Fawlty Towers: A Hilarious Sitcom Classic Revisited

Okay, that was our producer and I agree with her. There's no episode like the Germans. And I didn't want to review the Germans because it's so edgy. Like, for those of you in the audience, you got to watch all 12 of these episodes. I like Lord Melbury. It's a really good one. But the Germans is... it's so over the top. You can't... you're like... at the end you're Hi, my name is BJ Kang. I'm Fred Satili. And welcome to this episode of The Real Generation Gap, where we are reviewing the 1970 sitcom Fawlty Towers, the greatest sitcom in British television history. That's certainly what I think. Yeah. And that's why I recommended this. And I love what you said walking in the door. You had never heard of a Waldorf salad. And so it played right into the... because neither had he. Yeah. So I... usually I interrupt you and do all the talking and everything. I talk over you and stuff. But in this particular episode, I want to hear really... I want to hear you talk about the show, the characters, everything about it. I really want the Generation Gap thing here because when I was your age, we watched this like a religion. And you... there was no videotape then. You had to catch it when it was on. So this was a highlight of the week for me. This was like, oh, we got to... you know, and there's only 12 episodes. I think there's two seasons. So it wasn't like it was every week. You know, you really had to catch it. And man, oh, man, it's just the cult following behind this is, you know, it's like the Grateful Dead. I mean, it's just the people that this is their favorite thing. So how did you like it? Okay. So what I get from it is that it's essentially a show about a dysfunctional staff, primarily focusing on a husband and wife who run a hotel in the British seaside, by the British seaside. And for one, I'm very... I'm still very early or a sort of still in the introduction of British comedy. I mean, like I only seen Monty Python's The Quest for the Holy Grail like a couple years ago. Life of Brian. Yeah, Life of Brian as well. So I recognize John Cleese for one. Right. Yeah. And honestly, it was pretty, it was pretty funny, you know. It's... you need to see it a couple times to appreciate all the humor in it. You know, it's the most dysfunctional marriage ever. Yeah. In one of the episodes, his wife is doing something and he walks by and he gently kisses her on the neck and she says, what are you doing? He says, I'm loving you, dear. And she says, well, don't. That sums them up. In addition to this dysfunctional marriage, they have the phenomenally dysfunctional staff. Now, before you tell me any more comments, in real life, John Cleese married the beautiful housekeeper, Polly. I didn't know you bet on the horses, Polly. I don't. Only I was in the town and I passed the betting shop and I thought, well, why not? Well, why not indeed, eh? Jolly good question, Ada. That's his wife. He wanted to do something in comedy with his wife. Monty Python was over. They hadn't made the movies yet. This was a real little interim period. You know, it was like Paul McCartney in between the Beatles and Wings, you know, like that. And so he got that group of people together. And it's, you know, like any ensemble cast. Each person almost had a following of their own. Andrew Sachs, Manuel, the Spanish housekeeper, the Spanish waiter or whatever from Barcelona. So, you know, I'm still getting sort of used to 70s comedy and stuff like that, because the only thing I really seen as far back as that was really like Cheers. And this was a show that ran in the 70s. And honestly, it was it was pretty funny. A lot of the comedy, of course, came. I think it's the Waldorf salad episode was a really good one to get into, because it the main focus of the episode is that it draws the sort of comparisons between sort of American etiquette and British etiquette and stuff like that, because it's all about how, you know, this American guest comes in. They're trying to accommodate for him. And it's really trying to portray that Americans, you know, have this very direct sort of upfront sort of demeanor to us, while British are much more reserved and polite. Could you make me a Waldorf salad? Waldorf salad? Well, I think we're just out of Waldorf. I don't believe this. It's not very well known here, Harry. Yes. May I recommend tonight? Now, look, I'm sure your chef knows how to fix me a Waldorf salad. I wouldn't be too sure. Well, he's a chef, isn't he? Yes, you wouldn't prefer. Well, find out, will you? Just go out there and see if he knows how to fix me a Waldorf salad. Of course. And a lot of the comedy sort of comes from that sort of just natural cultural clash there, which I thought honestly was, you know, I thought it was actually that aspect was pretty well done there. The juxtaposition between like all the juxtaposition and comedy of him running between the tables, giving them poor service, and they're all complaining. And the moment he