# Does Basil die at the end of Fawlty Towers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301 "2009-01-21T14:58:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301/21 "2009-01-22T00:24:13Z")
Probably my all-time favorite comedy. Basil lives. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301/22 "2009-01-22T00:57:18Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > High concept pitch to Paramount Television: “Imagine _Gilligan’s Island_ in a bar.” > > Stranger I didn’t realize Carla and Diane also bunked together. My Gilligan’s Island fantasies remain intact. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301/23 "2009-01-22T02:38:09Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > Nicely done, but I believe Cleese is on record as calling Fawlty “a monster.” I don’t think he was ever intended to be an average man. Also, leaving the hotel certainly was not his primary motivation in every episode (or any episode, that I recall). In the episode that inspired this thread, he was struggling to stay _in_ the hotel business. If Basil was a “monster”, it was only because of the conditions he had to live in; a shrill harpy of a wife, an incompetent porter, a harassing vandal of a paperboy, the never-ending threat of the food inspector, et cetera. Basil certainly aspired to raise his social status, but his attempts to do so in the only way available to him, i.e. sucking up to the clientele, fell flat and unnoticed. He’d have abandoned the hotel business and with it his “saber-tooted tart” of a wife if he could raise himself above it. He cannot, of course; this is the best he can ever do with the mediocre talents handed to him, and so he’s stuck to suffer his lot. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301/24 "2009-01-22T06:01:54Z")
But I love heeeemmmmm!!! ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301/25 "2009-01-22T14:46:40Z")
I always thought (without knowing the actual airing dates) that “The Kipper and the Corpse” was the final episode, since Basil does manage to escape in the laundry hamper. I guess, given **Stranger’s** astonishing treatment above, that after being transferred from the truck to a ship, then another truck, then an airplane, then another truck, then finally being unloaded, he opens the lid only to find himself back inside the hotel. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301/26 "2009-01-24T00:54:01Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Also Connie Booth (who played Polly) is now a psychoanalyst and will no longer talk about the show. She divorced Cleese between the 1st and 2nd set of shows. ( **first set filmed in 75, 2nd set in 79** ) I find this remarkable. Is it at all common to have a gap like this in a series? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301/27 "2009-01-24T01:02:32Z")
In the US it’s not typical to have a 4 year gap. I am not sure about England, but I doubt it’s common there. Most British shows have shorter seasons, not the 22 episodes the US has. Fawlty Towers had 2 seasons of 6 shows. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301/28 "2009-01-24T01:50:46Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > In the US it’s not typical to have a 4 year gap. I am not sure about England, but I doubt it’s common there. Most British shows have shorter seasons, not the 22 episodes the US has. Fawlty Towers had 2 seasons of 6 shows. Well, not super common, but Absolutely Fabulous took breaks between its seasons as well. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301/29 "2009-01-24T02:55:36Z")
The Sopranos took about 1.5 years off between seasons 4 and 5 and about 2 years between 5 and 6. That’s the longest gaps I can think of in American TV. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301/30 "2009-01-24T17:47:01Z")
Cleese has a young girlfriend but she’s not as young as she says she is. > **[John Cleese, his blonde lover and the truth about her claim to be only 27](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1127085/John-Cleese-blonde-lover-truth-claim-27.html)** > > John Cleese's girlfriend claims to be 27 years old. But records obtained in the US suggest that she has knocked an impressive 18 years off her age and is in fact 45. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-basil-die-at-the-end-of-fawlty-towers/482301.md?page=1)