Good News In History September 19
Good News In History September 19 50 years ago today, Fawlty Towers premiered on the BBC. John Cleese boldly stepped out into the situational comedy scene without the support of his legendary troupe, Monty Python, and created what the BBC considers “the British sitcom by which all other British sitcoms must be judged.” Capable of withstanding multiple viewings, the BBC continues, the show featuring John Cleese as a high-brow yet largely incompetent hotel owner is “eminently quotable, and stands up to this day as a jewel in the BBC’s comedy crown.” WATCH a video… (1975) Co-written with Cleese by Connie Booth, the idea of the show came from Cleese after he stayed at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, Devon in 1970 (along with the rest of the Monty Python troupe), where he encountered the eccentric hotel owner Donald Sinclair. Stuffy and snobbish, Sinclair treated guests as though they were a hindrance to his running of the hotel (a waitress who worked for him stated “it was as if he didn’t w…
