its a bit late :D

sorry its a bit late


The situation comedy was born on the radio in 1926, on January 12th. The first sitcom was called Sam 'n' Henry. The 15 minute sitcom was the revamped in 1928, moved to another radio station and became one of the most successful sitcom of this period, Amos 'n' Andy. Fibber McGee and Molly was one of the most successful sitcoms of all time. It was on the radio from 1935 to 1959. In the late 1940s, the sitcom was among the first formats adapted for the new medium of television. Most sitcoms were half an hour long and aired weekly. Many of the earliest sitcoms were direct adaptations of existing radio shows, or vehicles for existing radio stars.
Nowadays, there are so many channels with so many sitcoms on,it is hard to keep track of all of them. Many television sitcoms over the years have been based on radio sitcoms, adapted from radio sitcoms, or have characters that are very alike to those on radio sitcoms. With all of these digital channels available, there is always space to cram in a new sitcom, the channel E4 is usually used to pilot sitcoms, if they are successful, then they will probably be moved to channel 4 as a mainstream sitcom.

Warning Notice

Sophie this is your first warning.  Some research is evident but more of your own work would be nice.  You do know you are more than capable don't you?  I notice you haven't added Wednesday's task yet.  I expect to see your response by Monday otherwise it's another yellow and that equal a detention.  I know you like my company but I am sure you have other things to do.

Review-Praise for Fawlty Towers

Product: Fawlty Towers
Date: 11.02.04 (462 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very Funny, Very Very Funny

Disadvantages: There are only 12 episodes

Is this the best sit com ever made? I think it is let me tell you why.

Fawlty Tower was originally devised by ex-Monty Python John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth. It ran for just 2 brilliant six-episode series (4 years apart) on the BBC between 1976-1979 and is quite possibly the perfect sit-com with a brilliant balance of witty lines, farcical situations and slapstick.

John Cleese has said that the idea for the character of Basil came from a time when he and the rest of the Monty Python crew were staying at a hotel where the real life owner was a real life Basil Fawlty. On one occasion throwing Eric Idles suitcase in to the street thinking it contained a bomb on another he stopped Terry Gilliam from using his fork the 'American way and showed him how to eat 'properly!'

The programme is set in Torquay at the small but pretentious hotel Fawlty Towers. Basil Fawlty is the henpecked manager/owner. He is also the archetypal snob and a compulsive social climber; He looks down on what he perceives to be ?the Riff-raff? and is cringingly fawning to the ?upper classes? he is also totally neurotic and often suffers panic attacks.
His wife Sybil is a real dragon and the real head of the household. Helping out are a small staff including Manuel a Spanish waiter from Barcelo
na (brilliantly played by Andrew Sachs) who doesn?t speak very good English and Connie the American general help often tries to save the day for Basil by covering up some disastrous mess he has got himself into. In addition to the staff the guest had a motley collection of 'permanent' guests, which provided yet more comic ammunition for the stories, these included the forgetful elderly major and the elderly and slightly deaf spinster sisters Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatby.

The setting of the show in a hotel is also a key feature; this allows the regular cast to be placed in new situations by the arrival of different guests without making too much of an effort. The set with it's numerous doorways and rooms was also in the tradition of the 70's theatrical farce were characters in embarrassing situations would hide in wardrobes, run in an out of rooms being followed by other and a general frenetic atmosphere was built up.

What makes the show work so well is the interaction of the characters and the wonderfully contrived situations they get in to. The key to this is the quality of the scripts and the comic timing of the actors. It has been said that the Fawlty Towers scripts simply contained more dialogue and therefore more jokes than your average sitcom and it is true to say that they often performed at a breakneck pace to get through the episodes. The speed at which the jokes come at you sometimes obscures how much of a sad characters Basil especially really is, if we lingered on this too much we might feel too much sympathy for him which would take way from his comic aspect. Basil is obviously and exaggerated character but there are enough aspects in there that most of us could recognise if (hopefully) not in ourselves then certainly in people we know.

