Short clips of Fawlty Towers really don't do it justice. Honestly the joy of it is how the pressure builds and builds on Basil over the episode. You should give a full episode a go and let us know your thoughts
Absolutely brilliant! Possibly the funniest British comedy of all time. Every episode is sheer gold. You must watch the episodes in full to get a real appreciation of just how well written this is. Best wishes 👍
Even before watching the clip (you're watching), I think a "top 10 moments" is doing a disservice to the show, or at least you'll be missing out on where it excels. Essentially every episode is a build-up of increasing chaos; starting fairly calm (as calm as Basil can be) and towards the end a crescendo of complete madness (which is usually where Basil "loses it").
this show is so iconic its like part of being british,you have to watch full episodes to understand the characters,you will grow to love them more with each episode. great reaction
You should watch the film Clockwise. John Cleese plays a headmaster who is obsessed with planning and being on time but ends up having the worst day ever on what is supposed to be the greatest day of his career.
John wrote this with his then-wife Connie Booth, who is American coincidentally and from the Midwest (Indiana) and plays Polly in this. Considering she’d only been in the UK for about 7 years at this point, her accent is impeccable
John & Connie would start writing each episode by using a big sheet of blank paper and then add all sorts of crazy ideas, possible plots and punch lines in little blocks all over the sheet and then try to rearrange and adapt them to make them fit together in order to create the first templates for the FT scripts to be written around.
The best joke he did in the Germans episode was : German : "You're upsetting my wife by keeping on mentioning the war" Basil : "Well, you started it!" German : "We did NOT start it!" Basil : "Yes you did, you invaded Poland..."
Actually the best joke is brainwashed people believing Germany started a world war by going to war with a single other European country 1,274.2 miles from the UK.
Mojo does the show a disservice. In the honourable mentions, they show a half deaf guest. This is the stand out of the entire 2 series! It has some of the best lines as Fawlty realises he can pretty much say what he likes and toy with a very demanding but deaf guest.
Communication Problems is the best episode by a fair stretch. I can't believe it's only an honourable mention lol. Then again, watchmojo have given the plot away to every other episode so at least it's worth them watching in full.
Yeah, the “moments” don’t really work if you don’t know the full back story in each episode. The scripts are so compact, concise and perfect, you simply can’t cut any of it out.
John Cleese based Basil Fawlty on a real hotel owner at a real hotel he stayed at, the person was called Donald Sinclair. Also fun fact, the casino owner John Cleese played in the movie Rat Race was called Donald Sinclair as a tribute.
The hotel they stayed in was in Torquay, which is where Fawlty Towers was set, and it was the whole Monty Python cast who stayed there. One of the Monty Python cast left a briefcase in reception by accident, and when they went back to get it Donald had put it over the wall at the end of the garden in case there was a bomb in it.
Fawlty Towers was made after Monty Python's Flying Circus had finished on TV. The first series was made after production of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The second series was made around the same time as Life of Brian. Cleese was married to Connie Booth (Polly) when they wrote the first series but they'd divorced by the time of series two. They spent weeks writing each episode (Cleese supplemented his income making commercials) which shows in how well constructed the plots are. As mentioned, Basil was based on a hotelier they had encountered while on location filming for the Python TV series. In 1971 Cleese wrote an episode of the sitcom Doctor at Large which featured husband and wife hoteliers who are prototypes of what eventually became Basil and Sybil.
If you look at the missing door scene you will see a dent in the wall. It's there because Basil bangs Manuel's head into it later but the episodes were filmed twice with the first take used to determine which bits of the script needed tightening up. A result of this is the final take had more battered props and sets.
Don't bother with Mojo, watch the episodes for yourselves. Also, take note of the hotel sign at the car park/parking lot entrance at the start. Every week the letters are arranged to make different words. My favourite was "Watery Tw@ts". X¬D Yes, they actually broadcasted that on the BBC back in the 70's. edit: My mistake, having found a YT video called 'Signage-Fawlty Towers', it was in fact 'Flowery Tw@ts'.
Fantastic! Basil Fawlty is such an iconic comedy character. He's one of those that's used as an adjective, e.g. 'He was a bit of a Basil Fawlty' in reference to a landlord. So glad you enjoyed it.
I loved this show! Every episode, they use an anagram of Faulty Towers at the start. I believe the final episode was Flowery Twats. I don’t think you’d get away with that before the watershed these days??! 🏴😂❣️
You can't really experience the full chaos unless you watch each episode individually. The episode called Communication Problems is the funniest episode IMO.
The woman who plays Polly actually was John Cleese’s wife at some point, and co-wrote Fawlty Towers. If you want to see more of John Cleese then Monty Python is an absolute must!!
'The Psychiatrists' episode has so many little sub plots that all tie in, it's my fav by far...BTW did you know Polly the Maid (Connie Booth) was American and that she was married to Cleese irl?
As a general observation, most, if not all video compilations showing ‘The Best Moments’ - usually aren’t the ‘Best’, including this one. You really have to see the Series to fully appreciate it.
So many great clips in this series, but my favourite is a brief conversation between Manuel, the Major (who's a permanent guest at the hotel) and it involves the Moose head.
