I think Jon Lithgow would have been the only American actor that has the Cleese-esque physical presence and comedy chops to do justice to Basil Fawlty in a US remake.

If you can't get something as simple as the main character right, these remakes will always fail.

The American character-based sitcom set in a small hotel that was successful was Newhart, which ran from 1982-1990. Bob Newhart as Dick Loudon was almost the anti-Basil, with crazy things going on around him, while the only sign that he was fazed was his trademark stammer.

Fawlty Towers was more of a stage farce than a comedy series. A lot of sticky situations that are tried to get out of, but generally ending up causing something worse. Usually culminating in the main character exiting and everyone else left to argue over who should sort it all out. It could never really be considered to be a true sit-com. It had situation comedy in it, but it was much, much more. The under-breath one liners that Basil would mutter to himself regarding guests, even when in their presence, was testament to that. These US versions seemed to try and play as straight sitcoms, and because of it there's no real build-up in regard to the situations they're in. The one liners are there, but they're more for the audience than a by-product of the frustrations that are mounting. They all fall flat because of this.

The one thing that constantly comes up in these comparisons is the fact that American remakes just can't get to grips with writing 'grotesque' people. David Brent, Hyacinth Bucket, Arnold Rimmer, DelBoy Trotter are fundamentally maladjusted people, which American producers and directors just don't want to have as main characters.

Fawlty Towers is a unique creation. It cannot be repeated.

In most British comedies the central character(s) is/are the butt of most of the jokes. In Fawlty Towers we're laughing at Basil's antics as he loses the plot. In most American comedies the central character is the hero, kicking down at others with their superior one-liners. When an American remake tries to copy a British comedy but make the central character a wisecracking hero, it just doesn't work. It's not a 100% rule, but think of any classic British comedy and chances are the central character is also the person we're laughing at the most. Keeping Up Appearances, One Foot in the Grave, Dad's Army, The Office, Steptoe & Son, Hancock's Half Hour, Yes Minister, and on and on.

Betty White in one, Bea Arthur in the next. Never realised two Golden Girls had been leads in Fawlty Tower remake attempts. Then realised Harvey Corman and Bea Arthur were also in the infamously awful Star Wars Holiday Special too. :O

I guess Harvey Korman was arguably the most John Cleese-like American actor of his day, but the whole enterprise was just so wrongheaded. Basil Fawlty is one of those characters who can only ever be played by one actor, I think because John Cleese put so much of himself into it. The other thing is that in those days, American TV networks really pushed for sitcoms to have real drama mixed in and for characters to have "growing moments" for the sake of sending a positive message, which just doesn't work with FT, in which nobody grows or changes; the show centers on someone forever condemned to be himself and never to learn from his mistakes; that's why he's funny. The characters in FT don't really have arcs; they simply are who they are and respond to their absurd world accordingly. Nobody wants to see moments of actual marital drama or emotional realism between Basil and Sybil; that would shatter the comedic illusion. Nobody watched FT wondering if Sybil would finally leave Basil, or if Connie or Manuel would move on with their lives, or if there'd be a tearful finale in which Basil finally shows the tiniest trace of humanity and everyone hugs. In that regard FT had no dramatic tension, it was 100% comedic tension. I don't think an American sitcom centered on unsympathetic main characters till Seinfeld, which had an avowed policy of "no hugging, no learning."

