Beane's of Boston's greatest feature is its ability to make you appreciate the actors on the original British series Are You Being Served? This pilot for a never-produced American version of the show was based on the "German Week" episode of the original, but captures none of the charm, and very little humor, of the original.
The American cast looked great on paper, but only John Hillerman showed any signs of living up to the role. He and Charlotte Rae had a glimmer of potential chemistry, but the writers gave them nothing to work with. The real problem, though, was replacing the department manager, Mr. Rumbold, with a nebbish nephew of the store's owner. The pilot framed him as the central character, but gave him no funny lines, personality, or even character traits. The pecking order of the original series was gone, leaving only stock characters working in a failing store. George O'Hanlon, Jr. may be a very talented guy, but in 1979 he was not up to being the central character of a sitcom.
The original British cast delivered their lines with perfect timing, letting the bombs drop as character observations. The American cast beat every punchline with a borscht-belt gusto and dropped them in with the subtlety of a thermonuclear device.
The American cast looked great on paper, but only John Hillerman showed any signs of living up to the role. He and Charlotte Rae had a glimmer of potential chemistry, but the writers gave them nothing to work with. The real problem, though, was replacing the department manager, Mr. Rumbold, with a nebbish nephew of the store's owner. The pilot framed him as the central character, but gave him no funny lines, personality, or even character traits. The pecking order of the original series was gone, leaving only stock characters working in a failing store. George O'Hanlon, Jr. may be a very talented guy, but in 1979 he was not up to being the central character of a sitcom.
The original British cast delivered their lines with perfect timing, letting the bombs drop as character observations. The American cast beat every punchline with a borscht-belt gusto and dropped them in with the subtlety of a thermonuclear device.