Quote: Matthew Stott @ September 11 2009, 11:39 PM BSTShe was a bit wooden.
*runs off giggling*
*shakes fist as young scamp runs away* 
Does anyone else dislike Fawlty Towers? Page 8
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 11 2009, 11:49 PM BSTAs Lee said, it's just farce - ie slapstick.
yeah, but it's not.
Yeah but it is though.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 12 2009, 2:29 AM BSTYeah but it is though.
You might as well say Michaelangelo's stuff is just painting or Mozart's is just music. In which case, I'm happy to agree that Fawlty Towers is just farce.
Speaking of Fawlty Towers, I was watching The King of Queens the other week, and Doug was suggesting that he and Carrie sleep in separate beds, and he said, "Come on, it'll be like we're British!" He'd obviously got the idea from watching Fawlty Towers.
By the way, do any of the Americans on here think British married couples sleep in separate beds?
Quote: catskillz @ September 12 2009, 3:06 AM BSTBy the way, do any of the Americans on here think British married couples sleep in separate beds?
its only when the wife snores too loud aint it 
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 11 2009, 11:49 PM BSTNobody should be writing for posterity so it doesn't matter if it's aged badly or well. It wasn't written to be watched in 2009.
Why not? Lots of writers (very successful ones) talk about not wanting their shows to age and deciding not to include topical references for that very reason.
Quote: Curt @ August 18 2009, 11:35 PM BSTI <3 Fawlty Towers
I <3 John Cleese
I <3 Monty Python
I <3 Just about anything from the Pythons (Jabberwocky stunk)
I think the best Python-related project was The Rutles. As well as it being very funny, it also features some great music.
Quote: Tim Walker @ September 11 2009, 11:31 PM BSTAs I've (probably) said before, the performance has to be far more understated and functional, because Polly has to be both the voice of sanity and the character who has the boring (yet essential) job of reminding the audience of the plot. She was Basil's facilitator, sane accomplice and regulator all at the same time. Connie Booth's performance was in fact perfectly weighted (if superficially boring), designed to be grounded but able to blend-in with the extreme performances about her. So there.
Yep.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 11 2009, 11:49 PM BSTI like Prunella Scales but not John Cleese. I've never really trusted a comedian who never laughs at his own jokes.
Either you mis-typed that, or have never seen him interviewed. He's always chuckling along.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ September 12 2009, 12:41 AM BSTyeah, but it's not.
And even if it is, why's that a bad thing? 
Quote: Nick @ September 12 2009, 6:53 AM BSTWhy not? Lots of writers (very successful ones) talk about not wanting their shows to age and deciding not to include topical references for that very reason.
The secret is to only write "topical" references about people, places or events that you are pretty sure will be still remembered in 10/20/30 years' time. Fawlty Towers mainly accomplished this.
Some things will be unforeseen, however. For example, the Jade Goody doll joke in the Extras finale (UK version only), was unforeseeable in terms of what would happen within even a year. (Not that the joke is actually on Jade, to be fair.)
Getting away from my point a bit, but Basil's name checks to Earl Haig, Henry Kissinger etc are funny regardless of whether you know the name. (His Manuel-directed reference to 'The Admirable Crichton' - an obscure but actually very good film about a butler saving the day when a bunch of toffs become marooned on a desert island - is really funny if you get the obscure reference.)
As regards the changing of social attitudes in regards of sex and class etc, in remote hotels and guest houses times may not have changed as much as one would first think. (Instead of unmarried couples being the major issue thesedays, the same kind of uncomfortable prejudice is still applied to gay couples, for example.) Class distinction (in the minds of some) still exists, as does snobbery.
In summary, I don't find FT has really dated that much at all. The core ingredients of what makes it funny are still very much in evidence in England today.
Quote: Aaron @ September 12 2009, 12:28 PM BSTYep.
As I've said before, I totally get what her role is, and why that kind of character is needed, I don't dispute it, it's just the actual acting performance itself that always leaves me cold. Not to the extent that it spoils the show for me or anything, obviously. I'm pretty certain a better actress could have done the same thing but, well, better. Yes, that's stating the blooming obvious but there we go.
Maybe this is just a personal taste thing anyway, so we're all right! 
I think that there is no doubt that FT was one of the two or three best sit-coms ever made, whether it was skill, timing, writers, actors, all of the above or the fact that there were only about a dozen made, you could argue about all day.
My problem with the thing is that when ever you try to do a sit-com that mentions a hotel or B&B it is always going to frighten people away.
J26
Quote: Matthew Stott @ September 12 2009, 3:27 PM BSTMaybe this is just a personal taste thing anyway, so we're all right!
If it is, then I happen to share your taste in that respect, although I would go further and say that I rather disliked her performance as Polly.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ September 12 2009, 3:27 PM BSTMaybe this is just a personal taste thing anyway, so we're all right!
If it is, then I happen to share your taste in that respect, although I would go further and say that I rather disliked her performance as Polly.
Quote: Nogget @ September 14 2009, 2:18 PM BSTIf it is, then I happen to share your taste in that respect, although I would go further and say that I rather disliked her performance as Polly.
If it is, then I happen to share your taste in that respect, although I would go further and say that I rather disliked her performance as Polly.
How's the treatment for OCD going then ?
Fawlty is pure genius, any criticism of the show baffles me. 12 episodes of which 11 are total classics (the other ain't half bad either). For the record I think Fawlty is the sitcom in its perfect form and perhaps deserves the title as 'best', but I reckon Adder (barely) edges it out as #1. It's my all-time favourite and I love every single episode.