Bea Arthur in "Amanda's"

1. Bea should never have been cast as a character called "Amanda".

Let me guess, she was a brassy opinionated woman?

It was a remake/Americanization of "Fawlty Towers," 'which only ran for TWELVE episodes.

No one wanted to take her by surprise and make her realize

What went wrong? Practically everything.

[quote]Ran for only thirteen episodes in 1983. What went wrong?

Episodes one thru thirteen .

God will get you for that, R6.

You can judge for yourself.

Part of the problem was doing away with the spouse and adding a son. Some of the best parts of "Fawlty Towers" was the interplay between Basil and Sybil. I guess they thought giving her a spouse would've made it too much like Maude and Walter.

Making her the Basil Fawlty character and not giving her someone to bounce off of was indeed a large problem (though not the only one--the show was dreadful), and one they tried to remedy by the end. Realizing the son and daughter-in-law were boring, unfunny, and no match for her, they introduced Kevin McCarthy as her brother-in-law in episode 7 and spent the rest of the series setting up a romantic relationship for them, until they got married in the 13th and final episode, so that if the show was renewed she would have that spouse to bounce off of. But not only was the show not renewed, the wedding episode never aired.

Two years later, Bea would end up on TGG, where several of her former co-stars would turn up as guest stars--McCarthy as Blanche's love interest in Second Motherhood, the daughter-in-law as Stan's wife Chrissy, and the son as the private investigator Blanche hired to spy on Rose in season 7.

OMG that was horrible.

For those who haven't seen it, Amanda's wasn't the first attempt at an American Fawlty Towers, nor the first to star a future Golden Girl. Harvey Korman and Betty White starred in a pilot called Snavely, which wasn't picked up. It's also not good, but may be slightly better if only because it retains the husband-wife relationship.

R12 The name killed that one. Who would willingly watch something named "Snavely?"

The writing was terrible, that's what happened. In her Television Academy interview, Bea states she was bitterly disappointed about this show and it was one of the reasons she almost didn't do The Golden Girls. It had been such a bad experience she had decided to retire from series television until she was talked into doing GGs.

r13, titles are easily changed; shitty, shitty writing isn't.

R15 The writing in the Snavely one wasn't bad, because it was basically taken almost word for word from FT.

Bea explained what went wrong with Amanda's:

- She saw Fawlty Towers and loved it; it was farce, which wasn't Maude.

- She thought she would play John Cleese's role and have a husband as a foil. Amanda's ended up having few similarities to Fawlty Towers.

- The scripts were bad. "I complained bitterly — there was nowhere to go."

- Norman Lear came by to observe and told Bea the problem: "It's very simple—you don't have a character."

If you want to see a really bad adaptation of a Britcom classic, check out Beane's of Boston, the American attempt at Are You Being Served?. It had a WONDERFUL cast Charlotte Rae takes on the Mrs. Slocombe role, John Hillerman, of Magnum PI, is Peacock, Alan Sues, of Laugh-In, is Mr. Humphreys, Johnny Brown, Bookman from Good Times, is the Mr. Mash/Harmon character, and Tom Poston as Young(old) Mr. Beane. But, it just didn't work and for some inexplicable reason they transformed the Mr. Rumbold character into the young sexy nephew of the store owner and set up a romantic attraction with Ms. Brahms.

[R18] Absolutely awful. I remember coming across that pilot on YouTube some time ago. I never was a fan of Poston, nor the idea of slapping on bad “old age” makeup onto an actor. Never convincing. Never funny. That actor in the Rumbold role was the only plus. Not that he was any good. Just easy on the eyes.

I believe the Mr Mash/Mr Harmon actor is Don Bubba Bexley though. From Sanford and Son, no?

There’s the awful Fawlty adaptation starring John Larroquette as “Payne”. Dreadful.

I love Bea, but this was dreadful.

R19 I think you are right about Don Bexley(Bubba). I didn’t rewatch it and tired to go from memory.

We had some funny threads about both Snavely and Amanda's last year.

Resurfacing for the heck of it.

On Snavely:

The son is dreadfully dull. Bea needs one-liners to be funny- not a bedroom farce.

R12- Perfect. A LESBIAN and a GAY MALE as a married couple.

R18- Beane's Boston- John Hillerman is such a QUEEN.

Even Amanda's better than Friends

R24 Isn’t Betty White known as a legendary slut in Hollywood? She might be bi, but I very much doubt lesbian. Also Korman never struck me as gay, just a camp straight guy like Jack Benny or Bob Hope.

Harvey Korman was a QUEEN.

No one had to tell me. I figured it out all by myself.

R25 I had a homophobic aunt that wouldn’t watch Magnum PI because she sweared it was about an older rich man, Hillerman, and his younger live in lover, Selleck.

R29- Not on the show but they are/were both GAY males in real life.

[quote]she sweared it was about an older rich man

Oh, DEAR.

When "Krinsky" walks in in that first episode, for a second I really thought he was going to say, "Hi, it's me -- Stan."

Now you know why [italic]Mama’s Family[/italic] lasted as long as it did.

R31 You might want to learn that actual linguists consider nonstandard dialects to not be substandard. Also, I know it is swore but I chose sweared for effect, in describing my homophobic aunt.

No list of crappy American remakes of foreign TV shows would be complete without the abomination that was Kath and Kim.

Shit, that stunk.

Sorry R24. I guess you never figured out that he was a religious right loving repub who did the 700 Club several times.

John Hillerman was also on the great Betty White show. Which sucked but was Masterpiece Theatre compared to Amanda’s.

[quote]For those who haven't seen it, Amanda's wasn't the first attempt at an American Fawlty Towers, nor the first to star a future Golden Girl. Harvey Korman and Betty White starred in a pilot called Snavely, which wasn't picked up. It's also not good, but may be slightly better if only because it retains the husband-wife relationship.

It still has the same major problem as [italic]Amanda's[/italic] would later have: a weak supporting cast. There's nobody here for Betty and Harvey to play off of who comes close to their level.

She had a horrible Q rating which is why they didn’t want to hire her for The Golden Girls. People hated her from Maude.

It was Reagan's America, and she was associated with everything they were rebelling against.

[quote] for some inexplicable reason they transformed the Mr. Rumbold character into the young sexy nephew of the store owner

R18 - That was George O'Hanlon, Jr. (son of George Jetson's voice actor) who was quite darling. Sadly, he did not age well.

[quote] and the son as the private investigator Blanche hired to spy on Rose in season 7.

R10 -

That was Fred McCarren who was kinda cute in an aw-shucks-boy-next-door kind of way. Although a TV staple through most of the 80s, I remember him best for the horror cult fav The Boogens from 1982.

R41 He was very nice looking, just didn't fit in that format.

I just finished watching the 4th episode. It's hilarious!

Also not helping matters was that the early-to-mid '80s was not the best time to launch a sitcom. I feel like "Oh, Madeline," the Madeline Kahn-Carsey-Werner sitcom, would have succeeded if it premiered in the wake of The Cosby Show.

R44 I think this is actually the only genuinely funny episode of the ones up on YouTube. Funny enough, the plot of the episode is virtually identical to a Golden Palace when a food critic dies at the hotel and the girls keep trying to hide the body while a health inspector is inspecting the place.