You really have to watch the whole episodes as there are subplots and the pressure on Basil and his hysteria and suffering grow in each episode. It is hilarious
Fawlty Towers is more than a series of great jokes. You need to watch the episodes as a whole to fully appreciate the stories and deranged mindset of Basil.
What I remember is that every episode you'll see the name of the hotel and each time it's spelt differently with hilarious names such as Farty Towel's. Basil's antics are totally manic 🙂
Definitely watch a full episode of Fawlty Towers, it's hilarious. Surprisingly, there were only two series made. John Cleese and Connie Booth (the housekeeper/waitress) were married in real life, and they divorced in 1978. I don't this is why there were only two seasons made though as the second season aired in 1979 and Connie was in it. I haven't got a favourite episode, as they were all equally as funny.
Another Cleese classic is the movie 'A Fish Called Wanda' which also stars fellow python Michael Palin, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline. Fawlty Towers does that wonderful thing where you laugh at and share in the main characters frustrations, often self inflicted. Another great reaction, you guys often hit the nail right on the head with your assumptions. Keep up the good work.
There were only 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers ever made, so for Mojo to make a top ten with 2 honourable mentions means they included them all!! ;) The episode 'The Germans' was removed from Britbox for a while because it contained 'racial slurs'.
The German episode is hilarious, but for casual racism you can't top the Major, especially when he describes taking a girl to see "India". Laughing at him not with him.
@@sangfroidian5451 I used to see Rodney Rude at Caringbah Inn when I were a lad. And come to think of it I can't name a single British or Australian show from the 70s that could be made today.
Fawlty Towers was broadcast in 1975 (series 1) and 1979 (series 2). Monty Python's Flying Circus was broadcast between 1969 and 1974 with several films (1971, 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1983).
Please please please stop dipping your toes into fawlty towers and just jump in headfirst with eyes wide open. Not a single episode will disappoint you. Start at episode 1. You will be inviting friends to come round and watch this show with you. The British public constantly vote this as one of the best comedy shows ever, even though it hasn't been on TV for decades. Snippets won't give you the full side splitting joy of these actors and plots as they build steadily and incredulously to a comedic crescendo. You two are great people. I'm so glad you've found this classic. Lots of love from Nottingham (home of Robin Hood) UK
Fawlty Towers is a masterpiece of writing, timing and performance. Only made 2 series so the audience was left wanting more. Clease said he based Basil on the eccentric owner of a hotel the Pythons stayed at in Torquay while filming for that show, the Gleneagles Hotel which they name check in the episode ‘the builders.’ Clease wrote it with his then wife Connie Booth who plays Polly the chambermaid/waitress in the show and they divorced between the 2 series which possibly explains why there was a 4 year gap between them.
Question is did they see the full videos for us to see? They lose their charm to have to them clipped up then tossed I. The bin for tomorrows next new product to consume and get excited for next new product.
I had an Austin 1300 which is a version of the car Cleese punishes. It never, never liked the rain. Wouldn't start. Just refused. So I identify, though I didn't take a bush to it 😂 My fave is "on those trays" from Basil "una, dos, tres" from Manuel.
Fawlty towers had 2 seasons both consisting of just 6 episodes - Season 1 in 1975 and Season 2 in 1979 - Still remains one of the UKs best comedies -- John Cleese based it off a real hotel owner from a hotel in which the monty python was stopping at
One of the most remarkable things about this series is just how much is crammed into one episode. I watched them when they were first broadcast but it was nearly 20 years later that I watched them again. I was surprised how so many memorable story lines came from a given episode. Only 12 were made but a modern comedy could go 24 episodes and barely touch the surface in terms of content. BTW, be sure to find original, unedited versions. I'm afraid the BBC have shown themselves to be spineless and remove content in some of the re-releases.
Great reaction! Honestly, our UK british classic comedy shows are always a great watch! I highly recommend doing full episodes of Fawlty Towers! Clips do not give context of the comedy genious you are about to experience. Others Id highly recommend is Only Fools And Horses and One Foot In The Grave. Keep up the good work! 👍👍
A lot of the best British comedies have really severe mood whips, where you can go from tears of laughter to tears of sadness in seconds. The last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth and one of the Christmas episodes of Only Fools and Horses where Dell and Rodney are stuck in a lift stand out for me.
Good Reaction Guys because it is so hard to watch clips out of context but, for one, that narrative was useful as it would have been hard for you. I hope no one spoils your enjoyment because there are many killer lines and funny endings awaiting you.. This is often in The Top 2 voted UK Comedies of all time. Monty Python ran on the television from 1969-74 and then Jogn did 6 episodes of this in 1975 and another 6 in 1979 getting out at the top, as many UK comedies do like "The Office UK" and "Extras" the 2 Series that established Ricky Gervais. Python did 3 films after they split up, all superb.
Nice to meet you bonnie Lady Angela , you are a fantastic couple ,love your reactions & was glad you both decided to do the reactions that you do ,wishing you and your 2 wee bairns all the best Fae s.w.Scotland
Please do watch full episodes, even if just for yourselves. Perhaps you could split each episode into two for your reaction videos. I was extremely surprised the rant from "A room with a view" was not shown, it is a personal favourite. I will not spoil it for you, you WILL know when you have seen this rant to the deaf hotel guest...
