British comedy not the least bit faulty

Simply put, Fawlty Towers is a world-class sitcom, one of the funniest series ever created for television. Co-creator/star John Cleese has often grumbled about the fame and notoriety he acquired during his stint with the Monty Python troupe, but this series alone is enough to establish him as an individual talent of huge proportions.

The show stars Cleese as Basil Fawlty, the easily erupting manager of a seaside hotel. He is obsequious to any guest who might benefit him, and he is merciless to his hotel staff. The only person on Earth who makes him quaver is Sybil Fawlty (Prunella Scales), whose consistently disinterested tone makes one wonder why she has stayed married to him. (In one scene, Basil, in a rare light mood, gives Sybil an affectionate kiss. She looks up and asks what he was doing, and when he tells her, she says, "Well, don't do that," as though he was scraping his fingernails on a blackboard.)

It's especially worth watching this show in light of the recent ruckus over the sarcasm of The Weakest Link's hostess Anne Robinson. No American network--well, maybe Fox--would be willing to produce a show whose main character is so consistently sarcastic and unlikable. (In fact, American TV has tried three times to adapt Fawlty Towers--in shows with Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman in the '70s, and John Larroquette a few years ago--and failed miserably.) The closest that an American sitcom has come to this sort of person is The Honeymooners' Ralph Kramden, and Basil never has a "Baby, you're the greatest" moment to redeem himself. Cleese simply trusts us to find the man's humanism in his catalog of faults. As one critic said about Kramden, the more Basil screams at others, the more you realize he's simply screaming at himself.

Every Fawlty fan has his favorite episode (usually "The Germans," where a doped-up Basil does a blithering Nazi impersonation for some innocent German guests). Mine is "The Hotel Inspector," where Basil kowtows to a self-centered hotel guest whom Basil thinks is inspecting his hotel. The final scene, and in particular its closing gag, are gems.

It was probably the success of Monty Python's Flying Circus that caused PBS to import Fawlty Towers in the first place. If Cleese hadn't already made his mark with the first show, the second show would still have immortalized him. Thankfully, we have both as prime examples of top-notch British comedy.