Payne (TV series)

Payne is an American sitcom patterned after the British program Fawlty Towers. It starred American actor John Larroquette, who portrayed assistant district attorney Dan Fielding on the American television program Night Court. Larroquette was also an executive producer for the series.

Payne was a mid-season replacement on CBS and aired in March and April 1999. The show also starred JoBeth Williams, Julie Benz and Rick Batalla. Despite fairly positive reception, and receiving the blessing of John Cleese, who agreed to take a recurring role if the show was renewed, Payne was quickly cancelled. Nine episodes were filmed; eight were aired. The show is not available on DVD.

Basic description

Payne was a remake of Fawlty Towers, though set in this version at an ambiguous location on the coast of California, as opposed to Torquay, England, in Fawlty Towers. The action takes place at the Whispering Pines Inn, owned and operated by Royal Payne and his wife, Constance.

The pilot episode, "Pacific Ocean Duck" (which actually aired fifth in sequence), merged the plots of the Fawlty Towers episodes "Gourmet Night" and "The Hotel Inspectors".^[1][2][3]

Characters

JoBeth Williams & John Larroquette as Connie and Royal Payne

Royal Payne (John Larroquette) – Inspired by Basil Fawlty, Royal had an overpowering obsession (not unlike Basil’s generally obsessive behavior) with keeping up with a rival hotel called the Sand Dune, located just a short distance up the road. His schemes to do so cheaply or overly simply were the source of many of his problems. The viewer was given the impression that the only reason Whispering Pines ever had any guests at all was that it was in a popular resort area and the far superior Sand Dune was nearly always full. Payne like Basil is guilty of false economy and rudeness.

Constance (Connie) Payne (JoBeth Williams) – The antagonistic dynamic between Connie and Royal was also nearly identical to that between Sybil and Basil with one distinct exception: their sex life was apparently extremely vibrant and healthy, whereas Basil and Sybil's was implied to be repressed. Connie’s gossip sessions on the telephone with her friends (a Sybil Fawlty characteristic) invariably had her bragging about how fantastic Royal was in bed, implying that this was why she continued to tolerate him. Since Royal had a Basil-like sense of embarrassment, this caused him enormous consternation.

Breeze O’Rourke (Julie Benz) – A waitress, based on Polly in Fawlty Towers. One difference between Breeze and Polly was that Breeze was staunchly proud that she was a virgin, "saving herself for marriage". Otherwise, Breeze was, like Polly, intelligent, efficient, and repeatedly saving Royal from his own incompetence.

Mo (Rick Batalla) – A bellhop from India, Mo is essentially modelled on the Manuel character in Fawlty Towers.

Episodes

References

External links

• Episode guide
• Publicity photos
• Payne at the Internet Movie Database
• Payne at TV.com