@Paul Murphy. Prunella Scales and Joan Sanderson were in "After Henry" that has been on Forces TV. My girlfriend has been watching it. No wilderbeast though.
Part I find hilarious when he beats the car with the tree branch is the smile type grill on the car. That scene became so iconic that Corgi bought out a scale model of Basil with the branch with the car.
@Christopher Dunn. Good Lord, yes! I love hearing John talk about that scene and how he had to find a tree limb that was just right for hitting it. I didn't know that about the scale model, that's both hilarious and awesome at the same time!
You discovered Fawlty Towers? That's cool. Every episode was an intricately woven French farce and Cleese was never better than as the carpet-chewing manager. For my taste some of the knocks that fell on Manuel crossed the line but you have to forgive when the results are so funny. If you watch the episode about The Builders you will need to know that Denis Compton was an English sportsman who played cricket in the nineteen-fifties.
Hello Ethan and Whispering Wifey. This was so loved. I have episodes on vinyl records from the days before VHS. Now please, please see Ripping Yarns from other Pythons at this time. My favourite is Eric Olthwaite, followed by Golden Gordon. Shhh. I bet Angela would love it.
Hey guys, good to see ya! Fawlty Towers is the best, for sure! Watch the full episodes - all of them! All will make more sense then... 😀Also check out Monty Pythons "Parrot sketch, incl. Lumberjack song" - fantastic!!
The American guest demanding a Waldorf Salad is played by Bruce Boa, the same Canadian-born actor who portrayed rebel General Rieekan in "The Empire Strikes Back". The man with the "Hitler-stash" mistaken for the inspector is Bernard Cribbins, who had a recurring role in Doctor Who during David Tennant's time on the show. He portrayed Wilfred Mott.
John Cleese wrote the series after Monty Python. While filming Python the crew had to stay in a hotel which was run very badly. The cast hated their stay, but John was fascinated by the hotel owner, and that experience lead to him creating the series.
I think I heard in a tv interview, John Cleese explained that the character of Basil Fawlty was based on the manager of the Gleneagles hotel in Scotland. The guests were more of an inconvenience.
It's always funny how Cleese decided to include a silly walk in 'Fawlty Towers' when he's gone on record saying how much he hated the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch. When they did the sketch in their live shows, while Cleese would be throwing his legs around and the audience were laughing, he'd be whispering to Co-Python Michael Palin 'This is a shit sketch Michael, you've written a shit sketch.'
John Cleese left Monty Python to co-write the first series of Fawlty Towers (1974) with Connie Booth, so the final series of Monty Python's Flying Circus is without him. After the first series of FT was completed he went back to the Pythons and filmed the Holy Grail movie. After filming the Python movie Life of Brian (1978) Cleese then co-wrote the second series (again with Connie Booth) of Fawlty Towers in 1979. Connie Booth (Polly, the hotel's maid and the witch in Holy Grail) was also Cleese's wife at the time.
Hi Guys I might be helpful to you to get a bit of comic background by looking back to "The Frost Report" (1966-7) which brought together John Cleese and the two Ronnies then the "AT Last the 1948 Show" (1967) which had John Cleese with Graham Chapman who went on to get the Monty Python crew together. After Python Cleese made Faulty Towers. Apparently as it was such a hit he was asked why he didn't make more he said that he feared it would get stale and wanted people to only remember the great 2 series he did make.All four classic British comedies!!!
With the episode with the rat, Manuel had named his pet "Basil", leading at one point to the classic "Basil's in the ratatouille" line - we in the UK pronounce 'basil' the herb in the same way as Basil the name, not like the American 'Bay-zil'... Also, John Cleese was the lead in the film "Clockwise", where he had a lot of the same character traits as in Fawlty Towers...
For me the classic episodes involved the deaf guest; Mrs Richards (a truly brilliant character performance by Joan Sanderson; a veteran of British film, radio and television) and the Basil the Rat episode. I was never fully at ease with the Germans episode despite the fact that it had possibly the funniest single line of both series.
Fawlty Towers was made in the period between The Holy Grail and Life of Brian, when the various Pythons went off and did their own thing: Cleese doing this, Michael Palin and Terry Jones making an anthology series called Ripping Yarns, Terry Gilliam making Jabberwocky, Eric Idle doing a sketch show called Rutland Weekend Television, and Graham Chapman doing various things that are mostly forgotten. Therefore there are no other Pythons in Fawlty Towers, although the main cast did include two Python-associated actors: Cleese’s then-wife Connie Booth as Polly (and also cowriting with Cleese), and Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty.
If you haven’t seen ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ you absolutely must. As others mention, with ‘Fawlty Towers’ it helps to watch the whole episode as everything goes more and more off the rails, especially Basil.
You should definitely watch the whole of Blackadder (in chronological order) and Fawlty Towers (of which there are only twelve episodes). They are some of the best British comedy ever.