The verbal exchanges of the characters and the comic situations that they get into are on
ly part of the magic of the show. The reason Fawlty Towers also appeal to many audiences abroad that you might not expect to appreciate the nuances of a well-written English script is because a large part of the show relies on physical comedy and slapstick, which obviously translates well. It is interesting however that when foreign versions of the shows have been attempted they have failed and even with the original dubbed in various languages some changes were necessary to keep the favour of the local viewers thus Manuel became Italian in the Spanish airing while the 'German episode was not shown in Germany?
Cleese was always a very physical comedian and managed to use his great height and rubberlike body to great effect in the old Monty Python days remember the (ministry of funny walks) and there are certainly many hints of the physical comedy of his Monty Python days in Fawlty Towers the most obvious one being the goose step in the Germans episode.

Apart from Cleese and the regular cast the show also made use of some great comedy character actors the likes of Joan Sanderson and Bernard Cribbins to make one off appearances their performances are also of the highest quality and they deserves some recognition for the success of the shows.

The shows popularity has not diminished over the years and while other sitcoms of the period have become dated Fawlty Towers still seems to make us laugh. In part I think the show's great reputation for being one of the best sit comes ever is down to the fact that only 12 episodes were made. The quality of the output never suffered through having to stretch the material out to another series. Just like a rock star dying young at the peak of their abilities acquires them that special mystique dos too with Fawlty Towers the brevity to he show's run served it well in
the years that followed. It is a sign of how much impact this programme has had on the national psyche that phrases like, ?Don?t mention the war?, ?Don?t worry he?s from Barcelona? ?Que?? and ?I know nothing..? have become part of everyday language and are routinely used by tabloid newspapers (or variations of).

The truth is and this can't be said for any other sitcom all the episodes are classics. It is a testament to quality of the scripts that the shows work almost as well on an audio medium even though they lack the visual slapstick comedy.

*******
BASIL: What's the matter with her?

GERMAN: She is upset because everyone keeps mentioning the war.

BASIL: Well, you started it.

GERMAN: No we didn't!

BASIL: Yes you did. You invaded Poland!!!
*******

I rest my case!

Manuel Abuse

The Creww-They put it all together

Series Directed by
John Howard Davies

(6 episodes, 1975)
Bob Spiers

(6 episodes, 1979)

Series Writing credits
Connie Booth

(12 episodes, 1975-1979)
John Cleese

(12 episodes, 1975-1979)
Series Produced by
John Howard Davies
....
producer (6 episodes, 1975)
Douglas Argent
....
producer (6 episodes, 1979)

Series Original Music by
Dennis Wilson

(12 episodes, 1975-1979)

Series Film Editing by
Howard Dell

(4 episodes, 1979)
Susan Imrie

(4 episodes, 1979)
Bob Rymer

(3 episodes, 1975)
Neil Pittaway

(2 episodes, 1979)

Series Production Design by
Peter Kindred

(6 episodes, 1975)
Nigel Curzon

(6 episodes, 1979)

Series Costume Design by
Mary Woods

(6 episodes, 1975)
Caroline Hutchings

(5 episodes, 1979)

Series Makeup Department
Jean Speak
....
makeup artist (5 episodes, 1975)
Suzan Broad
....
makeup artist (5 episodes, 1979)
Anne Rayment
....
makeup designer (unknown episodes)

Series Sound Department
Mike Jones
....
studio sound / sound (7 episodes, 1975-1979)
John Howell
....
sound (5 episodes, 1975)
Bill Chesneau
....
sound (4 episodes, 1979)

Series Visual Effects by
Ken Bomphray
....
visual effects (1 episode, 1975)
Peter Pegrum
....
visual effects (1 episode, 1975)

Series Camera and Electrical Department
Ron Bristow
....
studio lighting / lighting technician (6 episodes, 1979)
Geoff Shaw
....
lighting technician (3 episodes, 1975)
Stanley Speel
....
camera operator (3 episodes, 1975)
Ron Koplick
....
lighting technician (2 episodes, 1975)
Graham Banks
....
focus puller (2 episodes, 1979)
Alec Curtis
....
camera operator (2 episodes, 1979)
Paul Wheeler
....
camera operator (2 episodes, 1979)

Series Editorial Department
Bill Morton
....
vision mixer (2 episodes, 1979)

Series Other crew
John Kilby
....
production assistant / production team (6 episodes, 1979)
Tony Guyan
....
production assistant (5 episodes, 1975)
Iain McLean
....
production team (2 episodes, 1979)
Penny Thompson
....
production team (2 episodes, 1979)

Terrryyyy

Terry-The hotels Chef

Old Dears

Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs-The pair of them are permanent residents of Fawlty Towers and often the subject of Basil's sarcasm.