# John Cleese to revive "Fawlty Towers" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [February 7, 2023, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455 "2023-02-07T22:48:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/81 "2023-02-19T07:42:40Z")
Whatever is in the new FT, I’d like to see a character (maybe just a one-off) who is a transwoman named Loretta. Possibly played by Eric Idle. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/82 "2023-02-19T12:07:55Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > What can I say except that I don’t agree, but to each his own. I still watch it quite frequently even though I’ve seen each episode so many times that I have the scripts memorized. I think this is really key. For _you_, watching FT is essentially a nostalgia experience, reliving _you_ watching it 20+ years ago, and again last month and … Plus of course you enjoying the fact that you know what’s about to happen next. It scratches a repetitive itch you have. For _me_, who has no history of it, I just see annoying people behaving annoyingly who I’d walk out on in minutes, and more likely seconds. It’s pure frustration to them, and pure frustration for me to watch. And tiresome sight gags only a child could enjoy. I’m NOT suggesting that I am “right” and you are “wrong”. Merely that e.g. you and e.g. me are having two very different experiences of the same show. Everybody has some itch they love to scratch. We all only differ in what that itch is. It’s wonderful that you enjoy FT so much. But IMO the reboot will fall flat to folks like me if it’s faithful to the original but fall flat to folks like you if it isn’t. A tough conundrum for the writers / producers to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/83 "2023-02-19T12:57:39Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > At a different level, I kinda feel the same way about _The Honeymooners_ – still love it! One thing that stands out today is the low-budget production values, including the same small cast of supporting actors appearing again and again in different roles, Did you ever notice how the view out the kitchen window changes - sometimes during the same episode? Yeah I probably still quote the Honeymooners more than any other show than maybe Seinfeld. But Ralph’s attitude towards Alice can kinda jar these days. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/84 "2023-02-19T14:40:12Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Yeah I probably still quote the Honeymooners more than any other show than maybe Seinfeld. But Ralph’s attitude towards Alice can kinda jar these days. I don’t actually think that’s fair. Sure, every sitcom was a product of its time, but I think _Honeymooners_ was innocent even by today’s standards, at least, compared to other sitcoms of the time. Ralph’s proclamations about “one of these days, Alice – boom, zoom, to the moon!” were just bluster. Ralph’s proclamations that he was “the master of the house” and “the king in his household” and Alice just a humble servant was actually parody that exposed the ridiculousness of such views that prevailed at the time. Every show where there was a conflict ended with Ralph and Alice reaffirming their love. And as for Alice being a fulltime housewife, when it was necessary she went out and got a job. The comparison with another sitcom of the same era – _Father Knows Best_ – is very revealing. FKB was explicitly moralizing, and was much admired for it at the time. In fact, every episode ended with a rather pretentious crest styled “Rodney/Young”, after the producers Eugene Rodney and Robert Young, with the Latin inscription “Ars Pro Multis”. This meant “Art for the masses”, presumably in opposition to the putatively incomprehensible highbrow stuff of traditional stage and screen. Among its morality themes, just off the top of my head: - Margaret, the contented and ever-competent housewife, always knowing her place; - the elder daughter Betty being thwarted in her “ridiculous” attempt to pursue an engineering career, and learning that a girl’s proper role was to grow up to be pretty and a good wife; - the Anderson’s Latino gardener who changed his name to a more Anglo one in a noble effort to become a “real” American; - Betty (again) falling in love with an Air Force pilot who was suddenly transferred to Alaska, and Betty learning to understand that patriotism is more important than love, and cheerfully going off to find another man. Yeah, I kind of got carried away there, but the point being that _The Honeymooners_ was remarkably innocent and non-controversial by pretty much timeless standards. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/85 "2023-02-19T15:00:20Z")
I thought Betty wanted to be a teacher. 🤔🤨 Margaret was always sharper than Jim. He may have brought home the bacon, but his advice was usually terrible. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/86 "2023-02-19T15:54:58Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I thought Betty wanted to be a teacher. Betty has wanted to be many things throughout the series, but was always driven to the housewife role by the prevailing culture. I don’t even recall the teacher aspiration. The one I was referring to was “Betty, Girl Engineer” (Season 2, Ep. 30). There was also “Betty’s Career Problem” (Season 6, Ep. 29), in which Betty competes for a job as a buyer in a department store and which has a similar “a woman’s place is in the kitchen” morality theme. > [@terentii](#): > > Margaret was always sharper than Jim. He may have brought home the bacon, but his advice was usually terrible. That was the case in the first one or two seasons, in which the title of the series was meant to be ironic, but sponsor and audience preferences soon turned Jim Anderson into a paragon of enlightened wisdom. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/87 "2023-02-19T16:04:10Z")
How about _Dragonfly’s_? Or maybe _The Flying Tart._ ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/88 "2023-02-19T16:04:40Z")
