Fawlty Towers - The Complete Collection (Remastered) [DVD] [1975]

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Kate Bush once named her favourite TV shows of all time". Far Out magazine . Retrieved 12 June 2022. Royal Payne ( John Larroquette)– Inspired by Basil Fawlty, Royal had an overpowering obsession (not unlike Basil's generally obsessive behavior) with keeping up with a rival hotel called the Sand Dune, located just a short distance up the road. His schemes to do so cheaply or over-simply were the source of many of his problems. The viewer was given the impression that the only reason Whispering Pines ever had any guests at all was that it was in a popular resort area and the far superior Sand Dune was nearly always full. Payne like Basil is guilty of false economy, rudeness, and two-faced phonyness. a b Terrace, Vincent (1985). Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials: 1974–1984. VNR AG. p.141. ISBN 0-918432-61-8.

The first album, simply titled Fawlty Towers, was released in 1979 and contained the audio from "Communication Problems" (as "Mrs Richards") and "Hotel Inspectors". The second album, titled Second Sitting, was released in 1981 and contained audio from "Basil the Rat" (as "The Rat") and "The Builders". Both of these first two albums reached the Top 30 of the UK Albums Chart. The idea of the show came from Cleese after he stayed at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, Devon, in 1970 (along with the rest of the Monty Python troupe), where he encountered the eccentric hotel owner Donald Sinclair. Stuffy and snobbish, Sinclair treated guests as though they were a hindrance to his running of the hotel (a waitress who worked for him stated "it was as if he didn't want the guests to be there"). Sinclair was the inspiration for Cleese's character Basil Fawlty. Three British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs) were awarded to people for their involvement with the series. Both of the series were awarded the BAFTA in the category Best Scripted Comedy, the first being won by John Howard Davies in 1976, and the second by Douglas Argent and Bob Spiers in 1980. In 1980, Cleese received the BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance. [58]Fawlty Towers: 20 of Basil's best rants". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022 . Retrieved 31 August 2019.

Constance (Connie) Payne ( JoBeth Williams)– The antagonistic dynamic between Connie and Royal was also nearly identical to that between Sybil and Basil with one distinct exception: their sex life was apparently extremely vibrant and healthy, whereas Basil and Sybil's was blatantly non-existent. Connie's gossip sessions on the telephone with her friends (a Sybil Fawlty characteristic) invariably had her bragging about how fantastic Royal was in bed, implying that this was why she continued to tolerate him. Since Royal had a Basil-like sense of embarrassment, this caused him enormous consternation. Connie is also the first name of Connie Booth, who played the maid, Polly, in Fawlty Towers and who co-wrote the show with her then-husband, Cleese. On the subject of whether more episodes would be produced, Cleese said (in an interview for the complete DVD box set, which was republished in the book Fawlty Towers Fully Booked) that he once had the genesis of a feature-length special—possibly sometime during the mid-1990s. The plot, never fleshed out beyond his initial idea, would have revolved around the chaos that a now-retired Basil typically caused as he and Sybil flew to Barcelona to visit their former employee Manuel and his family. Of the idea, Cleese said: John Cleese: 'I WON'T allow the BBC to screen the new Fawlty Towers' - GB News World Exclusive". www.youtube.com. GB News on Youtube . Retrieved 9 February 2023. a b c Strum, Charles (1999). "Payne attempts a 'darker, edgier' Fawlty: New series starring John Larroquette is the third try to reproduce the British hit for the U.S. market", The Vancouver Sun (Vancouver, British Columbia), March 15, 1999, p. B8. ProQuest. Episodes aired in the UK on the ITV network soon after the series run. Episode 9 was also broadcast in the UK, unlike on CBS.When Basil hears of hotel inspectors roaming Torquay incognito, he realises with horror that guests he has been abusing could easily be among them. Basil becomes increasingly obsessed with trying to determine which guests are hotel inspectors, but his suspects turn out not to be, to his frustration.