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Fawlty Towers.

  • 08-04-2018 2:51pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,487 ✭✭✭


    I have watched some of the repeats of this classic sitcom on RTE and i have to say i find it a lot funnier than what passes for comedy today does anyone else find that it has stood the test of time quite well and like Only Fools and Horses is among the greatest classic comedy series its also notable that only 12 episodes were produced which is significantly fewer than other series.


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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 165 ✭✭ignorance is strength


    I think it's aged badly. Watched it repeatedly as a kid, but, on viewing them now, can't help but grimace at the low-brow slapstick, redeemed somewhat by the Monty Python gene in some of the writing.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,802 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    One of the most perfect comedies ever IMHO


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,231 ✭✭✭theoneeyedman


    NIMAN wrote: »
    One of the most perfect comedies ever IMHO

    This.

    I watched several episodes on the reruns over Easter, still holds up fantastically well. So much going on each episode, many strands happening and intertwining. There is slapstick of course, but much else going on too. I'm only delighted that they have left it alone and not 'updated' it or rewritten it, as they have done with say Porridge.

    Modern comedy is written differently, audiences will not invest any time to let a story line develop, they are used to the Big Bang Theory with its laugh every 15 seconds or whatever.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,802 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    , they are used to the Big Bang Theory with its laugh every 15 seconds or whatever.

    There's a laugh every 15sec in TBBT?

    Not in the episodes I ever saw!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,070 ✭✭✭ScouseMouse


    NIMAN wrote: »
    One of the most perfect comedies ever IMHO

    Don't mention the war!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 21,489 ✭✭✭✭Tell me how


    I think it's aged badly. Watched it repeatedly as a kid, but, on viewing them now, can't help but grimace at the low-brow slapstick, redeemed somewhat by the Monty Python gene in some of the writing.

    You must be strong as an ox! :)

    Think it's classic. Definitely falls in to category of wouldn't get made now in PC times.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,231 ✭✭✭theoneeyedman


    NIMAN wrote: »
    There's a laugh every 15sec in TBBT?

    Not in the episodes I ever saw!

    There is a forced laugh/joke/canned laughter every 15/20 seconds.... I find it quite distracting TBH, but I guess it reminds people that it's a comedy.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,371 ✭✭✭Westernyelp


    NIMAN wrote:
    There's a laugh every 15sec in TBBT?


    There's a laugh track played every 15 seconds more like


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,827 ✭✭✭madmaggie


    I could watch it time and time again. It's got so much going on, apart from the obvious slap stick and often daft plot lines. That said, my favourite is Dad's Army, often with daft plot lines, but with many layers.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15,853 ✭✭✭✭Spanish Eyes


    I agree with others, it is timeless as is Only Fools too. (and of course Fr Ted).

    Hilarious most of the time. Modern comedy is not funny. At all.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 22,935 ✭✭✭✭pjohnson


    tenor.gif?itemid=5075213


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,893 ✭✭✭Canis Lupus


    I made me cry with laughter as a child and now that I'm older I still find it wonderful and revisit the show from time to time. It never gets stale.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,074 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    Cleese is a genius.
    I still enjoy FT.
    I got a present of the full set on dvd some years ago and love watching them again.

    Also enjoyed Hold the Sunset, in a different way.


  • Registered Users Posts: 555 ✭✭✭shaunr68


    Don't mention the war!

    You started it!


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,230 ✭✭✭jaxxx


    Only John Cleese can make beating a car with a tree branch hilarious!

    Funnily enough I was watching it on some channel (can't remember which) last night or the night before. Anyway before it started, the channel narrator said some disclaimer along the lines of "this program contains language from some time ago that some people may find offensive". This was then repeated in a written disclaimer as the theme played on the opening. In all my years watching on TV, I have never seen that before.

    I was just flabbergasted. Has the world become so pc and left-wing that we have to censor old comedies now? Quite frankly I find it pathetic. I cannot recall any scene in Fawlty Towers that would actually necessitate such a thing, except perhaps the Germans episode with Basil doing his 'impressions' but even still.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,733 ✭✭✭Duckworth_Luas


    I once had a Spanish flatmate in the UK who loved Fawlty Towers.

    It was being repeated on TV at the time and while watching it together Manuel appeared on screen.

    He told me that this Italian idiot waiter was his favourite character.

    He got very confused when, in English, Manuel claimed to be from Barcelona and not Naples.

    He had only ever watched it dubbed into Spanish. In Spain they changed the character to an Italian so as not to offend people.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,246 ✭✭✭✭ArmaniJeanss


    jaxxx wrote: »
    Funnily enough I was watching it on some channel (can't remember which) last night or the night before. Anyway before it started, the channel narrator said some disclaimer along the lines of "this program contains language from some time ago that some people may find offensive". This was then repeated in a written disclaimer as the theme played on the opening. In all my years watching on TV, I have never seen that before.

    I was just flabbergasted. Has the world become so pc and left-wing that we have to censor old comedies now? Quite frankly I find it pathetic. I cannot recall any scene in Fawlty Towers that would actually necessitate such a thing, except perhaps the Germans episode with Basil doing his 'impressions' but even still.

    Its the 'difference between wogs and ****' explanation from the Major which gets the warning.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,130 ✭✭✭KaneToad


    madmaggie wrote: »
    That said, my favourite is Dad's Army, often with daft plot lines, but with many layers.

    Never saw the appeal of this. Found it deeply unfunny. I always saw it as appealing to British viewers only due to its militarism/triumphalism..


