Fawlty Towers is silly, intermittent fun

* * 1/2 (out of 5)

Just came back from watching three episodes of Fawlty Towers at a friend's house. I watched them when I was a kid on Channel 13 and remember laughing with them at the time. But I saw an episode about a year ago and it was a bomb. So being outnumbered three to one I sat down for another go at it tonite. And I'll admit I laughed at times.

It's way too manic for my tastes. That old vaudeville idea of if you scream a lot, bang lots of doors and throw things around people will laugh at the sheer exuberance of the moment. That never catches me. What I like is cleverness and there were some good moments, like during a fire drill when the out-of-his-element Spanish bellhop starts a real fire. Or when the same bellhop is behind the front desk and is practicing his English and the doddering old Major thinks its the moosehead on the desk speaking to him.

I guess I laughed at it as much as an average episode of Two and a Half Men, so if it was on nightly on Channel 11 I might watch it during dinner. But like Bernie Mac it would definitely need subtitles. I missed at least a quarter of the dialogue with the barely penetrable British accents.

The Freditor