Just now I was reading a very negative review of a television sitcom that's based in a hotel.
One of the reviewer's remarks got me thinking... [italics added]
What may be most mind-boggling about [the program] is not the fact that [the network] went to the trouble and expense of assembling a reasonably decent cast and then set them adrift with terrible material full of lame stereotypes. No, the surprising part is that [they] missed the golden opportunity of any hotel-set show: The chance to have a weekly plot revolve around a hotel guest.
So... decent cast... terrible material... lame stereotypes... Sounds like heaven to me!
In any case, the fixed cast is (of course) the hotel staff. The guests wander in and out. Maybe there are long-term guests, standing jokes, recurring situations.
What I would love to do, if I had the time (but don't) would be to build (in stories) a hotel and its staff and use it as the framework for TG-related stories.
Once the hotel is more or less set, other writers could locate stories there as well.
Keep in mind that even if the original inspiration was a would-be comedy, any individual story could be tragedy, horror, mystery, only-a-dream, etc.
But sticking with the television-world premise that any situation -- even the end of the world -- can be wrapped up in a single episode.
Ooh! It suddenly strikes me: has someone done this already?
If not, have at it!
You must be joking ...
... or didn't 'Fawlty Towers' make the trip across the Atlantic? It starred John Cleese and Prunella Scales Or is this the sitcom referred to in the review? The fact that the programme filtered through to non-TV viewing me must mean it was quite popular.
Though perhaps a TG element might add another dimension :)
Geoff
Basil and Sybil
I went to a couple of websites to refresh my "fawlty" memories and was shocked to see that only twelve episodes were made. Wonderful TV.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Warty Towels
They've been called the 'twelve best farces in the English language' though I reckon a few episodes of 'Frasier' run them close.
I'm not sure about others
but I found 'Flowery Twats' as they named the hotel in one episode, painfully funny. I couldn't always watch it.
Cleese went on to use his material as training films in the catering industry. Remember the hotel was based on a real one in Torquay.
Angharad
Angharad
Yes, Shown Many Times on PBS Channels
Series is readily available on DVD from Amazon. For anyone that hasn't seen it, it has some of the funniest and silliest moments I've ever seen. Just an amazing series.
One of Bob Newhart's shows was based in a small hotel (I don't think there was much focus on the guests though).
Not as lame
As a certain Vice Presidential Canditate is. :)
Gwen
Now, now
The Democrats did the best they could! ;-)
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
Please, not another Love Boat
"Ooh! It suddenly strikes me: has someone done this already?"
-Love boat (its just a floating hotel with a bad cast, tired comedy, way too cheesy.
-Vegas (high tech hotel)
-there was a TG story where one of the desk clerks was coerced to x-dress
not quite a hotel but...
I've been sketching ideas for where that ne'er-do-well Phil from OHOP is sent to revise his ideas about us, though whether it will form part of OHOP2, or if it'll be strong enough to stand alone as a story I haven't decided.
Its setting is a village built (quite badly) in imitation of Portmeirion (the setting for 'The Prisoner') by a talentless contemporary of Clough Williams-Ellis. As it's in the mountains he styled it after how he imagined a Swiss village (imagined because he never went to Switzerland). Needless to say it's dreadfully twee, and somewhat ramshackle. His descendants run it as a retreat for the transgendered, their families and occasionally for someone like Phil who needs convincing.
The motley cast of characters are starting to build in my mind - the architect's descendants, live in staff, locals from the surrounding area, visitors of all categories (including bewildered tourists), hippie survivors and all manner of eccentric Welsh people :)
It's beginning to sound like a combination of Fawlty Towers, Reggie Perrin, and Brigadoon, with a little Gormenghast thrown in.
Sounds promising...
I hope you do it!
it's in the queue
I have a bit of a backlog right now... OHOP to conclude, Merrimount Abbey to complete, Midnight Angels to carry on with, what I think is a good novella idea, a short story that's half written called 'Mr and Mrs Beacon' and... well lots of things - perhaps if I stuck to working in the office and not day dreaming :)
Deity Arms
Not exactly a hotel, but the "Deity Arms" series by The Professor over on FictionMania has a similar theme. I really enjoyed those stories. Almost as good as his outstanding "Ovid" series.
Pleione
I'll check it out
Thanks for the tip.
Isn't there a series ...
... called Night Skies Hotel on FM?
I've got an unfinished, unpubbed story where a runaway bride and a suicidal salesman trade bodies in a motel run by a mysterious Indian shaman.
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I could help
I do work in a hotel after all :)
I could share some examples of just how crazy life behind the front desk really can be- bound to be a few good stories there!
Melanie E.
There Is Another British Comedy That Might Help
Are You Being Served is set in a department store where the employees interact with customers. Some of the better episodes were with the staff alone.\
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
wrapped around a weekly guest....?
Sounds like Fantasy Island to me, maybe the desk clerk will need a crate to stand on to reach over the counter
The Love Boat,
Hotel, and several other far shorter lived series were all *hotel* based. Heck, any hospital show or lawyer show is rahter similar just more likely to be serious vs funny.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Fantasy Island?
Didn't they do that type of setting that revolved around the guest? Never really watched it, think we were traveling quite a bit at that time. Hmmm, some midget running around in a bellhop outfit yelling "The Medallion, boss, The Medallion!"
And there was another show awhile back I didn't watch either, "Hot L Baltimore". Just know it was supposed to be a comedy. Wow, just Googled it, it was back in 1975! By Norman Lear, no less! From what the review I just read says, this might be the pattern you're looking for. Maybe.
http://greatbutforgotten.blogspot.com/2007/12/hot-l-baltimor...
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
I haven't done it
but I have devised a fictitious UK company in which several future stories will take place. The main reason that I've done this is to ensure that someone doesn't say "you can't go up to Personnel as it's on the floor below." As you can perhaps tell, I consider that I have a very poor memory for detail and will trip myself up if I don't adequately prepare.
I think that preparation for a new story is essential and the idea of the same location and core staff is a good one.
Susie