"Amanda's" - 13 Week Theatre
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
- SUPPORT 13 WEEK THEATRE ON PATREON. / 13week
There were three failed attempts to produce an American version of "Fawlty Towers." This episode, we look at the second attempt.
It's "Amanda's," starring Beatrice Arthur.
Super Chats and Super Thanks are always welcome. Thanks for joining in the fun for the past 50 episodes.
Fair Use is the Law.
I've always felt that the truest successor to Fawlty Towers was Newhart. It had the bones and spirit of Fawlty Towers but maintained its tone and sensibility that melded well with Bob Newhart’s comedic timing.
As I’ll be discussing in my upcoming “Payne” video, the real problem in adapting Fawlty Towers is that Basil is an example of a comedy archetype that doesn’t exist in American comedy: the Hancock, named after comedian Tony Hancock.
@@PabSungenis Isn't this the same reason why Buffalo Bill failed? Main characters that are heels don't tend to do well on American sitcoms.
I don’t think so. “Buffalo Bill” was a typical loud mouthed asshole. And while he wasn’t likeable the rest of the characters were and that balanced it out. The Hancock archetype is essentially a loser who struggles to get ahead and everyone enjoys watching fail harder and harder. The Reginald Perrin series of books (and to a lesser degree the TV miniseries) are another good example.
American comedy never really took to that archetype because Americans prefer to cheer for the underdog. British audiences are much more into schadenfreude.
This is also why European game shows like “The Weakest Link,” “Deal or no Deal,” and “The Wall” don’t hit it really big in America. People don’t want to watch contestants go through a game and leave with nothing (or in the case of DonD one cent, which I think is a worse insult).
@@PabSungenis At the same time though- all three of those shows had respectable runs- DOND honestly would have lasted longer if NBC didnt overkill the show.
The main problem with Amanda's is the fact that Bea Arthur was pretty much Sybil and Basil combined, as was clear, and they tried to make us sympathize with her. Which is the problem with American versions of British shows with a ... shall we say, less than lovable character: we try to **make** the characters lovable - a tactic that fails miserably every time. Basil Fawlty was an unregenerate tyrant whom people loved anyway. The American version too early showed us Amanda's softer side by giving her adversaries who were nastier than she was. That didn't work simply because none of the characters can stand up to Bea Arthur without bastardizing her, which is why they dumped the Fawlty character in the first place.
And that was one of the reasons why the American Red Dwarf pilots (yes, there were two) failed miserably, and why NO ONE wanted to risk an American AbFab, even if it did have Carrie Fisher in the cast.
Still, I watched the Snavely pilot when it showed up on RUclips, and they didn't even TRY to play the characters off like the British original. Betty White was no Sybil (she was more like Polly, to be honest), and Harvey Korman was no Basil. They were essentially playing their more familiar characterizations at the time, and together they didn't have enough chemistry to carry the plot. A shame, really: Betty White and Harvey Korman - two of the great comic actors in television - and they couldn't make this work.
And as for Payne .... well, we'll wait until that comes up, shall we?
I loved the end. And American TV producers learned their lesson and never again....DAMN IT as soon as the Payne opening title popped up on the screen. I died laughing.
Hello, I'm from Brazil, I liked your channel, I love watching these failed American TV shows. Here in Brazil, they tried to make a Brazilian version of SNL. It was horrible. It only lasted one year, 2012.
It's interesting that Bea would later dodge THE GOLDEN PALACE, yet Betty stuck to another hotel-themed sitcom 🤔
I just looked it up: the stars of the three different attempts to adapt "Fawlty Towers" to US television (Betty White, Bea Arthur, and John Larroquette) have won 14 Emmys between them! LOL
If you add Harvey Korman from the Snavely pilot it would be 18!
I think Fawlty Towers should be be okay if they would just adapted as a film film set in the British as it should have been to begin with.
John 4 in a row!
Despite Amanda's was a flop, Bea Arthur was still great. And this role prepared her for The Golden Girls.
Bea Arthur was...well, Bea Arthur!
Well, it prepared her for The Golden Palace, anyway😂
@@jackbohn232 More like it prepared her to stay the hell away from The Golden Palace!
