Fawlty Towers

Over Thanksgiving break I was introduced to a show called Fawlty Towers. I’m surprised now that I had never heard of it until then, as it has been named the best British television program of all time, which makes sense, as I can tell you the show is brilliant and hilarious, and it is a shame it only had 2 seasons of 6 episodes each.

Fawlty Towers is from the 1970s and stars John Cleese from Monty Python’s Flying Circus as a hotel manager. Every episode is basically a standalone one act play. I know most shows back then could be described this way, but with Fawlty Towers the writing is almost comparable to Shakespeare’s comedies. The episodes are driven by constant misunderstandings and miscommunications. Just as a character leaves to tell another something, he’ll come walking through the door behind him. The dialogue is quick and clever, with as much as possible crammed into just a half an hour. I was especially impressed by the clever miscommunications with the Spanish waiter Manuel. For example, John Cleese’s character might tell Manuel that there is “too much butter on. those. trays.”

“Que?”

“On those trays”

“No sir, not ‘on, those, trays.’ It’s uno, dos, tres.”

It’s this kind of wordplay which makes Fawlty Towers a classic.