Hacker News Reader

Comment by cs02rm0 | Hacker News Reader

Don't mention the war.

Fawtly Towers reference <3, if anyone wants to know. One of my favourite comedy shows of all time, and ran from 1975 to 1978 or so. 12 episodes total. So, if you have spare time, it's well worth a watch!

I was just on a solo visit to London for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised that there is a Fawlty Towers play [1] and a dinner show! [2]

I, sadly, did not partake in either option. I shall return.

[1]: https://fawltytowerswestend.com/

[2]: https://www.westendtheatre.com/56131/shows/faulty-towers-the...

> 12 episodes total

I read John Cleese’s autobiography long ago and he mentioned the very different economics of TV in the UK vs the US.

I think it was either the lack of money going into UK TV shows or the lack of a profit motive that led to ridiculously short runs like that.

Fawlty Towers and Yes Minister are top quality shows that should’ve run for 10 seasons.

Luckily their system did better with this when Jeremy Clarkson’s Top Gear came around and we got a lot of that.

FT was a rehash of a 1963 US hotel comedy featuring Jonathan Harris and Don Adams. (which used the lines "Oh, the pain" and "Missed it by that much") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bill_Dana_Show

There's some truth to this.

Many years ago I met someone that related his travels to Germany. When visiting anything left over from WWII (e.g. old bunkers), or referencing anything that happened back then, they took to mentioning "Smurfs" and "Papa Smurf" to get around angering the locals. This was, of course, after nearly causing an international incident during casual conversation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com