Rating: 
Summary: The very best comdey series I have ever seen
Review: Maybe I am biased, being from the UK, but anyone who does not find this series very very funny, has lost their funny bone. It is international comedy at it's very best. Forget Tony Robbins for your daily dose of anti depressant motivation, if you are not laughing hysterically after watching CLEESE, Robbins has no hope. Recomended without any hesitation.A BRILLIANT COMEDY MASTERPIECE.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Cleesian comedy.
Review: A brilliant package of classic british comedy drawing upon laughs not induced by vulgar language but by the situations created by the genius that is John Cleese and Connie Booth.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious adventures of an British inkeeper and his wife
Review: John Cleese's classic comedy series packs the most guffaws of anything I've ever seen. With his 'wife' Sybil, Cleese tries to run a small hotel where something is always going wrong, usually involving some screw-up on his part which he then tries to cover. This series is so funny that I start to giggle every time I even think about it. I'm a big believer that comedy heals the soul and the body so I sent this to my father when he was recovering from surgery and he loved it!
Rating:
Summary: Excrutiatingly Funny
Review: You are invited to the vist the worst-run hotel in England to enjoy a mixture of slapstick and word-wit. Each episode is based around the mental unravelling of the co-owner, Basil Fawlty, as his ill-conceived schemes spiral into the ground with the aid of his long suffering hapless helper Manuel.
Rating:
Summary: Watch it, become a believer and DON'T MENTION THE WAR!
Review: I have to admit that my thoughts about Fawlty Towers pre-viewer were, "can anything be THAT funny?" (I have rather a pessimistic nature) And the answer is yes, yes YES!John Cleese is at his hysterical best (in both senses of the word)as Basil Fawlty. He is a comedian who makes a nervous breakdown the funniest thing in the world. Then there is the marvelous Prunella Scales as Cybil, his wife and (as he calls her) his little puff adder. Andrew Sachs is great as the sweet but always confused Manuel (he's from Barcelona). And of course, Cleese's real life wife at the time and writing partner, Connie Booth as Polly who runs back and forth between the bickering Fawltys and usually manages to benefit herfelf in the process. The cast, as you can tell, is the reason it all works so well. For anyone who has never seen Fawlty Towers, it concerns the adventures of the staff and owners of the afore mentioned hotel. They have a talent for making a small problem into a full scale disaster until it blows up in Basil's face. And don't feel sorry for him either, he is a horrid person but a funny one. My favorite episode is also "The Germans" with Basil suffering from a concussion ordering Polly and Manuel not to mention the war to some German guests all the while doing impressions of Hitler and other insulting things. As the German guest put it, however did they win? The best tape in the set in the one with Communications Problems. It was the first one I saw and I nearly imploded from laughing so hard. This is the Sistine Chapel of sitcoms (quothe Entertainment Weekly) and you definately owe it to yourself to try it out.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like John Cleese...
Review: Although Fawlty Towers was a low-budget British TV comedy program that was inexplicably cancelled after a few episodes, it had excellent writing and funny scripts.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Comedy, Great Material
Review: The real prize element of this collection is that it shows Cleese's side of the MONTY PYTHON team, as well as being a great show piece for Connie Booth's writing skills. It is very evident that this body of work is culturally specific in it's overall sense of humour: Whilst it is clear that US audiences enjoy the series( and some most definitely do not), the things that are liked are different to the way a British audience will perceive the series.
There are three seasons in this collection, not the two as usually stated. Three seasons, three discs...
The writing is incredibly precise. You can see this in the published versions of the scripts. In this respect, it has the same skilled basis for good performers as the Python Material. But where the Python team did not know where to stop, Cleese and Booth decided to leave it at three seasons, and so whilst there is a demand there for more of this material, Cleese and Booth wanted to leave on a high note.
It's incredibly hard to give a precise of each show, since the writers blocked out the story flows on charts over 6 week periods, and basically agonized over every word. These shows were done with an eye for precision, and in this respect they were an extension of the Python process for writing, since each show ( FAWLTY TOWERS as well as seasons 1-3 of MONTY PYTHON) is an example of detailed work.
All this adds up to a body of work that stands up to repeated viewing, and has a degree of universality ( like YES MINISTER, and YES PRIME MINISTER, but the YES... MINISTER series are much more Universal). And I suspect that the writers and producers never expected this series to have the longevity it has attained ( Much the same way that Ben Elton has stated that THE YOUNG ONES is very clearly dated, since it was targeted for specific times and specific events); however, FAWLTY TOWERS looks at some Universal elements in life, and in British experience.
Undoubtedly, FAWLTY TOWERS is perennial, but it is mainly perennial for the British experience; a US audience will like it to some degree, but the appeal is fundamentally different. It is not that it is less, just different.
