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Fawlty Towers - The Complete Series

Actors: John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Connie Booth, Andrew Sachs
ASIN : B00005LC1H
Sales Rank : 702
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : BBC Warner
Region Code : 1
Format : Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790760414
ISBN : 079076041X
UPC : 794051157522
Release Date : December 16, 2001
Publisher : BBC Warner
Manufacturer : BBC Warner
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : BBC Warner
Running Time : 500

Description

Inspired by a hotel John Cleese once stayed in when he was filming "Monty Python." This complete set of Fawlty Towers episodes includes special new commentary by John Cleese. Please see individual volumes for episode descriptions.

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Basil Fawlty, as created and performed by John Cleese, is the rudest, most boorish, most hilariously obnoxious man on the face of the planet. What a natural for a TV sitcom! His screen wife, Sybil (Prunella Scales), put it best in the episode "The Psychiatrist": "You're either crawling all over them, licking their boots, or spitting poison at them like some Benzedrine puff adder." He mockingly replies, "Just trying to enjoy myself, dear." With his gangly frame and contortionist abilities, Cleese brilliantly punctuates Basil's outrageous faux pas with absurd gymnastics and turns Three Stooges-style pokes and kicks into a slapstick ballet. Scales's Sybil is the genial but obliviously chatty voice of reason and Andrew Sachs mangles the English language as the Spanish bellhop Manuel, whose struggles with simple directions results in comic lunacy reminiscent of Robert Benigni. After a six-episode run in 1975, Cleese and cowriter and costar Connie Booth (who plays Polly, the maid all too often pulled into Basil's ridiculous plans) reunited the cast in 1979 for another six episodes without missing a punch line. The four-volume collection contains all 12 shows, interspersed with interview segments featuring Cleese discussing the genesis of the series and anecdotes about the individual episodes. Remember to watch the opening credits of each show to spot the creative misspellings on the hotel sign (my favorite: "Fatty Owls"). --Sean Axmaker

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Fawlty Towers - Gourmet Night/The Germans/Communication Problems/The Psychiatrist

Actors: John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Connie Booth, Andrew Sachs
ASIN : B00005LC1F
Sales Rank : 16772
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : BBC Warner
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790760407
ISBN : 0790760401
UPC : 794051157423
Release Date : December 16, 2001
Publisher : BBC Warner
Manufacturer : BBC Warner
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : BBC Warner
Running Time : 170

Description

Check in to the most popular BBC comedy of all time, where merriment and madness are on the house. Newly remastered for better-than-ever viewing, this disc contains four classic episodes, as well as interviews, behind-the-scenes and cast bios. John Cleese stars as Basil Fawlty, the sharp-tongued, short-tempered owner of Fawlty Towers, a hotel plagued by crisis, chaos and bizarre characters.The Kipper and the Corpse: When a guest dies, Basil?s only concern is hiding the corpse-and the old kippers-from the other guests - but the body winds up everywhere. Waldorf Salad: An outspoken American guest demands a Waldorf Salad and a level of service quite unavailable at Fawlty Towers. The Anniversary: Sybil thinks Basil forgot their wedding anniversary again. Actually, he?s planned a surprise party but is left inventing excuses when she decides to play golf. Basil the Rat: Manuel insists his pet rat is a Siberian hamster. Basil knows the health inspector won?t agree and vows he?ll never set eyes on the rat-but the rat has other ideas.

