Fawlty Towers

(Don't mention the war.)

The last time I saw the episode with the “n word” a few years ago, it was not bleeped out.

Flowery Twats

Farty Towels

Definitely funny.

One of the best.

LOVE Prunella as Sybil.

Eez no rat, eez Siberian hamster

Are you Orally men?

Lousy poll OP.

It's quite funny at times but not hilarious. And certainly better than Lucy. So that option is missing in your poll.

Pigeon! Like your English!!

[quote]LOVE Prunella as Sybil.

Oh, I KNOOOOOW ... I knoOOOOOW ...

I love it but I only can only watch about 7 or 8 episodes. A good chunk are so cringe-inducing I can't sit through them. John Cleese loves this kind of humor though, and in the commentaries of these episodes is laughing his ass off. He's a brilliant, funny man but he does have his weird quirks that even I don't get.

If the guest isn't singing Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin', I don't immediately think oh, there's another snuffed it in the night!

Love It.

My favorite show of all time.

Have you seen the people in room 6? They've never even sat on chairs before...

Wonderfully politically incorrect without being hateful.

"We'll just have a big trough of baked beans garnished with a couple of dead dogs"

"why don't you have another vat of wine, dear"

The talking moose head bit may have been the show's high point.

There were THREE American remakes of this show, with Harvey Korman and John Laroquette in the John Cleese role

And Bea Arthur, of course.

It's a dad show.

Poor Prunella is senile. There is an interview she did with Australian TV I think that is heartbreaking.

Find it yourself, Google and Youtube are easy to use.

[quote]Find it yourself, Google and Youtube are easy to use.

Thanks, Mary.

I thought it was okay. What bothered me was the staircase on the second floor. It made no sense.

"How many sheets will you be needing, Mrs. Richards?"

Well perhaps you should consider moving to a hotel closer to the sea! (Or preferably in it.)

R11 There are only 12 shows in the entire series. It's a terrific show, with a special shout out to Andrew Sachs! I do love Prunella Scales, especially the "I know" sequence, and the fact that she can fix and put husband Fawlty in his place.

I still find it hilarious. My favorites were Gourmet Night- the part where Basil lifts up the lid to find a trifle instead of the duck is classic- and Mrs. Richards. The guest who dies is also funny.

I thought the best scenes were always between Manual and Basil.

Where’s the real boss- the generalissimo?

In Madrid!

"The Americans" was also very funny.

"Oh! Harold Rob-BINS!"

I'm another fan of Mrs. Richards.

Also, "The Psychiatrists," with the "How often can you manage it?" scene and the ladder-climbing business with "She go CREZZY!"

I learn it from a book.

I never really liked Fawlty Towers; I thought it was overrated. It was just too uneven and mean-spirited for me.

Everyone was unlikable except Manuel. Connie Booth had no real personality at all and was so obviously not British. I absolutely loathed Sybil. She wasn't a likable foil for Basil in the way Peg Bundy or Helen Roper were, but a very nasty, worthless, ball-busting bitch. She made the show practically unwatchable for me.

The only episode I thought was funny was the one with the roasted duck. The other episodes, eh. I think people think the show was much funnier than it was because it was just coming off the heels of Monty Python and starred John Cleese. JMO.

Win: Ab Fab.

Place: The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Show: Fawlty Towers.

She must be quite convincing, As I understood that Connie Booth was British? I disliked the physical violence on the show, especially Basil hitting Manuel a lot. Another scene I like was when Basil ends up in the hospital, where Sybil was having a toe operation, and she gives him a long list of the problems while she was away briefly. I also liked the scene where poor Polly had to pretend to be an injured Sybil, when the real one had stormed out in a huff.

Terry the cook was rather dishy I thought. Not long ago I saw the episode regarding the undercover cop with the open chest and heavy gold chains, which struck me is a funny parody of that era's men.

I didn’t like Monty Python, mainly the visuals of the show. I enjoyed Fawlty Towers.

This isn't salad creme. It's puke I tell you!

I never knew Connie Booth was American until I read this thread. Now I know why the show was so funny.

There were only two episodes that didn't seem right. The episode with the Irish builders. It was the second episode and Sybil comes off as a total cunt and asshole, I can forgive it, because it was early on.

The second "off" episode was late in the series, where Basil throws Sybil an anniversary party and pretends to forget. Sybil gets made and walks out and Polly pretends to be Sybil. It didn't make sense.

