Take 5: Grand and not so grand TV hotels

What's the deal with TV and hotels? Two new reality shows -- "Hotel Impossible" (Travel Channel, premiering Monday) and Gordon Ramsay's "Hotel Hell" (June 4, Fox) -- concern themselves with trying to turn around down-on-their-luck lodging. And in Starz's new "Mad Men"-ish drama "Magic City," a key player is the ritzy hotel modeled on Miami Beach's legendary Fontainebleau. With this in mind, let's check in with these five other TV shows in which a hotel has a starring role.

1. HOT L BALTIMORE (1975) -- Controversial TV adaptation (by Norman Lear) of the Off-Broadway play set at the seedy Hotel Baltimore.

2. FAWLTY TOWERS (1980) -- "Monty Python's" John Cleese starred in this beloved Britcom that aired on PBS as Basil Fawlty, inept, short-tempered proprietor of a country hotel. (The series was Americanized in 1983 with the short-lived "Amanda's" starring Beatrice Arthur.)

3. HOTEL (1983-88) -- James Brolin and Connie Sellecca starred in this prime-time soap set at San Francisco's St. Gregory Hotel, which was based on Arthur Hailey's bestselling novel (and 1967 movie).

4. HOTEL MALIBU (1994) -- Summer soap opera set at the titular hostelry on the southern California coast. Notable in the cast was a relatively unknown Jennifer Lopez as a Mexican-American bartender named Melinda Lopez.

5. PARADISE HOTEL (2003) -- Fox reality show that was basically "Survivor" set at a luxurious tropical resort.