walks up like, oh, great. Everything's fine. It's great. Nobody wants to rock the boat. Now, I don't know if you caught this, because these punchlines, every single sentence is a punchline. There's no wasted lines, right? So when one thing, in one time, the American says, you go back and tell the chef what to do and tell him you'll kick his ass. Then he says to him, you have to do this or whatever. I'll kick your asses. And Basil Folty goes, it's all about asses with you, isn't it? He just mutters it under his breath. He goes, what? You know, but those kind of subtle lines are what make the show and that's what makes you have to be riveted. This isn't something that you can just catch half of it, because everything is funny, you know? And just like when the chef didn't want to stay and he goes, I had to go to karate class. And then Polly came in and she said, oh, that Finnish woman you have. So some tall Finnish woman or whatever, he gets totally busted. Did you catch that? Yeah, I did. Yeah. So is the Germans the funniest episode of all? Okay, that was our producer and I agree with her. There's no episode like the Germans. And I didn't want to review the Germans because it's so edgy. Like for those of you in the audience, you got to watch all 12 of these episodes. I like Lord Melbury. It's a really good one. But the Germans is, it's so over the top. At the end, you're like, you look like that kid on Home Alone, you know? Because they just knock it out of the park. And it's just something that John Cleese, John Cleese is a genius. I mean, his whole life, his views on politics, everything that he says and does, he's just in the thick of it his whole life, you know? And this is just a little historic interim thing that he kind of stuck in there. I think stuff like that is really cool. His whole career, this could have never happened. No one would have known. It's a little baby masterpiece that he kind of did on his own. I mean, there's obviously writers and everybody. There's a whole crew that did it. But it's really a special thing. And I really wanted you to know about it. I want you to go back and watch the rest of the episodes now. I had actually seen a little bit of the Germans. And actually, to answer our producer's question, I think this episode was one of the most popular of the entire series. The Waldorf Salad episode was actually, and I looked into it, of course, was an episode that was not only very popular amongst British audiences, but also American audiences, obviously, as well. Right. Yeah. But I did watch a little bit of it because, you know, I thought this Waldorf Salad one was actually pretty entertaining. So I went to go see the German one. And I actually laughed even harder at that one. As you know, I'm a huge history buff. Oh, he did the goose stepping? Yeah. I mean, to be that limber, that tall, thin guy kicking his feet all the way up over his head. Yeah. You know, you try it. And the joke that really killed me was when he keeps going like, it was like, don't mention the war, don't mention the war. And he keeps accidentally mentioning the war to these German, you know, patrons that he's serving. And they go, he's like, why is she crying? He's like, because you keep mentioning the war. And he's like, I didn't I didn't mention it. You did. Like, you started it. He's like, no, you started it. He goes, it's like, no, you guys did. You guys invaded Poland. That was my favorite. I'm so glad you caught that. Oh, differences. Forgotten and no need at all to mention the war. Sorry. Oh, prawn. That was it. When you said prawn, I thought you said war. Oh, oh, the war. Oh, yes. Completely slipped my mind. Yes. I've forgotten all about it. Hitler, Himmler and all that. Oh, yes. Completely forgotten it. Just like that. Sorry. What was it again? A prawn cocktail. Oh, yes. Leave a prawn. Yes. And Goebbels. And I'm pickled Hank. Herman Goring. Yes. And, uh, farm rebel chops. That was another one. And four cold meat salads, please. Certainly. Well, I'll just get your hors d'oeuvres. Hors d'oeuvres, which must be obeyed at all times without question. Will you please call your wife immediately? Simov! She's in the hospital, you silly girl. Yes, call her there. I can't. I've got too much to do. Listen, don't mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it. All right. So, it's all forgotten now, and let's hear no more about it. So that's two egg mayonnaise, a prawn Goebbels, a Herman Goring, and four cold meat salads. Now, wait a moment. I got a bit confused here. Sorry. I got a bit confused because everyone keeps mentioning the war. So could you... What's the matter? It's all right. Is there something wrong? Will you stop talking about the war? Me? You started it? We did not start it. Yes, you did. You invaded Poland. Yeah. Right. You started it. You invaded Poland. Yeah. Oh, my God. Can you imagine that in real life? I mean, that's the most politically incorrect thing ever. But back to this episode. Yeah, that one guy, I'm not