It stars Bea as Amanda Cartwright, the sardonic, sharp-tongued owner of a seedy hotel beside the sea. Amanda terrorizes her staff, especially porter Aldo; insults her guests, and generally makes a hash of things. She's helped/thwarted by her son Marty, who graduated in hotel management, and her spoiled daughter-in-law Arlene.

If the plot sounds vaguely familiar to you, it should. It's based loosely on John Cleese's hilarious British series Fawlty Towers in which he portrays a hotel owner with about as much tact as Amanda.

The producers are adamant, though, that that's where the similarity ends. "The show is built around Bea's tremendous talent and personality," says writer/producer Elliot Schonman, who was part of the Maude production team. And keeping it All In The Family is director John Rich, who was responsible for the early years of Family and later Maude, which was a spin-off from the popular series.

Bea realizes, however, that whatever she does is always going to be compared with Maude. "But," she says, "this is a natural reaction. Viewers identify you as a character, and it's hard to shake the image."

She really likes the Amanda idea. "It's an outrageous farce with a certain amount of basic reality. The characters appeal to me and it's a lot better than some of the stuff I was asked to do after Maude. I had a signed contract with ABC to do another series but it had to be by mutual agreement. Amanda's By The Sea is the only one we saw eye to eye about."

Producer Schonman was more emphatic. "It's Bea's show-- we never even considered anyone else."