By BRUCE DANCIS, Scripps Howard News Service

"That's funny." (Man at prairie crossing)

"What?" (Roger Thornhill, played by Cary Grant)

"That plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops." (Man)

Basil Fawlty was rude, snobby, smarmy, henpecked, sarcastic and prudish -- a man his creator, John Cleese, terms "an absolutely awful human being." But this unforgettable character stood at the center of one of the funniest sitcoms in television history, "Fawlty Towers."

David Byrne had just flooded his hotel bathroom and needed some help. It was late 1980, and the idiosyncratic guitarist and front man of the rock band Talking Heads was staying at San Francisco's Miyako Hotel while his band toured in support of their new album, "Remain in Light."

Stephan Elliott's "Easy Virtue," out this week on DVD (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, $28.95/$39.95 Blu-ray), rated PG-13), has a lot going for it: It's based on an early Noel Coward play from the mid-1920s and it's filled with the witty repartee for which Coward was famous.

I've accepted the possibility that HBO may never again create a TV series with either the dramatic depth of "The Sopranos" or the insightful social criticism of "The Wire." But as long as the pay-cable network keeps airing original, first-rate productions like "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," it will remain essential to discerning viewers.

The presence of Latino baseball players in the major leagues is an old story. Latinos were playing professional baseball in the United States as early as the 1870s, though it wasn't until after the breakdown of segregation in the late 1940s that major-league teams began to sign black Latinos.

Two of filmdom's most popular and enduring genres -- the coming-of-age story and the battle-of-the-sexes romantic/suspense thriller -- are on display in this week's DVD releases of Greg Mottola's "Adventureland" and Tony Gilroy's "Duplicity." Both writer-directors demonstrated in their previous work a sure touch in making youth-oriented comedy (Mottola's "Superbad") and adult-oriented drama (Gi

Like a good discussion in school, "The Class" will generate debate and argument. Based on an autobiographical novel by Francois Begaudeau, who also stars in the film, "The Class" tells the story of a teacher and his students in a Parisian inner-city junior-high school.

Everything you know about "Life on Mars" is wrong. Or, to put it another way, if all you know about "Life on Mars" is that it was a recently canceled ABC-TV series starring Jason O'Mara and Harvey Keitel, you're in for a treat.

To Blu-ray or not to Blu-ray?
That has been the question facing many DVD consumers, including yours truly, who have purchased widescreen, high-definition televisions and now have to decide whether to replace their old DVD player with a Blu-ray player. (Blu-ray players can play conventional DVDs as well as Blu-ray discs, while traditional DVD players cannot play Blu-ray discs.)