Fawlty Towers – The Complete Collection
June 1, 2010 | Posted by admin Amazon.com
Basil Fawlty, as created and performed by John Cleese, is the rudest, most boorish, most hilariously obnoxious man on the face of the planet. What a natural for a TV sitcom! His screen wife, Sybil (Prunella Scales), put it best in the episode “The Psychiatrist”: “You’re either crawling all over them, licking their boots, or spitting poison at them like some Benzedrine puff adder.” He mockingly replies, “Just trying to enjoy myself, dear.” With his gangly frame and contortionist abilities, Cleese brilliantly punctuates Basil’s outrageous faux pas with absurd gymnastics and turns Three Stooges-style pokes and kicks into a slapstick ballet. Scales’s Sybil is the genial but obliviously chatty voice of reason and Andrew Sachs mangles the English language as the Spanish bellhop Manuel, whose struggles with simple directions results in comic lunacy reminiscent of Robert Benigni. After a six-episode run in 1975, Cleese and cowriter and costar Connie Booth (who plays Polly, the maid all too often pulled into Basil’s ridiculous plans) reunited the cast in 1979 for another six episodes without missing a punch line. The four-volume collection contains all 12 shows, interspersed with interview segments featuring Cleese discussing the genesis of the series and anecdotes about the individual episodes. Remember to watch the opening credits of each show to spot the creative misspellings on the hotel sign (my favorite: “Fatty Owls”). –Sean Axmaker
Fawlty Towers – The Complete Collection
Categories: 3D Movies | 
Tags: Collection, Complete, Fawlty, Towers | 
5 Comments »
although I enjoy fawlty towers very much this collection is too boring — there is a really boring interview that lasts forever right before each episode. they could easily have put more episodes in the collection if they only would eliminate those interviews…
well — sigh — live and learn…
Rating: 1 / 5
Let’s face it if this show hadn’t starred Python alumnus John Cleese this show would be as famous as Mind your Language.
Rating: 1 / 5
I’m sorry, but Fawlty Towers was at best a mindless sitcom. Characterization, plot, and even setting were a bare minimun as Cleese mugged his way to cheap laughs. It’s funny for about three minutes and after that the same joke over and over just gets tired.
Rating: 1 / 5
I was very much anticipating watching Fawlty Towers because of all the wonderful reviews given. I expected it to be witty, refined, and just plain funny, I found none of that. All I found was an extremely boring and unexpiring comedy. I don’t see the humor in Basil falling down in every episode or slamming Manuel’s head into the wall. After the first “uno, dos, tres” episode with Manuel, any other times Basil has a tough time communicating with Manuel, it just seems tired. There is no subtle humor because everything in the show is such an overtly over exaggeration. There is not an ounce of believability…
I thought this comedy would be something the vein of The Office, Arrested Development, The Larry Sanders Show, Waiting For Guffman, etc. To say the least I was very disappointed…
Rating: 1 / 5
that the dedicated fans of this show presume everybody who sees the show loves it. That is far from the case. Many people can watch Python or FT and easily nopt enjoy it. I for one see little humor in this series. Remember FT/python fans you don’t speak for everyone when you write how you admire these tv works.
Rating: 2 / 5