Fawlty Towers
At my son's request, I rented the complete Fawlty Towers on DVD last weekend. I think I have to return it tomorrow, so I won't have a chance to see it all.
My son and I now have a tradition of watching a few episodes every Christmas. Our favourite is probably "The Germans," but both "Communication Problems" and "A Touch of Class" are very good. For those who don't know, this is a Brit Com set in a small hotel in Torquay. Basil Fawlty vacillates between fawning over his guests, and being as rude as possible to them. Every episode focusses increasing frustration on him personally, until he finally has some kind of breakdown with saner people watching. He and his wife hate each other.
We got to see an old interview featuring John Cleese a few weeks ago. The interview took place shortly after Fawlty Towers finished production. (There are only 12 episodes; I think half were first aired in 1975, the rest in 1979, or something like that. Cleese had left Monty Python.) Cleese said surveys had been done to find out which characters viewers liked or identified with. Number 1 was probably Manuel, the much oppressed porter or whatever he is who speaks little English. But Number 2 was Fawlty, as Cleese said, "this monster." His conclusion was something like: people identify with someone who has inadequate control over his life, yet shows a certain spirit in bearing up under it. I would add that the hospitality industry makes this perfect: you're supposed to be polite to people you don't like; it's your job; and someday you might be tempted to blow.
I'm seeing episodes I've never seen, or don't remember. "The Psychiatrist" is not the best episode, but it has some amazing writing. (Cleese stressed in the interview that he and his then wife, who played the sane waitress, Polly, spent weeks on each script). This episode probably has the best insults of Basil and Cybill for each other. She says to him, quite rightly, that he never gets it right with the guests. He's either all over them, licking their boots, or attacking them "like a Benzedrine puff adder." She keeps catching him (apparently) spying on a beautiful female guest--he's actually trying to spy on a male guest--and at one point she gets to say (something like): "surely in your wildest dreams you don't think a woman like this could be attracted to an aging, brilliantined stick insect like you."
He becomes more and more desperate to prove that the attractive young male guest, whom Cybil has fawned over, has an unauthorized female guest. He keeps trying to explain to her. She says: "Do you think I've got time to listen to any more of your hopeless, lily-livered, jellyfish lies?" He still feels he can win the day (of course he never does), so he shuts her up and says: "I'm fed up with you, you rancorous, coiffured old sow. Why don't you [syringe?] the doughnuts out of your ear and get some sense into that dormant organ you keep hidden in that rat's maze of yours?" Somewhere, I'm not sure in what episode, he calls her a "cloth-headed bint."
This is a couple that has arrived at a cold hatred of each other; yet it is funny. In "Communication Problems," there is a somewhat elderly lady with a hearing aid. She admits that sometimes she deliberately turns the hearing aid down, and all the staff have the experience of shouting to make her understand something. She is constantly rude and demanding, literally from the first seconds of the episode. The frustration builds. Basil retaliates against her in a nastier way than anyone else, but the whole staff, and I venture to say, viewers, are more than half-way on his side. Torturing a deaf old lady--and we can sympathize with the torturers, because she has been such a pain? I think that's amazing writing.
Some critics say "The Anniversary" is a classic example of comedy depending on people who are not stupid doing something stupid. Why doesn't Basil simply explain what is going on, instead of forcing Polly to impersonate Cybill, bed-ridden in the dark of her room? I like that episode, but it seems right to me to say the plot is a strain. A big part of The Germans makes no sense at all--there is hardly a glance at plausibility--yet it is wildly funny. We want to go where the writers want to take us.
I think it is earlier episodes where Basil, while leering at young women, is somehow "Edwardian" or puritanical about sex. "The Wedding Party" is largely about this, and it strikes me as not terribly funny. On the other hand, when Basil and the Major agree on bigoted remarks about women and visible minorities and Germans, this somehow is reminiscent of the mature/already rotting British Empire of the late Victorian and Edwardian era: smug complacency and bigotry in dismissing 90% or so of the human race. Now that's funny.
Update: "The Psychiatrist" also includes the joke: "Pretentious? Moi?" I think someone on Slate referred to this as the perfect two-word joke. It sounds like Miss Piggy, and I believe it may have been attributed to her. (I don't know the Muppets material). Come to think of it, is Miss Piggy's whole shtick derived from this one joke in Fawlty Towers?
And while I'm at it: is the funny "stick insect" business in The Diary of Adrian Mole derived from one line in Fawlty Towers?
Worth noting: the clockwork ending of "Communication Problems," where all the strands come together. Fawlty, who has been hiding his winnings on a horse from Cybill, foolishly flashes the money. The crabby female guest, who claims a similar amount has been stolen from her room, spots Fawlty's money. To prove his money is his, Fawlty turns to Manuel. In addition to the language problem, Manuel has been couched by Fawlty to say "I know nothing," in case Cybill asks. So that's what he says.
The guest gets Fawlty's money, he tears his shirt off and has a fit with Polly watching. Then a vase is delivered. The crabby guest bought it in town, and somehow wedged her (supposedly missing) money inside. Fawlty laughs hysterically--for the first time in his life, he's ahead. He enjoys teasing the crabby guest. Cybill spots the money. Fawlty stammers to explain it belongs to Polly. The Major speaks up. His memory has been spotty as to whether he knows about Fawlty's money or not. Suddenly it comes to him. "I remember now, Fawlty. You won the money on a horse!" Fawlty hands the money to Cybill, the vase drops on the floor, Cybill hands the money to the crabby guest.
Perfect.
There is an American movie, "Oscar" starring Sylvester Stallone, which has this clockwork farcical quality to it. Of course it is often present in Frasier.
Update: OK, I've about OD'd on this stuff.
I saw most of "Gourmet Night." That's where Basil calls Polly (not Cybill) a "cloth-headed bint." Same episode: Cybill says "maybe we're dreaming." Basil bangs his head on the counter and says "No, it's real. We're stuck with it."
You can buy all the scripts, by John Cleese and Connie Booth (his wife during the first series, who played Polly), from Amazon.
The only complete script I've been able to find on the web is for "A Touch of Class."
There are a number of fan or survery type sites. This one lists the cast, gives a few points of trivia, and lists all episodes with original broadcast dates.
By my ranking, the best episodes are:
The Germans, A Touch of Class, The Hotel Inspectors, all from the first season, and Communication Problems from the second season; many people like Basil the Rat, from the second season. I think that's it for the "first echelon."
In the second tier I would put The Kipper and the Corpse, Waldorf Salad, and The Anniversary, all from the second season.
Last: Gourmet Night and The Builders from the first season; the Psychiatrist from the second. I think The Wedding Party would be last.
If I'm right, the first season had the most episodes in the first echelon, but the second season did better if the first two echelons are combined.
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