From the episode "Waldorf Salad" - Mr Hamilton gives Basil £20 to keep the chef there, but he'd rather pocket it himself. If you have any favourite clips from the show, let us know and we'll upload them! All copyrights belong to the BBC.
Even after all these years and watching every episode of FT multiple times, whenever one of these clips ends I'm disappointed it doesn't carry on to the end. :-)
He's a typical rich asshole American who goes abroad and makes the rest of us look bad. Its a shame Basil didnt knock his teeth out when he got up in his face
Loved reading Bruce Boa's story, a canadian actor that married a British woman and moved to UK, had a good career playing the token American in many British shows and movies filmed there, which inspired alot of other American actors to branch out to other markets when they couldnt find work in US shows instead of becomming waiters or bar staff, which was the usual avenue for jobless actors at the time.
He's too proud to admit that he's not running a fancy big city hotel but just a small regional hotel so can't just say "we don't serve after 9pm as we almost never have any guests wanting to eat after 9pm"
@@tyqwdybijo Basil is such a great character because the writers found someone who is inside all of us. He is that demon who we all have on our shoulder manifest as an entire character depicted in this classic show.
I was at a sports bar once in western Australia watching a rugby league game . The game was close and had 5 minutes to go and it was only about 8pm. But the manager came over and turned the tv off and booted me out as they wanted to close for the night ! My team lost anyway...
Even in America, not very many hotels have 24-hour food service. If you check into a hotel after the kitchen closes for the night, you're better off ordering take-out.
But this was small family run hotel and chef was still there finishing his working day. 20 pounds was lot of money, chef would do it for 5 pounds, but Basil wanted all 20 for himself.
@stagna1959 True, but that didn't mean the Hamilton's could have just ordered dinner from a take-out menu instead of bribing the chef to keep working longer than he needed to.
i love this episode and this clip. it starts by showing the yank as a loud, intolerant, ignorant, bossy arse that thinks he can get his own way by throwing money around. and switches to Basil being the fool because he gets excited by the prospect of grabbing some extra cash for nothing, being a lair, trying to cover his tracks and failing and having no patience for anything or the ability to see what hes done wrong or admit it
I actually feel sorry for Fawlty in this one, even if he is his usual rude, snobbish and inept self. Hamilton is a loud American who loves belittling England, sees faults in everything and comes across as totally unpleasant.
@@Glenn1967ful hes not snobbish he is trying to keep some dignity. The guests all puff themselves up so he does the same. I have to be rude when im a waiter to hold my own against ruder customers
There is a point (or several) in every Fawlty Towers episode where I cringe and wish Basil would make a different decision so that the disaster would be averted. In this episode, that point is when Basil puts the £20 into his wallet with no intention of giving it to the chef.
Yes, I see that and think "Don't do it, Basil", and then later in this episode I'm thinking "Just give Terry the £20, admitting you've been trying to squeeze him, and save us the disaster".
Exactly - he claims that he 'can't afford' to pay Terry two hours' overtime when he's just been given £20, which might have been a week's wages back then!
In fairness the american was being a total tool from the word go. 9 is a reasonable time for any chef to finish, especially in a small hotel thats not much bigger then a b and b. Its like tough luck pal, people have homes to go to.
@@pumpkinhill4570 It's on the other side of the Atlantic. The tides going out now so if you jump in the water you should be able to swim there, it's sure to sharpen your appetite.
I never thought about the fact before that Basil lied to Terry saying he can't afford 2 hours overtime. He was literally just given £20 which was 4 times that. All the had to do was ignore the karate lie and pay Terry the 1.5 hours overtime and still keep £15.
I remember the first time I went to England with my dad and when we converted our dollars to pounds I whispered to my dad "how many Mickey Mouse bucks did you get?"
They portrayed Americans exactly. I've seen yanks in action while overseas and man oh man can they be superior, arrogant and obnoxious. Saw one guy yelling at a receptionist in a hotel in Paris once complaining that there was too much noise in Paris after they went to bed at 9pm. The receptionist pretended not to understand english but we knew that they spoke it quite well and they were very friendly to us when they heard us trying to speak french. They were very happy to have Australians in their hotel but did not like rude Americans. Always pays to remember the Golden Rule "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
I learned a few words and phrases of Finnish and adopted a sort of Northern Lights accent for the wide-eyed little Welsh kids when I was Father Christmas for several years
Yes, Bruce Boa was a very natural in authoritarian roles. While I believe this episode is why Stanley Kubrick cast him as a colonel in Full Metal Jacket, Bruce Boa played a senior officer in at least 9 movies.
I've always wondered why it made any difference to Basil whether it was a girl or a karate class, what did he care? He needed Terry that night so he should have just let him stay and do the damn cooking, oh my god 🙄 🤣 😂
Because a major part of the character is that he is obsessed with sex and the fact that he isn’t getting any. Cleese talks about it often when discussing the character. See The Wedding Party and The Psychiatrist episodes.
@@thefonzkiss Yes true, but wouldn't he be jealous of Terry and try to deprive him of his night out with the lady, rather than encourage it and let him go? He was jealous of Polly and the wedding party because he thought they were all getting it on together (LOL).
@@sashaking1115 It's hard to figure out what was motivating Basil, Terry was only meant to stay back half an hour and would have got good pay, so he could have stayed and done the cooking (it was only for one couple), got paid and still had time to go on his date. There was really no need for Basil to become irate and tell him to leave. If Basil was jealous of Polly, Manuel and Terry partying together then that would have been even more reason to keep Terry at the hotel for a bit longer?