There was an episode where Betty was out on a date, and the guy asked her what she wanted to do when she graduated. She told him she wanted to be a teacher. Unfortunately, I don’t know the title of the episode or the season it was in, but I’d guess it would be one of the later ones where she was older. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/89 "2023-02-19T16:10:03Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Yeah, I kind of got carried away there, but the point being that _The Honeymooners_ was remarkably innocent and non-controversial by pretty much timeless standards. Tastes and opinions differ. And I admit the most recent one I reviewed - which impressed me as downright unpleasant - was outside of the “core 39”. Right now, I prefer to keep my fond recollections unsullied, rather than run the risk of marring them with a rewatching. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/90 "2023-02-19T16:34:55Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I can’t watch the '60s–'80s retro block on daytime TV anymore because it’s filled with such sitcoms. I find myself asking “Did people really think these were _funny_?” To be sure, there were a lot of un-funny sitcoms in the 60s -80s (the 80s in particular), but the shows I found funny then, I find funny now, despite the often poor production values. Shows like The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show (before Don Knotts left), Get Smart, Taxi, All In The Family, The Odd Couple, Newhart, Barney Miller, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, M_A_S\*H (before it got preachy), and others, are still very funny shows. Even the wacky 60s sit-coms like The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, The Addams Family, The Munsters, etc., still make me laugh. Going back further to the 50s, comedies like Your Show Of Shows are still comedy gold. I mean, c’mon, can you watch this clip without laughing?: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gNbT9Lf9xZo/hqdefault.jpg "Sid Caesar - "This is Your Story" with Carl Reiner and Howard Morris (Full Sketch)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNbT9Lf9xZo) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/91 "2023-02-19T16:42:49Z")
Some of the ones you mention are occasionally part of the lineup, and I do watch those. Others that I may have laughed at back in the day I just don’t find funny any more. I would love to see more of shows like Sid Caesar’s. They never seem to grow old. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/92 "2023-02-19T18:48:19Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > …with the Latin inscription “Ars Pro Multis”. This meant “Art for the masses”, presumably in opposition to the putatively incomprehensible highbrow stuff of traditional stage and screen. I rather like the motto Stan Freberg came up with for his advertising business; “ars gratia pecuniae”, art for money’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/93 "2023-02-20T00:31:29Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > Shows like The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show (before Don Knotts left), Get Smart, Taxi, All In The Family, The Odd Couple, Newhart, Barney Miller, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, M_A_S\*H (before it got preachy), and others, are still very funny shows. Not all of those would be on my list of timeless classics, but some are, and for good reason. _Get Smart_ was blessed with the creative genius of Mel Brooks, _All in the Family_ with that of Norman Lear, and _Newhart_ with the gentle, inimitable humour of Bob Newhart. ---
**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:** [February 20, 2023, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/94 "2023-02-20T01:38:19Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > I mean, c’mon, can you watch this clip without laughing?: I have never seen that clip and it was terrific. Thanks for sharing. Sid Caesar was such a funny guy and this clip captures him so well. Love it. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/95 "2023-02-20T04:36:12Z")
Yes, Sid and the entire cast of YSoSs were funny to the extreme. And, that reminds me that the very best (at least my favorite) comedians and humorists hail from NYC, usually Brooklyn. My Funny Ranking by location: 1. NYC (e.g. George Carlin, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Don Rickles, and way too many others to list). 2. The U.K. (e.g. the Monty Python crew, Stan Laurel, Ricky Gervais, and many others). 3. Boston (e.g. Bill Burr, Conan O’Brien, Patrice Oneal, and a few others). 4. Philadelphia (Imogene Coca, David Brenner, and a couple of others). 5. Australia (Jim Jefferies, [Clarke & Dawe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM), and one or two others). 6. Canada (Norm Macdonald, John Candy). 7-194. Somewhere Else (?) 1. Germany (???) There’s just something about Brooklyn that breeds world-class funny. Maybe it’s because, from an early age, I was weaned on Mad Magazine. Nearly all the top creatives and editors from MM were Brooklynites. There must be something funny in Brooklyn’s water. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/96 "2023-02-20T05:41:47Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > Canada (Norm Macdonald, John Candy). You forgot Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Leslie Nielsen, Dan Aykroyd, Samantha Bee, Seth Rogen, Mort Sahl, Martin Short, Johnny Wayne & Frank Shuster, and about a hundred others. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/97 "2023-02-20T13:19:04Z")
Alright, you scored some points for a few of those Canucks. After due consideration, I’ve re-arranged my list: 1. NYC 2. The UK 3. Philadelphia 4. Canada 5. Boston 6. Australia. … 1. Mars 2. Germany As you can see, I bumped Canada up 2 spots, to #4! [you’re welcome]. However, I also bumped Philly up to #3. I’d forgotten about Larry “Philly” Fine (of 3 Stooges fame) and Ben Franklin (who, while not generally regarded as a stand-up comedian, was a very funny fellow). Australia got demoted to #6 because their Sydney Funnel Web Spiders are not at all funny. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/98 "2023-02-20T15:02:59Z")
How much German-language comedy do you watch that you can confidently place it at the end of your list? (I’m curious whether you’re aware that eight of Germany’s ten highest-grossing films of all time are comedies, and whether you’ve actually seen any of them.) ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/99 "2023-02-20T15:07:34Z")
I’ll let South Park be the judge: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oy2VqDi4sFg/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-BIAC4AOKAgwIABABGGUgWShPMA8=&rs=AOn4CLCaXKGMwNrwTxWoD32syRDHLKLfOw "South Park - Germans") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy2VqDi4sFg) ---
**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:** [February 20, 2023, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-to-revive-fawlty-towers/979455/100 "2023-02-20T15:08:55Z")
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