It's absolutely worth watching every episode, including the German one if you can find it. There aren't many, only a dozen episodes I think, and they're not long and every single one is gold, as long as you appreciate how old they are. There are plenty of "isms" that wouldn't fly in a show piloting today, but Fawlty Towers flew as close to the sun as they could get away with and did it in such a mocking fashion that it was pretty clear many of the characters were intentionally extreme stereotypes and the storylines so crazy that while people might relate to a fraction of them personally, chances are that real life couldn't be that crazy. (That being said, I got stranded in Germany for 3 days through no fault of my own a few years ago and things were getting pretty outlandish. I was exhausted and frustrated and every time my blood pressure would start to rise I'd hear Basil remind me to "not mention the war". I thought those first 3 days were crazy, but that trip itself could have been an extended episode of Fawlty Towers, minus the hotel. You couldn't make it up!)
John Cleese was married to the actress who played Polly at the time. You should check shows like keeping up appearances, are you being served?, still game which is a Scottish sitcom.
For a big dose of John Cleese do "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988) with Michael Palin (his Monty Python co-star), with Americans Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline. A good comedy. 😁👍
They didn't portray the American guest (with British wife) as an annoying, ignorant person but as someone very experienced, who spoke his mind and was not prepared to put up with substandard bullsh*t. He was played by a Canadian character actor called Bruce Boa who was a fairly familiar face on British television
Fawlty Towers is a classic, only very few episodes were made, and if you can I urge you to watch them all (there aren't alot!) I love the one with the deaf lady, and the scene in her room when she complains
great , you really do have to watch a full episode, to get to know the characters, I would recommend the hotel inspector involving the rat, guarantee you will love it. Americans did try, to have similar show but it did nt quite live up to the English version, love you guys keep doing what your doing
This is British comedy at it's best BUT it is so hard to dip in for a few seconds because each episode is built up layer by delicious layer.
Yeah, it's a bit of a travesty not to watch whole episodes.
Agreed!
Agreed. The characters and plots are introduced subtly and then all hell breaks loose. The whole episodes are must watches.
And of course the added commentary blots out some of the best gags.
You need to watch the episodes.
You can trust Mojo to suck the joy out of any classic clip
Yeah, truly an abomination...
Plus they got some of the episode titles wrong
And Mojo are often factually WRONG !!! - It irks me beyond belief that they make such errors and yet still put them out... 🙁🙁🙁
And not only that, spoil the plot for anyone who hasn't seen it but may want to watch the show in full...
@@bujin1977 not even that, they spoil the clip by telling you whats about to happen!
Short clips of Fawlty Towers really don't do it justice. Honestly the joy of it is how the pressure builds and builds on Basil over the episode. You should give a full episode a go and let us know your thoughts
Yes......see my take above. NOW it's below. 3/10/22
There are only 12 episodes so doing the whole series would not take long
This compilation was dreadful, they didn't put any of it in context or preface any of the jokes.
You would have no idea watching this.
So true
I wish they would get to read your comment
Absolutely brilliant! Possibly the funniest British comedy of all time. Every episode is sheer gold. You must watch the episodes in full to get a real appreciation of just how well written this is. Best wishes 👍
Even before watching the clip (you're watching), I think a "top 10 moments" is doing a disservice to the show, or at least you'll be missing out on where it excels.
Essentially every episode is a build-up of increasing chaos; starting fairly calm (as calm as Basil can be) and towards the end a crescendo of complete madness (which is usually where Basil "loses it").
I came here to make exactly the same comment... You MUST watch a whole episode at a time, to fully appreciate the 'build-up' to disaster - LOL ! 😃😂🤣
Same. When I realise what’s happening, I move on.
Classic farce.
this show is so iconic its like part of being british,you have to watch full episodes to understand the characters,you will grow to love them more with each episode. great reaction
You should watch the film Clockwise. John Cleese plays a headmaster who is obsessed with planning and being on time but ends up having the worst day ever on what is supposed to be the greatest day of his career.
John wrote this with his then-wife Connie Booth, who is American coincidentally and from the Midwest (Indiana) and plays Polly in this. Considering she’d only been in the UK for about 7 years at this point, her accent is impeccable
They were no longer married (or at least no longer together) for series 2.
I didn’t know Connie was American…
@@BenjWarrant true, but I didn’t want to ramble on even more!
John & Connie would start writing each episode by using a big sheet of blank paper and then add all sorts of crazy ideas, possible plots and punch lines in little blocks all over the sheet and then try to rearrange and adapt them to make them fit together in order to create the first templates for the FT scripts to be written around.
The best joke he did in the Germans episode was :
German : "You're upsetting my wife by keeping on mentioning the war"
Basil : "Well, you started it!"
German : "We did NOT start it!"
Basil : "Yes you did, you invaded Poland..."
Actually the best joke is brainwashed people believing Germany started a world war by going to war with a single other European country 1,274.2 miles from the UK.
Mojo does the show a disservice. In the honourable mentions, they show a half deaf guest. This is the stand out of the entire 2 series! It has some of the best lines as Fawlty realises he can pretty much say what he likes and toy with a very demanding but deaf guest.
Yeah, mojo manages to take out most of the funniest parts and ranting through the rest.