I think one reason some of these comedies don’t transfer well, and perhaps never could, is that differences in cultures aren’t adequately taken into account. One reason Basil Fawlty is funny is that he is the antithesis of a British ideal to which he aspires, and his extremity plays against a backdrop in which everyone else comes much closer to being properly reserved than he does. He not only lacks the pedigree to be what he wants to be; he can’t even manage ten straight minutes of stereotypical upper-class or middle-class British reserve. Of course, another reason is that John Cleese is such a unique talent, able to skate effortlessly between trying to act innocent, to dropping acidic one-liners under his breath, to being overtly physically abusive to anyone or anything that can’t fight back, and always because of his frustrations with himself. Ironically, the American sitcom that probably got closest to capturing some of the spirit of Fawlty Towers is Newhart, whose star is about as different from Cleese, on the surface, as can be-although I can just look at either of them, and laugh. A major similarity, though, is that both performers are terrific at portraying, in subtle or broad strokes, characters who are, like so many actual people on their respective home turfs, the antithesis of their country’s pop culture ideals. As the UK values reserve, US pop culture values brashness in the face of rudeness or craziness. In Newhart’s Dick Loudon, we have a guy who is much like Newhart’s earlier Bob Hartley character, in that his temperament and his job circumstances often have him, to hilarious effect, politely downplaying his reactions, humoring people, and acting as if complete insanity is utterly sane. His occasional overt displays of annoyance and anger end up just being brief moments of irritability and impotence. Dick is as powerless over the ignorance, narcissism, and crazy groupthink around him as Basil is over his own considerable limits. Dick and the Newhart show premise also have a lot in common with Green Acres, in which a citified central character who is, in all other respects, a complete realist, can’t seem to escape his own romanticizing of rural life, and can’t seem to leave his three-piece suits on hangers while doing farm chores. A lawyer who’s accustomed to relying on his superior knowledge and reasoning skills, he finds those tools useless in the alternate universe of Hooterville. The Canadian series Mr. D is sometimes very funny because the title character is the opposite of polite Canadian or empty-headed rural Canadian stereotypes, and the opposite of what is expected of him as someone who teaches kids. Instead, he’s forever trying to game systems that simply won’t be gamed to his liking. He’s like a Canadian Ralph Cramden or Sgt Bilko. He’s not mean; he simply cares only about what he wants. US producers aren’t great with absurdity and non sequiturs the way Monty Python and Peter Cook were. Some US shows do terrible characters okay, but the terrible characters are rarely the funniest. They’re often either cartoon-like or too much like people we in the states actually deal with to be funny. In recent years, combining terrible with the surreal has seemed to work, as on Arrested Development and Tina Fey’s shows. As for Laroquette, I imagine he had an additional burden of trying to differentiate his inn-owner character from the terrible Dan Fielding character he had played on Night Court. Every once in a while, an American or Canadian sketch comedy show edges into doing what Python did so well. Off hand, I can think of an old SNL sketch in which Will Forte’s response to every trivial “crisis” was to panic, and repeatedly shout, “Ohh, no!”. The State, years ago, did a sketch in which fast food employees become increasingly verbally and physically abusive toward each other, the exact opposite of the enforced niceness of American service jobs.

I had a Scottish professor at art school who would wander the room as we worked on projects, talking about various British comedies He later told me that he used it as a sort of intelligence test for students, sorting us by who got them and who didn't. One day, he mentioned Fawlty Towers, and I said I didn't like it much. He yelled, going on and on about how could anyone not laugh at this, before finally storming out of the room. After 2 or 3 minutes, he came back in and said to me "Yehr not married, are ye? Ye doan get that show until yehr married."

I think the key difference with "Snavely" is that Basil Fawlty considers himself a reasonable man. A very reasonable man, who, for some reason, the Gods are torturing with outrageous fortune. He thinks of himself as polite and obliging. He actually *is* somewhat polite, if a bit lacking in patience. It's never his fault, in his mind, when he ends up abusing people and things. You're supposed to be able to sympathise with him, sort of. American sitcoms can't do subtlety like that, they don't do subtlety in their comedy at all. I don't mean Basil is a very subtle character, but the difference is subtle. You can sympathise with him and see where he's coming from, up until he makes his first wrong step.

Two of the Golden Girls starred in very weak US versions of a classic UK sitcom. Then in the UK we produced an abysmal sitcom called The Brighton Belles which was our version of The Golden Girls - that's tv karma!

I remember as a kid there was a US comedy set in a hotel starring Steve Guttenberg which they said was 'inspired' by Fawlty Towers. I've had a look and the show appears to be 'No Soap, Radio' from 1982, althought the wiki page for it says it was 'inspired' from Monty Python.

Its like Americans know that these shows are funny, but in trying to recreate them they show that they had no idea WHY they were funny.

So much talent and chemistry in the original would be hard to replicate anywhere. An important point is that Basil *is* the hotel. The character of each represents the other.

