Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers (1975)

5 trivia entries for show generally

(6 votes)

Trivia: For one episode, the props guy spent ages building up the bottom of a frying pan with cotton wool and padding, then painting it black to look right. It was placed on a shelf just inside the kitchen door. Unfortunately, on the night, John Cleese reached around the door frame without looking and picked up the wrong frying pan. He then hit Andrew Sachs very hard over the head with it, almost knocking the poor man out.

Trivia: John Cleese has said that the character of Major Gowen was based on his Latin teacher from school.

Trivia: There is only one episode in which the anagram on the sign uses all the letters, reading "flowery twats."

Trivia: The recording of the final episode, "Basil the Rat", was cancelled due to a BBC strike, and therefore the episode was not broadcast until October 1979, six months after the rest of the series.

The Builders - S1-E2

Deliberate mistake: When Basil is arguing with Polly and eventually decides to call O'Reilly, he trips over the gnome. However when we see Basil come out from behind the desk, he takes the gnome out of a side gap in the desk, perfectly out of reach of Basil tripping over it. (00:14:30)

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Waldorf Salad - S2-E3

Question: Basil asks the American male guest (Mr Hamilton) if they have palm trees in California. The American replies that, "They say Burt Lancaster has one, but I don't believe them." The DVD then appears to cut prematurely to the next scene. Is there a hidden or subliminal joke here that I'm missing?

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

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