For discussion of the upcoming Fawtly Towers reboot.
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That article is paywalled. Does it say if itâs an actual reboot or a continuation?
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Weird, it isnât paywalled for me. Hereâs the whole article:
âFawlty Towers,â the renowned 1970s British sitcom that starred John Cleese as a surly and snobbish hotel owner, will be rebooted with Mr. Cleese returning alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese, Castle Rock Entertainment announced on Tuesday.
The original show, which Radio Times declared the best British sitcom of all time in 2019 after a survey of comedy experts, ran for two seasons of six episodes each, in 1975 and 1979. Mr. Cleese, now 83, played Basil Fawlty, who was forced to contend with disasters and ludicrous situations while displaying all the kindness and hospitality of sandpaper.
In the reboot, Mr. Cleeseâs character will open a boutique hotel with his daughter, whom he has just discovered he had, and deal with a more modern set of problems.
Mr. Cleese, an original member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, has recently been dealing with a more modern set of problems in his real life as well.
On social media, he has frequently railed against âcancel cultureâ and what he has deemed âwokeâ behaviors. He has signed up to host a show on GB News, a British right-wing television network, in which âno one will be canceled â and no topic will be too controversial for discussion,â the network said.
In 2020, an episode of âFawlty Towersâ was removed from some streaming services because it contained racial slurs. Mr. Cleese called the decision âstupid,â telling the newspaper The Age that âif you put nonsense words into the mouth of someone you want to make fun of youâre not broadcasting their views, youâre making fun of them.â
Some fans have also accused him of transphobia for his comments in support of J.K. Rowling, the author of the âHarry Potterâ series.
As with other British series in the 1970s, the original âFawlty Towersâ was shown in the United States on PBS. Despite interest from American broadcasters, the showâs small number of episodes and half-hour run time, without commercials, made it unable to fit American TV schedules.
Castle Rock Entertainment did not say where the new series would air.
Mr. Cleese said in a statement that he and his daughter developed the concept for the reboot with one of its executive producers, Matthew George, a producer of the films âWind Riverâ and âA Private War.â
âWhen we first met, he offered an excellent first idea, and then Matt, my daughter Camilla, and I had one of the best creative sessions I can remember,â Mr. Cleese said. âBy dessert, we had an overall concept so good that, a few days later, it won the approval of Rob and Michele Reiner. Camilla and I look forward enormously to expanding it into a series.â
Mr. George, the Reiners and Derrick Rossi are the executive producers of the new âFawlty Towersâ series.
âJohn Cleese is a comedy legend,â Mr. Reiner said in a statement. âJust the idea of working with him makes me laugh.â
Edit: I suggest we not discuss the parts of this article that might get political before mods have to intervene.
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You probably have an online subscription to the NYT, right? I do too, but Iâm at work right now and donât have my password.
Cleese definitely has an old-school view of the role of comedy in society. Heâs going to find out that, comedy legend or not, heâs not going to be able to do some of the things he did in the 70s.
This doesnât interest me much, really. Itâs still not really clear whether this is meant to pick up Basilâs story decades later or if itâs starting over from scratch, but either way⌠weâve already seen this show and I doubt this will be able to top the âgreatest British sitcom of all time.â
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I do not. And it asked me to log in even though I didnât. Maybe my adblocker did it?
I am really torn on whether or not I think a continuation, which it sounds like it sort of is, of Fawlty Towers with just John Cleese is worth it. And there have been several American remakes, all of which have failed.
There really is no Fawlty Towers without Andrew Sachs and Prunella Scales.
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Well thatâs probably going end the conversation pretty quickly. Which Iâm perfectly fine with. What Iâve come to realize about Cleese recently is that while I previously thought his comedy used to be punching up and is now punching down, I now think he has always been punching out. He happened to be down at the start of his career so the only way out was up. Now that heâs on top it looks very different. One could well argue that it is equal-opportunity comedy, that all are held in the same contempt. But I see it as just cruelty.
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Heâs always been an angry man, I think, and in his heyday he was able to channel that anger into very effective comedy. But now heâs lost track of the lay of the land⌠he canât read the room, which makes him even more frustrated and makes his attempts at comedy more like lashing out.
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Same here. I really want it to be good, because itâs John Cleese, and itâs Fawlty Towers, but so many things can go wrong here.
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Iâll just leave this extract from his daughterâs Twitter feed.
I donât think Iâll be watching.
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MOD HAT: This does have the potential to veer into political talk; we appreciate you folks being aware of that, and letâs try not to bring anyoneâs political views into the discussion.
Thanks much!
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Though come to think of it, one of the character traits of Basil Fawlty is that heâs always wrong. Seems a bit daft for Cleese to put his opinions directly into the mouth of this character.
Might be worth watching for its ironic support of whatever he thinks heâs fighting against.
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Iâve got the original FT discs and theyâre a treasured posession. The show is so subversive and perfect as it is. A reboot? Well ⌠if Cleese is doing it then it might work out but itâs going to be a difficult line to walk. The thing that made FT so great is that it had no sacred cows. It wasnât afraid to go there and it remains today one of the worldâs most perfect examples of The Farce because it wasnât respectful of anyone or anything. It showed an imperfect world full of imperfect people with both good and bad and just how hilarious it all was when it spiraled out of control around a pompous hypocrite.
A reboot could still be just as hilarious today (heaven knows there is PLENTY of material to work with) ⌠but the world is so polarized and hypersensitive about even the gentlest of ribbing that I donât know if the same irreverence would be tolerated. And thatâs kind of sad.
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Iâve always seen the OG as a peerless skewering of a particular kind of Englishness - obsessed with rising above oneâs station, but consumed by the frustration that comes with the fact that it is literally impossible to rise above oneâs station in our society. Much seething self-loathing and petty acting out of whatever limited authority you have ensues.
So ultimately the driver for the comedy was always Basilâs outlook on life and how that led him to react to different situations. It isnât clear to me how that character, projected into his 70âs, could be a conduit for comedy in the 2020âs. I know Basil types in that age bracket and boy are they not fun.
That said, a bit of 70âs style slapstick would be a tonic. Bring on the frying pans.
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I just hope itâs not as disappointing as that remake of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin with Martin Clunes.
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That one missed me completely. Which sounds like it is a good thing!
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It was called Reggie Perrin and somehow got 2 series. I gave up after 2 episodes. How can you hope to top Leonard Rossiter anyway?
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Not to get political but itâs a strange pairing then to have Rob Reiner a noted liberal be part of this.
I love his and Mr Cleesesâ work so I will check it out and I hope both will avoid all of the obvious pitfalls that these reboots bring.
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There is a segment of mostly older people who are still very liberal politically but donât like the new rules of discourse, seeing them as just another aspect of the censorship they spent their lives fighting against. I know Cleese has been pretty savage in his tweets against the Trumps and Boris Johnsons and so forth.
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