FT was quintessentially English. It was about class, repressed sexuality, failed aspirations etc. It was never going to relate well abroad.

British comedies don't transfer over to American, or pretty much any other country, that well due to the major differences in audience perception.

Could you imagine if America tried to remake Monty Python. They didn't did they? Tell me they didn't!

I found your videos recently, and on looking at your channel for more I was surprised to see you only have three. Your videos are great quality and so interesting and I look forward to more. On this one, Bea Arthur seemed the best fit and I could have seen that iteration working if they’d succeeded in making it their own.

These three remakes, ironically, all have great comedic talent working in them, but they jsut don't seem to have got that essential spark in the writing to make them work that well (certainly not well enough to have been hits). Normally anytime the US has done remakes of UK comedies I hands down prefer our copy to y'all's originals (Three's Company, Sanford & Son, All in the Family, etc even on up to the Office), but Fawlty Towers is such an awesome comedy gem that nothing would've had even a chance by comperison. And I may be wrong, but not only was its acting and writing so perfectly matched that no one even in your neck of the woods would've been able to or be able to again match it, but it has such very British sensibilities that I don't think a US version is possible. Least nota good one. And for it to fit with our sense of humor and settings it woukd end up beaing a complete new show. These three, sadly, didn't realize that in time. I'm also guessing the same is true of that other wonderful show, Are You Being Served. But jot to the same level. Maybe, just maybe, Keeping Up Appearances could be done here. Still would be as charming but it'd at least have a shot at some success.

The canned laughing doesn't help

Great presentation. It was really interesting to see the comparisons between all three remakes and not just the original. A German remake seems an intriguing concept. Although I never saw anything beyond the cast photo, I remember hearing of a remake of 'Coupling' which I really love. Although they were accused of being a rip-off of friends with the 3 men and 3 women setup. But there was a very different dynamic to the characters.

The sad part is the missed opportunity of Betty White and Harvey Corman together, in a different show.

Really enjoying your remake analyses ... good stuff. Please keep making them :)

Manuel feels like Latka in the first two versions and Balki in the third. Good job comparing the three and pointing out the good and the bad for each one!

Cheers is rumoured to have been inspired by Fawlty Towers as well, except that they didn't have the budget for a hotel so it was only a bar. Dianne plays the upper class blonde, Coach is the incompetent help and Carla offends the guests.

I remember hearing somewhere that the Mel Brooks-produced The Nutt House was a (very loose) adaptation of Fawlty Towers as well - but I'm not inclined to explore it in detail, having seen quite enough of it when it was shown on BBC2...

Thanks for the comprehensive video! Really nice work. I loved the original Fawlty Towers but had only seen the Bea Arthur version, which I gave up on after the first episode.

Another thing that went against the US versions creating enough build-up to the final pay-off was lack of time: most "half hour" sitcoms were actually 22-23minutes long. Losing those 5 or 6 minutes from the ad-free BBC running time was crucial when they were trying to recreate the same plots.

I think they would have succeeded if they had the talented comedy writing team behind the American sitcom Seinfeld. Which had a lot of Fawlty Tower like moments and moments which were extremely funny in Seinfeld which are similar to the humour classic British comedy tv series from the 1970s and 1980s, . If Larry David and Seinfeld were behind it they probably would have been able to pull it off.

John Cleese was the magic of the show. The supporting actors were superb, but were just supporting. Cleese did great in everything he did, yet the others are known for nothing else. That speaks to the talent of Cleese, not a reflection on the others because they all worked perfectly in Fawlty Towers. Cleese and Booth married in the first series and divorced between the two, but worked well together and were able to create the 2nd series. These American copies just bombed.. no one could touch his writing because he had no problem making a fool of himself and too many refuse to do that for fear of hurting their reputation.

Hear me out. . Imagine Ed O'Neil and Katey Sagal from MARRIED WITH CHILDREN in the Basil and Sybil roles....

When you commented on shouting I immediately understood, but also simultaneously thought of Frasier Crane. Quite similarly, Frasier himself ends up on a madcap rant because he's lost the plot, but never does the shouting come across as too real. There are sincere heartfelt moments on the series where characters express their pain and feelings, however no one fundamentally changes who they are. Everyone continues in their little quirky realm because that's what makes the chemistry work.

The main thing I notice is the Americans are just jumping from one-liner to one-liner. "My, line is done, now it's your turn." In the original, there was a life to the characters between the lines, as it were. The actors stayed in the bit, in the overall scene. There was a hotel being run at all times. The US versions just go from bit to bit, and the overall setting is just another background for discrete jokes.

I’m enjoying the heck out of this channel! Can’t wait to see some of my favorites like abfab or are you being served!

18:14 I agree. That scene is far too dramatic. If you'd not told me, I probably wouldn't have guessed this was a rippoff. John Cleese has a great way of hiding his frustration. Thinking one thing but saying another. I'm not much into American sitcoms, but I do like original comedys. My girlfriend introduced me to Rules Of Engagement.. witch is quite good. And she showed me Phoneshop... so funny bruv. (plonkers) Oh yeah. Guys talking about Red Dwarf in the comments... Thanks for the memories ✌

Spot-on analysis on what made these American remakes (and most remakes in general) fail. Though I never knew both Betty White and Bea Arthur were in Fawlty Tower remakes.... so fascinating! Great channel... as a die-hard TV geek, I just subscribed!!!!

The most enduring and most beloved British comedy characters tend to be people blighted by failure, characters whose dreams never came true, whose lives never turned out quite the way they'd hoped (Tony Hancock, Harold Steptoe, Rigsby, Basil Fawlty, Derek Trotter, Victor Meldrew, David Brent) - and I think the idea of 'celebrating' failure (or finding comedy in it) very much goes against the grain for aspirational, wise-cracking American sitcoms. The obvious exception being the magnificent Ernie Bilko (Phil Silvers, not Steve Martin), of course.

OMG! The german version "Hotel Zum letzten Kliff" with Jochen Busse. John Cleese approved of that remake. They consulted him for the german version. John Cleese even said that they'd done it "superbly"! RTL (the german TV station) only aired the pilot. I'm from germany, a big Fawlty Towers fan and have never heared of that german remake!

When I first saw Amanda's I did not know that it was a 're-make' of Fawlty Towers, but by the first commercial I kept telling my friend--who was watching with me, you know, back when friends were close enough that they spent time together without one of them being on the phone?--this is a rip off of that PBS show Fawlty Towers. Mark, my friend, actually came over to watch Fawlty with me the next week and after doing so, we rejected Amanda's and never went back to her hotel by the sea. I did find this informative in that it showed me that Betty and Harvey worked together before going on to success in Mama's Family, and Betty worked on a Fawlty 'remake' and so did Bea Arthur before they worked together in Golden Girls.

A co-worker shared an anecdote about a guy who worked at a car factory in the old country and stole one or two components each day to build himself a free car. When he finally put those parts all together he had somehow made a sewing machine. That's typically the result when Americans fail to transfer a British sitcom into an American "version" without understanding how or why the original worked. Coupling U.S. was an amalgam of all the mistakes you described here. It must have seemed like a simple and sure-fire way to capture the Friends audience. Instead, it was the first of many failed copycats. Loosely, the main idea of a small clutch of young friends living as neighbours is as old as television comedy itself. The successful U.S. conversions of Britcoms like Man About The House (Three's Company) and Steptoe and Son (Sanford and Son) took only the most basic framework or the originals but fashioned entirely different American characters and dialogue to make them work.

