Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered

Come visit the worst-run hotel in the whole of western Europe (well, except for that place in Eastbourne...)In a field with many top contenders, 'Fawlty Towers' remains my favourite of all 'Britcoms' - situation comedies originating on British television. Fawlty Towers has a cult following decades after the originals aired; it is sometimes hard to believe that there are but 12 episodes, six hours total. The regular cast is led by John Cleese, veteran of the famous Monty Python comedy troupe, as the irrepressible Basil Fawlty, titular head of the hotel with dreams of class and glory; Prunella Scales is his long-suffering and hardworking wife, Sybil, who recognises that while Basil may think 'the sky's the limit!', in fact, '22 rooms is the limit'. Connie Booth (Cleese's real-life wife) played the level-headed and sensible, overworked maid Polly, and in a role matched only by Fawlty's own bizarre manner, Andrew Sachs plays the loveable and ever-incompetent Spanish waiter, Manuel (he's from Barcelona...). Ballard Berkeley makes a regular appearance as the Major, a retired long-term resident at the hotel. Brian Hall joined the cast for the second season as the not-quite-gourmet chef, Terry.From the very first episode (first aired in 1975) featured a social-climbing Fawlty as perhaps the most rude and insufferable hotel manager in existence, in the resort town of Torquay, on the Channel coast of Britain. Sybil tries to maintain a reasonable level of service, but Fawlty's snobbishness permits him to be gracious (indeed, excessively fawning) toward those he considers 'worthy', which in this episode turns out to be Lord Melbury, who ends up not being Lord Melbury, but rather a confidence trickster, and Fawlty's revenge scares away the real 'posh' guests, whom Fawlty sends off with the hilarious shout, 'Snobs!'In each of the episodes, there is a crisis - one gets the sense that the life of Fawlty is non-stop crisis, with his wife and Polly forever picking up the pieces, Manuel always complicating things, and the others wandering around in a state of disbelief (or, in the case of the Major, perpetual daze). The twelve episodes highlight all the things that could wrong at hotel in classic comedic fashion - the institution of a Gourmet Night falls flat when the not-quite-recovering alcoholic chef starts drinking the night of the main event; a guest dies in the middle of the night, and Fawlty tries to slip him out unnoticed; remodelers install and remove the wrong doors; the health inspector unexpected shows up and gets served a bit of rat with his cheese.However, nothing quite matches the kinds of situations Basil can get himself into. When trying to plan a surprise anniversary dinner for his wife, she leaves the hotel thinking that Basil has forgotten again, and Basil dresses Polly up as a sick-bed-bound Sybil to fool the guests. When Polly's friends check in for a wedding over the weekend, Basil suspects the group of free sexual expression (highlighting his own repression); this theme is carried over to a glorious extreme in the episode about the visiting Psychiatrist.'How does he make his living?' Basil protests. 'He makes his money by sticking his nose into others' private parts, er, details...'This is also the episode where Sybil finally confronts Basil about his double-sided hotel manner toward guests: 'You're either crawling all over them, licking their boots, or spitting poison at them like some Benzedrine puff adder,' she declares. He replies in perfect form, 'Just trying to enjoy myself, dear.'As the psychiatrist will comment near the end, there's enough material for an entire psychiatrist conference. Indeed there is, as this is slapstick humour with a difference. Intelligent and witty while utterly chaotic and beyond the pale, one is treated to the moose-head incident and the ingrowing toenail as well as Fawlty's unique form of automobile motivation (how many of us have ever been tempted to whack away at a stalled car with a stick!) and a nice performance of Brahms (his 'third racket', to be precise). One must not overlook the little details, either, including the ever-changing sign in front (the actual hotel used for the exteriors unfortunately burned down many years after the show), and the fact that the interior and exterior layouts of the building cannot correspond (shades of 'The Simpsons' whose furniture layout changes from scene to scene).It is almost inconceivable that the two series, each of six episodes, were four years apart (1975 and 1979), as they flow rather seamlessly together. Popular on television networks worldwide, it can be seen variously on BBC America and local public television channels, often during the fund drives, when the most popular pieces are shown.The DVD has various extras, including interviews with Cleese, Scales and Sachs (Booth was not available); there are director's commentaries as well as a tour of the now-abandoned hotel used for the exterior (a rather bizarre piece, that). The extras are sadly substandard, but the series itself is excellent, and worth having in the digital format.

For our nation's notoriously short memory a comedy series from the 1970's seems as ancient as the Fall of Rome. By that I do not refer to the season. This series debuted in 1975, one of the years a number of our college campuses claimed to have invented sex. By contrast Basil Fawlty, the lead character played by John Cleese, was hopelessly repressed, as blissfully insensitive as they come and possibly, some might add, as self-centered as our culture has generally become today. Cleese and his then wife and co-star, Connie Booth, did a brilliant job of writing 12 classic episodes with remarkable consistency in quality. Once writers establish such a rare, high level as their standard, all successive episodes must have become intimidating to try to emulate. I believe that accounts for the series being so short. Rather than keep cashing the checks, the writers wanted the series to end while all episodes were consistently excellent rather than continue and risk sliding into mediocrity. In any case, it was one of the shortest, and arguably, the best written comedies on TV.This brief, physical, farcical, linguistically playful, and clever humor greet the viewer today with as much intelligence, glee and irreverence as almost 40 years ago. Each episode plays with and counter to our notions regarding good manners, guilty titillation, irrationality, as well as lampooning a variety of national, ethnic, and gender stereotypes including Brits and Yanks. It was all fair game and almost always hilarious. Even the most outrageous script still managed to avoid being outright mean or cruel. Secondly, the bigoted, vain, greedy, foolish, lazy lout called Basil, managed to end up the prime recipient of retributive justice -- to our delight -- every show. He was too thick to ever learn his lesson, thank goodness. The supporting cast was also brilliant and essential as an early triumph of an ensemble comedy.Highly recommended for anyone who loves British humor, those who appreciate analytical comedic writing, and for all of us who can laugh at the outrageously silly. But humor, like everything else dealing in personal taste, is a highly subjective matter. If you have never seen it, please use the magic of VOD or streaming to see if you like it before you buy it.The only criticism I have is to acknowledge that some of the plots have aspects that have not aged as well as others. We live in a different time with our own cultural and social sensibilities. For example, today humor making fun of gay stereotypes in particular is out of step with the majority of Americans and practically everyone else. IMO these jokes simply fall a bit flat today. I can't reject them solely on the basis of their being in bad taste because after all that was one of the fundamental principles of the show's humor. One could argue if it succeeded because of or in spite of its questionable taste.Basil embodies bad taste. His countless flaws are a pantheon of human weaknesses. Much of what makes this series so endearing and enduring is that it underscores many recognizable human frailties that are just as prevalent today as they were then. Yes, if you happen to be more familiar with British culture you will get a little more out of it but it is its universal appeal that carries it. Moreover, comedy in the hands of such gifted, bright, insightful writers and such an outstanding cast will help Fawlty Towers continue to delight new generations. Basil the Rat, despite himself, has earned his place in Western comedic history today as Basil the Icon.

Hilarious. John Cleese does not disappoint. Some of the jokes are "off color" by modern sensitivities, please remember this was filmed in an era when people weren't so easily offended.