Welcome to the Payne guide at TV Tome. 
"We'd been talking to John Larroquette for a long time about doing a show with him. When he was approached by the people who owned the American rights to Fawlty Towers, he called us, and asked if we'd like to stomp all over sacred ground. We jumped at the chance, and have been stomping ever since. After many creative meetings with John Larroquette, (how close should we stay to the original... how can we really translate the British humor/should we?... how do we really Americanize it?....etc.) We wrote the pilot. Our initial instinct was to stay very close to Fawlty, to prove a: we weren't afraid of it, and b: we could do it. Having a: proven we could do it, we were b:, afraid to keep doing it. In subsequent episodes, we made a distinct decision to stay away from the original episodes, and feel we made it our own."  (Judd Pillot & John Peaslee)