ultimately gaining sole control of the crown. Their house words may be “A Lannister always pays his debts,” but their continued chokehold over Westeros depends on their enemies’ inability to follow suit.
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2 The Roys
‘Succession’
No series details the inner workings of the world of the 1% quite like Succession, and there’s possibly no TV family more dysfunctional than the Roys. Not-so-loosely based on FOX founder Rupert Murdoch, Logan Roy (Brian Cox) has leveraged his media conglomerate, Waystar Royco, to become one of the most powerful men in the world. With his health ailing, he’s forced to consider which of his three children should take over his company and $18 billion fortune after his passing. (Yes, he has four children, but does Connor (Alan Ruck) ever really count?)
For the Roy kids, Logan’s ruthless emotional abuse ensures that their generational wealth doesn’t come without generational trauma. Their quest to inherit the CEO title is ultimately a quest for the position of favorite child. In the end, none of the children receives Logan’s approval or control of his company, proving no amount of money can purchase a father’s love.
1 The Carringtons
‘Dynasty’
Though Dynasty initially aired in the 1980s, the original Carringtons’ $500 million net worth pales in comparison to their counterparts in the CW’s reboot. From their energy conglomerate Carrington Atlantic alone, the Carringtons boast a fortune of at least $25 billion, setting the standard for just how obscene a TV family’s net worth can be. The series predominantly follows heiress and businesswoman Fallon Carrington (Elizabeth Gillies) and retains the original’s trademark business deals, family drama, and jaw-dropping fashion on a much greater scale.
Dynasty offers essential advice to aspiring billionaires: The wealthiest families require the most selective inner circles. The members of the Carrington family differ wildly in their assessments of who should be included. While her father, Blake Carrington’s (Grant Show), engagement to one of his employees brings an outsider into the fold, Fallon goes as far as to work with the Carringtons’ nemeses, the Colby family, in order to expand her own wealth and power. For the Carringtons, even being crowned the richest family in TV history isn’t an excuse to get complacent.
