Series Description

The Fawlty Towers TV show was a 30 minute British comedy series on BBC2 where John Cleese played a rude hotel operator who was not very good at his job. You'd love to hate him as he made his customer's stays much less than enjoyable! A very funny TV show with that unique British humor.

Fawlty Towers Cast

John Cleese .... Basil Fawlty
Prunella Scales .... Sybil Fawlty
Andrew Sachs .... Manuel
Connie Booth .... Polly Sherman
Renee Roberts .... Miss Gatsby
Gilly Flower .... Miss Tibbs
Ballard Berkeley .... Major Gowen

Fawlty Towers Trivia

Andrew Sachs was seriously injured during a kitchen fire scene while filming episodes #6 of the TV show, "The Germans". He was badly scarred by the fire and received 700 Pounds for his injuries.

Connie Booth (Polly Sherman) was the real-life wife of John Cleese during the first season but not the second season. OOPS!

John Cleese got the idea for Fawlty Towers while shooting one of the Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes. The cast & crew were staying at the Gleneagles Hotel and had a few disturbing encounters with the owner. He moved Eric Idle's bag and was not very co-operative when asked if he knew where the bag might be! He finally told Idle and said that he thought it might have been a bomb put there by one of his employees! He also complained about the way that Terry Gilliam used his knife and fork and was just plain generally disagreeable.

The final episode of the TV series aired 10 months behind schedule due to a union strike at the BBC.

The Fawlty Towers has 26 rooms.

In 1999 there was an attempt to "Americanize" the Fawlty Towers TV show for U.S. audiences. For more information, check out our "Payne TV Show Page"!

The sign in front of the hotel said something different in all of the episodes except #6, "The Germans", where the sign is never seen. There were at least two attempts to reproduce this TV series for American audiences. In the first (Named "Snavely") only a pilot was produced and the program was not picked up. The second one ("Amanda's") only lasted for 6 episodes in 1983. It's no great surprise to Fawlty Towers fans why the TV series didn't last! They wrote out the part of Basil!

In episode #3, "The Wedding Party", Basil describes Sybil's laugh as sounding like someone shooting a seal with a machine gun!

John Cleese's income for writing and starring in this BBC TV series went from 1000 Pounds for the first season episodes to 9000 Pounds for the second season episodes!

Episodes List With Original Air Dates

Season 1

1. A Touch Of Class (9/19/1975)
2. The Builders (9/26/1975)
3. The Wedding Party (10/3/1975)
4. The Hotel Inspectors (10/10/1975)
5. Gourmet Night (10/17/1975)
6. The Germans (10/24/1975)

7. Communication Problems (2/19/1979)
8. The Psychiatrist (2/26/1979)
9. Waldorf Salad (3/5/1979)
10. The Kipper And The Corpse (3/12/1979)
11. The Anniversary (3/26/1979)
12. Basil The Rat (10/25/1979)