Fawlty Towers - At times brilliant but also some episodes are unwatchable in my opinion. This one 'communication problems' was one of the best, along with the Germans, Hotel Inspectors, The Builders, The Kipper and The Corpse, and Basil The Rat. Of the others I dislike The Anniversary, Gourmet Night, and Waldorf Salad.
Fawlty Towers can never be unwatchable. The jokes were never at the expense of anybody other than the bigot, the racist, the snob, the fool. Cleese was always ahead of his time. He was challenging attitudes and beliefs. Fawlty was the kind of English middle class snob he exposed and ridiculed for comic effect. Fawlty’s targets were not the butt of the joke. Fawlty always got his comeuppance. He always failed. He was always the author of his own downfall and misfortune. Although much of it is of its time, the comedy is still very relevant.
I think that the 3 episodes I mention are just not funny, though I agree that Fawlty always got his comeuppance he was still in the main portrayed by Cleese with a degree of humanity that had you partly on his side, whereas in these 3 you lose that completely he comes across as so total ass and you are left with no empathy for him which exists in all the other episodes.
The interesting thing about Waldorf Salad is the very different perceptions on each side of the Atlantic In the UK, audiences tend to side with Basil as they see the American guest as being wholly unreasonable by coming to the hotel and demanding things which aren't on the menu and then getting arsey when he can't get them In the US, audiences tend to side with the American guest as they see Basil as being wholly unreasonable in having a guest come to his hotel and yet not doing everything in his power to make the guest feel comfortable One of these perceptions is, of course, wrong
I agree with you that The communication problems is the best one IMO anyway. But I am with Luke in that I am going for all of them as brilliant in different ways.
I think I think Gourmet Night is one of the best. The Germans is probably my least favourite- it relies on the premise that Basil needs a blow to the head to come out with his abuse. The Anniversary is a little weak because Basil could actually resolve the situation very easily by actually disclosing that he had done the right thing for once. Waldorf Salad sees Basil conflicted. He wants to impress the American guest but inside he doesn’t because he doesn’t like him. It is a bit confused at times but there are some classic scenes and dialogue. The episode is not all about the American either but it succeeds on other levels too - not least Basil offending other guests which culminates on the scene at the end. My mum bought the Fawlty Towers LP. Listening to the episodes without watching the visual images does make you appreciate the scripts in a very different way.
