Fawlty Towers (1975 / 1979)

Fawlty Towers is a crappy hotel in Torquay, England. It's named after the owner, Basil Fawlty (Monty Python's John Cleese), and attracts the kind of people that Basil hates: old people, snot nosed pricks, pretentious snobs, and the occasional swinger. Basil spends the majority of the show frantically trying to hang onto his last shred of dignity while simultaneously avoiding his demanding wife, Sybil (superbly portrayed by Prunella Scales), punishing his idiot aide Manuel (Andrew Sachs), and avoiding/dealing with angry cretinous guests.

The cast is rounded out by the hotel maid, Polly, played by Cleese's then wife, Connie Booth. Polly is basil's only solace, and gets run ragged helping him pull off his asshat schemes so that she doesn't get fired.

Depending on your age, the comedy will be either timeless or very 1970s. That's largely irrelevant, though, as the real highlight of each episode is seeing Basil have a meltdown. Cleese is such a wonderful character actor that he can make you feel sympathy for his plight while simultaneously smugly revelling in his perfect misery. Basil is a tragedy, a walking disaster area with an ability to put his foot in his mouth with minimum effort. His special blend of cynicism and ceaseless sarcasm is comedy gold.

It shocked me to find that Fawlty Towers had only twelve episodes in total, six in 1975 and six more in 1979. They were screened so regularly by the BBC that I had thought there were many more.

4 Watery Fowls out of 5