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John Cleese has always maintained that Fawlty Towers was inspired by a real hotel that was run by a proprietor who treated guests as an inconvenience to running a business. No one in the world, however, can possibly match the sheer insolence and incompetence of Basil Fawlty, perhaps the most brazenly rude character in the history of customer disservice. "Gourmet Night" is Basil's brilliant idea to raise the quality of the clientele of his dingy little establishment, but when his new cook gets blind drunk, he responds by importing the food from another restaurant, with the usual Fawlty foul-ups. Basil's fevered flogging of his sputtering car is a surreal series highlight. In "The Germans," perhaps the best-loved episode of the series, John Cleese hits all-time heights of impertinent provocation when his wife, Sybil, is in the hospital for an ingrown toenail (much to Basil's glee). Simple instructions not to mention "the war" to the German guests sends Basil into a flustered frenzy of conversations that all wind back to WWII, culminating in his stork-like goose step as he offers his impersonation of Adolf Hitler. "Communications Problems" finds Basil once again plotting behind his wife's back, this time for a little off-track betting. His horse comes in, but his effort to hide his winnings becomes complicated when a guest is robbed and Basil's sneaking and sudden handful of cash make him the prime suspect. Complicating matters is dotty Major Gowan, the reality-impaired resident whose forgetfulness only lands Basil in worse trouble. Basil's prudish hypocrisy gets a workout in "The Psychiatrist" when a handsome young chap sneaks a girl into his room. Compounding Basil's strange behavior is the discovery that another guest is a psychiatrist, sending Basil into a tizzy as he is sure the man is analyzing his every utterance. As his attempts to catch the adulterers in the act turns into a bedroom farce, Basil finds himself caught in a position both compromising and absurd--his duck-walking climax has to be seen to be believed. --Sean Axmaker

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Fawlty Towers - A Touch of Class/The Builders/The Wedding Party/The Hotel Inspectors

Actors: John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Connie Booth, Andrew Sachs
ASIN : B00005LC1E
Sales Rank : 46381
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : BBC Warner
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790760391
ISBN : 0790760398
UPC : 794051157324
Release Date : December 16, 2001
Publisher : BBC Warner
Manufacturer : BBC Warner
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : BBC Warner
Running Time : 170

Description

Check in to the most popular BBC comedy of all time, where merriment and madness are on the house. Newly remastered for better-than-ever viewing, this set contains four classic episodes, as well as interviews, behind-the-scenes and cast bios. John Cleese stars as Basil Fawlty, the sharp-tongued, short-tempered owner of Fawlty Towers, a hotel plagued by crisis, chaos and bizarre characters.A Touch of Class: Once Basil decides it?s time the hotel had a better class of clientele he?ll do anything to keep Lord Melbury there-including cashing his sizeable check. Hotel Inspectors: Thinking a guest he has thoroughly offended may be a hotel inspector, Basil fawns all over him to make amends-but has he got the right man? The Wedding Party: Flabbergasted by an outbreak of seemingly loose morals at Fawlty Towers, Basil leaps to wrong conclusions and gets caught in a compromising position. The Builders: Basil goes with the lowest bidder when the lobby needs repairs. He soon discovers firsthand why this crew comes so cheap.

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John Cleese has always maintained that Fawlty Towers was inspired by a real hotel that was run by a proprietor who treated guests as an inconvenience to running a business. No one in the world, however, can possibly match the sheer insolence and incompetence of Basil Fawlty, perhaps the most brazenly rude character in the history of customer disservice. "A Touch of Class," the series pilot, finds Basil bemoaning the riff-raff he's forced to deal with when he signs in a Lord Melbury. Immediately melting into an embarrassingly obsequious toady, Basil is blinded by nobility and becomes the perfect patsy for the old con man. In "The Builders," Cleese proves there are no limits to what lengths Basil Fawlty will go to save a few quid. Enlisting a resistant Polly in his plot, he quietly fires the respectable carpenters hired by his wife, Sybil, and brings in a cheap crew with a history of disaster. Sure enough, they wind up walling up the entrance to the dining room, sending an insanely outraged Basil into a frenzy as he tries to correct the blunder before Sybil returns. Davis Kelly (Waking Ned Devine) costars as the genial but incompetent O'Reilly. Basil smells hanky-panky in the air in "The Wedding Party," when he signs in an unmarried couple and soon sees foreplay in every innocent kiss and embrace. Meanwhile, a sexy French antique dealer sends Basil into red-faced vexations with her flirtations and Manuel's birthday results in a drunken binge and a morning-after hangover that only adds to the bellhop's usual incompetence at the morning breakfast service. When Sybil overhears that "The Hotel Inspectors" are in the area, Basil makes an about-face in his brusque treatment of a demanding guest, falling all over himself to cater to the guest's every whim while he boorishly insults every other customer. When he discovers his mistake he makes up for lost insolence in a campaign of comic terror. --Sean Axmaker

