History Headscratchers / FawltyTowers

* Where is the other entrance to the drawing room, after the door leading there from the foyer is blocked off in "The Builders"? [https://www.facebook.com/sixties.timemachine/posts/floorplans-of-fawlty-towers-/3458842120836738/ This floor plan] doesn't appear to show any other possible way of accessing it.

** Mr Hamilton asked for 'ten taxis', it's possible these were for the guests, whom Basil had just told to get out of the hotel. Hamilton himself may be fairly wealthy. He gives Basil £20 to keep the kitchen open, which is roughly £100 now. Mrs Hamilton makes not that when he is home, she rarely has time to read because they're always going places.

* Like all BBC sitcoms of the time, the interior sets were built at television centre in London, while the exteriors were all done on location in the west country (Devon). The designers did quite well in matching the interior sets with the real-life building used for the exterior of the hotel -- stuff like the wine bar and the dining room are pretty close. But they still didn't ''quite'' get it right. The kitchen, in particular, seems to exist in a place where it simply could not be on the real life building.

* In Walforf Salad, where did Sybil's Waldorf Salad come from?

*** At that point in time, the concept of Catalonian nationalism was not as well developed.
*** Catalonian nationalism, and indeed all provincial nationalism in Spain, was very much repressed under Franco and took a very long time to return to the country. The extent to which this is true is shown by the fact that Spanish as a language is just more often referred to within Spain as Castellano (Castillan) and as Español (Spanish) outside of the country. Even so, most Catalonians speak better Spanish than Catalan (which is the actual name of the language, not Catalonian) and many don't speak it at all. And Catalan nationalism took longer to emerge than, for example, its Basque equivalent.
** Not to mention that Andrew Sachs' Spanish pronunciation was pretty hideous itself.
** [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Um...]]
** Basil never said "mucho mantequilla", he said "mucho burro" (much donkey). His problems went way beyond poor pronunciation; he would mix in French words ("sports car" became "auto sportif"). I think it's clear Basil's Spanish was just half-remembered school lessons, and "classical Spanish" was an excuse he made up on the spot.
** Being from Barcelona doesn't mean you have to be of Catalan extraction at all. The city is a prominent trade and industrial hub and as a result received a lot of immigrants from other parts of Spain (most notably Andalusia) between the 1840s and 1960s. In fact, both modern Catalan and Basque nationalisms originated in the 1880s as a reaction of urban, nativist middle class people against those job-seeking immigrants of poor extraction, even if they later absorved previous rural attitudes towards "outsiders" and used them for their advantage. This is also why Catalan and Basque nationalisms are way older and more stretched than, say, Galician nationalism, since industrialization took place in Galicia a lot less and a lot later than in any of those places, and Galicia was in fact a source of emigration rather than immigration during the 1840s-1960s period.
* That guy in ''Waldorf Salad'' has the single most atrocious [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents generic American accent]]."
** Which is pretty funny, as the guy was actually Canadian.
*** Canadian accents are nothing like any American one, except maybe for the stereotypic North Dakota-Minnesota accent like you hear in ''Film/{{Fargo}}''. Although that accent is used in only some parts of that area, and it sounds nothing like the generic alien-attempting-a-human-voice one that actor was pulling.
* Why does Polly always allow herself to be dragged into Basil's daft schemes, instead of shopping him to Sybil at the next available opportunity? Is she THAT scared of 'never waitressing in Torquay' again?

