Fawlty towers = Newhart?

Cafe Society
1

I was talking to someone the other day about britcoms. He lamented the fact that they never tried to remake Fawlty Towers in America. I started thinking about it, and I started to think that Newhart was largely a remake of it.

Fairly normal and in-control lead, if somewhat over reactive: check.

Incompetent staff. Check.

Strange townsfolks, Check.

Guests fairly rare and ignored unless plot point. Check.

Wife is halfway between sane lead, and becomming on of ‘them’(the wierdo suuporting cast).

So what do you say remake, partial influence, or coincidental ‘generic sitcom set-up #1251’ that both happened to be set in small inns.

2

I don’t know about Newhart, but I do recall John Laroquette starring in some horrid American version of Fawlty Towers, the name of which escapes me.

3

His lamentations are sadly misplaced. There have been at least two remakes of the BBC original attempted in the US. If you never see any of Paine, then be truely grateful.

4

Make that Payne. It doesn’t actually make it any better.

5

Wow, I had never heard about Payne. And from the reviews I can find it sounds like that was a good thing.

Thanks,

6

Sometime in the late 80’s, I remember John Larroquette commenting on the Tonight Show that a sitcom like Fawlty Towers wouldn’t work in America because viewers would find the lead character, Basil Fawlty, too abrasive and unlikeable. Oddly enough, Larroquette would his point with Payne about ten years later.

7

You must be remembering a different Basil Fawlty than I am. Every show has Basil losing it, sometimes to extreme. Remember The Gemans? Basil the Rat? Waldorf Salad? Well, there’s no point in listing every title, is there?

I just don’t see the similarities you do, though they were both fine shows.

8

There were three attempts at adapting Fawlty Towers to the American market: The Nutt House with Harvey Korman, Amanda’s with Bea Arthur, and the aforementioned Payne.

Truth is, Fawlty Towers’ influence is/has been all over American TV, with Cheers and Frasier being the most obvious examples. Frasier in particular very closely copies the kind of bedroom farce enshrined in Fawlty, with its very tight, strongly motivated plots that escalate further and further into chaos and absurdity. Its that quality of writing that truly distinguished Fawlty, far more than the mere hotel setting.

9

I too immediately thought “Fawlty Towers” the couple of times I saw “Newhart”.

10

I think Newhart owes more to Green Acres than it does to Fawlty Towers. I really don’t see any great similarity between the characters on Newhart and Fawlty Towers.

11

John Cleese made Fawlty Towers. No John no Towers.

12

Yeah, I saw Newhart as more like Green Acres, too.

I saw an episode of Payne and it was just plain sad. It tried to be too like Fawlty Towers and failed miserably.

The line up of Prunella Scales, John Cleese, Connie Booth and Andrew Sachs can never be duplicated.