Hello I am a first-time watcher from Maryland and an ardent fan of Bea Arthur. Your summation of Amanda's was spot-on, absolutely spot-on. just subscribed.
And as a fellow Bea Arthur fan, welcome!
Love to see an episode on Condo.
Along with the other half-hour flop that aired either right before or right after "Condo" in the same one-hour timeslot: "Reggie", which was itself an American adaptation of the previous British show "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin". 😯
Elsewhere here I mentioned that Reginald Perrin was another example of the Tony Hancock archetype as Basil Fawlty. I forgot that the American adaptation was so close to “Amanda’s!”
Was Reggie the one with Richard Mulligan? I'd love to see an episode if someone could find it.
I will be lounging by the pool enjoying my vacation waiting for this episode.
These are all on youtube i think. It is a fun binge watch. She is so funny.
Another episode idea would be on ABC's 2005 remake of "Night Stalker", which ABC eventually decided to pull after airing only Part 1 of a two-episode arc. 😯
LOL, did they really? I remember watching the first episode, but I didn't continue because it was so dull and lackluster compared to the original. Guess I dodged a bullet with that one.
I'll give the Amanda's Theme Song 10 points for being dorkiest theme song in TV history...once again my TV IQ has been enhanced...thanks, Pab
Gotta love the random sound effects.
It would actually fit in pretty well with a lot of ITV sitcoms from the period.
OK, here's a very rare Norman Lear sitcom: Apple Pie, a T.A.T. Communications sitcom starring Rue McClanahan and Dabney Coleman, 1978 on ABC. Eight episodes produced, only 2 episodes aired (episodes are listed as "lost"). See below for details:
Apple Pie revolves around a lonely spinster from Oklahoma named Ginger-Nell Hollyhock (Rue McClanahan), who moves to Kansas City, Missouri, during the Great Depression. With no relatives, she decides to put an ad in the newspaper for a family. Through this ad, she is able to get a con-man as a husband, a tap-dancing daughter, a son who wants to fly, and a blind man as a grandfather. Each episode revolves around the family trying to make money.
When the sitcom ended in April 1978, producer Norman Lear created as a star vehicle for Rue McClanahan, who had played Vivian Harmon on . The show was not well received and was canceled after two episodes, though eight had been filmed under the direction of Peter Bonerz
I'm well familiar with that show. It was trying to be like a sitcom version of "You Can't Take It With You" and failed miserably. Good luck finding footage of it...
How about some Norman Lear rarities: Hot L Baltimore, All That Glitters, Year at the Top, Viva Valdez?
As for others from the 70s: Mr T & Tina (Pat Morita leaves Happy Days for this), McLean Stevenson Show, Ball Four (from the infamous baseball book), and those short lived sitcoms from the winter and spring of 1979.
I've been looking for full episodes of Hot L Baltimore. The clips I've seen of the show were edgy and hilarious. I felt that even in its infancy, it would have worked better on HBO.
It was based on an amazing stage play.
@@cityhawk Finding episodes of Hot L Baltimore is like discovering plutonium. I would actually pay good money to watch those episodes. They may be in the Paley Center in NYC, I would have to research that.
@teresapflaumer5717 Hopefully the Norman Lear Effect RUclips channel will release them someday.
I'm really surprised that I don't even recall this show. Not even having heard of it. Maude and Golden Girls were favorites of mine, so I think I would've enjoyed it at the time. But I can already tell it wouldn't have replaced Fawlty Towers as one of my top 10.
It certainly didn’t help that ABC put it on Thursday night at 8:30PM. Both Amanda’s and it’s lead in The Condors were sandwiched between Fame on NBC and that night’s ratings winner being Season 3 of Magnum P.I. on CBS.
@@markhaddox7220 Okay, yeah, that explains it. If I wasn't watching Greatest American Hero then I was definitely watching either Fame or Magnum. Wow, this show had no chance with competition like that. What a shame. And what a shame I was still years away from recording on VHS tapes.
Fantastic video! I hope in your next video you also talk about the influence of Fawlty Towers to the series OVER THE TOP with Tim Curry and Annie Potts. It's the loosest adapt of Fawlty, but certainly borrows many elements.
You might want to do an episode on why these "creators" of such bad shows are given opportunity after opportunity to do it all again.
Great job as always. Amanda's other problem was that by this time NBC was climbing out of its 70s sewer with Must-See TV Thursdays.
Please keep up all your hard work.
Meanwhile, while ABC was doing well with their prime time dramas, they were starting to get stuck in the 1970s with their dated elements in their newer comedies. Producer Norman Lear showed he lost his 70s magic with A.K.A. Pablo and Condo was just a rehash of Lear's hits from the previous decade. ABC also went to the Britcom well to often with shows like Amanda's, Reggie and Open All Night.
@@Quartzquiz333 It is a rough business made more so by American television's 22-24 episode seasons. A good idea is hard to find, let alone produce and just how many good stories can a simple premise support?
@@Quartzquiz333 Condo was from the "Soap" people. Witt-Thomas.
@@mrawesome3915 You are correct, and I did know that. It was like Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas were trying to rehash a Norman Lear show in 1983.
I think it was a boys club mentality!?
Really enjoying this series so far. A couple of other shows that you should check out are a short lived 1979 CBS sitcom called "Working Stiffs" which starred Jim Belushi, Michael Keaton & also featured Paul Reubens & also a short lived 1994 PBS sitcom called "The Steven Banks Show". That last one is really odd as it was an American sitcom produced exclusively for PBS by WYES-TV, Ch. 12 in New Orleans, LA & was based on a failed 1991 sitcom pilot produced by Disney, which was in turn based on a stage play called 'Steven Banks: Home Entertainment Center". After that show was cancelled, Steven Banks went on to work for Nickelodeon as a writer on SpongeBob Squarepants & Jimmy Newtron: Boy Genius. Both Working Stiffs & the Steven Banks Show can be found on RUclips, with the exception of the unaired episodes of Working Stiffs. The 1991 Disney pilot of the Steven Banks Show, & the aforementioned stage play, can also be found on RUclips as well. BTW, I really enjoyed the "Meego" episode.
Great list! Can I add CAPITOL CRITTERS (Steven Bochco's animated political comedy about animals living in and around the U.S. Capitol), BAY CITY BLUES (another Bochco botch, about a minor league baseball team with Dennis Franz as a Loose Cannon Who Gets Results!), BEVERLY HILLS BUNTZ (Bochco and Dennis Franz team up again, this time in a comedy-mystery spinoff of Franz's Det. Norman Buntz from the later seasons of HILL STREET BLUES)...and how can we forget COP ROCK (the only Bochco show I remember that didn't have Dennis Franz in it somewhere!)?
@@drdarkeny While we're talking about Capitol Critters, we should mention two other cartoon bombs made in the wake of Simpsonmania, Fish Police and Family Dog.
@@Quartzquiz333 - OMG, I'd forgotten about both of those shows....
My dear Pab, I humble request you to review "My Living Doll". Thank you
I've been seeing a lot of requests for this show lately...
This is an excellent request. This actually lasted 26 episodes on a strong CBS network. Bob Cummings (from Love That Bob) and Julie Newmar (pre-Batman) sounds like an interesting show. 1964-65 season had some bizarre shows!
@@teresapflaumer5717 Thanks! and I agree!
7:18 Pee-yew, Condo stunk! A bad mishmash of All in the Family and The Jeffersons long after that kind of humor was topical.
Condo - another failed McLean Stevenson sitcom.
Awful show, already dated by 1983.
Hello Larry, In the Beginning, and The McLean Stevenson Show failed as well. Major mistake for him to leave M*A*S*H!
Omg can he do a video about condo next?
@@Quartzquiz333 It certainly didn’t help that it was against the second half-hour of Season 4 of Magnum PI!
I loved the original Fawlty Towers.
I'd love to see threes s crowd.
Despite John Ritter and Robert Mandan starred in this American adaption of the British sitcom Robin's Nest (a sequel to Man About the House--which led to the American adaptation Three's Company), I was disappointed with it.
Loved the video.
Kevin McCarthy was AWESOME in that one episode of Twilight Zone!!
Was that the one where he played a perpetually ageless professor who wanted to marry someone who was considerably younger than him but couldn't because he was immortal? If that's the one, I agree, McCarthy was excellent in that episode.
Another example of a failed US remake was Beans of Boston, which was a US version of Are You Being Served.
That pilot may still be on RUclips. Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Slocumb was fine, but Alan Sues as Mr. Humphries??? Too over-the-top!
FINALLY! So excited!!!
No one should ever be allowed to do a reboot of Fawlty Towers unless it’s John Cleese and even there, we don’t need it
Ironic that both Arthur and White tried their hand at it.
In a scene from Maude, Betty White and Allen Luden are mentioned as Maude is looking for something to watch on TV. Their names were meant to show the blandness of most TV, to underscore how bored Maude was that evening.
….and it’s now known that Cleese is bringing Basil back for another round of FT. Can it possibly work? Awaiting further updates.
NO Yank version of Fawlty Towers" will ever be successful! Other UK-to-US tansfers have worked: "Steptoe & Son" became "Sandford & Son", "A Man About the House" turned into "Three's Company" and "Till Death Us Do Part" was transformed into "All In the Family". But those worked since very VERY few Americans had seen the British original! However, any Yank who's ever lived near a PBS station HAS seen "Fawlty Towers" (and "Are You Being Served"). Since too many Americans have sen the original NO US clone will ever work!
Had never heard of Amanda’s until now. It seems the show was not its own; it had to be faithful to the Faulty Towers roots, yet had to alter them so much it just didn’t flow well. And Bea’s character coldly refusing to wait on a customer? That might have worked with Cleese because his Python humor was usually surreal. But Maude was real world. She was hilariously sharp edged, but never blunt.
I swear this show was called Amanda's By The Sea.
7:17 - 7:32 like to see a video on that trainwreck Condo. It abc's second attempt of a remake of the Thames series Love Thy Neighbour and reboot of the American/abc 1973 sitcom with the same name.
abc wanted to compete with CBS's Newhart, yet failed, Badly!
Never depend on a MacLean Stevenson show as your lead-in.
I read your comment and heard it in Bea Arthur's voice. Hysterical.
Watch Pab's episode on Hello, Larry, which was only on the air because NBC and Fred Silverman planned to use McClean to replace Johnny Carson, who was having a major contract dispute with NBC. Imagine Mac starring on The Tonight Show (I thought he sucked as a guest host)! McClean was not meant to be te lead on ANY show!
A big problem with Americans adapting British shows like "Fawlty Towers" is that it's hard to watch fundamentally "awful" people like Basil Fawlty for an half hour every single week. Maybe, they could reasonably pull it off if it involved the right characters and material. But the thing about British sitcoms is that they generally have 6 to 8 episode seasons and rarely last more than 3 or 4 seasons/series. Of course, in the United States, sitcom seasons commonly last for 22-24 episodes.
This is in no small part why I believe, a show that Pab more recently covered on "13 Week Theatre", Rachel Gunn, RN flopped. The lead character as portrayed by Christine Ebersol was extremely abrasive and nasty. It's likely also why none of Dabney Coleman's sitcom vehicles got off the ground due to all of his characters (whether it be on Buffalo Bill, The Slap Maxwell Story, Drexell's Class, or Madman of the People) pretty much being irredeemably unlikable.
The Office is a rare American adaptation that worked but that was in part because they toned down the "awfulness" of the British version.
Ironically, after Bea Arthur chose to leave Golden Girls, the producers chose to create a new series for the rest of the characters, Golden Palace, another painful flop about a struggling hotel.
It's back?!!
You already know I'm there.
And just last week, you were calling for Pab to cancel it. Oh ye of little faith!
@@Quartzquiz333 Pab? Makes my Friday nights special. No matter what show I love: Tammy Grimes and Meego and loathe: Quark.
7:17 You should do a review of "CONDO"!
You should also do episodes of "My Life and Times" and "Under Cover" (both from 1991), and "Covington Cross" (from 1992).
Coincidentally, all three were ABC shows.
Also, it was awful, and ahistorical as Hell.
The Brits who produced it must have been laughing their asses off....
@MrBigrose11 yes please to Capitol Critters! My Life and Times would be cool too, half hour drama I believe?
Since there are more failed shows, than successful ones, he pretty much has an endless supply of material.
@@heidifedor - yes, but a lot of them fail in silence so there's no story to be dug out behind them.