Communication Problems is the best episode by a fair stretch. I can't believe it's only an honourable mention lol. Then again, watchmojo have given the plot away to every other episode so at least it's worth them watching in full.
"What did you expect? Herds of wildebeeste sweeping majestically across the plain?"
@@BenjWarrant "You can see the sea - it's over there between the land and the sky"
Mojo does everything it touches a disservice. It's just click-bait.
Yeah, the “moments” don’t really work if you don’t know the full back story in each episode. The scripts are so compact, concise and perfect, you simply can’t cut any of it out.
John Cleese based Basil Fawlty on a real hotel owner at a real hotel he stayed at, the person was called Donald Sinclair. Also fun fact, the casino owner John Cleese played in the movie Rat Race was called Donald Sinclair as a tribute.
The hotel they stayed in was in Torquay, which is where Fawlty Towers was set, and it was the whole Monty Python cast who stayed there. One of the Monty Python cast left a briefcase in reception by accident, and when they went back to get it Donald had put it over the wall at the end of the garden in case there was a bomb in it.
Donald Sinclair was my fathers name. He would have loved this little factoid.
@@steves9250 Was he a hotel owner by any chance? 😂
Any Faulty Towers episode is brilliant, so start wherever! Personal favorite, the character of Manoel, any scene with him brings you to tears...!
Fawlty Towers was made after Monty Python's Flying Circus had finished on TV. The first series was made after production of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The second series was made around the same time as Life of Brian. Cleese was married to Connie Booth (Polly) when they wrote the first series but they'd divorced by the time of series two. They spent weeks writing each episode (Cleese supplemented his income making commercials) which shows in how well constructed the plots are. As mentioned, Basil was based on a hotelier they had encountered while on location filming for the Python TV series. In 1971 Cleese wrote an episode of the sitcom Doctor at Large which featured husband and wife hoteliers who are prototypes of what eventually became Basil and Sybil.
Read Michael Palins diaries. His entries about that Hotel are gold.
The hotel was in Torquay.
If you look at the missing door scene you will see a dent in the wall. It's there because Basil bangs Manuel's head into it later but the episodes were filmed twice with the first take used to determine which bits of the script needed tightening up. A result of this is the final take had more battered props and sets.
Don't bother with Mojo, watch the episodes for yourselves. Also, take note of the hotel sign at the car park/parking lot entrance at the start. Every week the letters are arranged to make different words. My favourite was "Watery Tw@ts". X¬D Yes, they actually broadcasted that on the BBC back in the 70's. edit: My mistake, having found a YT video called 'Signage-Fawlty Towers', it was in fact 'Flowery Tw@ts'.
Fantastic! Basil Fawlty is such an iconic comedy character. He's one of those that's used as an adjective, e.g. 'He was a bit of a Basil Fawlty' in reference to a landlord. So glad you enjoyed it.
I loved this show! Every episode, they use an anagram of Faulty Towers at the start. I believe the final episode was Flowery Twats. I don’t think you’d get away with that before the watershed these days??! 🏴😂❣️
You can't really experience the full chaos unless you watch each episode individually. The episode called Communication Problems is the funniest episode IMO.
I can't believe Mrs Richards only got an honourable mention!
A pleasure to meet you, Angela! You both do very entertaining reaction videos. You will love the full-length episodes of Fawlty Towers.
The woman who plays Polly actually was John Cleese’s wife at some point, and co-wrote Fawlty Towers. If you want to see more of John Cleese then Monty Python is an absolute must!!
Also interesting is that Connie Booth (Polly) is American doing such a perfect British accent that very few British people realise.
This is one of the most loved UK comedies ever
Agreed! And with only 2 series (not sure how many eps in each but only 30mins each). = Bingewatch! Happy days lol
'The Psychiatrists' episode has so many little sub plots that all tie in, it's my fav by far...BTW did you know Polly the Maid (Connie Booth) was American and that she was married to Cleese irl?
As a general observation, most, if not all video compilations showing ‘The Best Moments’ - usually aren’t the ‘Best’, including this one. You really have to see the Series to fully appreciate it.
So many great clips in this series, but my favourite is a brief conversation between Manuel, the Major (who's a permanent guest at the hotel) and it involves the Moose head.
You really have to watch the whole episodes as there are subplots and the pressure on Basil and his hysteria and suffering grow in each episode. It is hilarious
“The” greatest sitcom of them all (including American) . About as near perfection as you can get.
Fawlty Towers is a must watch series. Seeing clips is honestly a disservice to it.
Fawlty Towers is more than a series of great jokes. You need to watch the episodes as a whole to fully appreciate the stories and deranged mindset of Basil.
Look out for the opening credits on each episode ,where the letters on the sign Fawlty Towers are mixed up with hilarious results.
What I remember is that every episode you'll see the name of the hotel and each time it's spelt differently with hilarious names such as Farty Towel's.
Basil's antics are totally manic 🙂
Definitely watch a full episode of Fawlty Towers, it's hilarious. Surprisingly, there were only two series made. John Cleese and Connie Booth (the housekeeper/waitress) were married in real life, and they divorced in 1978. I don't this is why there were only two seasons made though as the second season aired in 1979 and Connie was in it. I haven't got a favourite episode, as they were all equally as funny.