satisfied, right? He got busted again. Yeah. But you could have never predicted the ending, right? He throws everybody out. Everybody out. All the guests. They're all ungrateful. You're all unappreciative or whatever. Everybody out. And his wife looks at him and he goes, well, it's either them or me. And she gives him the look. And Prunella Scales is a fantastic actress. The girl who's his wife in the show. And she looks at him and goes, oh, okay. Now he's got to leave, but it's raining outside. And he walks out the door. He's out there a couple of minutes. And he is the problem solver. Remember when his wife said the Waldorf is a famous hotel in New York. He goes out and goes, would you ever like to try a Ritz salad? He tries to sell him a thing from another hotel, right? So he goes outside. It's raining. He's in a jam. He goes back in and says, I'd like a room. And then he tells him, I'd like to have a couple legs for breakfast with a Waldorf salad. I think, what is the quote that comedy is tragedy plus time, right? And what's funny to me is that the show really, I think what the show also does a good job of is just sort of, it does capture, you know, some very real aspects about real life, you know, sort of that, the mishap between American and like, you know, British culture, you know, just sort of that. And husband and wife. Yeah, that too. As well as just what it's probably like to be in the service industry as well, you know, have to take care of all these staff who always, it's like, oh, is there a, you know, is there any gluten in this soup here? Oh my God. You know, well, that's what Portlandia, Portlandia had a great episode where they went in the restaurant. Did you ever see that show? No, I didn't know. It's in Portland. Everybody's a freakazoid, right? And so they go in a restaurant and he says, I'd like the chicken, but I'd like to know where the chicken came from. What was the name of the farmer? What did the chicken eat? What was the chicken's name? Like they take it to that extreme. And for this show, it's the same. Oh, look at these scenes. This, this is a scene from when she was sick, but he didn't want to tell the guests, right? So they had, they faked her, you know, they faked this whole scene. It's another different episode, but I'm surprised this is in color. I don't even remember this show being in color. Well, it should be in color because it was in the seventies and there definitely was color back then. Right. But I don't, I don't have any memory. I remember every minute of the shows, but I don't remember this blanket, how yellow it is. I, I think I saw this in black and white. I really do. I, it might be that I saw it on a black and white TV. The TV didn't have color, maybe, you know, cause we had that then you have no, no idea what it's like to watch an ice hockey game on black and white TV. But anyway, I'm glad you watched it. I wanted to turn you onto this. It's a cult masterpiece. I don't know. I don't know how, how our audience will react. Yeah. But I'm telling you, everybody, all 12, you got to watch all 12. You got to go on there. It's just on YouTube. You can, it's easy to get. And they're just half hour shows. It's not a big investment of time. It's not like watching a movie. You know, this one's 35 minutes, this episode. Yeah. And usually American stuff is made half hour with commercials. Everything's like 24 minutes or something. But I guess I'm, look, there's the goose stepping. Look at that. That that's a gymnastic thing. Yeah, it is. Right. And that's, that's part of the Germans episode. This is great. Thank you for putting these, these pictures up. I should be more in tune with what you're doing there. In one episode, they hire a home improvement guy and he walls up that space between the lobby and the restaurant part. And this guy comes back from vacation and they can't get in the restaurant. Yeah, it's really funny. It's really a funny show. And the British comedy, there were a lot of them. I like the Norman Conquest and I like the Good Neighbors. And this was on at the same time. It definitely did remind me a little bit of like Cheers, because a lot of the comedy sort of comes from like the interactions that they have with like, you know, the patrons that come in and stuff like that. Right. The patrons and the ensemble themselves. Yeah, the ensemble. You didn't get to see that. You didn't see Polly, the girl that was his wife in real life. You didn't see her much in this episode, but she has some phenomenal parts, you know, and the same thing with Manuel and the same, you know, there's, there's other regulars that are in there. But yeah, the customers are always hilarious. And the hotel serves as a really, you know, the setting of a hotel serves as a really good, you know, like setting for to have a lot of different of these interactions. I have a lot of different like, you know, wacky characters coming because, you know, people check in and out of a hotel all the time. Same thing as and I know I keep