i’ll admit the “mo run upstairs” bit did get me

John Cleese: So, how's everything going? Producer of Amanda's: Doing great! We're going to have a great show! We just made one minor change. Cleese: What was that? Producer: Um, we took out Basil. Cleese: Wut?! I saw the Snavely pilot on KZfaq, and it's sad that Betty White and Harvey Korman didn't seem to have much chemistry together. I wonder how it might have worked if it had gone to series. The main problem with Amanda's is the fact that Bea Arthur was pretty much Sybil and Basil combined, although she seemed to me more Sybil than Basil - except for Amanda having Basil's tendency to jump to conclusions. Then, they tried to make us sympathize with her. Which is the problem with American versions of British shows with a ... shall we say, less than lovable character: we try to *make* the characters lovable - a tactic that fails miserably every time. Basil Fawlty was an unregenerate tyrant whom people loved anyway. Amanda's too quickly showed us Amanda's softer side by giving her adversaries who were nastier than she was. That didn't work simply because none of the characters can stand up to Bea Arthur without bastardizing her, which is why they dumped the Fawlty character in the first place. And they made the same mistake with Payne. John Larroquette could have made the perfect American Basil Fawlty -- except the producers wouldn't let him. Yet again, they softened the character because they thought American audiences would never warm up to a totally reprehensible character ... like Basil Fawlty. Interestingly, John Cleese approved of THIS version and verbally agreed to a recurring role should Payne be renewed for a second season. And, of course, it wasn't. The closest thing we had to that type of characterization was Buffalo Bill with Dabney Coleman, who specialized in those types of reprehensible characters. But we just didn't get it at the time, and Buffalo Bill died a quick death. Then, they tried again with The Slap Maxwell Story, and, yes, the network ruined it by making the character sympathetic. Then, there was Drexel's Class, which wasn't all that funny IMO, and Madman of the People, which was okay but made the same mistake as ever by trying to sympathize the character far too quickly. And that didn't work any better than it ever does. And THAT is why the American AbFab attempts never made it to series. One would have starred Kristen Johnson (3rd Rock) as Patsy, and the other would have starred Carrie Fisher, though I'm not sure if she would have played Patsy or Eddy. Either one might have made it work, and I actually wish I lived in an alternate universe where Carrie Freaking Fisher played in American AbFab. That would have been AWESOME!! But really, American television should stay far away from Britcoms. We do that no better with that than we do kaiju.

I think Bea Arthur comes across as just angry when she’s being sarcastic. John Cleese being sarcastic in Fawlty would do it with a smile or in the form of a question. So it was like he was still being nice to the guest despite insulting them. Maybe the only person who could have come close to possibly being an American Basil was John Ritter. He had physical comedic talents and occasionally was sarcastic in Threes Company.

Snavely etc would have had 3-4 commercial breaks cutting into them unlike FT.

I would have said the reason Fawlty Towers doesn't work in the US is because it's about class and snobbery. But then along came Frasier which was all about class and snobbery and was a huge hit

I don’t know why but in a lot of these American remakes they take the same joke but over explain them until they become unfunny. It’s like they think they need to explain why it’s funny but it takes all the humour out of it. Like the terrible chief joke, after it subverted the expectation it should have ended but they just make it all worse!

You should a video about the British remake of Married... with Children.

Season 3 INCOMING written and starting JC

Fawlty Towers was both a farce, and slapstick. But also a comedy of manners. The snobbery of Basil is what drove him to such ridiculous behaviour. That just doesn’t exist in the yank remake. Maybe if Frasier had opened a boutique hotel…

Wow! Another great video! I had watched videos on these before, but I hadn't found one that discusses all 3. I remember seeing in an interview that Bea Arthur thought the main reason Amanda's failed was because she didn't have a man playing a male Sybil for her to spar with. And I definitely agree. John Cleese seems to think that it was because it was a woman full stop!

Royal Payne is a pun but so is Fawlty Towers.

Just discovered your channel today, it's great stuff

Actually Cheers was going to be a loose remake of Faulty Towers with Bill Cosby in the Basil role. But when the writers saw that all there best jokes took place in the bar of the hotel, they scrapped the hotel idea altogether and made the entire series about a bar.

You just can't successfully copy a show when the crux of the humor is the personal talent of star. You need a show where the humor comes the situation, you just can't 'script' Basil.

This is a great idea for a YT channel. Looking forward to more. I am kinda suprised that you dont show a bit of the origonal British series as a comparison

i think maybe Golden Palace may have fit this in some way. thank you for the vid!

I remember seeing Amanada's when it came out. They made the Manuel character French-Canadian and said "He's from Toronto" instead of "He's from Barcelona." I've lived in or around Toronto my entire life. The French-Canadian community is tiny and they all speak English. You wouldn't get very far in Toronto if you couldn't speak English.