  • Registered Users Posts: 17,822 ✭✭✭✭silverharp


    I think Fawlty Towers is a bit dated at this stage though still very good, maybe its the fact there are so few episodes there is only so often you can watch them. If I could only take one series in this genre to a "desert Island" it would have to be only fools and horses.

    A belief in gender identity involves a level of faith as there is nothing tangible to prove its existence which, as something divorced from the physical body, is similar to the idea of a soul. - Colette Colfer



  • Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 34,939 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    I once had a Spanish flatmate in the UK who loved Fawlty Towers.

    It was being repeated on TV at the time and while watching it together Manuel appeared on screen.

    He told me that this Italian idiot waiter was his favourite character.

    He got very confused when, in English, Manuel claimed to be from Barcelona and not Naples.

    He had only ever watched it dubbed into Spanish. In Spain they changed the character to an Italian so as not to offend people.

    Surely they changed him to an Italian as the entire gag is based on the repeated linguistic misunderstandings between him and Basil and a Spanish waiter speaking Spanish to another Spanish speaker would render this completely null?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 21,489 ✭✭✭✭Tell me how


    Surely they changed him to an Italian as the entire gag is based on the repeated linguistic misunderstandings between him and Basil and a Spanish waiter speaking Spanish to another Spanish speaker would render this completely null?

    I think they could still have understood the premise that it was an English hotel owner speaking to a Spanish waiter but that the insinuation that Manuel was incapable or less intelligent as a Spanish waiter was probably expected to tick off viewers hence the change to Italian.

    Ironically, for most of Spain now, they'd probably fully buy in to an unintelligent waiter from Barcelona given the whole Catalonia scenario.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,643 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    My kids all love it and laugh hysterically at every episode. I don't think many other 70s or 80s sitcoms stand up as well (Blackadder perhaps - Only Fools is good but turned into a bit of a soap opera in later series).

    I don't know how many times I've seen them but I still find them funny and will always watch them if I'm flicking around and they're on Dave.
    I think it's aged badly. Watched it repeatedly as a kid, but, on viewing them now, can't help but grimace at the low-brow slapstick, redeemed somewhat by the Monty Python gene in some of the writing.

    Is this a piece of your brain?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,487 ✭✭✭Mutant z


    I can watch any episode of it over and over and laugh harder than anything i have ever seen of Friends and The Big Bang Theory that monty python like scene of dont mention the war is a true classic.


  • Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 34,939 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    I think they could still have understood the premise that it was an English hotel owner speaking to a Spanish waiter but that the insinuation that Manuel was incapable or less intelligent as a Spanish waiter was probably expected to tick off viewers hence the change to Italian.

    Ironically, for most of Spain now, they'd probably fully buy in to an unintelligent waiter from Barcelona given the whole Catalonia scenario.

    I don't see how that could work at all. So many of the jokes are dependent on his 'hilarious' accent, misunderstandings and lousy puns.

    Look at the very first scene of the series -
    https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=fawlty-towers&episode=s01e01

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8vHASPezsY

    They have Fawlty mistakenly use French in order to force the joke.

    It must have been a hell of a job to translate that to Spanish and keep any semblance of humour, even with an Italian waiter.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,360 ✭✭✭Lorelli!


    I think it's aged badly. Watched it repeatedly as a kid, but, on viewing them now, can't help but grimace at the low-brow slapstick, redeemed somewhat by the Monty Python gene in some of the writing.

    You know nothing! :D only messing!

    Ah I think Faulty Towers was/is great.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,237 ✭✭✭mcmoustache


    Its the 'difference between wogs and ****' explanation from the Major which gets the warning.

    It's one of the funniest exchanges in a very funny episode. Here it is in case anyone missed it or saw a version in which it was cut.
    The Major: Strange creatures, women. I knew one once... striking-looking girl... tall, you know... father was a banker.

    Basil: Really?

    The Major: Don't remember the name of the bank.

    Basil: Nevermind.

    The Major: I must have been rather keen on her because I took her to see... India!

    Basil: India?

    The Major: At the Oval... fine match, marvellous finish... now, Surrey had to get thirty-three in about half an hour... she went off to powder her... powder her hands or something... women... er... never came back.

    Basil: What a shame.

    The Major: And the strange thing was... throughout the morning she kept referring to the Indians as ****. "No no no," I said, "the **** are the West Indians. These people are wogs." "No, no," she said. "All cricketers are ****."

    Basil: They do get awfully confused, don't they? They're not thinkers. I see it with Sybil everyday.

    The Major: I do wish I could remember her name. She's still got my wallet.

    Basil: As I was saying, no capacity for logical thought.

    The Major: Who?

    Basil: Women.

    The Major: Oh yes, yes... I thought you meant Indians.

    It's hard to see something like this being broadcast on prime time today.


  • Site Banned Posts: 78 ✭✭johnnyyesno


    KaneToad wrote: »
    Never saw the appeal of this. Found it deeply unfunny. I always saw it as appealing to British viewers only due to its militarism/triumphalism..

    Have to agree, some great character actors in it especially Arthur Lowe but it rarely raises more than a chuckle from me. I could never warm to any of Jimmy Perry and David Crofts shows. It Ain't Half Hot Mum was like Dads Army transplanted to India but even less funny, Windsor Davies was good in it though.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,239 ✭✭✭Jimbob1977


    The moose. Japanese is it?

    No. Canadian, I believe


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 877 ✭✭✭jk23


    O’Reilly: “Mr Fawlty if the good lord...”
    Mr Fawlty: “is mentioned once more I will move you closer to him!”

    That episode with David Kelly as the Irish builder is one of the best ever!!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 9,708 ✭✭✭lertsnim


    Bought it on DVD years ago. I love it and will watch it anytime I spot it on television.


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