Oh, spiffing. Absolutely spiffing. Well done.

December 24, 2015 10:09 PM

Three attempts were made to create a Fawlty Towers for American Television. Chateau Snavely was supposed to be a tour de force starring Betty White and Harvey Korman, but the pilot never made it to air. Watching the second adaptation, Bea Arthur's Amanda's by the Sea (1983), was like being eaten alive by Filigree Siberian Hamsters. It lasted all of six weeks on ABC -- and hopefully someone gave everyone involved in that production a damned good thrashing. And then there was John Larroquette's Payne....

...and two dead pigeons in the water tank.
Fawlty Towers remains one of the most popular television shows in British history. Payne was the third (and to date, final) attempt to adapt it to American audiences. It should have been a no-brainer: the original series was popular with Americans, having aired on PBS for years. John Larroquette had won four consecutive comedy Emmys on Night Court and another for Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series on The Practice. John Cleese was consulting and had agreed to a recurring guest star role in season two.

It wasn't good.

In addition to Larroquette (Royal Payne), the regular cast consisted of his wife Constance Payne (JoBeth Williams), a virginal blond chambermaid called Breeze (Julie Benz) and a bellhop of uncertain nationality (eventually identified as Indian) named Mohammed (Rick Batalla).

Sometimes you capture lightning in a bottle and sometimes you get electrocuted
An IMDb reviewer notes: "And whilst we bemoan the fact that Cleese & Booth produced only a dozen episodes of Fawlty Towers, we can sit agog that Payne made it as far as nine."

And now, for our televisual feast....
Payne
(CBS: Midseason Replacement Series / Nine episodes filmed, Eight aired in the Spring of 1999 )
* Full Playlist
Individual episodes in order of airdate:
1) The J. Edgar Hoover Pin Story
2) Sexual Intercom
3) Whatever Happened to Baby Payne?
4) Gossip Checks in and a Cat Checks Out
5) Pacific Ocean Duck (Pilot Episode, based on Fawlty Towers' "Gourmet Night")
6) Trouble in Room 206
7) I Never Forget A Facelift
8) Wedding Fever Story
9) Uncle Royal and Aunt Connie (Sound is very low on this video)

posted by zarq (37 comments total)

His character was named Royal Payne? That's horrible and unfunny before you even get out of the gate.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:50 PM on December 24, 2015 [20 favorites]

Between Maude and Golden Girls, Bea Arthur's most notable credits were Amanda's and her role in the Star Wars Holiday Special as the Cantina Bar Owner... I think that proves that there is always hope.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:02 PM on December 24, 2015 [6 favorites]

Conveniently, Fawlty Towers has been in the news just about now with John Cleese doing a Specsavers commercial as Basil Fawlty.

I don't bemoan the fact they only made a dozen episodes of Fawlty Towers. They went for and achieved greatness and stopped before it got tired. What I bemoan is the American economic model of television for decades, which is only beginning to change now, where shows are considered failures if they don't run for hundreds of episodes. Some stories are best told as eight seasons of 22 episodes, but there are an awful lot of stories that don't fit that format, and a lot of good ideas were ruined trying to make them work.
posted by zachlipton at 11:06 PM on December 24, 2015 [19 favorites]

The real-life Fawlty Towers are being torn down, alas.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:16 PM on December 24, 2015

That first Payne link is a treasure for the 90s commercials alone.
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 11:38 PM on December 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

And where were Estelle Getty and Rue McClanahan in all this?
posted by wotsac at 11:59 PM on December 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Off somewhere toasting their fortune for having dodged that particular bullet, perhaps.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:06 AM on December 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Julie Benz... as in Darla from Buffy?
That might have saved it. If she was playing Darla from Buffy.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:24 AM on December 25, 2015

Anybody wanna buy a photocopy of the Mona Lisa?
posted by fairmettle at 1:45 AM on December 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

I initially misread the description of Chateau Snavely as "a tour de force starring Betty White as Harvey Korman," and was cursing the universe for never letting me see such a wonder. But I'm OK now.
posted by Sonny Jim at 2:55 AM on December 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Royal and Constance Payne? I'm actually angry at how unfunny that is.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:58 AM on December 25, 2015 [10 favorites]

Contemplating "Royal & Constance Payne" in light of Fawlty Towers is uncannily like listening to radio comedy on NPR vs. radio comedy on BBC R4.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 4:43 AM on December 25, 2015 [7 favorites]

I am always surprised that US remakes of UK shows seem to be terrible. I mean, it's a huge country with a lot of talented and funny people, yet you seem to screw this up royally for some reason.
posted by marienbad at 5:21 AM on December 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

The Indy PBS station just recently started showing Fawlty Towers again. It's as manic as I remember.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:43 AM on December 25, 2015

radio comedy on NPR

I think the issue is that they're just too earnest, and not nearly mean enough. Basically what makes them generally good human beings also makes them terrible comics.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:00 AM on December 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I am always surprised that US remakes of UK shows seem to be terrible. I mean, it's a huge country with a lot of talented and funny people, yet you seem to screw this up royally for some reason.

