The "Fawlty Towers" appreciation thread.

Cathyclysmic introduced me to this series the other day, and I haven't laughed so hard in a long, long time. I nearly passed out from laughter during the "Hotel Inspector" episode.

Have you ever seen "Keeping Up Appearances" or "As Time Goes By"? Those two are hysterical as well. :D :D

I've been on a BritCom kick lately. :hi:

It's just too damn funny. I myself have never seen "Fawlty Towers," but....

:D

:hi:

Even funnier than anything he did in Monty Python.

Siddown and lissen to the old folks.

Comfortable? Good.

If you ain't seen "Fawlty Towers" or "Monty Python's Flying Circus," you ain't seen British comedy.

And you ain't laughed.

I'd even go back to the earlier stuff, like "At Last, the 1948 Show," "Do Not Adjust Your Set," "The Frost Report" and the forerunner of 'em all, "The Goon Show."



Thus endeth the history lesson.

You will not be dissappointed!

the Office
Coupling
Good Neighbors

All of these FAR surpass the U.S. lame attempt at humor

Someone tried to make a US version (why?) and it failed, of course. Why ruin something that was perfect?

it was HORRIBLE

They did the same thing with the Office. Ricky Gervais is great - there was no way the U.S. version could approach the humor.

I can't even pick a favorite episode. The one with the Germans is hilarious, but so is the Waldorf Salad one, the one where Basil bangs his head, and so on . . .

The whole cast is damned good, too.

Mr Hamilton: Could you make me a Waldorf Salad?
Basil: Oh, ... ah, ... wa?
Mr Hamilton: Waldorf Salad?
Basil: I think we are just out of Waldorfs.

nevermind

"Yes you did, you invaded Poland!!!"

:rofl:

Oh, German! I'm sorry, I thought there was something wrong with you. Of course, the Germans! ;)

...holding a comb to his lip for a Hitler mustache. Hilarious physical comedy
I still have VHS tapes I made decades ago.

That his foot well above his head when he was goose-stepping. That's extraordinarily hard to accomplish, especially when you're 6"4'. Cleese was (is) an amazing physical comedian! :toast:

From the "Archaeology Today" sketch in MPFC (Episode 21):

"I'll do what I like, because I'm six foot five and I eat punks like you for breakfast."

John Cleese is indeed 6'5".

Never take a man's inch away.

:spank:

:rofl:

oh, my.... :rofl:

"Can't we get you on Mastermind, Sybil? Next contestant Sybil Fawlty from Torquay, special subject the bleeding obvious."

"What were you expecting? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? The Sydney Opera House, perhaps? Herds of wildebeest, sweeping majestically across the plains?"

I'm quoting from one of my favorite (hell, I really love them all, but "Communication Problems" where quite possibly THE hotel guest from hell is making life particularly hard for Basil) episodes.

I've said it many times: "Fawlty Towers" is one of the best television series ever made. It is a work of genius. "Gourmet Night" (which the pic is from) is an inspired bit of genius, as is "Hotel Inspectors" "Waldorf Salad". Fuck, every single episode is genius. From the writing to the sheer brilliance of the cast, "Fawlty Towers" is a masterpiece of comedy.

Watch every single episode, BtBM. And enjoy. :-)

:rofl:

which I've never got tired of. My favorite is a toss-up between "The Builders", "Communication Problems" & "The Germans". And ... :)

You probably know this, but Cleese co-wrote it with Connie Booth (Polly) who was his wife at the time of the first series, but they had divorced by the second (which was about 5 years later). She's now a shrink! Also:

"John Cleese was inspired to write what became Fawlty Towers after he and the rest of the Monty Python team were staying at a hotel in Torquay called the Gleneagles (not to be confused with the world-famous Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire) whilst filming Monty Python's Flying Circus TV series in the early 1970s. The ?wonderfully rude? hotel owner (Donald Sinclair) endeared himself to the Monty Python team by throwing Eric Idle's briefcase out of the hotel ?in case it contained a bomb,? complaining about Terry Gilliam's table manners, and chucking a bus timetable at another guest after the guest dared to ask the time of the next bus to town."

http://www.fawltysite.net/

And thanks for the link to the site.

Eric Idle found that his bag had been removed and hidden behind a distant wall in the garden:

'We thought it might be a bomb,' the hotelier explained grumpily, when quizzed.

`Why would anyone want to bomb your hotel?' asked Eric.

'We've had a lot of staff problems lately', came the reply.


lololololololol

http://www.mgnet.karoo.net/fawlty%20towers.htm

Every time I see the rearranged letters on the "Fawlty Towers" sign during the credits, it cracks me up.
Yep, the show never gets old.

