Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Defend Season Premiere

Posted on Tue Sep 6th, 2011 1:00pm PDT       By X17 Staff

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The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' Lisa Vanderpump, Kyle Richards and Adrienne Maloof took to Today Tuesday morning to defend the show's Monday night premiere, which was mostly slammed by critics.

Critics pointed out that the show, once gossipy fun, could not be after Russell Armstrong's suicide. Many had called for Season Two to be scrapped entirely.

In its review of the premiere, The Los Angeles Times called the show "a creepy necro-party game ... how can we now watch and think of anything else [other than Russell's suicide]?"

But the trio told Ann Curry that Russell's estranged wife, Taylor (right, in the premiere), was "supportive of the series being shown." Said Richards:

"She [Taylor] thought that they handled it respectfully, and in light of the situation she was pleased with the outcome. ... We shot this six months ago and I think Bravo has tried to handle it as responsibly and respectfully as possible. ... But the show is not just about them [Taylor and Russell] -- it's about six women and their lives. Yes, they are a part of it, but there's also so much going on in the show."

Vanderpump addressed comments her husband, Ken, made in the premiere; he called therapy "weak" after Taylor revealed she and Russell were in therapy. See Lisa's defense and more from The Times' scathing review after the jump.

"Everything changes in light of what's happened. ... But it was his [Ken's] opinion about himself, not about anybody else. And he did apologize to Taylor the next day because he realized how fragile she was."

" ... for five minutes or so, all the housewives except Armstrong's wife Taylor — in full hair, makeup and Jackie O. sunglasses — converged on Adrienne Maloof's over-kitschy manse to reassure themselves that they had nothing to feel guilty about. Looking serious and dabbing occasionally at their eyes, they each professed their shock and sorrow (“I never saw any sign of it,” “I don't think any of us saw any sign of it”) ...

Blinking away their tears, they all agreed they would not have done anything different, and then Kyle Richards stepped up to the narrative plate: 'A lot of us have guilt about not seeing this coming,' she said. 'You can't feel responsible for that. It was his choice, it was his choice' ... But her final declaration was clear enough — 'It's hard for me to move forward, it was such a tragic situation. But as difficult as this is, life goes on.' ... Cue music ..."