This is Comedy Valhalla: It just doesn't get any better. John Cleese wrote and performed in just 12 of these British TV episodes about a manic hotel keeper in Torquay, England. I sometimes wish he'd done 1,200. But he knew that brevity is the soul of wit. I raised my two children on these and as a result they have superb and delicious senses of humor. When they finally shove me into a hospice, I'll make sure I've got these in my suitcase. I'll greet St. Peter with a smile on my face. In fact, it may be a laughter-induced heart attack that sends me up in the end.

I've been re-watching this more or less once a year since it appeared on TV in 1981. As an adaptation of a novel, it comes about as close to perfection as it gets. And the reason, interestingly, from a purely technical point of view, is that the script, adapted by John Mortimer (author of Rumpole of the Bailey series) consists probably of 99 percent of Evelyn Waugh's original novel.