** Nobody had the guts to tell Sybil that it was going to be closed? More seriously, RuleOfFunny, and apparently the real hotel stayed open for many years afterwards- it still is open, but it's obviously been ''seriously'' renovated.
* In the "fire" scene in "The Germans," Manuel tries to convey that he accidentally started a fire in the kitchen to Basil. Since the hotel is coincidentally undergoing a fire drill, Basil thinks Manuel is just acting and tells him to get back to work, shoving him back into the kitchen. But in this scene, Manuel's clothes are clearly burnt and smoking, and Basil is looking into the kitchen as he pushes Manuel back into it. How did Basil not realize that the fire was real?
** Basil really is that oblivious. Throughout the series, he repeatedly fails to notice anything that would challenge his preconceived notions.
* I know opposites attract and all but Sybill and Basil have so little chemistry, how do you suppose he courted her in the first place?
** A mixture of things. He clearly married up, was probably more handsome as a younger man and, well, confidence can be very attractive. Basil is nothing but confident. By the time you realize he is also a prat it is presumably too late.
** John Cleese was very handsome in the early seasons of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', stands to reason the younger Basil was just as handsome.
** WordOfGod says that Sybill was a hairdresser originally and she was attracted to Basil because of his upper-class pretensions. Basically, she thought she was marrying up and it was only too late that she realised Basil was never going to be a success. Neither of them ever considered a divorce presumably because they were old-fashioned enough to honour the "til death us do part" bit of the wedding vows.
* Why didn't the Waldorf Salad guy just understand the kitchen was closed? American tourists who go to English bed and breakfasts do so because of the quaintness involved.
** He was pushed into going to the bed and breakfast by his wife and didn't voluntarily sign up for the inconveniences. In other words, not an ideal guest.
** It's not so much that he didn't understand it was closed as much as he's just a very pushy and demanding guy who clearly expects the world to jump to his every command. He understands the concept that the kitchen might be closed, but wants a cooked meal despite arriving late and so basically makes a lot of noise until he gets his way. In his way, he's clearly just as unreasonable as Basil is.
*** Hence, why the YMMV section lists him as a [Base-Breaking Character]
* The misunderstandings in "The Wedding Party" seem absurd, even for a show that trends in absurdities. In Basil's end, he just sees Polly hugging her friend's father, not making out with him. In terms of the wedding guests, in the first case, Manuel is saying "I love you" but he's clearly drunk. In the second case, Manuel collapses on the floor in a drunken stupor and Basil lifts him off the floor only after Polly tries. If your employee is passed out on the floor, you have to make an effort to do something, right? The conclusion the guests should be making is "Manuel is drunk" not "Manuel and Basil are banging."
** It's never fully explained whether Basil is a sexual puritan or if he just sees unmarried guests having sex as riff-raff.
** The entire joke of this episode is that Basil, for all his prudishness, is increasingly obsessed with sex, far more than any of the the guests he's suspicious of. The former is just him being a massive sex-obsessed prude and letting it get away from him. As for the latter, I doubt the guests actually think Basil is porking Manuel on the floor in the hotel lobby, but returning to your hotel from a wedding only to come across the hotel manager standing over another, unconscious man wearing only his underpants is nevertheless an awkward situation for everyone concerned, so everyone is naturally rather embarrassed and uncomfortable even if they don't immediately leap to "Aha! Homosexual sex is happening here!" The guy who comments is clearly drunk. In any case, the episode is a sex-farce. Absurd, sexually-embarrassing misunderstandings are a fundamental part of the genre.

** She probably made it herself.

** The entire joke of this episode is that Basil, for all his prudishness, is increasingly obsessed with sex, far more than any of the the guests he's suspicious of. The former is just him being a massive sex-obsessed prude and letting it get away from him. As for the latter, I doubt the guests actually think Basil is porking Manuel on the floor in the hotel lobby, but nevertheless returning to your hotel from a wedding only to come across the hotel manager standing over another, unconscious man wearing only his underpants is nevertheless an awkward and uncomfortable situation for everyone concerned. The guy who comments is clearly drunk. In any case, the episode is a sex-farce. Absurd, sexually-embarrassing misunderstandings are a fundamental part of the genre.

** The entire joke of this episodes is that Basil, for all his prudishness, is increasingly obsessed with sex, far more than any of the the guests he's suspicious of. The former is just him being a massive sex-obsessed prude and letting it get away from him. As for the latter, I doubt the guests actually think Basil is porking Manuel on the floor in the hotel lobby, but nevertheless returning to your hotel from a wedding only to come across the hotel manager standing over another, unconscious man wearing only his underpants is nevertheless an awkward and uncomfortable situation for everyone concerned. The guy who comments is clearly drunk. In any case, the episode is a sex-farce. Absurd, sexually-embarrassing misunderstandings are a fundamental part of the genre.

* It's never fully explained whether Basil is a sexual puritan or if he just sees unmarried guests having sex as riff-raff.

