Amanda's

Based on the successful British BBC-TV series FAWLTY TOWERS starring John Cleese, It stars Bea Arthur and falls competely flat. Many reasons contribute to it's demise. First, Arthur is very good at put-downs, but unlike TOWERS, Arthur needs to be the butt of the joke a lot more often. But at a time when American women were looking for more role models and independence, the writers may have been hesitant to try and degrade Arthur's character. Also missing from this show is the physical humor in the TOWERS series. The way Cleese bent, fell, wobbled, crawled, skipped, ran, etc is non-existant. Archie Bunker was a closer match to Basil Fawlty than Amanda Cartright.

This misguided remake is missing two ingredients of the original: 1] The main character; and 2] Laughs. By casting Bea Arthur as the title character, and writing the character to gibe with her well-known-to-the-audience persona, they essentially had to eliminate the main character of the source material (Fawlty Towers). It could be said that the characters of Basil and Sybil Fawlty were combined to make Amanda--but if true....WHAT A STUPID MOVE! Since the primary conflict of FT was between Basil and Sybil, and whether she caught him "misbehaving," the only outlet for emulating that successful formula on Amanda's would have been for her to suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder.

I actually think Fawlty Towers itself is a tad overrated. I have loved watching many of the episodes, but from time to time, especially when watching more than one episode in succession, the frenetic pace and shouted dialog's gets to be too much. That said, Amanda's never even approaches the level of Fawlty Towers.

I seriously wonder why some even bother to attempt to emulate, imitate or just copy what was perfect in the first place with the original. Sort of like someone attempting to "re-write" Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Cleese & Booth wrote a perfect series with the perfect cast. They are "real" characters whereas this series is a "characature" of the original, i.e. one dimensional stereotypes. The pace is good, some of the jokes are o.k. but there certainly is none of the self inflicted stress & situations that Basil Fawlty would find himself in. Never try to imitate the original especially if it is/was great in the first place. Many have tried that route & usually always fail. There's only one Laure & Hardy, Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd & there's certainly ONLY one Fawlty Towers! Be original & do something NO ONE else has yet done. That's how the greats did it hence why they're great.

This was another attempt to make an American version of the hit British series Fawlty Towers. Ms. Arthur was the owner of a hotel. Just like on the British show, her character had to deal with insufferable guests. Ms. Arthur is excellent at put-downs and sarcasm. However, it wasn't enough to keep this show going.

Preceded by "Snavely Manor" ( Harvey Korman, Betty White ) followed by "Payne" ( John Larroquette, JoBeth Williams ) this second attempt to Americanize the classic British sitcom "Fawlty Towers" pulls a gender bender switch by casting Bea Arthur as the owner of a small country inn.

While the sharp tongued Arthur (Maude, Golden Girls) was well suited for the verbal jousting of the role, the series lacked the pure physical slapstick of the British original.

While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery I recall being outraged to discover that the credits for the program made no mention of "Fawlty Towers" even though many scenes, particularly in the pilot, were lifted directly from the original.