A Touch of Class = not very good
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Fawlty Towers
rudeboy_murray — 16 years ago(October 27, 2009 12:19 AM)
Having watched every episode of Fawlty Towers countless times over the years, one thing has always been evident to me - the very first episode, A Touch of Class (the Lord Melbury one), is more ragged and has far fewer laughs than the later episodes. It is, in fact, rather poor the performances haven't found their feet (Connie Booth, in particular, is pretty bad and not at all funny), and there are only a scattering of laughs.
As we all know, the show quickly became brilliant as Cleese and Booth found their feet. Does anyone know if this episode was the first to be written? Alongside the wonderful episodes which were to follow it's mediocrity is, frankly, quite glaring. -
maydom04 — 9 years ago(October 13, 2016 05:02 PM)
All the episodes are good, but this one has to be one of my very favorite. The final line by Mr Wareing slays me EVERY TIME: "A gin and orange, a lemon squash, and a scotch and water PLEASE!!!!" And the Lord Melbury character in incredibly good.
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mungreluk — 12 years ago(February 04, 2014 04:13 PM)
Did the Duke of Buckley really get his head shot off by a golf ball ?
And seriously, why the hell didnt Sybil serve the family in the bar when Basil was talking to Melbury about his coins. Ive always liked this episode to be honest. -
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kpetnews — 9 years ago(December 03, 2016 09:03 PM)
It's pretty funny. Basil is getting all his coins into a case, which must be taking a certain amount of time, and meanwhile, Sybil just continues to ignore the family and their order. She'll die before she lets Basil get out from under one of her orders.
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John_Dee_007 — 11 years ago(June 09, 2014 06:24 AM)
If you think this episode has its flaws because the characters weren't properly fleshed out yet, just look at the unaired pilot of Blackadder (the other greatest comedy series of all time), or the entire first series, and then compare it to the second series as an example of a masterpiece show not finding its feet yet. Even the pilot episode of Seinfeld is dreadfully generic (as is much of the first season) and almost unrecognizable to the show it would become. By comparison Fawlty Towers was remarkably quick to find its feet.
OCJOC -
kpetnews — 9 years ago(December 03, 2016 09:00 PM)
I actually agree it's more ragged than later episodes. Prunella Scales doesn't seem to have Sybil's character quite down yet and Connie Booth plays things more straight than she would later on. (Her banter with Robin Ellis seems mostly rote, for instance.) But there are just wonderful touches, like the slow pause and then saying "Go away" into the phone before hanging up, that indicate where the show was going. Apart from that, it feels clunkier than later episodes and doesn't have the natural manic grace of "Gourmet Night" or "The Germans."