* Like all BBC sitcoms of the time, the interior sets were built at television centre in London, while the exteriors were all done on location in the west country (Devon). The designers did quite well in matching the interior sets with the real-life building used for the exterior of the hotel -- stuff like the wine bar and the dining room are pretty close. But they still didn't ''quite'' get it right. The kitchen, in particular, seems to exist in a place where it simply could not be on the real life building. Its a niggling thing, but it just bugs me.

** Really, the much worse problem is that when you're looking outside from inside via the open front door there's a walkway immediately outside with all sorts of plants about four feet away at the most, whereas whenever you see the actual exterior in a shot from the outside there's a stairway, no walkway, and no plants in front of the door.

*** At that point in time, the concept of Catalonian nationalism was not as well developed. People may not even have seen themselves as "Catalonians" at that point.

* That guy in ''Waldorf Salad'' has the single most atrocious [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents generic American accent]] I've ever heard anywhere. I mean, it's hard to appreciate the episode at all, that voice is so grating! Except for the last scene, anyway, where he hardly speaks. But that's the funniest scene regardless. "You ponce in here expecting to be hand waited on hand and foot, well I'm trying to run a hotel here!"

*** I don't see what makes that funny. Canadian accents are nothing like any American one, except maybe for the stereotypic North Dakota-Minnesota accent like you hear in ''Film/{{Fargo}}''. Although that accent is used in only some parts of that area, and it sounds nothing like the generic alien-attempting-a-human-voice one that actor was pulling.
*** I've never been able to tell the difference between American and Canadian actors, they tend to sound very similar to me. Then again, perhaps my Australian accent doesn't sound terribly different from, for example, a New Zealander to your average American, despite sounding nothing alike to me.
*** Without wishing to speak for the previous troper, he or she may also have simply been suggesting that a Canadian actor might have been able to imitate an American accent more effectively seeing as Canada is right next door to America.
** For what it's worth, as an American I've met a couple other real Americans with very similar accents to his. Make of that what you will.
*** I'm an American, and I thought he sounded great. I know men who talk like that. He sounded like a smarmy used car salesman, which fit the character perfectly. He wasn't just doing an American accent, he was doing a character voice.
*** I've finally learned to get past it. You know how? By telling myself to assume that they were having him do it on purpose as Britain's way of getting back at America for Creator/DickVanDyke's Cockney in ''Film/MaryPoppins''. Well, [[FridgeBrilliance you have to admit, it's a possibility.]]
*** Perhaps he was meant to be a parody of a stuck-up {{Eagleland}}er tourist or something like that?
*** Most likely.
*** Back when I used to work in an internet cafe in Cambridge I met several American tourists who sounded extremely similar to that actor.
*** Used to have an American teacher who sounded like that.
*** I remain convinced that American accents grow stronger when on holiday- I live in a tourist area, and I hear accents ten times as wild as this one, which I don't hear anybody using in the US.
*** I actually agree with that theory. When I studied in Galway, I found myself exaggerating my own accent to avoid slipping into the prevailing accent around me, lest it should come across as mocking. ...It didn't really work when I was drunk or tired.

** My guess is that she simply feels sorry for Basil, and stays with Fawlty Towers mostly out of loyalty.
** I think she might be amused by Basil. Wouldn't a boss like that be far more amusing than your average boss. The brunt of physical pain and blowback seems to fall back to Manuel and Fawlty anyway.

* In Walforf Salad, where did Sybil's waldorf salad come from?

** He was pushed into it by his wife

** The hotel is [[TimeLord bigger on the inside.]]

*** I don't see what makes that funny. Canadian accents are nothing like any American one, except maybe for the stereotypic North Dakota-Minnesota accent like you hear in ''Fargo''. Although that accent is used in only some parts of that area, and it sounds nothing like the generic alien-attempting-a-human-voice one that actor was pulling.

** It's not so much that he didn't understand it was closed as much as he's just a very pushy and demanding guy who clearly expects the world to jump to his every command. He understands the concept that the kitchen might be closed, but wants food right that minute and so basically makes a lot of noise until he gets his way. In his way, he's clearly just as unreasonable as Basil is.

** It's not so much that he didn't understand it was closed as much as he's just a very pushy and demanding guy who clearly expects the world to jump to his every command. In his way, he's clearly just as unreasonable as Basil is.