Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Visible crew/equipment: When Basil runs to change the menu and Sybil says "why?" you can see a shadow of the boom on the pigeon holes at the side.
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Visible crew/equipment: Just after Basil gets the duck from Andre, he tells Manuel to get the trolley. Basil then walks into the door, and the duck goes flying. You can briefly see the arm of the crewman holding the door closed. A few seconds later, Manuel comes through the door and stands on the duck. For about 5 seconds you can see the crewman's face.
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Visible crew/equipment: At the start of the episode, when Basil follows Manuel into the hotel, the shadow of a crew member holding a boom mic can be seen bottom right as the camera follows them across the terrain. (00:01:30)
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Visible crew/equipment: At the end, the stage lights can be seen in the silver lid. (00:29:00)
Answer: A possible explanation can be found here: http://tviv.org/Fawlty_Towers/Waldorf_Salad Quote: "This is, of course, sarcasm, as southern California in general and Los Angeles in particular is famous for its palm trees".
Mortug