bringing up Cheers, the same thing with Cheers. People come in and out of bars all the time. You never know who's really going to walk through those front doors. And what they're going to do and what they're going to do. You know, and that's the way this this fantastic guest in the Lord Melbury episode, the guy comes in, he's this very tall, distinguished man. He writes Melbury in the register and Basil, who's always nasty to everybody. He's just nasty to everybody. And he says, excuse me, I'd like a little more name. And he says, well, I'm Lord Melbury. So I just write Melbury. And then now he's blown away because he's got royalty at the place. It's a big deal. He doesn't care about any other guests. He's just going to take care of this guy. Yeah. But really, the guy's just a con man, you know, but the con man gets busted. And then the way he, you know, beats him up once he finds out who he really is. That's so great. I just go on and on and on. And you know what it's like very much? I don't know if you have you seen The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason? No, I haven't. Well, that's another that's an American thing that's less of a cast, but equally phenomenal. Yeah, there's nothing like it. And there are people who just that's the love of their life watching The Honeymooners. But anyway, this is Fawlty Towers. And I want everybody to really be turned on to this. That's why I brought it up. I appreciate all of you for looking at it. Obviously, the comment section, your favorite episode, your favorite character, you know, nuances that I might have not caught, even though I've seen everything multiple times. And BJ will really appreciate the comments because this is like new to him. So I want to get some real involvement from everybody in this thing. And hopefully we will. I think we should probably also touch a little bit on was it was also like the the acting performances and such as well. Prunella Scales, Basil's wife. Just the way she's she's annoying to the clients, but in a friendly and happy way. And the way she just takes everything in stride. There's no he's working like crazy. He's running all over and she's just sitting there chattering away. And of course, John Cleese also does a really spectacular job of going from very just sort of annoyed to erratic very quickly. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's like it's not bipolar. He's like quad polar. You know, he did make a whole new thing in the DSM for him. He's angry at all the time. He's frustrated at all times. He's always trying to make money. One of my favorite scenes from the episode specifically is when he runs into the kitchen and he's like pretending to argue with the the the chef. And he's hitting the fridge with the hat and he's like shrinks away as if he's getting hit with it himself. And the you know, the American is just standing there behind him watching him do all this. Right. Watching the insanity. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's another thing I wanted to touch on was that the actor for the American thing his name is Bruce Boa. I believe his name. He was he was accredited for being one of the best guest actors on the entire show because he just does a really phenomenal job of being that sort of very pushy, very, you know, just like. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Very pushy, very demanding. American. Yeah. He demands the best service. You know, everything has to meet his standard. And being a man who well, I won't even say it, but everybody has to meet his standard. And this place isn't capable of it. He's a world traveler. And this is a little seaside bed and breakfast out in the country, broken down place with bad plumbing and, you know, bad construction and all that. Survived the war, you know, and here this guy's booked into there. He's used to staying, you know, at the Dorchester, right? And that was a great joke. She's so the chef is from Dorchester. Oh, the Dorchester? No, the town of Dorchester. The show is definitely like a snapshot picture out of like, you know, the sort of golden age of like sitcoms like on TV. British sitcoms. Yeah. Then just sitcoms in general, because like I said, I was watching this and I've seen a lot of sitcoms like that myself. You know, I've seen, you know, Golden Girls and, you know, Cheers as well as also, you know, Married with Kids and stuff like that. I've seen a lot of those shows myself. And this was this was a show that was really out of like that era with the comedy was just like that, you know, those those shows that you just mentioned, if they were the Beatles, this is Led Zeppelin. I mean, this is really in a class by itself. No one has made something quite like this. It's just got to be seen. That's all. So watch it. I would say if you like those shows, this is definitely, you know, I would definitely say American audiences might not be entirely familiar with British television, although we have fused a little bit more over the years. Like, if