:D

my wife and I were talking about Manuel setting tables one utensil at a time in the episode 'Hotel Inspectiors'

Manuel is a classic character.

















He's from Barcelona.

all his Monty Python alumni are great as well.

Basil: Yes, France, I believe. They seem to like it there. And the swim would certainly sharpen your appetite. You'd better hurry, the tide leaves in six minutes.

I LOVE Fawlty Towers!!!!

Mr Hamilton: "What I'm suggesting is that this place is the crummiest, shoddiest, worst-run hotel in the whole of Western Europe!"

Major: "No! No! I won't have that! There's a place in Eastbourne!"

From "Waldorf Salad"

We could just do a "Fawlty Towers" quote thread, even. :-)

of the winter begathon.

Interviews with the cast members as they are today, back story, clips etc.

Andrew Sachs is the host, without the Barcelona accent.

Keep an eye out for it, your PBS station may drop it in to the next pledge drive.

They did one here in Cleveland last week, and my wife called me in to see it. Hilarious.

Granted, it's only three disks, but what are you gonna do?

Haven't watched them as much as I'd like, though. Roomie doesn't "get it." :shrug:

:thumbsup:

I'm a big fan of the BritCom. :)

Sits on the rack next to the MPFC set. :7











Duck's off, sorry.

Mr. C. K. Watt?

Basil: Is mentioned once more, I shall move you closer to him.

:rofl:

From 'The Builders'

:D

God, that shit's funny - the Germans...

"Manuel....Manuel, let me explain."

Then, there was his pet rat 'Basil' (Or, as Eric Sachs pronounced it 'Bahzeel'.

"The Fire Alarm" which was in the episode 'The Germans' where there's actually a fire in the kitchen, but Fawlty believes its part of the alarm process and keeps sending Manuel back into the kitchen....

To be perfectly honest, I think there are portions of this episode I still haven't seen because I wind up laughing so hard.

His POS car breaks down. He gets out and instead of popping the hood, he starts screaming at the car and threatening it with violence. Then he runs out of the picture and returns with a small tree and starts beating the hood with it. LOL!

I need to get them all on DVD.

I assume that everyone knows that Connie Booth (Polly) cowrote the series with Cleese.

and EVERY time she sees that scene, she's on the floor in tears.

"I need to get them all on DVD."

Ditto. I've got recorded-from-TV videos, but they've worn a little thin.

that in that particular scene, the street is dry when he stops the car, then wet in the next shot. Apparently the rain started while they were setting up between scenes and they didn't have a budget for retakes. Still one of the funniest two minutes in television history, and I never would have noticed if he hadn't mentioned it! :toast:

in the close-up of him turning the key, he twists it back and forth as the engine turns over?

I mean, I know Lucas electronics are weird, but... :shrug:

Well, maybe I did, but I would have been laughing too hard to worry about technical details.

Heh heh. Lucas electronics--"Joe Lucas, aka the Prince of Darkness". :rofl:

the 'flogging' episode was hilarious. I also loved the 'don't mention the war' episode.

Come on, start, will you? Start, you vicious bastard!! Come on!

Oh my God! I'm warning you, if you don't start... (screams with rage)

I'll count to three. (he presses the starter, without success) One... two... three... Right! That's it!

(he jumps out of the car and addresses it) You've tried it on just once too often! Right! Well, don't say I haven't warned you! I've laid it on the line to you time and time again!

Right! Well, this is it! I'm going to give you a damn good thrashing!

(he rushes off and comes back with a large branch; he beats the car without mercy)

The next time my car acts up, I will do this. I believe he said,under his breath "yeah, I bet you will.":evilgrin:

... situation comedy ever made IMHO. Too bad they only made so few.

I cannot imagine a Freeper appreciating the humor in these shows.

Not sure why - except the humor often involves a bit of cerebral activity

One of my (dozens of) favourite scenes.

Manuel: "Madrid!"

That was filmed when Spain was a militarist state with a tinge of fascism.

my favorite .... :rofl:



Along with just about every other aspect of the room, Mrs Richards doesn’t rate the view very highly. Cue Basil:
“What did you expect to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically…!”

wow...one of the best comedy ever-top five..they were asked why they didn`t make anymore shows-they basically said that they ran out of ideas that were really funny so they quit..i`m not sure what my favorite is cause everyone is so dam good....manuel!!!!!!!

that sends me screaming from the room. I can't watch 'em, they make me squirm too much. (ps he also loves The Young Ones. )

I'm from Barcelona

Definitely one of the best.