I'd love to know the backstory to the short-lived television series CBS produced with Keefe Brasselle (THE KEEFE BRASSELLE SHOW, THE CARA WILLIAMS SHOW, THE REPORTER and THE BAILEYS OF BALBOA), who many feel is the REAL "Johnny Fontane" in THE GODFATHER. Supposedly, then-CBS President James Aubrey, a notorious sexual sadist, got too rough with an actress who was the niece or granddaughter of An Organized Crime figure, and Brassellle interceded to prevent Aubrey from getting even worse! In exchange, Aubrey backed Brasselle's foray into television production....
Which of those three are you referring to?
Hi I have a request for you, could you review the Lennon Sister hour from 1969 next? It had a fair share of problems during its 13 week run
You ever think of doing Have Faith?
1970s television isn't the nightmare fuel that it used to be, in my mind at least.
Dearest Bea, John Cleese you were not. It's ok, you were good at yourself.
Dearest Tony Rosato though, deserved better.
Ooh do "Carter Country"!! I loved that show when I was little. Shame it was only like a season and a half long 😪
There is absolutely no way on the planet Carter Country could be made today, and there are very good reasons you don't see reruns of this show anymore.
It ran for two seasons. So it wouldn't be on here. To be honest with you, looking at the perspective of the racial climate at the time, I thought it was very funny.
@@cityhawk I'm not gonna lie, I saw it when I was a kid and it was briefly shown in reruns in my market during the early 80s. Just try running a show today in which one of the main characters acted as a freakin' Ku Klux Klan sympathizer!
@@cityhawk I had no problem with Carter Country's sense of humor. I grew up with Norman Lear shows so I was used to it.
@@teresapflaumer5717 I get it was the humor at the time (I did watch it regularly), but as bigoted as Archie Bunker was, at least he renounced the K.K.K.
Can u do an episode about Condo?
Co-signed
I think there main issue in why an America Fawlty Towers will never work - aside from the fact that you will not have the brilliance of John Cleese's acting and writing - is the fact that Americans don't have a "class" system, or, at least, anything quite as ingrained here as it is in UK. Basil's whole motivation is to appeal and be accepted by the upper class which he will simply never achieve because it is very hard to move out of ones designated class. He also look down on those that he deems "lower" than he - while the reality is he is just like those he disparages. Its probably why he treats those guests the way he does - because they reflect him and his inability to rise above.
Wasn't Rick Hurst Cletus from The Dukes Of Hazzard in this ?
Yup. He was the chef, Earl.
He was also on the short lived 1975-76 ABC Sitcom "On The Rocks", which Pab should review.
basil was not dumb
basil didnt know how to run a hotel and had no filter
the reason that americans cannot adapt fawlty towers is because they dont get it
it's the same reason why, thank god, they will never adapt the IT squad
arthur didnt want to be typecast, but she is basically playing maude owning a hotel
why didnt they just throw a metric ton at Cleese to come and make an american version?
Ideas for upcoming episodes:
Going Places 1990 ABC
Misery Loves Company 1995 FOX
Getting Together 1971 ABC
Griff 1973
Grady NBC
How about all THREE versions of TEMPERATURE'S RISING, an early Seventies hospital sitcom? Season 1 had Cleavon Little as a young, hip Black surgeon clashing with James Whitmore's cranky old Chief of Surgery, and three nurses including Joan Van Ark about a decade pre-KNOTS LANDING. That show didn't do so great, nor did William's Asher's THE PAUL LYNDE SHOW where he tried to create a star vehicle for the sarcastic character actor as a middle-aged married lawyer whose adult daughter marries a hippie -
It made sense at the time, okay? Most Americans back then thought all gay men were wasp-waisted, lisping interior decorators and florists, so Lynde could pass as straight because he wore business suits and played a more acerbic version of the beleaguered Businessman Dad.
Anyhow, ABC's market research told that that people liked "The Hospital Show" and Paul Lynde, but despite that both series were on the bubble - TEMPERATURE'S RISING being up against both BONANZA and the first year of MAUDE may have had something to do with that. ABC ordered Asher to make Lynde the lead of TEMPERATURE'S RISING and Cleavon Little's young doctor a bit more senior and less the comedic engine of the show. Asher refused and they canned him, hiring other producers who wanted to make the series like Paddy Cheyefsky's THE HOSPITAL - a satire of how bad American health care was. Its ratings were far worse than the original series, so it didn't even last the original order! ABC asked Asher to come back and try and save the show by making it like the old one, only retaining Lynde as the lead. That show was a summer replacement - It tanked as well....