The main reason only two series were made was that each episode took so long to write.
You've struck gold with this one. "Fawlty Towers" is one of the most highly rated British sitcoms ever.
Hope they get to watch the whole thing for us to see. Clips do NOT do it justice
Another Cleese classic is the movie 'A Fish Called Wanda' which also stars fellow python Michael Palin, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline. Fawlty Towers does that wonderful thing where you laugh at and share in the main characters frustrations, often self inflicted. Another great reaction, you guys often hit the nail right on the head with your assumptions. Keep up the good work.
There were only 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers ever made, so for Mojo to make a top ten with 2 honourable mentions means they included them all!! ;) The episode 'The Germans' was removed from Britbox for a while because it contained 'racial slurs'.
The German episode is hilarious, but for casual racism you can't top the Major, especially when he describes taking a girl to see "India".
Laughing at him not with him.
@@RobbofromCronulla I think It Ain't Half Hot Mum might surpass anything on the casual racism front!! ;)
@@sangfroidian5451 And if you're offended by brown face it's oh dear, how sad, never mind, lovey boy.
@@RobbofromCronulla Heh, they should try a Rodney Rude show :D
@@sangfroidian5451 I used to see Rodney Rude at Caringbah Inn when I were a lad. And come to think of it I can't name a single British or Australian show from the 70s that could be made today.
Fawlty Towers was broadcast in 1975 (series 1) and 1979 (series 2). Monty Python's Flying Circus was broadcast between 1969 and 1974 with several films (1971, 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1983).
Where he trips over and then tries to subsequently strangle a garden gnome is one of the best bits
Please please please stop dipping your toes into fawlty towers and just jump in headfirst with eyes wide open. Not a single episode will disappoint you. Start at episode 1. You will be inviting friends to come round and watch this show with you. The British public constantly vote this as one of the best comedy shows ever, even though it hasn't been on TV for decades. Snippets won't give you the full side splitting joy of these actors and plots as they build steadily and incredulously to a comedic crescendo. You two are great people. I'm so glad you've found this classic. Lots of love from Nottingham (home of Robin Hood) UK
Fawlty Towers is a masterpiece of writing, timing and performance. Only made 2 series so the audience was left wanting more. Clease said he based Basil on the eccentric owner of a hotel the Pythons stayed at in Torquay while filming for that show, the Gleneagles Hotel which they name check in the episode ‘the builders.’ Clease wrote it with his then wife Connie Booth who plays Polly the chambermaid/waitress in the show and they divorced between the 2 series which possibly explains why there was a 4 year gap between them.
Fawlty Towers only produced 2 series consisting of 12 episodes in total and all the better for it! Every episode is top notch!
Question is did they see the full videos for us to see? They lose their charm to have to them clipped up then tossed I. The bin for tomorrows next new product to consume and get excited for next new product.
Excellent Series do watch an whole episode xxx.
Awesome Show and Work, Thanks!!!👍👍👍😎 Greetings from Helsinki, Finland 🇫🇮🇺🇸🇫🇮🇺🇸🇫🇮🇺🇸
Fawlty Towers is SOOO good..the best of his work I think..I hope you guys can do more reactions on FT..
I had an Austin 1300 which is a version of the car Cleese punishes. It never, never liked the rain. Wouldn't start. Just refused. So I identify, though I didn't take a bush to it 😂
My fave is "on those trays" from Basil "una, dos, tres" from Manuel.
Fawlty towers had 2 seasons both consisting of just 6 episodes - Season 1 in 1975 and Season 2 in 1979 - Still remains one of the UKs best comedies -- John Cleese based it off a real hotel owner from a hotel in which the monty python was stopping at
One of the most remarkable things about this series is just how much is crammed into one episode. I watched them when they were first broadcast but it was nearly 20 years later that I watched them again. I was surprised how so many memorable story lines came from a given episode. Only 12 were made but a modern comedy could go 24 episodes and barely touch the surface in terms of content.
BTW, be sure to find original, unedited versions. I'm afraid the BBC have shown themselves to be spineless and remove content in some of the re-releases.
Great reaction! Honestly, our UK british classic comedy shows are always a great watch! I highly recommend doing full episodes of Fawlty Towers! Clips do not give context of the comedy genious you are about to experience. Others Id highly recommend is Only Fools And Horses and One Foot In The Grave. Keep up the good work! 👍👍
A lot of the best British comedies have really severe mood whips, where you can go from tears of laughter to tears of sadness in seconds. The last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth and one of the Christmas episodes of Only Fools and Horses where Dell and Rodney are stuck in a lift stand out for me.
Good Reaction Guys because it is so hard to watch clips out of context but, for one, that narrative was useful as it would have been hard for you.
I hope no one spoils your enjoyment because there are many killer lines and funny endings awaiting you..
This is often in The Top 2 voted UK Comedies of all time. Monty Python ran on the television from 1969-74 and then Jogn did 6 episodes of this in 1975 and another 6 in 1979 getting out at the top, as many UK comedies do like "The Office UK" and "Extras" the 2 Series that established Ricky Gervais. Python did 3 films after they split up, all superb.