The rest were hysterical, especially the deaf lady ("is this a piece of your brain?"), the Germans ("don't mention the war") and the last episode with the hotel inspector ("care for a rat?")

R29 I also love the Psychiatrist couple in the hotel dining lounge : To Basil: "My wife is surprised that you can manage it at all."

R38: That's one of the four I don't like. Cleese admits he's sending up his father in that episode, how he would be so obsequious to a doctor or any professional person. That episode, the Wedding Party, The Anniversary, and Waldorf Salad are the ones that seem to be written for Cleese and Cleese alone. When Polly is pretending to be Sybil it's just cringe inducing to me! And in Waldorf Salad I absolutely HATE the American, I don't want to root for him, he's a total asshole. The other 8 are golden though.

Connie Booth was Cleese's wife and she co-wrote the show with him.

I don't think she got any royalties since they divorced. I don't believe she's had anything to do with him since the divorce.

[quote]Connie Booth was Cleese's wife and she co-wrote the show with him. I don't think she got any royalties since they divorced. I don't believe she's had anything to do with him since the divorce.

And for many years, she refused to speak about Fawlty Towers in interviews.

The PBS affiliate station where I grew up must have run every Fawlty episode at least 5 or 6 times a year , mostly after dark, when I was in high school. Combine that with pizza, beer, and weed in the basement with friends on weekend nights...

Sometimes Channel 24 on the UHF screwed up the order of episodes, and sometimes they interrupted for a pledge drive, but yeah, what a great few years of continuous reruns. I convinced my mom to donate to the channel one year.

Cleese, of course, is at least genius-adjacent, as they say these days.

Win: Black Books Place: AbFab Show: Faulty Towers

A gin and orange, a lemon squash and a scotch and water, PLEASE!

I always idly wondered about the back story of The Major, that old man who lived in the hotel. He was sort of senile, and always wandered around in a suit, reading a newspaper or swilling booze in the bar. How did he come to live in a hotel long term? What did he supposedly do when he wasn't shown on screen? Didn't care about those two spinster sisters, though.

R44, I love you. Just laughed out loud, hard.

Possibly the best comedy ever made.

Hard to believe it was only 12 episodes.

Perfection.

BRITISH

Win: Fawlty Towers

Place: Ab Fab

Show: Coupling

AMERICAN

Win: Frasier

Place: The Good Place

Show: Community

[quote] And in Waldorf Salad I absolutely HATE the American, I don't want to root for him, he's a total asshole.

The American was played by a Brit actor. He played the commanding general of the secret rebel base on the ice planet Hoth in the Empire Strikes Back. He also used an American accent in that.

I think the doctor who examines the dead body was Judi Dench's late husband, right?

"I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor and I want my sausages!"

R50: No, it was Lionel Hardcastle, her long lost love. He was great in that episode.

Geoffrey Palmer played the sausage doctor on FT and co-starred with Judi in "As Time Goes By". I didn't watch that one. He was in every nearly every PBS Britcom produced in the late-70s and early-80s though, notably as Wendy Craig's dentist husband in the forgotten wistful Carla Lane sitcom Butterflies that aired in certain PBS markets (theme by Dolly Parton). He's still alive and 91 years old now.

Trivia: John Cleese's character in Rat Race was called Donald Sinclair, which was the name of the hotel owner on whom Basil was based. It always sticks in my head because it was my grandfather's name as well.

Mrs Richards: When I pay for a view, I expect something more interesting than that.

Basil: But that is Torquay, madam.

Mrs Richards: Well, it's not good enough.

Basil: Well, may I ask what you expected to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically...

R55: Look, even though I'm not satisfied, I've decided to say here. But I do expect a reduction.

Manuel is a hot little fuck.

[quote] Manuel is a hot little fuck.

Not anymore. He’s dead.

R45- I liked the Major but I also wondered what he did all day. Did he just hang out at the hotel? The hotel looked like it was far away from shops and pubs so maybe he just sat out in the garden all day. And how could he have afforded to live in a hotel on a military pension??

Expected Fawlty Towers to be as funny as this Python sketch about boarding houses.

So disappointing.

Basil to the hospital nurse: "Don't touch me. I don't know where you've been."

