Fawlty Towers Reboot? Nah, I Don't Think So.

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

mawnansmiff

Lifer
Oct 14, 2015
7,385
7,295
Sunny Cornwall, UK.
Clees isn't gonna let the BBC air it. He feels they'd shrink his artistic freedom. From what little I know about the BBC, he's probably right on target.
Quite right Warren, Cleese is well known for his anti woke stance, and that's where the conflict with the BBC would lie.

It will likely (if indeed it ever gets made) be a Hollywood affair and that in itself gives me the shudders 😱.

Best leave it well alone I say.

Regards,

Jay.
 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,602
14,666
Quite right Warren, Cleese is well known for his anti woke stance, and that's where the conflict with the BBC would lie.

It will likely (if indeed it ever gets made) be a Hollywood affair and that in itself gives me the shudders 😱.

Best leave it well alone I say.

Regards,

Jay.
If the BBC is somehow more "woke" than Hollywood, I don't even want know what that means.
 

LotusEater

Lifer
Apr 16, 2021
4,083
55,925
Kansas City Missouri
I purchased both seasons from Prime last year and the don’t mention the war “The Germans are Coming” episode was not included because of racist language etc.

I imagine a reboot would almost certainly be a watered down version of the original so as not to offend some viewers i.e. it will probably suck.
(But I’ll watch it anyway)
 

mawnansmiff

Lifer
Oct 14, 2015
7,385
7,295
Sunny Cornwall, UK.
I purchased both seasons from Prime last year and the don’t mention the war “The Germans are Coming” episode was not included because of racist language etc.

I imagine a reboot would almost certainly be a watered down version of the original so as not to offend some viewers i.e. it will probably suck.
(But I’ll watch it anyway)
I bought the DVD version about 5 years ago and there are no cuts in there at all, everything is exactly as broadcast back in the day.

Streaming is all well and good but it leaves one at the mercy of some idiot in the cutting room who decides what you do and what you don't get to see/hear.

Regards,

Jay.
 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,602
14,666
I purchased both seasons from Prime last year and the don’t mention the war “The Germans are Coming” episode was not included because of racist language etc.

I imagine a reboot would almost certainly be a watered down version of the original so as not to offend some viewers i.e. it will probably suck.
(But I’ll watch it anyway)
I bought the DVD version about 5 years ago and there are no cuts in there at all, everything is exactly as broadcast back in the day.

Streaming is all well and good but it leaves one at the mercy of some idiot in the cutting room who decides what you do and what you don't get to see/hear.

Regards,

Jay.
This is the primary reason why when it comes to books, films and music I always purchase hard copies. It's not difficult to see what the obvious trajectory of this stuff is. Or if you're content with the Ministry of Truth deciding what you and your progeny can see, hear and read, then just stick with the digital versions.
 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
11,699
16,206
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
I always purchase hard copies. It's not difficult to see what the obvious trajectory of this stuff is.
Publishers, books and music, and editors have always supressed what they don't think the public will buy or tolerate based simply on their ex[experience/beliefs.. There's really nothing new under the sun. These days it's more a matter of censorship being wider spread than ever. Add, small vocal groups with the power of the internet and the "woke" folks have a fantastic ability to get listened to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Briar Tuck

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,602
14,666
So do second editions. Nothing like a law suit or fan uprising to require changes. :poop:
Yeah, then there's good old fashioned book burnings (probably why Amazon calls their device "Fire").

Human nature isn't new, but technology is...primarily just makes their psychopathic machinations easier and more efficient.

For anyone who is content with the digital versions of whatever type of media, knock yourself out...I couldn't care less. As for me, I'll keep getting the hard copies while they're still available.
 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,602
14,666
And in case anyone doesn't realize the extent of this type of total insanity going on in the western world these days:

Excerpts from below linked article...you just can't make this kind of lunacy up...these people actually get paid in taxpayer money to come up with this stuff:

Some of Britain’s most popular sitcoms and greatest works of literature were flagged as potential signs of far-Right extremism by a counter-terror programme.

The flagship Prevent scheme, recently the subject of a scathing audit, singled out comedies Yes Minister and The Thick Of It, the 1955 epic war film The Dam Busters, and even The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare as possible red flags of extremism.

It said the works of fiction were ‘key texts’ for ‘white nationalists/supremacists’.

The taxpayer-funded document included references to The Lord Of The Rings by JRR Tolkien, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, 1984 by George Orwell and the poems of GK Chesterton. It also referenced films including The Bridge On The River Kwai, The Great Escape and Zulu.

Works by some of the world’s greatest writers were included as examples of warning signs of potential extremism, including Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Tennyson, Kipling and Edmund Burke.

The report even highlighted the BBC’s 1990s political thriller House Of Cards, John le Carre’s seminal spy trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Sharpe, the ITV drama set in the Napoleonic wars.

Inexplicably, it said the BBC’s Great British Railway Journeys, presented by former Conservative minister Michael Portillo, was of interest to the far-Right.

Historian and broadcaster Andrew Roberts said: ‘This is truly extraordinary. This is the reading list of anyone who wants a civilised, liberal, cultured education.

‘It includes some of the greatest works in the Western canon and in some cases – such as Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent – powerful critiques of terrorism. Burke, Huxley, Orwell and Tolkien were all anti-totalitarian writers.’


 

Briar Tuck

Lifer
Nov 29, 2022
1,109
5,737
Oregon coast
I purchased both seasons from Prime last year and the don’t mention the war “The Germans are Coming” episode was not included because of racist language etc.

I imagine a reboot would almost certainly be a watered down version of the original so as not to offend some viewers i.e. it will probably suck.
(But I’ll watch it anyway)
This is why I've taken to buying hard copies of many movies before they are "canceled" by the authoritarians. I even have a rare bootleg copy of Disney's Song of the South, which was my favorite Disney movie as a kid.
 

mawnansmiff

Lifer
Oct 14, 2015
7,385
7,295
Sunny Cornwall, UK.
They're even messing with Roald Dahl's classic stories.....un-bloody-believable cray.

Augustus Gloop, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is now described as "enormous", with the word "fat" removed from every book, according to the Telegraph

Mrs Twit, from the Twits, is no longer "ugly and beastly", but simply "beastly"

In the same book, "a weird African language" is no longer weird

The words "crazy" and "mad" have also been removed as a result of an emphasis on mental health, the newspaper reported

A threat to "knock her flat" in Matilda has become "give her a right talking to"

References to colours have also been changed - the BFG's coat is no longer black; while Mary in The BFG now goes "still as a statue" instead of "white as a sheet"


Regards,

Jay.
 

Brendan

Lifer
May 16, 2021
1,412
7,533
Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
Wow.

I honestly had no idea you could re-write somebody's work, but hey since he is dead I suppose somebody has some sort of rights over them?

Reading up on some of the various changes and additions makes your blood boil, I found it funny that one 'revision' wasn't as comprehensive as the others ;

'Eight nutty little idiots' to now, 'Eight nutty little boys'. Funny how they kept the 'little' and 'nutty' in their description of boys, but have ommited very basic adjectives entirely, particularly when describing fat mice and bald witches.
 

Brendan

Lifer
May 16, 2021
1,412
7,533
Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
That would be his estate and whoever is in charge of it. They would certainly know which side the bread is buttered.

Yep, that makes sense - not that I or any of us would agree with it. Ironically I find it deeply offensive to alter people's work when they are dead and unable to protest. But I suppose being offended is a one way street nowadays.

Once again, people putting their agenda's where they don't belong.