All that Being said, I can recommend this collection as being a great body of work. As an example of low budget British TV comedy that has at its heart a Superb script, one can but hope that TV in general, in all places, irrespective of the budget, will look to great scripts, and let the story telling be augmented by great performers ( such as Cleese), each to their own milieu ( Cultural, or whatever), or even if aimed at a world audience. Key to the understanding of the cultural specificity, is how Manuel changes from being Spanish in the original series, and then in the Spanish, he is Italian, and in each different language dub, the Archetype selected for Manuel changes according to how each dub version will select a different nationality to be the butt of the jokes... and the way these jokes are translated tell more about the culture they are being reworked into than they do about the original version of the show.
At once a very simple show, but it can be seen on many levels; however, if you don't get it, if you don't find the shows funny, remember that these ARE shows done for a particular Milieu; a better example of more Universal comedy from the BBC, is something like YES MINISTER ( not to say that this higher budget work is better, simply different).
Rating:
Summary: if you don't own it-you should!
Review: My dad was always into Monty Python and other sundry Brittish Comedy, so I grew up watching John Cleese and all the others. He never owned Fawlty Towers but told me to watch it if I ever got the chance. I was browsing Amazon one day and saw it on DVD, and I purchased it. I am so glad I did! I can say, the only Fawlt is that the series was cancelled after only 12 episodes!
Rating:
Summary: I tell her you try to look at girl and she go crazy!
Review: I first found Fawlty Towers while in high school on my local PBS station. Years later I bought the collection on VHS and I'll occasionally pull one out and watch it. Some of the episodes are just as funny today as they were 25+ years ago. If it wasn't for some vet bills right now, I'd probably run out and get these on DVD for the better quality and the hope of some good extras.
What makes Fawlty Tower's work is Basil's arrogance, his fear/contempt/love of his wife, and his ability to always do the wrong thing even when he is trying to do the right thing. My favorite episode is the one where the guy sneaks the girl into his room. The image of Basil tapping on the glass as if he is inspecting it is pure comic genius.
I was sorely disappointed with the American version a few years ago with John Laroquette. They tried to portray the Fawlty's marriage as being loving, where is the fun in that? The remake lacked any of the edginess of the original.
Overall, Fawlty Towers was simply one of the funniest shows ever. It's a shame they didn't make more.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless, Classic, Funnier Then Hell
Review: As a teenager, I became hooked on the local PBS station, in large part due to the number of BBC produced sitcoms they would show. "Are You Being Served?", "Man About The House", and most notably "Fawlty Towers."
As a big "Monty Python" fan, I was totally unprepared for the more sophisticated humor in "Fawlty Towers". John Cleese as Basil Fawlty, the proprietor of a somewhat dodgy inn, is as over the top in this series as he ever was. Fans of Cleese's contributions to Python won't be disappointed.
Basil is rude, incompetent and extremely condescending. He consistently attempts to bully his patrons into following his own schedule, adapting to his own mannerisms and submitting to his will in general. Unfortunately for Basil, most of the patrons staying at the inn refuse to conform, and rightly so. The end result usually involves Basil being disgraced, humiliated and deflated.
Basil's wife Sybil, played by Prunella Scales, is bossy, lazy and ineffective. Half of Sybil's life seems dedicated to barking orders to her husband, the other half to talking on the phone, chatting with customers or eating bon-bons.
Polly, the maid/waitress, serves as Basil's partner in crime. When things go wrong, and they always do, it becomes Polly's job to help hide the evidence, usually from Sybil.
Manuel is from Barcelona.
Each episode of "Fawlty Towers" is truly a comedy of errors, the moral of which (if one needs a moral) might be: "Don't be like Basil." As things snowball out of control, Basil's and Polly's attempts to get a handle on the situation (usually while keeping everything from Sybil) result in some of the best comedic moments in television history.
Each episode of the series is completely unique and may be watched separately; it doesn't take long to catch on to the characters and how they interact. Additionally, Cleese and Booth put their unique stamp on the script, with lines just as quotable as anything from "Monty Python" or "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
Because there are only 12 episodes total, the writing, the acting and the laughs stay top notch throughout. This isn't a collection one buys to get a couple of favorite episodes. The extras on the DVD mirror the series by being just right. Some commentary, some interviews, a couple of sidepieces, and that's it. No Hollywood flash, just things that will interest any fan of the series.
One of the things I liked best about "Fawlty Towers" when watching it years ago, was that I could watch it with my Dad. The humor isn't universal. Some of it is dark, and most definitely a bit offbeat. Still, it's accessible enough that many people who don't care about the Spanish Inquisition, much less whether anyone expects it or not, will enjoy the train wreck that is Basil Fawlty.
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