R44 R466 I actually have that on a t-shirt. Those in the know who see it laugh out loud.

r45, I think that used to be a thing in England, for old people to live their final years in hotels. I've heard it mentioned on other shows plus a friend of mine in London said something about that being her plan for later in life.

he two old ladies, Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs, also lived in the hotel.

[quote] he two old ladies, Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs, also lived in the hotel.

We don’t care about those two spinster sisters though. We only care about the major’s back story.

John and Connie remained friendly. In fact the last series came after they were divorced. Between the first six and second six episodes there was a four year time span.

In fact, on the 2009 interview, which Connie finally agrees to talk about Fawlty Towers, she said, they worked better together, when they were seperated.

Connie is now married to John Lahr who is the son of the cowardly lion Bert Lahr.

Another fun fact: Ballard Berkeley, who played the Major, had been working in show business for half a century when he was cast in Fawlty Towers. He was close friends with Cary Grant, and even shared an apartment with the legendary actor back in their early days, when Grant still went by his real name, Archie Leach.

I always crack up at the scene where the health inspector is offered a biscuit and Manuel's pet rat is sitting in the tin. Everyone just pretend it's not there.

There is too much butter on those trays.

Briliant show. Pity that that brilliance hasn't existed in years.

It was great but it was so long ago. Cleese has become a bore, always complaining about having to tour because of all the alimony he has to pay his ex-wives but keeps getting married. He lost it after working/living in the US and becoming involved in all that psychobabble nonsense.

Writing the screenplay for episodes and then staging them was a major undertaking for Cleese and Booth which is why they did only 6 episodes in 1975-1976 and later on 6 more during 1979-1980. It was a high-wire act that worked twice. They had already divorced my the time they wrote the second series of episodes so doing even more episodes later on would have been even more difficult.

R69: Not quite. The British TV system basically has about 6-9 episodes per series (their term for seasons). And they have a history of taking multiple years off between series. It's not like the American 22-episode seasons for consecutive years at a time. Ab Fab only did 5 episodes a piece for the first 3 series. It's a better system in my opinion, quality over quantity.

R66: I think you mean "uno dos tres."

R71: I learned CLASSICAL Spanish, not the strange dialect he seems to have picked up!

Well, he's from Barcelona...

Harold Rob-bins?!

I thought you meant that awful man what's his name?

Harold Robinson!

IMAGINE, putting "no riffraff" in the advertisement.

I shall sleep au naturel tonight!

Why did the spoon seller want to know about the table tennis? He was there by himself so was he going to play alone?

I find a few scenes pretty cringe worthy: when Polly sings "I'm just a girl who can't say no", when she imitates Jimmy Cagney "you dirty rat" and when she quotes Annie Hall "la-di-da". The last is when Basil imitates a duck, jumping around, flapping his arms and squawking. I don't remember what episode that happens in, but it's just too OTT - I MUTE the audio when those scenes come on.

One positive thing - they depicted a gay man in love with another and didn't make it gross or objectionable, which is surprising for the time period. It was the male chef in "Gourmet Night" who was in love with Manuel and the rest of the staff were fine with it.

Why didn't those 2 old lady residents complain when Basil sent them back up to their room on Gourmet Night? He said that they weren't supposed to be down in the dining room, but if they were paying for their residency at the hotel, he had no right to shove them back up to their room. Especially since there were only 4 other guests coming.

They should've complained.

Miss Abitha Tibbs: Oh, you're very cheerful this morning, Mr. Fawlty.

Basil Fawlty: Yes, well, one of the guests has just died.

Mrs Richards: When I pay for a view, I expect something more interesting than that. Basil: But that is Torquay, madam. Mrs Richards: Well, it's not good enough. Basil: Well, may I ask what you expected to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically... Mrs Richards: Don't be silly. I expect to be able to see the sea. Basil: You can see the sea! It's over there between the land and the sky! Guest: I'd need a telescope to see that. Basil: Well, might I suggest you move to a hotel closer to the sea. Or preferably in it.

R81, are you also R54?

There was some really cute guy from Torquay on chaturbate the other day. He was too busy jacking off or I would have asked him about the "Fawlty Towers" connections.

"What's that smell, dear? Burning martyr perhaps?"

Bernard Cribbins who played the unhappy diner was Catherine Tate’s grandfather on her season of Doctor Who.

Never funny. We prefer Hyacinth Bucket.

Stinkfish