From the clips shown i actually felt like payne looked the best, then snavely and finally amandas. The payne clips got a laugh out of me, i know its very heavily based on fawlty towers but i actually like the fact the comedy style was totally different, it looks more like a typical american sitcom. Snavely felt like a poor imitation of fawlty, trying to be a direct copy but failing. Amandas just didnt seem funny in the slightest and that tonal shift you showed was just bizzare! Ive never been a huge fan of fawlty towers, its one of those shows that seems to be almost universally adored but none of it really resonated with me. I like a lot from the same time period but i think i prefer more understated comedy. Another really interesting video :)

Can you imagine The Major in the Chief's place? "I got a happy ending, Fawlty!"

it's a shame. John Larroquette was HILARIOUS in Night Court

Really interesting. Thanks for this 😀

I enjoyed that a lot. Absolutely spot on analysis.

So, one The Golden Girls stared in Fawlty Towers remake pilot, and then went on to star in The Golden Palace, which Bea Arthur guest stared on it,

Were Betty White's abd Bea Arthur's versions both made before Golden Girls?

Thanks for this analysis. Unquestionably, a masterpiece that in the great British tradition kept true to the art form rather than beating a show premise to death. I remember seeing Fawlty Towers on PBS here in the States circa 1981 perhaps, and adored it from the beginning. It is the tightest show ever written, in my perspective. No extraneous dialogue. I think I tried to stomach Amanda's Place, but I was not a fan of Bea Arthur's (at the time at least), and she just came across as an old battle-axe. I did try to give "Payne" a try with very low expectations, and it was patiently AWFUL. I never liked John Larroquette, and I thought the names were just stupid puns. "Royal Payne"???? Come on. And I seem to remember the Connie Booth character had some weird hippie name like "Breeze" or similar. Basically, it was what Basil Fawlty goes on and on about to the Hamiltons in "Waldorf Salad" when discussing Harold Robbins. "Really the most awful American....well, transatlantic tripe. Sort of pornographic Muzak...." That being said, casting Harvey Korman as Basil Fawlty should have fit perfectly. He really can capture that nastiness and aggressive bully part as well as that pathetic obsequiousness so well. I'll need to find "Snavely" and see what I think. I know it can't compare to Fawlty Towers, but the original was essentially John Cleese and Connie Booth's other child, and a labor of love. The remakes were just attempts at cash-generating machines at the US networks. In these pre-Jerry Seinfeld days, maybe except for Bob Newhart's two successful shows in the 70s and 80s, there really wasn't much emphasis on the artist's creativity. EDIT: I started to watch the Snavely pilot, and I'd say it suffers from the directing. I've seen Harvey Korman in other roles where he could have played the Basil Fawlty character to a "T". Here, he seems to be playing the character as an effeminate man; he could have played it much more aggressively like Cleese. Another problem is networks' attempts for mass appeal. Unfortunately, lots of US network TV at the time seemed unable to use comic subtlty (not all, and again, I think Bob Newhart). The show just comes across as insulting the audience's intelligence, punctuated by the laugh track which essentially tells the audience, "the joke is here; laugh".

John Cleese has said that Cheers was based on Fawlty Towers

Betty White was too nice to play Sybil. But if Bea Arthur had played Sybil opposite Harvey Korman I think it could have worked

They just HAVE TO change it ... trying to make Basil's character more "likeable" ... without realising that he's supposed to be an angry, short tempered, arrogant, egotistical, monster.

The first two adap-tations featured two of The Golden Girls!

Watching this catalogue of abysmal copies got me wondering if a UK production house had ever remade anything from the US. I have a feeling is just one way, the US production houses looking to "Americanise" a UK product.

I did accidentally found american remakes of both Absolutely Fabulous and Spaced on KZfaq. Thought you liked to know.

Even when Pain says "Light of my life" to his wife, it just doesn't work. It works with Fawlty Towers, because they both seem to absolutely despise each other.