That he sees any similarities makes me feel sorry for the "Finnish floozy". Makes me wonder what he's into 😳 If that was said in a modern sitcom it would be so cringey, the character would be an instant douche. Also, calling a random young woman a floozy for no reason wouldn't be done anymore. The 80's was a very different time with casual sexism and subtle racism everywhere. Glad we're not there anymore. Just thinking out loud here with this footnote. Still, this was a funny show in its time, and I still enjoy it but makes me reflect a little bit sometimes.
@@SamuelBlack84 'Mericans very seldom leave the US & when they do, it's usually to 'Anglo-sphere' countries. They think Africa is a country & Europeans speak 'European'
The hot soup of the day, Oxtail soup but unfortunately I had a cold, second thoughts I had a degree, third thoughts I had a stroke and remember futuristic ideas😉 But with one and famous John Cleese🤣👍
Watched the episode again. In the end Basil was the winner. He checked in his own hotel, ordered breakfast in bed , chef had to cook it and Polly had to bring it to him . And of course he kept the money he got from American
It's almost like Mr. Hamilton is Basil's equal in a sense, only he's on the other side of the fence. He's just as rude and just as unreasonably demanding. So much so, that he's the only hotel guest who's had the nerve to stand up to Basil. So Basil's almost met his match with Mr. Hamilton, though on his part, he could've managed him in a much more patient and calm manner.
Well that's not fair, it was the 70s, lots of people were ugly then. It was in style lol Remember the patron with the hearing aid from another episode? And the "why don't you speak properly" guy?
"I'd pay you two hours' overtime if I could afford it." You've just been given 20 quid, which would probably have been a week's wages for some people then - I think you can afford it!
Vintage Americans - “I want it. I should get it no matter what.” Throw money at the problem. I can just buy whatever I want no matter when or where and no matter who it affects.
Nothing has changed. Americans think might is right and the yankee $ buys you the world. In many ways they are right...but I love seeing them proved wrong.
As an American, what I love most about this episode is that it shows you how stuffy and cripplingly polite the British really are, that _Fawlty Towers_ didn't exaggerate that too much just because it was a TV show. Mr Hamilton isn't a villain at all, he just does not accept, believe, or put up with Basil's nonsense for even a second. He always knows Basil is lying about everything and mostly puts up with it as long as he gets what he wants. But as he starts to not get what he wants he just challenges Fawlty right to his face. When Basil tries to give him that long line of bullshit excuses, Hamilton just looks him right in the face and says, _"What a bunch of crap!"_ Basil is completely taken aback and dumbfounded both by his vulgarity and his perceptiveness. And I'm guessing that British bank notes in the 70s were colorful, hence an American calling it "Mickey Mouse money".
Oh, don't worry, under the in fluence of your yank 'culture' the British have now learnt to shed their crippling politeness and embrace crass vulgarity and Mickey Mouse.
British bank notes are colourful to this day. £5 is blue, £10 kind of orange, £20 is kind of purple and a £50 is reddish. Also, they are all different sizes, the bigger the value, the bigger the note. In my experience, American dollars are all green and all the same size, which makes them harder to differentiate quickly. It’s pretty much academic though as the UK is virtually a cashless society now.
What kind of dumb question is 'Why does your chef stop working at 9?' Because that's when Basil stops paying him? Why else? The hell kind of answer are you looking for here? Also: 'Are you telling me you can't stay open a few minutes longer so we can eat properly?' I wish Basil would have said something like, 'That does seem to be the conclusion this entire conversation has been leading to, yes. You must be one of the sharper Americans.'
Yeah, you Brits are surely an intelligent bunch. LOL :))))) Add to that the terrible food and weather. I see why you chaps are always drinking and looking to fight.
He is the only character I ever disliked in this fabulous series-the epitomeof what was once know as the 'ugly American'. He even makes fin of the money..A real ares. :-( But the antics round the Waldorf salad are hilarious.
@@Jtmissile I stand corrected, I only saw the short clip, from which one would logically presume that a spouse of an American would be an American herself no big deal anyway BE WELL
Hmmmm....quite a lot of humour seems predicated on the audiences' out-of-date prejudices, and selective impressions. (1) My experience of American resort hotels was that people queued up for a buffet at around 6 pm, and it was pretty well all done by 9.00 pm. I once went down to a waiter service dining room in Honolulu at 8.00 pm, and was told that the kitchen "should be still open". (2) "He's from Barcelona" is a very funny catchphrase used to explain Manuel's antics, as if to say that he is from a rather primitive part of the world. My first experience of Barcelona, with its well run Metro and clean streets, made London look like a grubby dump!
The show aired in 1975 back then spain was either still in fascist rule or just coming out the otherside. I'm sure alot of the more modern stuff came in the past 20 years with tourism fueling it.
How can Basil fire someone for that when he doesn't even do it himself? When he's rude to the customers and bullies them? He pocketed that cash (£20 was alot in those days) with no intention of giving to the chef and instead tries to cheat him out of his money. How can he expect his employees to treat anyone with respect when all they have to look up to is him?
That would hurt Basil more than it would Terry, though. If I was working Terry's job I'd even consider quitting the job just to have fun with a Fin anyway. Chef work in small establishments like that is relatively easy to find (bear in mind this is set in Torquay, which is end to end hotels). On the contrary, Chefs willing to do the awkward hours for most likely relatively low pay are hard to find.
Lol, I can see how the US slaughtered millions in the south asian bombing campaigns. If this guy is typical yank assertive, we can see how US war hawks would not think twice. This episode is metaphorical Mai Lai massacre, just in a hotel, lol
Also how they saved Europe's ass from wholesale conquer and devastation that one time. But yeah, being impatient and annoying when hungry after hours of travel is _directly_ related to all that. No one except an American - no, _every_ American - would possibly exhibit that.
@@nthgth yes, it was totally the US which saved Europe's ass and not the USSR which had effectively crippled the German army by the time the Yanks turned up to take credit for the victory.