RUclipsr "The Norman Lear Effect" is downloading episodes of Grady.
@@teresapflaumer5717 Grady, as in why some second bananas should stay second bananas. Way too bland to carry his own show.
And while you are at it, how about reviewing 2 short lived 1982 ABC sitcoms- "NO SOAP, RADIO", and "Star Of The Family"?
It is kind of a shame that this show did not last. I was only five when it first came on the air, but I watched a couple of episodes on RUclips. To me, it had potential. Bea Arthur was funny as always as the character of Amanda. I also liked Tony Rosato's role as Bellhop of the Hotel. But the son was such a pompous ass and the daughter was so insufferable. Did not like either one of them. But it was starting to hit its stride when Kevin McCarthy was added to the cast. Wish ABC could've held in there a little bit longer. However, if Amanda's would have lasted, we would not have had Bea Arthur as Dorothy in The Golden Girls.
Yeah I liked it. I wish it could have went until the spring of 85 so that Bea could still do Golden Girls that fall.
Good to see the BBC relented, mon congrats, Pab, mon congrats indeed!
As I understand it, it did well in the ratings the first week & went downhill from there.
With that truly terrible Condo for a lead-in, that's not a shock.
@@Quartzquiz333 Another McLean Stevenson BOMB! Yea, it WAS a god-awful lead-in!
They should have just shown the Fawlty Towers episodes instead of creating Amanda.
I believe PBS had the syndication rights to air Fawlty Towers, just like they had the rights to air the British sitcom classic Are You Being Served.
@@teresapflaumer5717 then they shouldn't have bothered at all. I get fed up with Hollywood remaking tv shows & movies that are already perfect, instead of coming up with something original.
okay, having SCTV's Tony Rosado playing a Canadian was mildly amusing. But, that's about it
Oddly, Tony Rosato was born in Italy, but his family moved to Canada when he was four.
@@Quartzquiz333 thanks for the background knowledge
Right! I'm old enough to remember Tony on sctv!
Actually, Newhart was a better remake of this show.
Newhart was not based on Fawlty Towers.
@@PabSungenis I know, but it seems like Newhart almost took ideas from this series. Like the heiress maid that didn’t want to clean. I was saying that Newhart was almost a better remake of Amanda.
Yeah, something tells me Amanda didn't need birth control anymore. And it was pretty dumb to have this mediocre hotel show while both Newhart and reruns of Faulty Towers were airing.
One take a away from the late 70s, those long hemlines on women’s skirts were so damn ugly
Not necessarily a bad show, just the wrong adaptation.
Ah, geez! You can see the stink lines rising from the pilot clips you're showing....
Maybe if they'd modified the show so Amanda's husband was a well-meaning bumbler it could have worked better for American audiences, like a lot of Fifties sitcoms had?
EDITED TO ADD: Wait - she marries her brother-in-law? Oh, My GAAAAAWWWWWWWWDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!
Yeah a marriage of in-laws to drum up ratings? Okaaayyyy……
Americans never learn their lesson
The British have bombed with adaptations of American shows. The Brighton Belles was no Golden Girls. Maybe Pab could review this show to prove that it's not only America that can make bad versions of shows.
@@Quartzquiz333 that would be interesting to see
I’ve been considering “Days Like These” which was an even worse disaster.
@@PabSungenis Hey, do both! 😀
Wow, I've never heard of Days Like These! Looking it up on Wikipedia, my only question is...WHY?! There was no need for it!
@@PabSungenis Horrible, and I mean HORRIBLE 1999 British remake of America's hit sitcom That 70's Show.
THIS IS THE WORST CASTING OF A BRITISH SHOW FOR THE USA. Oh, hang on, I forgot about Red Dwarf. But Maude? Really?
The supporting cast was dreadful. Amanda and Aldo were the only funny ones.
What supporting cast? 😁
The closest Americans ever got was Newheart! Who needed this ?