The revolution has started...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/13/fawlty-towers-class-sitcoms-sex-relationships
Wasn't Fawlty Towers about sex and relationships? Surely immigration is a vital issue?
Fawlty Towers no longer relevant
Even so-called "timeless" comedy will have some elements that are "of its time".
As such, current criticism (or analysis) of Fawlty Towers or Dad's Army (original cast) is pointless.
It's like analysing Charlie Chaplin and proposing that slapstick is no longer as funny to modern audiences ... why would you bother?
Quote: Frankie Rage @ 14th December 2016, 1:38 PMEven so-called "timeless" comedy will have some elements that are "of its time".
As such, current criticism (or analysis) of Fawlty Towers or Dad's Army (original cast) is pointless.
It's like analysing Charlie Chaplin and proposing that slapstick is no longer as funny to modern audiences ... why would you bother?
Exactly. Every series - drama, comedy, whatever - is written with the immediate audience is mind. If it lasts, it's a pleasant surprise.
The subject of a class is a uniquely British obsession. Other countries may be rife with class war - Germany, from what I hear, is quite segregated by it - but it makes for great comedy and we see that in Basil, Rigsby, Blackadder, Bob and Terry, Harold Steptoe, Del Boy, Alf Garnett, Hancock, Mainwaring and Wilson etc. I think it will always be current - which is, in reality, unfortunate.
Typical of the f**king Grauniad to say this. It's the class aspect that is so funny - and in spite of those idiotic lefties there is still very much a class system in this country - and it's hilarious!
"Accordingly, today's acclaimed British sitcoms - Fleabag, Motherland, Mum, Catastrophe - are not about a 50-year-old property owner failing to better himself. They're about women struggling with sex, rent, men and children. And sometimes they're almost as funny. Sometimes."
Acclaimed by who? Wimin! I enjoyed Catastrophe but the rest were utter crap.
I think that Father Ted and Stephen Toast are very Basil-like.
The best TV sitcom, IMO, is Frasier. Set in the "classless" USA. It has lots of class snobbery and is all the better for it. Of course it's not current comedy.
Fawlty Towers no longer raises a laugh... That's cool, coming from Catherine Shoard. Look at her crazy, whacky face, she looks like one awesome f**king funny barrel of bleedin' laughs. Put yer booze, stick-on red nose and fake stick of dynamite away hilarious gal, yer killing me. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/3/13/1394733735285/CatherineShoard.png?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=2ff322dfe67b62d826b528c4e6f9ed17
Had to look at that as I thought the first bit of the link said "quim", so I'm very disappointed on two counts. 
From today's Frasier.
Frasier: Your apartment building isn't that exclusive. The doorman just waved me through.
Niles: That's because he knows you.
Frasier: Of course, from my radio show.
Niles: No, he lives in your building.
If you are able to see FT for the first time you would laugh.
What a lousy personality:
Quote: A Horseradish @ 17th December 2016, 6:52 AMWhat a lousy personality:
Who the f**k is she? Does she ever have anything constructive to say? Does she ever really explain WHY she doesn't like anything?
Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 14th December 2016, 11:23 AMThe revolution has started...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/13/fawlty-towers-class-sitcoms-sex-relationships
Wasn't Fawlty Towers about sex and relationships? Surely immigration is a vital issue?
You can tell that the author is a critic by the fact that she completely misunderstands the whole show, confuses her own opinion for objective fact, and cites a number of critically acclaimed but publicly ignored comedies as the current "best".
Fawlty Towers is about much more than class; indeed, most of what she identifies as class isn't actually class, but is ambition and self-improvement. (No surprise; a rag like the Guardian wouldn't understand such concepts.) If one were really to try to boil it down to one thing, it's about frustration.
The highest rating she ever gave a comedy movie (in the Guardian) was for 'While we're Young' staring someone called Ben Stiller.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/critic/catherine-shoard/movies?order=best&page=1
In America, Fawlty Towers is SPOT ON for the attitudes towards immigrants (and others) that the Trumpistas have; the only difference is that Cleese's character owns the hotel while most of the Trumpistas own nothing (and have a government that discourages them from being the small business success that that hotel is on the show).