At the beginning of each episode of the legendary John Cleese/Connie Booth BBC comedy Fawlty Towers – except one – an exterior shot of the inn and its sign was show. The letters in FAWLTY TOWERS were variously changed each week. Sometimes letters had simply fallen off, sometimes they had been maliciously rearranged into funny anagrams. (In only one case were all the letters used for an anagram.)
We aren’t sure how much thought went into the sign gag at the beginning of each episode. Most likely, these were done in batches. Not all in a single day – the sky is sunny in some, overcast in others.
But some thought was given to it, because one episode even had an actor (or extra, or lucky local lad loitering around the film crew) actually rearranging the letters before scampering out of the frame. That must have taken some forethought.
At any rate, the chaos of the sign mirrors the chaos in Basil Fawlty’s hotel and it was a great start to eleven of the twelve Fawlty Towers episodes. We’ve compiled a screen capture of each episode’s opening to track how they changed:
Series 1 — 1975
Episode 1: “A Touch of Class” — FAWLTY TOWERS
Normal, except the “S” is sliding off. This set the tone for the first series, in which the sign was more the subject of neglect than of vandalism.
Episode 2: “The Builders” — FAWLTY TOWER
Basil has invested in a new sign and new letters. But now the “S” has fallen off completely, and the “L” is following suit.
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Episode 3: “The Wedding Party” — FAWTY TOWER
The “L” is indeed gone, and the “W” in TOWERS appears to be next.
Episode 4: “The Hotel Inspector” — FAWTY TOER
The “W” in TOWERS has fallen off completely, and the “Y” appears to be next. By now the sign’s progress seems to mirror that of Basil Fawlty’s life.
Episode 5: “Gourmet Night” — WARTY TOWELS
This is the first instance of someone having mischievously rearranged the letters into an anagram. Only the “F” has gone unused on this sunny day. (Presumably Basil replaced all the ones that went missing in the previous episodes.)
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Episode 6: “The Germans” — (none)
Arguably the most famous of all Fawlty Towers episodes, “The Germans” opens not at the inn but at a hospital, making it the only episode with a different opening shot and no hotel sign.
Series 2 — 1979
Episode 7: “Communication Problems” — FAWLTY TOWER
Same as the second episode of the first series, with the sign intact except for the “S” and the upset “L”. Apparently a re-used shot from that episode.
Episode 8: “The Psychiatrist” — FLAY OTTERS
From this episode on, a new cropped angle of the inn is shown on the opening sign shot. Here, the mysterious anagram artist is at it again. Both “W”s are this time missing.
Episode 9: “Waldorf Salad” — WATERY FOWLS
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This episode’s sign gag came with a bonus: a neighborhood kid, face unseen, is shown arranging the letters before darting off and revealing his latest handiwork, an anagram which continues with the previous episode’s fauna theme. A “T” has gone unused. Just to over-intellectualize this, the vandal seems to be keeping the unused letters each day since they come and go.
Episode 10: “The Kipper and the Corpse” — FATTY OWLS
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The “E”, “R”, and one “W”‘ are unused in this third animal-related sign, and second avian phrase, in a row.
Episode 11: “The Anniversary” — FLOWERY TWATS
Related to birds again, at least in one British sense. Comedically the best of the signs, as not only does it elicit a hearty “tee hee” for its risqué content (could they say this even now on American TV?) but it uses all the original letters — indeed, this is the only Fawlty Towers episode besides the very first to feature the full complement.
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Episode 12: “Basil the Rat” — FARTY TOWELS
Scraping the bottom (snicker) of the barrel for the series’ final program, a “W” is not used for this one but at least it kinda rhymes with the show’s actual title. Very similar to Episode 5’s WARTY TOWELS, with an “F” instead of a “W”.
Although fans have long wished there had been more than twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers, perhaps it’s just as well that Cleese and Booth decided to end it when they did. How much longer could they have kept up the opening sign gag?
