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Articles about Monty Python |
| Monty Python |
| Monty Python's Flying Circus |
| Monty Python and the Holy Grail |
| Monty Python's Life of Brian |
| The Meaning of Life |
Monty Python's Flying Circus was the popular BBC sketch comedy show from Monty Python.
The first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus was recorded September 7, 1969, and broadcast on October 5 of the same year on BBC One - not BBC Two as is often erroneously stated, possibly because the latter is a more 'niche' channel that would have seemed a more natural home for the programme.
The shows often targeted the idiosyncrasies of British life (especially professionals), and was at times politically charged. The members of Monty Python were highly educated (Oxford and Cambridge graduates), and their comedy was often pointedly intellectual with numerous references to philosophers and literary figures.
In contrast to many other sketch comedy shows (such as Saturday Night Live), Flying Circus featured only handful of recurring characters, including:
The theme tune was John Philip Sousa's Liberty Bell March.
Regular supporting cast members include Carol Cleveland, Connie Booth, Neil Innes and The Fred Tomlinson Singers (for musical numbers).
Although there were few recurring characters, and the six cast members played many diverse roles, each one had a couple of roles that they had perfected.
Eric Idle is perhaps best remembered for his roles as a cheeky, suggestive, slightly perverted, upper middle class 'playboy' (see sketches such as 'nudge-nudge, wink-wink'), his role as crafty, slick salesmen (see the Door-to-Door Joke Salesman or his role as the shop keeper who loves to haggle in The Life of Brian). He is also acknowledged as 'the master of the one-liner' by the other Pythons. He is also considered the best singer in the group.
Graham Chapman was well known for his roles as straight faced men, of any age or class, who could, at any moment, revert to raving maniacs, and then back again (see sketches such as 'An appeal from the Vicar of St. Loony-up-the-Cream-Bun-and-Jam', the argument sketch, the one man wrestling match).
Although all of the Pythons played women, Terry Jones is renowned by the rest to be 'the best Rat-Bag woman in the business'. His portrayal of a middle aged housewife was louder, more shrill and more dishevelled that any of the other Python's (see The Worst Family in Britain sketch, or his role as Mandy in The Life of Brian).
Michael Palin's most common characters were working class northerners, often portrayed in a disgusting light (see The Funniest Joke in the World sketch, 'Every Sperm is Sacred' set in The Meaning of Life). He also played weak willed, put-upon men (the Marriage counsellor sketch) and most famously, a shopkeeper, whose attempts to sell useless goods by very weak attempts at being sly and crafty are always spotted by the customer (often played by Cleese) as the defects in the products are inherently obvious (see The Dead Parrot sketch, The Cheese Shop sketch).
Terry Gilliam claims that John Cleese is the funniest of the Pythons in drag, as he barely needs to be dressed up to look hilarious (see the 'Little Bastards' sketch). Cleese is also well known for playing very intimidating manics (see the Self Defence Class sketch). Cleese's character of "Eric Praline", the put-upon consumer, features in some of the most popular sketches, such as the "Dead Parrot" sketch and the "Fish License" sketch.
Unfortunately for Gilliam, he usually ended up in grotesque costumes that required a lot of makeup, or trapped in a suit of armour, however his contributions as animator are not to be underestimated.
Many of the sketches were linked together by bizarre, grotesque and often hilarious animations drawn by Terry Gilliam. These also comprised the opening sequence.
The nature of the series and of the style of animation allowed Gilliam to go off on bizarre, imaginative tangents. Some running gags derived from these animations were a giant hedgehog who would appear over the tops of the buildings shouting 'Dinsdale!' in an attempt to further petrify the paranoid Dinsdale Piranha, and a giant foot that would squash things. The giant foot became a symbol of all that was 'pythonesque'. Other memorable animated segments include the carnivorous houses, the old woman who can't catch the bus and the story of the black cancerous dot.
The animation consisted of shot-by shot frames made up of cardboard cut-outs of either Gilliam's cartoons or famous pieces of art (the giant foot is that of cupid's in The Argument Clinic
Most of these sketches appear in the first two series. A possible explanation for their fame is their inclusion in the feature film And Now For Something Completely Different, which was recorded between series 2 and 3. However, this film was little more than a regurgitation of popular sketches intended to be shown in countries that had not seen the TV series, and did very badly in most countries (the one country where it was a modest hit was the UK itself, despite - or perhaps because of - the familiarity of the material). A further reason could be that when the show is re-broadcast it is often cancelled before the later series are shown.
John Cleese left the show after the third series, so did not appear in the final six episodes that made up series four, although he did receive writing credits where applicable. Neil Innes and Douglas Adams are notable as the only two non-Pythons to get writing credits in the show - both in the same episode late in season four. Innes frequently appeared in the Pythons' stage shows and can also be seen in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and (briefly) in Life of Brian.
Two episodes were produced in German for WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) -- the first, Monty Python in Deutschland, was produced in 1971 and was performed in phonetic German, while the second, Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus (also known as Monty Python Blödeln Für Deutschland), was a dubbed version of a British show, produced in 1972 and was also transmitted by the BBC in October 1973.
The final episode was recorded November 16, 1974, and broadcast on December 5. That same year, Devillier-Donegan Enterprises syndicated the series in the United States of America among PBS stations, and the show appeared for the first time in that country on the PBS station KERA in Dallas, Texas. It was an instant hit there, rapidly garnering an enormous loyal cult following nationwide that surprised even the Pythons themselves, who didn't believe that the humor was exportable without being tailored specifically for the North Americans.
However, a 1975 broadcast of several episodes by the ABC Network was heavily censored and reedited; the Pythons were so disgusted with how the network handled their program that when ABC refused to stop editing the programs, or to at least display a disclaimer indicating that the program was heavily edited, the troupe took the network to court over artistic rights.
Censorship controversies aside, the discovery of an internationl legion of fans would inspire the troupe to reunite to create the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, since they now knew they had a world-wide audience.
At the end of 1980, the Monty Python members obtained ownership of their series from the BBC in what was considered a landmark agreement.
In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Monty Python's Flying Circus was placed 5th.
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