Some things just don't translate well from one culture to another, not the least of which is how class tension is embedded into Fawlty Towers (not to mention pressure to maintain a certain level of behavior so as to avoid embarrassment) in a way that doesn't quite translate into American. Usually it translates into American characters that are more blatantly vulgar. The concept of a rude person running a business is not unique to any culture, but it plays out differently from culture to culture.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:01 AM on December 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'll just be over here, watching Sanford and Son and All In The Family.
posted by valkane at 6:07 AM on December 25, 2015 [10 favorites]

...too earnest, and not nearly mean enough.

Eh, maybe. I wish they were earnestly trying to be funny and not just tiresomely self-serious (and not very clever). I seldom find British comedy mean in the way that much standup coming out of the US is snide and just kind of obliviously shitty. Obviously this is all about taste but christ on a stick I have zero tolerance for the prevailing hurf-durf-they-probably-like-that-sort-of-thing-in-flyover-country ethos of what passes for comedy on the left side of the pond.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 6:29 AM on December 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love both Larroquette and JoBeth Williams and actually tried to watch this show but it really was terrible. On the other hand, I loved Fawlty Towers as a kid but just can't stomach it now. It either hasn't aged very or my taste for comedy about abusive racist assholes has faded in the last four decades. I couldn't make it through an episode a few years ago and switched it off in disgust.
posted by octothorpe at 6:49 AM on December 25, 2015

Payne was the third (and to date, final) attempt to adapt it to American audiences.

You forgot one. Sort of.

I'd contend that the best least awful American adaptation of Faulty Towers was the recurring "Nobody's Inn" [slyt] segment on Square One Television (PBS, natch).
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:53 AM on December 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

According to IMDB, the two guys who adapted this as Payne are mostly known for creating According to Jim and Coach, so... I'm just saying they may not be widely considered to be in the first rank of TV comedy genius.

Incidentally, their forgettable title assures it a place in oblivion electronically. Here is what you get if you search for "Payne" on IMDB:

Results for "payne"

Jump to: Characters | Names | Titles | Companies

Characters
Payne (Farewell Calm Days (2010))
Payne (The Conspirator (2010))
Payne (The Evil One (2005))
View: More character matches or Exact character matches

Names
Eddie Redmayne (Actor, The Theory of Everything (2014))
John Payne (I) (Actor, The Restless Gun (1957))
Dwayne Johnson (I) (Actor, Fast & Furious 6 (2013))
Tom Payne (V) (Actor, The Physician (2013))
Colton Haynes (I) (Actor, Arrow (2012))
View: More name matches

Titles
Max Payne (2008)
House of Payne (2006) (TV Series)
Major Payne (1995)
Max Payne 3 (2012) (Video Game)
View: More title matches

What we can glean from this is that if you are attached to a doomed project, use all your pull to get the title changed to a single bland surname.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:01 AM on December 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

terrible comics.

As a British person, I'd like to say Groucho Marx, Richard Prior, Amy Poehler, Amy Schumer, Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Roseanne Barr, Louis CK, Matt Groening, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Tina Fey. I'd actually like to say a lot of other names as well, but that should be enough to be going on with.
posted by howfar at 7:03 AM on December 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

They were all on NPR?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:12 AM on December 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

This...is...typical !
posted by nicolin at 7:23 AM on December 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

¿Qué?
posted by briank at 9:09 AM on December 25, 2015 [5 favorites]

We're perfectly capable of adapting British sitcoms to the U.S. (cf All in the Family, Three's Company, The Office.) It's just that when it's successful we hardly remember that it was ever a British show to begin with.
posted by condour75 at 9:25 AM on December 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

I really like short series, (serieses? seria?) where the creators set out to do a tight 6 or 10 episode package. Particularly if it's original, ffs. (enough with remakes!)

That's the sort of framework most likely to produce another Fawlty Towers.

Anyone besides me like Schitt's Creek?
posted by Artful Codger at 11:05 AM on December 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

I don't even like Fawlty Towers all that much, despite a few laughs, but how does anybody look at Fawlty Towers and arrive at the conclusion, "Hey, this would be great kinda reheated and without problematic British elements like John Cleese."
posted by Wolfdog at 11:13 AM on December 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I think the issue is that they're just too earnest, and not nearly mean enough. Basically what makes them generally good human beings also makes them terrible comics.

I posit that earnestness is terrible for both comedy and human beings generally.
posted by Dysk at 1:54 PM on December 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I presume everyone knows father Ted is dead.
posted by notreally at 1:56 PM on December 25, 2015

octothorpe: I loved Fawlty Towers as a kid but just can't stomach it now. It either hasn't aged very or my taste for comedy about abusive racist assholes has faded in the last four decades. I couldn't make it through an episode a few years ago.