I've just heard there was a Red dwarf USA, look forward to you maybe doing that too 😊

They screwed up “Dad’s Army” too!

oh no! ... so I get that they thought they could replace John Cleese, an easy mistake to make, BUT you cannot replace Andrew Sachs... it's madness to even try. It's one of the hardest roles to play and I suspect only Andrew Sachs could actually pull it off. Obviously the same goes for John Cleese

Check “Over the top” loose adaptation with Tim curry and Steve Carell Also, Newhart is Fawlty Towers through an American Comedic perspective. They are very different in approach but similar premises.

For me, the only re-make (if you will) the Americans did that was really good was “All in the Family” which was based on “Till Death do us Part”.

The Office is one of the only comedy series migrations that worked. I really like Julia Davis's Camping, but the migration of that was mostly woeful.

The only good part of the Harvey Korman version seems to be when they banter their way through Betty White accidentally calling his character "Harvey."

I'm German and never knew of the German remake. Watching a minute of a scene from it on KZfaq told me it was better that way.

So weird that they made that last one so “nice”. Casting Larroquette makes sense, given he spend years playing a mostly unrepentant jerk that everyone loved on Night Court. He would’ve been perfect for a meaner, edgier show like FT.

Peep show and the Inbetweeners US remakes were insanely painful.

You missed a fourth Fawlty Towers re-make. It ran for 7 episodes in 2007. It was called "Fawlty Tower Oxnard".

1982’s “No Soap, Radio” was partially an American remake of Fawlty Towers, but partially an American remake of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

There's no comparison to Cleese. Yes, I'm a huge fan of Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman but their shows just didn't have "it" and Cleese's show did and remains a classic today.

You didn't mention Del being played by John Leguizamo, aka Luigi, from the live action Mario Bros movie

The theme of a lot of these seems to be british passion projects, where there is a clear-cut vision, suffering a mistranslation.

The moment that I saw Chris Morris in season 1 of the IT Crowd is the moment I knew there was a man that could actually maybe pull off a good Basil Fawlty.

Snavely shouldn't use the term "Hotel Inspectors." unless they mean health inspetors who worked for the local or state government. That's what I thought it meant by "hotel Inspectors" the first time I saw that episode of "Fawlty Towers."

It's not like the US couldn't possibly do Fawlty Towers, although it would require very good casting and commitment to what makes it funny. The US can do a husband and wife who are somewhat antagonistic, as Married With Children demonstrates, but it's not the typical setup that studios prefer (at least, not last century). Manuel does cause some problems. He makes total sense as a Mexican, and it's completely realistic for white people to have a Spanish-speaking employee that they have trouble communicating with, but it's one of those situations everyone pretends doesn't exist. In the UK, we understand that Manuel is a sympathetic character: his only "flaw" is lack of English, and everything that goes wrong is due to Basil not being able to communicate with him. We see Sybil and Polly being much more able to communicate with Manuel. I don't think US TV could pull this off without making a Spanish speaker look like the butt of the joke. It only works if Basil is played by someone who can accurately convey that Basil is the slightly unhinged one, who mistreats everyone because he is unhinged. There are plenty of US sitcoms with unhinged characters, although admittedly most are this century, but the US managed to do the show "Soap" in the 1970s and that was full of unhinged people, so it's not like Fawlty Towers would be impossible.

These remakes should have got Connie Booth involved. As she is co writer of Fawlty Towers and American so would have a better idea of what would work in the US.

I assume the Spaced and Red Dwarf pilots are coming soon.

Bea and Betty boh starred in The Golden Girls and Bea and Harvey both starred in the Star Wars Holiday Special.

“Royal Paine?” No one should have allowed such an obvious pun in there. Ugh.

There is only one Fawlty Towers. However i do like Payne and still watch it from time to time.

The Americans never get any of the UK shows to work by remaking them.

I think one of the reasons they don't work that well is because the original Fawlty Towers was based on John Cleese and Connie Booths, observations of these types of Hotels it's why it was 2 series because they had said what they wanted to say. Such as Manuel is Spanish because Spain was a popular place for cheap hotel managers to get staff from at the time, that's what made it funny and everything fit and make sense. I.e. why Bazil still employs him. Whereas Albanian refugee for example is just odd, I don't think that holds any relevance to the time and even less now.

The only successful American sitcoms that were originated from the UK were Sandford And Son, Three's Company and All In the Family.