rlr (02/15/83)
I am very curious about viewer reactions to the new ABC series "Amanda's", (based on John Cleese [MONTY PYTHON] and Connie Booth's British comedy series "Fawlty Towers") starring Beatrice Arthur (Maude) as the hotel proprietress. How many Python/Fawlty fans watched it, even if only to see how bad a job American TV would do to in 'interpreting' Fawlty Towers? What did you think? Do any of you out there remember /another/ attempt to bring Fawlty Towers to American TV, in the form of a pilot called "Snavely" starring Harvey Korman and Betty White (as American sitcom talent goes, probably a fairly good choice to play Basil and Sybil)? I've heard that John Cleese was very disappointed in Korman's performance, saying that if Korman had been a good deal nastier (something he is eminently capable of doing), Cleese would be collecting royalties on a successful American TV series today. Did anyone who /did/ watch "Amanda's" notice Tony Rosato (ex-SCTV and ex-Sat. Night Live) playing the part of Aldo (read, "Manuel")? I thought he spoke too much English too well to accurately convey the character. To those of you who were spared the ordeal of seeing great comedy butchered: both "Snavely" and "Amanda's" liberally stole from two or three episodes of Fawlty Towers (hotel inspector, deaf lady-----both of which are on the now available F.T. record album) and mucked them up completely. From the sparse memories I have of "Snavely" (it was a few years back), I remember that it was much better than "Amanda's", though I think the Manuel part was a bit underdone. "Snavely" was somewhat closer to the original in spirit, but the producers still seemed to see a need to add some sort of American touch (??) to their series, thus, for me, spoiling it totally. Much more of this "touch" was added to "Amanda's", unfortunately. I am interested in hearing what people who saw "Amanda's" without ever having been exposed to "Fawlty Towers" thought of the show. Rich
dfz (02/21/83)
I was taken sick for a week recently and, having little better to do, had the misfortune to tune in "Amanda's". I was shocked. It was bad enough that the show was poorly executed, unfunny and even boring at times. But to this they added the inexcusable act of plagiarizing from a *great* English comedy, right down to the nuances of the set. As I watched the credits roll by, I fully expected to see some mention of Fawlty Towers, but instead realized that any attempt to associate FT with Amanda's would be an insult to FT's creators. What's-her-name took a long step down from "Maude" when she agreed to participate in this travesty.