# Fawlty Towers and John Cleese's (In)sanity

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fawlty-towers-and-john-cleeses-in-sanity/566766>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 7, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fawlty-towers-and-john-cleeses-in-sanity/566766 "2011-01-07T18:34:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fawlty-towers-and-john-cleeses-in-sanity/566766/41 "2011-01-10T19:15:49Z")

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I’d like a gin and tonic, a lemon squash, and a scotch and water, PLEASE!  
RIGHT!

The actor choices seem to be the only ones who could actually do the role, though I find it hard to imagine an American production that could do due justice to the acerbic wit.

John Cleese would probably view the series, call up, and say, “I shall come over there and insert a large garden gnome into you. Good day.”

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**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 10, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fawlty-towers-and-john-cleeses-in-sanity/566766/42 "2011-01-10T19:38:41Z")

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I thought the John Laroquette version was only a few years ago, not 1999.

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**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fawlty-towers-and-john-cleeses-in-sanity/566766/43 "2011-01-11T08:25:07Z")

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I would like to see the version that BBC has made for a German TV channel. IIRC it takes place on Rügen and Manuel is Russian. For some reason they didn’t include the last episode.

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**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fawlty-towers-and-john-cleeses-in-sanity/566766/44 "2011-01-11T23:46:45Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> The best episode (IMHO) was when the loud-mouthed American guy came in-he insults Basil and called the hotel a “dump”-extremely funny!

I’m sorry, we’re all out of Waldorfs. 😃

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**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fawlty-towers-and-john-cleeses-in-sanity/566766/45 "2011-01-12T02:24:24Z")

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Out of all the American series, the one with Harvey Korman and Betty White seems to be the one with the most promise, based on casting alone. I can see Harvey Korman pulling it off.

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