Is only fools and horses in the top 2? Both are as funny as each other imo!
Difficult to get a true flavour of Fawlty Towers with that narration, totally not required. So totally agree with you Ethan
Nice to meet you bonnie Lady Angela , you are a fantastic couple ,love your reactions & was glad you both decided to do the reactions that you do ,wishing you and your 2 wee bairns all the best Fae s.w.Scotland
Glad you enjoyed it, view John Cleese in the film 'Life of Brian', that is if not already viewed.
Please do watch full episodes, even if just for yourselves. Perhaps you could split each episode into two for your reaction videos. I was extremely surprised the rant from "A room with a view" was not shown, it is a personal favourite. I will not spoil it for you, you WILL know when you have seen this rant to the deaf hotel guest...
@Paul Murphy. Prunella Scales and Joan Sanderson were in "After Henry" that has been on Forces TV. My girlfriend has been watching it. No wilderbeast though.
There is a hugely funny scene with Manuel the waiter - " I know nothing " . Short but hilarious.
Part I find hilarious when he beats the car with the tree branch is the smile type grill on the car. That scene became so iconic that Corgi bought out a scale model of Basil with the branch with the car.
@Christopher Dunn. Good Lord, yes! I love hearing John talk about that scene and how he had to find a tree limb that was just right for hitting it. I didn't know that about the scale model, that's both hilarious and awesome at the same time!
The Amercian actor in the Waldorf Salad episode..was in "STAR WARS - The Empire Strike back"
A true British classic. There's only 12 episodes and if possible you all should check them out.
You discovered Fawlty Towers? That's cool. Every episode was an intricately woven French farce and Cleese was never better than as the carpet-chewing manager. For my taste some of the knocks that fell on Manuel crossed the line but you have to forgive when the results are so funny. If you watch the episode about The Builders you will need to know that Denis Compton was an English sportsman who played cricket in the nineteen-fifties.
You have to watch full series trust me
Hello Ethan and Whispering Wifey. This was so loved. I have episodes on vinyl records from the days before VHS. Now please, please see Ripping Yarns from other Pythons at this time. My favourite is Eric Olthwaite, followed by Golden Gordon.
Shhh.
I bet Angela would love it.
Barnestoneworth! Barnestoneworth!
@@FlashyVic Is Olthwaite playing?
@@alansmithee8831 Six bloody nil!!!
@@FlashyVic Smashing!
The Germans has to be one of the funniest episodes along with the fire drill of course.
Watch the full episodes in the correct order. It's impossible to really appreciate its genius with this video.
John Cleese was married to the hotel maid, Polly played by Connie Booth, for ten years.
Hey guys, good to see ya! Fawlty Towers is the best, for sure! Watch the full episodes - all of them! All will make more sense then... 😀Also check out Monty Pythons "Parrot sketch, incl. Lumberjack song" - fantastic!!
American TV companies have tried to remake Fawlty Towers 3 times. Cleese said it was based on a real hotel the Python's stayed at.
The Bea Arthur version would be the only version that could have worked but the others were awful.
The series was written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth who plays the hotel maid Polly.
The American guest demanding a Waldorf Salad is played by Bruce Boa, the same Canadian-born actor who portrayed rebel General Rieekan in "The Empire Strikes Back".
The man with the "Hitler-stash" mistaken for the inspector is Bernard Cribbins, who had a recurring role in Doctor Who during David Tennant's time on the show. He portrayed Wilfred Mott.
John Cleese wrote the series after Monty Python. While filming
Python the crew had to stay in a hotel which was run very badly. The cast hated their stay, but John was fascinated by the hotel owner, and that experience lead to him creating the series.
I think I heard in a tv interview, John Cleese explained that the character of Basil Fawlty was based on the manager of the Gleneagles hotel in Scotland. The guests were more of an inconvenience.
Nope ! It was based on a Hotel in TORQUAY not Scotland ! I know because I am from TORQUAY !!!
Definitely full episodes, Fawlty towers is pure brilliance. Watching small clips while funny still doesnt do it justice.
It's always funny how Cleese decided to include a silly walk in 'Fawlty Towers' when he's gone on record saying how much he hated the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch. When they did the sketch in their live shows, while Cleese would be throwing his legs around and the audience were laughing, he'd be whispering to Co-Python Michael Palin 'This is a shit sketch Michael, you've written a shit sketch.'
It's one of my all-time favourite sketches, how dare he xD.
John Cleese left Monty Python to co-write the first series of Fawlty Towers (1974) with Connie Booth, so the final series of Monty Python's Flying Circus is without him. After the first series of FT was completed he went back to the Pythons and filmed the Holy Grail movie. After filming the Python movie Life of Brian (1978) Cleese then co-wrote the second series (again with Connie Booth) of Fawlty Towers in 1979. Connie Booth (Polly, the hotel's maid and the witch in Holy Grail) was also Cleese's wife at the time.
Definitely try episodes of Fawlty
You need to watch the actual series from beginning to end.
