I agree that it’s a pretty specific formula – the hotel itself, the misanthropic owner who feels that running a hotel would be so much easier if it weren’t for the guests, the dim-witted Spanish waiter who also doesn’t speak English (“but I learn! I learn!”), the domineering wife, and the level-headed housemaid who tries but fails to play mediator in this madhouse. But I don’t agree that they ran out of ideas because of the “narrow conceit”. Within that fixed setting, the episodes are about as different as can be. In a sense, the :“formula” makes it easier, not harder, to come up with new ideas. What’s not so easy, though, is maintaining the same level of quality. PG Wodehouse had no problem inventing huge numbers of scenarios around the Jeeves and Wooster theme or the Blandings Castle theme with similar constraints.
I totally believe Cleese when he said he didn’t think they could maintain the quality for a third season. Each script was crafted with great care – an average of about six weeks of combined effort by Cleese and Connie Booth. And it took four years after the first series before they ventured into the second one, mainly because of Booth’s reluctance to become involved again.
We all have different tastes, but it genuinely saddens me that you feel that way. In my view, Fawlty Towers is a treasure, and I never get tired of it. I literally have no idea how many times I’ve watched it, but certainly often enough that every line of every episode is etched into my brain, yet it still entertains, and I still keep watching it. I even have a book of the scripts, and when I read it every episode plays in my head because I know it so well, which makes for an interesting variation of actually watching it. I don’t think it has aged at all – the only thing that looks old about it is how young Cleese is. Yes, I’m a fan – a totally loony over-the-top obsessed fan! And Fawlty Towers did a lot more than just “[catch] the public imagination at the time”. In 2000, the British Film Institute voted it the best British comedy series of all time.
I believe season 1 episode 1 is A Touch of Class. I’m tempted to say “one of the good ones” but every one of them is a gem. This one nicely highlights Basil’s extreme stuck-up snobbery, his disdain for his (non-aristocratic) guests, and his comically volatile temper.
White was smart enough to avoid doing physical comedy which, unfortunately for Cleese, the original Fawlty Towers had a lot of. The reboot can’t have Cleese doing pratfalls and running frantically about because everybody will be afraid he’ll break his hip. It could turn out as bad as Lucille Ball’s last TV show.
But it was completely and entirely his fault that it blew up in his face. For his own amusement, he decided to behave as if he had completely forgotten their anniversary, because he enjoyed torturing her and knew he’d get the last laugh when he “surprised” her with the party with their friends. Then when she understandably got upset and stormed off, rather than follow her and apologize abjectly, he thought he’d avoid the embarrassment in front of their friends by making Polly pretend to be an ill Sybil. He absolutely deserved the karmic beatdown in that episode.
I must confess that as much as I think every single episode of Fawlty Towers was a gem, that particular one – The Anniversary – was a notch below the others. I found it rather bleak in comparison, and it really stretched the suspension of credibility granted by artistic license beyond the breaking point. If I’ve watched most episodes more than a thousand times, which is likely, I’ve probably watched this one only a few hundred times!
You are quite right, but I can say that having stayed in a number of establishments not dissimilar to Fawlty Towers, this sort of weird internal architecture is very common. So even if the producers and set designer made it this way primarily for the comedic possibilities (and so that both floors of the set could face a live studio audience, I assume), it is also completely realistic.
Wow, I hadn’t seen that. I agree, it wasn’t very good. Not quite sure why, though. Their final reunion (called Monty Python Live (Mostly)) at the O2 arena in July, 2014 after 16 years was very well received. In fact, though it was supposed to be a single performance, it was expanded to 10 after popular demand, and the final one was also broadcast around the world and made into a film.
As for the Fawlty Towers reboot, I wish them every success and look forward to it, but I am not at all hopeful, as already said. If Cleese was dubious about succeeding in a third series while he had all the original cast and could possibly have persuaded Booth to co-write, then one can hardly imagine this one working, unless it was somehow a brilliant, fresh idea that bore only a passing resemblance to the original.
But just to put a bit of hopeful spin on the situation, Cleese seems to think that executive producer Matthew George is a comedic genius, and has talked about how he and George were inspired to throw together the outline for the first script in just a couple of days. Rob Reiner is another executive producer, and that can’t hurt. But beyond that I got nuthin’ – just blind hope!
I was there on the first night. The Pythons could have spent two hours reading a bus schedule aloud and we would have lapped it up. I think we were all just happy that they could replicate the old sketches. I wasn’t the only one who came away worried about Terry Jones. The candy sketch the first night was really awkward.
That’s epic! I wish I could have been there. I have, however, seen the video of the whole show. It was a major upscale production and very well done, I thought.
We had really good seats but still relied on the overhead screen, so watching it on TV is almost the same experience. The best part of the experience was being surrounded by tens of thousands of people that were also into the weird thing that you shared with, maybe, half a dozen people in high school. BTW, the first thing I saw when I got off the tube near the Tower was a giant dead parrot beside the Thames.
Cleese is doing the right thing since there’s no way the original could be re-created, but sadly, this introduces yet another risk. Even if the reboot is a critical success – which is itself a pretty tall order – it will be so different from the original that it still might not appeal to us diehard perennial Fawlty fans. This should really be billed as “John Cleese, creator of Fawlty Towers, is planning a new sitcom” rather than being a “remake”.
For instance, one of the appeals of the original to both Britons and non-Britons alike was its humourously exaggerated Britishness, like Basil’s sycophantic groveling over aristocrats (particularly seen in A Touch of Class and Gourmet Night) or archetypal British characters like the venerable Mr Hutchison:
Basil: I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting, sir. I had no idea my wife was so busy. Hutchison: Fear not, kind sir, it matters not one whit. Basil: I beg your pardon? Hutchison: It matters not one whit, time is not pressing on me fortunately. Now some information please. This afternoon I have to visit the town for sundry purposes which would be of no interest to you I am quite sure, but nevertheless I shall require your aid in getting for me some sort of transport, some hired vehicle, that is, to get me to my first port of call. Basil: Are you all right? Hutchison: Oh, yes, I find the air here most invigorating. Basil: I see . . . Well, did I gather from your first announcement that you want a taxi? Hutchison: In a nutshell.
