9.2/1017 votes#1 - The Germans
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/24/1975
Sybil goes into the hospital for toe surgery, leaving Basil to cope with a fire drill single-handed. After a couple of blows on the head, Basil tells some German guests where Germany went wrong in WWII.
Director: John Howard Davies
Writer: John Cleese
9.2/1016 votes#2 - Communication Problems
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 2/19/1979
A selectively deaf woman named Mrs Richards insists that she has had a large amount of money stolen at the hotel, and against Sybil's wishes Basil puts a fiver on Dragonfly.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: John Cleese
9.2/1017 votes#3 - Basil the Rat
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/1979
The health inspector is coming and Basil tells Manuel to get rid of his pet rat, which he later finds out is named Basil.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: John Cleese
9.1/1017 votes#4 - The Psychiatrist
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 2/26/1979
A psychiatrist and his wife come to stay and Basil thinks Sybil is telling them all about his life.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: John Cleese
8.9/1016 votes#5 - The Kipper and the Corpse
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 3/12/1979
Unknown to Basil, a guest dies in the night and he tries to serve him breakfast anyway and an obnoxious woman insists on service for her dog.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: John Cleese
8.8/1019 votes#6 - The Hotel Inspectors
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/10/1975
Some inspectors are in town and Basil gets paranoid, so he alternately fawns over and offends his guests.
Director: John Howard Davies
Writer: John Cleese
8.5/1018 votes#7 - Gourmet Night
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/17/1975
To bring the right type of crowd into the hotel Basil establishes a Gourmet Night.
Director: John Howard Davies
Writer: John Cleese
8.3/1022 votes#8 - The Builders
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/26/1975
The Fawltys take a holiday and leave Polly and Manuel to run the place just as O'Reilly's builders come to redo the lobby.
Director: John Howard Davies
Writer: John Cleese
8.3/1018 votes#9 - The Wedding Party
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/3/1975
Basil wants 'none of that' going on in his rooms and suspects some guests and Polly of carrying on.
Director: John Howard Davies
Writer: John Cleese
8.2/1025 votes#10 - A Touch of Class
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/19/1975
A confidence trickster comes to stay at the hotel, just after Basil has taken an ad in a posh magazine to upgrade the clientele.
Director: John Howard Davies
Writer: John Cleese
8.2/1017 votes#11 - Waldorf Salad
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 3/5/1979
An American and his wife get unsatisfactory service at Fawlty Towers when he orders a Waldorf salad, after the kitchen has closed.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: John Cleese
8.1/1011 votes#12 - The Spanish Inquisition
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/22/1970
Featuring the Spanish Inquisition, courtroom charades and a semaphore interpretation of Wuthering Heights.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
8.1/1010 votes#13 - Déjà Vu
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 9/29/1970
Featuring the work of the poet Euan McTeagle, a psychiatrist milkman and some exploding animals. A television presenter suffers from a severe case of deja vu.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.9/1015 votes#14 - How to Recognise Different Types of Trees from Quite a Long Way Away
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/19/1969
Featuring a court scene, the larch, Bicycle Repair Man, children's stories, a restaurant sketch, some seduced milkmen, an interview with some children and a stolen newsreader.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.9/1010 votes#15 - The Buzz Aldrin Show
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 10/20/1970
More surreal humour from the Monty Python team. Sketches include The Architects, How to Recognise a Mason, Poets and the Chemist sketch.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.9/107 votes#16 - E. Henry Thripshaw's Disease
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 12/21/1972
Sketches include The Tudor Jobs Agency, Elizabethan Pornography Smugglers, Thripshaw's Disease and The Man Who Says Words in the Wrong Order.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.8/1012 votes#17 - Face the Press
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/15/1970
Featuring Doug and Dinsdale Piranha, Face the Press and the Ministry of Silly Walks. Mrs G Pinnet buys a new gas cooker.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.8/1017 votes#18 - The Anniversary
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 3/26/1979
Sybil leaves before Basil's surprise anniversary party and Basil spends the evening trying to convince their friends she's ill.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: John Cleese
7.7/1019 votes#19 - Whither Canada?
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/5/1969
Featuring 'It's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart', an Italian lesson, Whizzo Butter, 'It's the Arts', Arthur 'Two-Sheds' Jackson, a cycling race, and The Funniest Joke in the World.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.7/1015 votes#20 - Man's Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the 20th Century
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 11/16/1969
Featuring Confuse-a-Cat, discussion programme A Duck, a Cat and a Lizard, the arrest of a newsreader, an erotic film, a silly job interview and a burglar/encyclopaedia salesman.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.7/1011 votes#21 - Spam
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 12/15/1970
The sketches in this episode include Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook, World Forum-Communist Quiz, Hospital for Over-Actors and Spam.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.7/1010 votes#22 - Royal Episode 13
Season 2 Episode 13 - Aired 12/22/1970
Sketches in this episode include How to Feed a Goldfish, The Man Who Says Things in a Very Roundabout Way and Lifeboat.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.7/107 votes#23 - Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 11/9/1972
Features gags and sketches such as Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror, The Man who Speaks in Anagrams and Pantomime Horses.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.6/1016 votes#24 - Sex and Violence
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/12/1969
Featuring some flying sheep, a man with three buttocks, a man with two noses, musical mice, a marriage guidance counsellor, a working-class playwright and The Wrestling Epilogue.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
7.6/107 votes#25 - Salad Days
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 11/30/1972
Features gags and sketches such as Biggles Dictates a Letter, Climbing the North Face of the Uxbridge Road, Lifeboat and The Cheese Shop.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: John Cleese
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John Cleese Ratings Summary
"The Germans" is the best rated episode written by John Cleese. It scored 9.2/10 based on 17 votes. It was directed by John Howard Davies. It aired on 10/24/1975 and is rated 0.0 points higher than their second-best episode, "Communication Problems".