Hi Guys I might be helpful to you to get a bit of comic background by looking back to "The Frost Report" (1966-7) which brought together John Cleese and the two Ronnies then the "AT Last the 1948 Show" (1967) which had John Cleese with Graham Chapman who went on to get the Monty Python crew together. After Python Cleese made Faulty Towers. Apparently as it was such a hit he was asked why he didn't make more he said that he feared it would get stale and wanted people to only remember the great 2 series he did make.All four classic British comedies!!!
With the episode with the rat, Manuel had named his pet "Basil", leading at one point to the classic "Basil's in the ratatouille" line - we in the UK pronounce 'basil' the herb in the same way as Basil the name, not like the American 'Bay-zil'...
Also, John Cleese was the lead in the film "Clockwise", where he had a lot of the same character traits as in Fawlty Towers...
For me the classic episodes involved the deaf guest; Mrs Richards (a truly brilliant character performance by Joan Sanderson; a veteran of British film, radio and television) and the Basil the Rat episode.
I was never fully at ease with the Germans episode despite the fact that it had possibly the funniest single line of both series.
John Cleese was known for Monty Python, and films like Clockwise, A Fish Called Wanda etc...
Fawlty Towers was made in the period between The Holy Grail and Life of Brian, when the various Pythons went off and did their own thing: Cleese doing this, Michael Palin and Terry Jones making an anthology series called Ripping Yarns, Terry Gilliam making Jabberwocky, Eric Idle doing a sketch show called Rutland Weekend Television, and Graham Chapman doing various things that are mostly forgotten.
Therefore there are no other Pythons in Fawlty Towers, although the main cast did include two Python-associated actors: Cleese’s then-wife Connie Booth as Polly (and also cowriting with Cleese), and Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty.
If you haven’t seen ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ you absolutely must.
As others mention, with ‘Fawlty Towers’ it helps to watch the whole episode as everything goes more and more off the rails, especially Basil.
It's a shame the show didn't go on for longer. Its brilliant.
"Revealed at end."
But she already said it at the end of a previous video.
You should definitely watch the whole of Blackadder (in chronological order) and Fawlty Towers (of which there are only twelve episodes). They are some of the best British comedy ever.
It's absolutely worth watching every episode, including the German one if you can find it. There aren't many, only a dozen episodes I think, and they're not long and every single one is gold, as long as you appreciate how old they are. There are plenty of "isms" that wouldn't fly in a show piloting today, but Fawlty Towers flew as close to the sun as they could get away with and did it in such a mocking fashion that it was pretty clear many of the characters were intentionally extreme stereotypes and the storylines so crazy that while people might relate to a fraction of them personally, chances are that real life couldn't be that crazy. (That being said, I got stranded in Germany for 3 days through no fault of my own a few years ago and things were getting pretty outlandish. I was exhausted and frustrated and every time my blood pressure would start to rise I'd hear Basil remind me to "not mention the war". I thought those first 3 days were crazy, but that trip itself could have been an extended episode of Fawlty Towers, minus the hotel. You couldn't make it up!)
This is based on an actual character the Monty Python team encountered in Torquay at the hotel they were using
John Cleese was married to the actress who played Polly at the time. You should check shows like keeping up appearances, are you being served?, still game which is a Scottish sitcom.
You guys should watch and react to the entirety of Fawlty Towers. It’s only 12 episodes in total and pretty much all of them are classics
You two guys are lovely. Watch it again and scrutinize it. He's such a snob!
For a big dose of John Cleese do "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988) with Michael Palin (his Monty Python co-star), with Americans Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline. A good comedy. 😁👍
And the "follow up" 'Fierce Creatures'.
Fantastic, it’s such a shame only 2 series where made. 1975 to 1976. Thank you great watch.👏👏👏👏👏🇬🇧
They didn't portray the American guest (with British wife) as an annoying, ignorant person but as someone very experienced, who spoke his mind and was not prepared to put up with substandard bullsh*t. He was played by a Canadian character actor called Bruce Boa who was a fairly familiar face on British television
Faulty towers is such a classic! We’ve even had adverts based on exceptionally funny sketches 😂
Thank you for reminding me how brilliantly funny 'Fawlty Towers' was - and remembering how horrified my mum was at 'Flowery Twats'
the man playing the hotel inspector is a legend in UK Bernard Cribbins a comic genius and still with us thank god
Fawlty Towers is a classic, only very few episodes were made, and if you can I urge you to watch them all (there aren't alot!) I love the one with the deaf lady, and the scene in her room when she complains
Oh Wow..this was always so funny.
I use to watch this with my parents..
We need more of this kind of comedy
"I know nothing, I'm from barcelona" Best part imo
Reaching around for the lightswitch, the bricks in the attache case & etc. - so many comic gems, Cleese at his funniest.
But they don’t get the real scope and build up layer by delicious layer. Clips don’t do it justice at all.
The woman who played Polly the hotel maid appeared in Monty Python. She was married to Cleese at the time.
great , you really do have to watch a full episode, to get to know the characters, I would recommend the hotel inspector involving the rat, guarantee you will love it. Americans did try, to have similar show but it did nt quite live up to the English version, love you guys keep doing what your doing
This is comedy perfection i never tire of watching it