h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Pleasepleaseplease finish this entry as it has the basis for a good one.

Take a peek at:

http://www.btinternet.com/~c.tomlinson/fawlty1.html

and

http://www.phill.co.uk/comedy/fawlty/

Which will have much of the info you need.

I'm not sure that Basil Fawlty started off as a Python character. I know that Cleese first got the idea for the character in the company of his fellow Pythons when they stayed at a boarding house run by a similarly rude man. Willing to be proved wrong though.

All the best,

Jimster

*sigh* I feel very inadequate writing it, though... I've got so much info, but it's hard for me to write in anything but a dry style... Which is why conservation genetics turned out so well, and Fawlty Towers is so slow. I'll take a look at the links and play around with the other info I've got, see if I can get it further tonight when I've got some time on my hands.

Thanks for the support.

Hey, I knew I recognised you from somewhere!--you're the new Italic! Well, sorta the new Italic... Second-new Italic...

I've been working on a number of Entries recently, and searching for other Entries that might be good to link to, so I happened across your Fawlty Towers one and wished it had been finished and through Peer Review before me. I noticed there aren't any Entries in the Edited Guide that I could link to a reference to John Cleese.

I wouldn't worry about it being 'dry'. I'd rather read something informative about a comedy show than something trying to BE the comedy show. If you describe the series right, the comedy will shine through anyway.

('Is not rat - is hamster!')

Jimster

Jimster... There will be a John Cleese entry... as part of my Python University project (A685163)!

Shee... I have another volunteer to write a John Cleese entry. I know I said I'd hold it back for when you'd finished your Fawlty Towers entry, but you never really seemed that keen on the idea Would you mind someone else writing a John Cleese entry? If you don't have any objections, I'll tell them to look out for the Fawlty Towers entry when it hits Peer Review!

As for a Fawlty-like character appearing in Python, there are a few instances of Cleese playing mad, ranting authority-type figures, but I don't think there's one that could be particularly described as an early Fawlty.



Danny B.

Um, let's see... I've updated it a bit; the other stuff is still there at the bottom, but what I just wrote (rewrote) is up too... Now I get to work on characters and cast tonight..

I was wrong about the character being used in Python; it was something else... I can't remember offhand. But I'll make sure to put that in--no one ya'll couldn't come up with a Python character!

And I don't mind at all about someone else doing Cleese... Now that I've got time, I get the feeling I'll be working like mad on this... Hopefully it'll be done and in PR soon.

Thanks for giving up Cleese! I'll set Vidmaster to work...

I'm looking forward to reading the completed entry

Would you guys check it out now and make comments? Or at least check it out and tell me how I'm doing? It still needs a bit more, but I think it is 80-90% there...

Courtesy of the Guinness Book of Classic British Television:

- It was the series 'Doctor at Large' which featured a hotelier and his bossy wife.

- Cleese's motivation for writing the series was his observation that most sitcoms suffer from padding, so the scripts for FT were written to be as packed as possible.

- I don't understand this bit: "The 40-minute episodes are still extremely popular." Do you mean there are extended versions of the 30-minute episodes the series was made in, or are you counting the ad breaks that are inserted in the UK Gold/USA runs? (in other words, each episode is just 30 perfectly taut minutes, and premiered on BBC 2, so didn't have adverts in it originally).


- The first episode of the satirical news programme 'Not the Nine-O'Clock News, made after the last episode of Fawlty Towers (but, annoyingly, broadcast before FT's last episode was shown!!) had a sketch in which Cleese and Andrew Sachs appeared, with Cleese/Fawlty on the phone to a TV exec refusing to another series (he suggests they should do a 'tacky revue' instead). The last episode, 'Basil the Rat', was delayed by a BBC strike, hence its first tx date being way after all the others.

- 'Communication Problems' was the one with the deaf woman, Mrs Richards (played by notorious TV 'battleaxe' Joan Sanderson) , Basil

- Major Gowen was played by Ballard Berkeley); he always said 'Papers arrived yet, Fawlty?' and was usually found in the bar, and Miss Tibbs (Gilly Flower) and Miss Gatsby (Renee Roberts) were the two dotty old ladies who mill in and out of the place. The cook, Terry, by the way, was played by Brian Hall (second series only).

- Finally, the other 'character' in the show, was the hotel's sign, which apeared to have a life of its own. It behaved itself in just one episode, the first. It's possibly too much information, but I just love the fact that the show is determined to make its audience laugh from the very first shot (episode number in brackets - season, then number):

FAWLTY TOWERS (1.1)
FAWLTY TOWER, with L hanging down (1.2, 2.1
FARTY TOWER, with W hanging down (1.3)
FAW TY TO WER (1.4)
WARTY TOWELS (1.6)
WATERY FOWLS (2.2) and a kid is seen changing it round
FLAY OTTERS (2.3)
FATTY OWLS (2.4)
FLOWERY TW*TS (2.5) - I've starred out the 'A' there, as the word's on the banned list here.
FARTY TOWELS (2.6)


Hope this helps,

Jimster

I'll just sit here and agree with everything Jimster says Other than that, I'll just say I think it's a great article

Singularly unhelpful, I know...

Okay. Some of that is new, and some I hadn't bothered to put in... Like the bit about the last episode being delayed... I just didn't know where to put it, but it pops up in all the info I've got... So thanks, Jimster. I'll work on fixing that up and adding a bit more to it.