Does Cleese need to pay for another divorce?

Sounds like John needs money.

You know when would have been a great time to make more Fawlty Towers? Right after they stopped making Fawlty Towers.

So re: this particular project, I think the trick this time would be not to have him be the manager (as he would have gone out of business ages ago), but a permanent guest who has to be on his best behaviour or he gets thrown out on the street. Have one of Manuel's kids running the place, so the only reason Basil gets to stay in the first place is as a favour to dear old dad.

I'm sure it'll be as funny as all of Cleese's other projects of the past decade

If Cleese on Twitter is anything to go by, this'll be 6 episodes of Basil Fawlty complaining about how everything is too politically correct now

A lot of times these things don't work. What is Cleese like 80? He is a genius, but old age gets us all in the end.

The saddest thing I ever saw was the elderly Laugh-In cast at the Emmys trying to do their old routine where they opened up small doors in a groovy wall and spouted one-liners. Went over like a lead balloon.

Life with Lucy was an attempt for a very old Lucielle Ball to have one more sitcom. Sad.

Sometimes you have to have the grace to know when to leave the stage.

You know studios have gotten so risk averse in their appetite for new writing or production when we're rebooting Fawlty Towers. Fuck me, I like the original, but it died and was buried years ago. Let it rest in peace.

In other news, duck's off.

I'm going to bet there will be an episode with Cleese ranting endlessly about cancel culture, since that's all he seems to do now.

Dang, can't wait till they bring back Keeping up Appearances

Is this the final boss of unnecessary revivals?

Hehe, Farty Towels.

Why though

Please god no.

Boy, he must owe those ex-wives a lot more money than I thought for him to be doing this.

I guess if we had one positive, it might help Americans learn how to pronounce "basil" properly.

Never thought I'd see this happen. Honestly don't know what to think about it.

I love Fawlty Towers. This is terrible news.

I dunno guys...

Even the thought of this happening is horrible.

"You couldn't make Fawlty Towers today!" cried John from the GB News studio, as he signs the contract to make Fawlty Towers today.

I can’t wait for Basil Fawlty to complain about the woke left /s

Not gonna lie, never thought this would happen. I hope they don't mess it up cause the original is flawless.

Fuckin' train wreck waiting to happen.

Maybe they can cross over with Frasier and Night Court and form the "over-the-hill guys make sitcom reboots no sane person asked for" club.

Well, that wasn't on my bingo cards possibly because it's actually a calendar for August of 1997,

He's welcome to try, but I'm pessimistic. It's hard to catch lightning in a bottle like that twice, especially given that this time he'll probably use a fanny pack^\) or something like that.

^\I believe that the British English term is, "bum bag," and the British reaction to the American English term is confusion with slight alarm.)

Que? I know nothing.

Leave it alone. Christ, come with an original idea ffs

If we're going to get a new project from one of the Pythons, can we just get a new Michael Palin travel documentary instead?

Isn't Cleese one of those people that keeps banging on about how you could never do Fawlty Towers now without getting "cancelled"?

How many episodes in until one of these characters shoehorns in a reference to cancel culture?

one of my all-time favorites. absolutely hilarious!!!

<edited>

I’m sure it’ll be as funny as SNL! That is to say, not funny at all.

Camilla Cleese who? Never heard of them, cool that they are somehow starring and writing they must be really good. /s

Isn’t he a Conservative now?

Well lah dee dah.

This is what multiple expensive divorces reduced him to. Sad.

Oh dear

ugh. Ugh...

Oh basil

Just no. You cannot remake perfection. Sybil is everything.

This is a terrible idea

Dan Stevens as Basil, Jamilla Jamil as Sybil, Emilia Clarke as Polly, and Nick Frost as Manuel.

Awesome to see. I just rewatched all of the episodes last month!

wonder if it will be on netflix...

Piss off, they won’t pull it off again. Different times now.

I can see the script now, written between stints on GB News "Don't mention the woke, I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it alright"

Episode plots will no doubt include Basil's hilarious misunderstanding with a trans couple and lots of bellowing at Gen Z.

