Saturday, September 10, 2011

Fawlty Towers

Basil Fawlty is quite possibly the rudest hotel manager in all of Britain, if not the entire world. As he insults his guests, mocks his wife, caters to the upper class, manhandles the incompetent Spanish bellboy, impinges on the maid, and always manages to screw everything up. "Fawlty Towers" is the irreverent and hilarious work of John Cleese, Monty Python member, who both starred and cowrote the show with his then wife and costar Connie Booth. Cleese's performance is hilariously manic and physical and I was often taken aback by the outrageousness of the 12 episode of the series as Basil tries to make a Waldorf Salad without a cook, not offend his guests on German Night, and successfully dispose of a corpse taking up space in an occupied room. "Fawlty Towers" is an extremely funny series that must have set the bar for television comedy of its time.