you like those shows, you should definitely, you know, add this one to your watch list, of course. This is not a show that's like really focused on a plot, is it, though? It's a situation comedy. It's a situation. And the situation in every episode and every one, it's the same. It starts off in a peaceful moment and then the turbulence begins. Somebody initiates a problem and that problem begets two other problems. And then the rest of the cast gets involved in those problems. And then the rest of the guests, you know, in this episode that we just saw, did you see they gave a guy a salad and then he took it back and picked something out? No, it's OK now. The guy's like, you know, everything they did was kind of creepy, right? Yeah. So it's ever this situation just gets worse and worse. And the climax of the show, it's completely impossible. He's gotten himself into boxed into every corner in the room. He's got no escape. He's completely busted. And he's the one who gets beaten in every show. He's the one he, you know, he's the problem. He's the one that, you know, he doesn't initiate the problem. But his atrocious attitude towards the whole human race makes every contact with every person a problem. You know, he's abusing the staff. He's abusing the clients. He's abusing maintenance workers that come to work on it or the guy that worked on his car or whatever it may be. He's just a nightmare of a person. Yeah, but but the show is all about, you know, relatable situations and stuff like that. So honestly, like even his demeaning, you know, the show does a good job of like making his demeaning sort of like, you know, posture, attitude towards the patrons understandable. Because, you know, if you've ever worked in the service industry for a long amount of time, you kind of want to strangle the next person who asks you a question. One of my favorite lines in that regard was somebody said, hey, I'm not happy with this. He goes, well, your type never are. And there's so many stings. I mean, he's a stinger. But in the end, he gets stung. And that's the poetic justice. And that's the punching up. Yeah, right. Like, you know, that's the just desserts. There's justice. It's so great. I just love the show. For me, it's a 10. To me, it's there's no way that could ever be improved or even, you know, duplicated. I'm sure somebody could somehow remake it. But holy smokes. It was interesting for sure to see like a different like, you know, little nuances to be made, you know, just from like another country and stuff like that. And yet somehow it was still very relatable and somehow still very, you know, understood, like very easy to understand because, you know, I'm just an American. And so I've always I always like to offer shows with like a little bit more of like a story or subplot going on. And like I said, I've only ever seen one episode, so I don't know if that maybe develops in other episodes or anything like that. But from what I've seen, I thought it was really good. I'll give it an eight. I don't think it's, you know, perfect, but I do think it was really good. Oh, you're wrong. It is perfect. But you can still give it an eight. I think sitcom has changed a lot since like that's why I said this was a very like in that's why I said it was like a very like, yeah, like a snapshot in time. Yeah, the snapshot time very of that era. 70s style 70s, the 80s style sitcoms like sitcoms these days are much different, you know, because you couldn't compare what I think was, you know, say like the office or to to the office was great. Yeah, you know, or always sunny in Philadelphia. But now we have self-censorship and woke and that's destroyed the comedy, the whole comedy world as far as I'm concerned. I mean, the quality of comedy right now is at a low 20 years ago. It was an incredibly high art form. Now it's been it's kind of been tamped down and stamped down and, you know, emasculated or whatever it may be. I would say like the main difference between this kind of comedy to like today's comedies is today's comedies are a lot more like subtle, like they're the humor comes from like the subtlety sort of like, you know, like in the office, like a running joke that was funny was sort of Jim's just sort of like stare into the camera of like him being like done with whatever situation or disbelief. And this one, it's all, you know, it's that one scene where he's like literally doing like the Gestapo march, you know, like with the high kicking and all of that, the very erratic nature, that kind of era of, you know, comedy, I would say, is like an era of comedy is like in the past now. So but for this, it still holds up. It still comes off in a very sort of natural and fun way. Well, anyway, that's Fawlty Towers. We're the Real Generation Gap. We appreciate you watching the show and we appreciate you watching the show that we're reviewing. I'm Fred Satili. I'm BJ King. And leave your comments in the comments section. Give us a thumbs up and subscribe. Thanks again.