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Fawlty Towers - Waldorf Salad/The Kipper and the Corpse/The Anniversary/Basil the Rat

Actors: John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Connie Booth, Andrew Sachs
ASIN : B00005LC1G
Sales Rank : 32398
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : BBC Warner
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790760872
ISBN : 0790760878
UPC : 794051157720
Release Date : December 16, 2001
Publisher : BBC Warner
Manufacturer : BBC Warner
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : BBC Warner
Running Time : 170

Description

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John Cleese has always maintained that Fawlty Towers was inspired by a real hotel that was run by a proprietor who treated guests as an inconvenience to running a business. No one in the world, however, can possibly match the sheer insolence and incompetence of Basil Fawlty, perhaps the most brazenly rude character in the history of customer disservice. In "Waldorf Salad," an American guest slips Basil good money to keep the cook late for an after-hours dinner, but Basil pockets the cash and attempts to deliver the meal himself in a calamitous comedy of errors. As he pretends to berate and beat the nonexistent cook for his mistakes, his manic bits of street theater grow into an absurdly schizophrenic shouting match. Only Basil Fawlty could keep up a conversation with a dead man and never even notice his state. In "The Kipper and the Corpse," Basil is sure that the man died from the hotel's bad food. When a doctor declares otherwise, he leaps into gloriously insensitive explosions of joy, but his problems are just beginning. Where to hide the body as they await the coroner while keeping the whole thing a secret from his customers? Just about everywhere, it turns out, and the room-hopping farce that ensues ensures that the dead man is the worst-kept secret in the hotel's hilarious history. Basil blithely pretends to have forgotten about "The Anniversary" as Sybil drops hint after hint to Basil's blank stares, but secretly he's plotted a surprise party. Unfortunately his act is too convincing and Sybil storms out before the event and Basil forces Polly to play the part of his wife, unexpectedly bedridden, for his puzzled guests. An even more puzzled Sybil returns to see the farce. Nothing turns Basil Fawlty's rude behavior into panicked fawning and manic desperation like a confrontation with authority, and the surprise arrival of the health inspector in "Basil the Rat" has him flip-flopping between penny-pinching opportunism and hysterical self-preservation. When Manuel's Siberian hamster, which turns out to be rat, escapes into the hotel, a poison-laced cut of veal set out to kill the creature becomes mixed up with the dinner cuts. When they fear the fatal flank has landed on the inspector's plate, they launch into an impromptu game of dining-room switcheroo. --Sean Axmaker

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The Rutles 2 Can't Buy Me Lunch / Fawlty Towers Vol. 2

Actor: Warner 2pak
ASIN : B0007D4MTK
Sales Rank : 138795
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781419809316
ISBN : 1419809318
UPC : 012569701212
Release Date : December 01, 2005
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 226

Description

Two favorites in one for British comedy fans! The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch, the hysterical follow-up to the 1978 Beatles mockumentary created by Eric Idle (Monty Python) looks back on thirty years of Rutle history, and features never-before-seen footage found in a warehouse in New Jersey. Fawlty Towers Series Two stars John Cleese (Monty Python) as Basil Fawlty, the sharp-tongued, short-tempered owner of Fawlty Towers, a hotel plagued by crisis, chaos and bizarre characters.

DVD Features:
Alternate endings
Deleted Scenes
Easter Eggs
Interviews
Outtakes

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Fawlty Towers - The Complete Series

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Fawlty Towers - Gourmet Night/The Germans/Communication Problems/The Psychiatrist

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Fawlty Towers - A Touch of Class/The Builders/The Wedding Party/The Hotel Inspectors

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Fawlty Towers - Waldorf Salad/The Kipper and the Corpse/The Anniversary/Basil the Rat

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Fawlty Towers I/Black Adder II

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The Rutles 2 Can't Buy Me Lunch / Fawlty Towers Vol. 2

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Fawlty Towers I/Black Adder II

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Fawlty Towers [Region 2]

Fawlty Towers: Season 2

Fawlty Towers [Region 2]