It's interesting isn't it? I had the same experience with Monty Python recently. I tried to watch And Now for Something Completely Different and the misogyny and racism no longer seemed merely dated or regrettable, but frightening, disturbing, and pathological. Weirdly, it seemed less watchable in 2015 than it had in, say, 2005, like the cultural ground had shifted so far in a decade as to place it way outside the bounds of acceptable content. Thinking about this and Rebecca Solnit's recent piece on Lolita, I wonder if there's now a whole tranche of twentieth-century literature and popular culture that's going to be essentially off limits to us as we return to using moral and autobiographical frameworks for interpreting artworks and popular culture and abandon aesthetic ones? Kind of like how the Victorians reputedly couldn't deal with the immoralities and provocations of the eighteenth-century novel?
posted by Sonny Jim at 2:05 PM on December 25, 2015 [7 favorites]

Joey Michaels: Some things just don't translate well from one culture to another, not the least of which is how class tension is embedded into Fawlty Towers (not to mention pressure to maintain a certain level of behavior so as to avoid embarrassment) in a way that doesn't quite translate into American. Usually it translates into American characters that are more blatantly vulgar. The concept of a rude person running a business is not unique to any culture, but it plays out differently from culture to culture.

I was thinking something similar. The essence of Fawlty Towers, it seems to me, is that Basil Fawlty:
* is a horrible person who's an embarrassment to everyone around him
* keeps digging himself into deeper and deeper holes, but, because everyone else is too polite to say anything, he thinks he's getting away with it until the very end of the episode, when everything comes crashing down
* is oddly sympathetic as a result, even though he really is a horrible person and is entirely to blame for everything that happens to him, because it appeals to a fundamental anxiety on the part of the audience: "What if I'm actually a horrible person and just don't know it?"

And this is a pattern that's been seen in British sitcoms ever since -- Keeping Up Appearances and The Brittas Empire, to name two examples from my youth, are basically gentler treatments of the same theme.

And if that's how it works, it shouldn't be surprising that it fails when it's set in America. Notably, the one time in the series when American guests stay at the hotel, they call out Basil on his nonsense and inspire the other, more timid guests to do the same.
posted by baf at 2:43 PM on December 25, 2015 [7 favorites]

... Or most shows, including adaptations, aren't much cop, but when one is a failure based on a previous success, the failure becomes even more distinct. Each year there's notorious flops and terrible television, but when you can point to a TV predecessor, you get to see how fragile making good TV can be.

It's rarely a good idea to start deciding you know the character of a nation based on a successful show, especially when judging from an American perspective involves the show being successful enough for Americans to have heard of it. Even with that, though, I would agree that there's a more British sensibility that makes Fawlty Towers work in England but anything other than a careful adaptation like the US version of The Office fail. And that would be because, in essence, I'd argue that Fawlty Towers is a comedy of manners, and that's exactly the sort of thing that won't easily translate or map when adapted.

But then, I'm more curious about ... I think it was South Korea that was remaking Friends with the same scripts, and maybe somewhere like Turkey with The Golden Girls? I know India has recently started showing a very close adaptation of the first series of 24 with minor changes. But again, those aren't comedy of manners shows, or even a comedy in 24's case, so there's a much easier case for a direct adaptation without it feeling completely odd.
posted by gadge emeritus at 5:37 PM on December 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

By this time we already had the entire run of Newhart, which took the same formula and added some plaid and potpourri.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:05 AM on December 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

Big fan of Python, and even of John Cleese's Video Arts training films, but never of this show. I think that RobotVoodooPower may be right that the American version of Fawlty Towers is Newhart.

Also, WRT this--"Between Maude and Golden Girls, Bea Arthur's most notable credits were Amanda's and her role in the Star Wars Holiday Special as the Cantina Bar Owner... I think that proves that there is always hope"--arguably the disaster in Bea Arthur's career was appearing in the movie version of Mame (for which she'd won a Tony as part of the original Broadway production) opposite the horrifically-miscast Lucille Ball, instead of opposite Angela Lansbury, who had won the Tony for the title role. I'm still SMH over that.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:42 PM on December 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

The loathsome but still attractive character may not be peculiarly British, but I think that it’s probably a particularly difficult type to pick up and move; the balance between the loathsome qualities and what is attractive is very culturally specific, and once you have changed either side of that balance the original appeal has changed. Luckily they never tried (as far as I know) to transplant Rising Damp — a similar vintage and a similarly horrible but lovable protagonist, played in that case by Leonard Rossiter (of Reginald Perrin fame).
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 7:32 PM on December 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

I notice that the elements of Commedia dell'arte are mostly absent from the American version. Aren't they an essential ingredient ? [Vid from the National Theater].
posted by nicolin at 4:11 AM on December 31, 2015