Beane's of Boston

This US version of the UK series "Are You Being Served?" is absolutely dreadful. Considering the cast (notably John Hillerman, Tom Poston, Charlotte Rae and Alan Sues) it should have been a lot better. No wonder this pilot was not picked up. Of course, you can judge for yourself as it's on Youtube, but better to avoid this and stick to the original British comedy.

"Beane's of Boston" is an American attempt to recreate the British sit-com "Are You Being Served?". I have never watched the British show, so I cannot compare them. Suffice to say, "Beane's of Boston" is simply terrible....filled with smarmy innuendos and sexual harassment and simply stupid much of the time.

The show begins with Franklin Beane meeting with his elderly father, Frank Beane (Tom Poston) meeting. It seems that Franklin has no sense for the family business and department store sales are down in his division. It's so bad, the father might need to fire his son in order to save the family business. The rest of the program shows his misguided efforts to increase sales.

So why didn't I like this one? Most of the humor fell flat. Yes, one like by Alan Sues about the French was pretty funny (hence a score of 2 instead of 1)...but the rest just seemed amateurish and unfunny. Amazingly, one of the writers was Garry Marshall and it was directed by veteran sit-com director, Jerry Paris. The material just seemed beneath them...and, for that matter, just about everyone else. Simply wretched.

This show is worth a watch if you're a fan of the original series, "Are You Being Served?". I ran into it on YouTube and I was glued to my iPad for 30 minutes of nostalgia and some surprisingly good American versions of characters I grew up with. Alan Sues (Laugh-In) is a perfectly American version of Mr. Humphries. Mrs. Garret from Facts of Life and Higgins from Magnum PI provide great translations of Mrs. Slocumbe and Captain Peacock, respectively. If you're not familiar with the original series, you won't appreciate much of the humor. But at this point it's 2024, so I'd imagine the only ones watching are the true fans.

Difficult to believe that Gary Marshall, who I have enormous respect for, produced this, it's essentially a translation of the Brit sitcom "Are You Being Served". Unfortunately, it's miscast - Alan Sues comes to mind but pretty much everyone is miscast except John Hillerman who had natural comic timing. Like the UK version, it has crass, lowbrow humor, but unlike the British version it wasn't produced by David Croft who had an instinct for casting likable, standout characters who could get away with lowbrow humor. Even the TV direction legend Jerry Paris wasn't able to rescue this turkey.

Interestingly the British and US sets were close to identical. One of the few flops of a Britcom being translated to the US - i.e. Sanford and Sons, All in the Family, Three's Company, Dear John, The Office... etc. Etc. All big ratings hits.