Beane's of Boston

"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.