and made it work in his own way circa 1983? One who could capture John Cleese's bootlicking of the "important guests" and his disdain for everyone else.

Good question. They were looking for a Basil type for Amanda's and never found one.

Maybe there was nobody that could do it like John Cleese especially when all the public tv stations in America were already running Fawlty Towers by that point. That's a tough act to follow.

I do think Ted Knight could've pulled it off. If you squint your eyes enough he did play a somewhat similar archetype on the MTM show and also in Caddyshack. He was also good at physical humor. Of course after playing the pretentious idiot Ted Baxter he apparently didn't want to play such characters anymore. He was also under contract on "Too Close for Comfort" when Amanda's aired.