Other classic Britcoms have been mentioned. I'd recommend "Chef"--Lenny Henry goes nuts as amusingly as John Cleese. And "Blackadder" for the history buffs. "Red Dwarf" for the science fiction fans. Plus "The Young Ones" for the totally deranged.

The British TV "season" is much shorter than ours. That means that relatively few episodes of our faves are available. However, it also ensures that there is less "filler."

Dawn French is part of the brilliant comedy team of Saunders and French. They are the creators of AbFab. Dawn played the daughter and Jennifer Saunders was, of course, Edina. The Saunders and French videos are absolutely side-splittingly funny. :)

and he also sings the theme tune to "Absolutely Fabulous".

French & Saunders have got their usual Xmas special on the Beeb again this year! From the trailers, it looks like they're sticking to movie parodies, which they're generally fantastic at.

Have you seen any of the "Comic Strip Presents ..." stuff? It's a little hit & miss, although there has been some wonderful standout films - "Five Go Mad In Dorset" being my favorite. Rik Mayall & Nigel Planner are starring in a new one in January!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/c/comicstrippresen_7771630.shtml

edit - meant to ask if last years "Vicar of Dibley" specials aired in the US? (one was written by Curtis to launch the "Make Poverty History" campaign).

I'm here in the US and I have to watch Britcoms on Public Broadcasting Stations or see what is available on VHS or DVD. I've just seen two Saunders and French specials. I'll have to order some DVDs. I can't afford digital cable which would carry BBC America. :(

British TV is so much better than the majority of American TV. Maybe it's because you are not so uptight as we are.

Dawn French is Mrs. Beaver's voice in the new Narnia movie.

:hi: from across the pond here in Georgia (named after one of your kings!)

very anarchic humour and quite, quite brilliant IMO. From the BBC comedy guide:

"The premise was simple: the series depicted a flatshare from hell, with four anarchic, lazy, dysfunctional students living on the breadline and hating and abusing one another. But it was the style of The Young Ones rather than the idea that gave the show its individuality. It gloriously reflected the free-basing, high-octane, in-your-face, unpredictable quality of 'alternative' comedy and turned its back on all of the old, established rules and clichés of television humour to present 35 minutes of rampaging, violent slapstick which had more in common with Warner Bros cartoons than with situation comedy as known to this point. A huge range of bizarre ideas was tethered to the loosest possible storylines and confusion was deliberately added by sudden cutaways to characters and situations not involved in the plot. The show also had musical guests - a first for a sitcom - whose appearances somehow had to be accommodated within the story. Whatever its merits or shortcomings, The Young Ones certainly succeeded in looking different, and that was half the battle won. The 'establishment', at first, was horrified and reviled in equal measure.

(however, a warning if you click the link below -- the paragraph beginning "Though perhaps lacking some of the raw verve of the first series," contains a huge spoiler)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/y/youngonesthe_1299003473.shtml

Neil: Do you think that you could get something while you're there to clean the toilet with?
Rick, Vyvyan: What?
Mike: I don't think I can, Neil.
Vyvyan: You can't clean the toilet, Neil. It'll lose all its character.
Rick: We NEVER clean the toilet, Neil. That's what being a student is all about. No way, Harpic. No way, Dot. All that Blue Loo scene is for squares. One thing's for sure, Neil. When Cliff Richard wrote "Wired for Sound", no way was he sitting on a clean lavatory. He was living on the limit, just like me. Where the only place to put bleach is in your hair.
Vyvyan: Living on Limits? What, are you on a diet?
Rick: No, I live on The Limit, Vyvyan. The Limit. Because I'm a Rider at the Gates of Dawn and I take no prisoners.


The US DVD comes with an episode from "Filthy, Rich & Catflap" (a 6-part sitcom featuring 3 of the cast & also co-written by Ben Elton) and "Bottom" - Rik Mayall & Ade Edmonson proving that violence & sexual innuendo can be very funny.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006AUH9/

You might also like 90s sitcoms "Father Ted" & "Black Books", which I know are available in t

The last series ended with baby Geraldine being a model for a new statue in Dibley. I'll have to look for DVDs. I don't watch American episodic and sitcom TV except for a few shows: Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives and occasionally, Will & Grace. I'm never home to watch West Wing. I'll have to watch the series on DVD.

Dawn French did not play Jennifer Saunder's daughter in AbFab. Saffron (Saffy) was played by Julia Sawalha.

Dawn French did appear in AbFab as "Kathy" a chat show host, but it was an infrequent role.

That is the next british seris on my list for the Beast Man to watch. :thumbsup: