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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 439342" data-attributes="member: 23">Watching 50% extra over the course of the first six episodes is definitely dedication to the cause. Even though there wasn't a significant shift with The Germans the second time round, at least you can be confident in knowing it's the one you enjoy least.In terms of series lore, this is one of those infamous scenes. Andrew Sachs suffered real acid burns on his hands due to the chemicals used for the stunt. He lived with scars for many years afterwards.It wasn't his first injury in the name of physical comedy. There's also <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FawltyTowersFans/posts/1331598018994290/" target="_blank">The Frying Pan incident</a> from The Wedding Party episode.They were great fun, but reading this has reminded me that Sybil's non-presence at the hotel in this episode changed the rhythms of the comedy perhaps as much as Basil's head injury. Without Sybil there to bark him into submission, it fell to Polly to attempt (unsuccessfully) to reign in Basil, which goes some way to explaining why it's more chaotic than the others.I suppose it's the point of the episode, really. Kind of Basil: Unleashed.A gap of this length is far from typical, but also not unheard of, especially at the time. Another successful BBC sitcom of the same era springs to mind. Open All Hours,  ran its first series in February-March 1976, then there was a five year gap before S2 came along in March 1981.  I believe in that case it was primarily down to schedules, with both lead actors and the writer busy with other projects (mostly for the Beeb).I'd say that British TV seasons are sometimes less structured/more relaxed than American ones and can imagine it would be a bigger deal for an American sitcom to be put out in such an unstructured way. With US seasons being so much longer, I'm sure that structure is necessary. It's probably much easier to squeeze in six or seven thirty minute episodes somewhere in the year.I know the series initially had a somewhat lukewarm reception from critics. It's also worth noting that both series of Fawlty initially aired on BBC Two. Even though British TV at the time had only three channels, BBC Two was a secondary channel to the more mainstream BBC One. Its content was generally considered more "special interest", experimental or alternative. It's where arts shows, school programming and non English language material was often to be found. There was some great stuff on there, but as the Beeb's "minority channel" its content always had a much smaller audience (by the standards of the day).Series that proved popular sometimes made the transition to BBC One, either with new episodes or repeats (or both). In the case of Fawlty, I believe it's the repeats that really brought the series acclaim.By the time the second run came about, I'm sure it would have been considered a hit but I'm not overly familiar with the series' trajectory in terms of when it really took off.Yes. I'm pretty sure John Cleese has said that the stress of the perfectionism, being in the same room going over and over the material they were writing together and the pressure to get it right contributed to them getting divorced in the first place.I'm always impressed that none of it - the huge gap or the change in their marital status - shows on screen. It all flows so seamlessly.Oh, you do spoil me.My own list would look fairly similar. I'd probably swap the top two around , and The Germans would slot in somewhere around third or fourth place, but there are pros and cons to all.Your point about not disliking any would be true in my case as well, so any comparison between episodes is going to be a fluid situation.I feel exhausted just thinking about it (and simultaneously sorry that I didn't rank them as I went along).</blockquote>

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