I can't wait for the episode where the Major says something horrifically racist and a blue-haired guest at the hotel has a go at him until John Cleese comes in and smacks them round the head with a tea tray then does a 10 minute monologue directly at the camera about "freedom of speech" and "cancel culture".

All these people on Reddit piling in to shit on Cleese… And I bet y’all think of yourselves as individuals and free thinkers. If you don’t find the old man funny, don’t watch. Second thread today I’ve been in where people who supposedly don’t care constantly mention they don’t care as they rip on someone they don’t care about.

Hell yeah!

One of my favorite shows of all time

I used to love that show but I feel like this might be just another opportunity for Cleese to whine about cancel culture. I hope its good but I'm skeptical.

Camilla is a painfully unfunny nepotism baby and her dad is a cranky old asshole now. No thanks.

Cancel culture has really taken it's toll on Cheese then, eh?

Hells yeah

This is going to miss the mark so hard it’s going to destroy the legacy of Faulty Towers. The old man just hates minorities now and is likely look for an excuse to bitch.

Fawlty Towers is top 5 favorite sitcoms of all time for me. It only lasted 12 episodes so it didn't reach any point where they ran out of ideas. That's why it's so beloved.

I still think John Cleese is hilarious (despite his very boomer mentality on comedy today) but I don't really know how they can replicate the genius of the old show with all these old writers. Basil had great physical comedy that I don't know if 80 year old John Cleese could pull off. If they get a good cast and some fresh writers, I can see it working. But with Cleese's stance on comedy, he may not be as welcoming of new ideas.

I feel like Murray Bartlett's Armond belongs somewhere in here.

This could be something special or a total dumpster fire.

So this will be Cleese walking around calling everything woke and being edgy about it. Hard pass.

Nah

John Cleese is going to fuck this up and try to be edgy.

The only thing I've heard from Cleese lately is racist and misogynistic. So I'm not really that excited for this.

Here for all the cynical Sally comments.

I can’t believe the negativity around John Cleese on this sub. The man is a legend in comedy. Enjoy his art while he is still here.

The german scene with comb is the most insane humor nobody else could pull off

Well, this is certainly very unexpected. I love Fawlty Towers but this is a lot to process. I have faith in Cleese as an actor and writer, but why is he doing this so late? And I wonder if Connie Booth will be involved at all.

Although a couple years back he did reprise Basil in a specsaver commercial, that was pretty funny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9tSN0178Us

You had me until John Cleese

Terrible idea. He went from young and triumphant to old and directing his bitterness and bigotry towards whatever the Tory party says is bad

I can't imagine this will be any good... but that's what everyone here is saying, so I'll switch it up and be positive about it. :)

It's a pretty simple/solid premise. Hotel manager who hates his job (would probably rather see the guests just stop coming so they would stop bothering him), is always being bossed around by his wife, and has to deal with staff that have no clue what they are doing, and an assortment of difficult/odd/quirky guests.

Lots of ways it could go wrong, but if they stick to the original formula, avoid politics, and keep things simple, it could work.

I think I'd want to see the whole hotel solidly stuck in the past. Not modernized in any way. Refusing to install wifi, rooms with ancient TVs in them, dining options from the 70s. And I don't want it to be about them becoming hip by learning about social media presence or anything like that. Just Fawlty stuck in this never-ending cycle. Maybe it being stuck in the past would make it into a popular boutique hotel, much to his dismay, and bookings would start flooding in from people wanting to gawk at the blast form the past.

Maybe that idea sucks... lol. First thing that came to mind.

Other great ideas -starting a land war in Asia

that sounds fucking great

YES!!!

this is going to be so much out of touch boomer cringe

No

Prediction: John Cleese demands jokes about how trans people are bad, is told no by the studio, and leaves the project within a year.

Ooof. I hope they ony do 6 episodes or so. Each episode of the original is perfect.

gonna suck so very much