Monty Python's Flying Circus

For other uses, see Monty Python's Flying Circus (disambiguation).

Monty Python's Flying Circus
File:CompleteFlyingCircusDVD.jpg DVD cover – Monty Python members (left to right): Back: Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Graham Chapman Front row: Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Eric Idle
Created by	Graham Chapman John Cleese Terry Gilliam Eric Idle Terry Jones Michael Palin
Starring	Graham Chapman John Cleese Terry Gilliam Eric Idle Terry Jones Michael Palin Carol Cleveland
Opening theme	"Liberty Bell" by John Philip Sousa
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	45 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 25–30 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC1 (1969–1973) BBC2 (1974)
Release	5 October 1969 (1969-10-05) – 5 December 1974 (1974-12-05)

Monty Python’s Flying Circus (known during the final series as just Monty Python) is a British sketch comedy series created by the comedy group Monty Python and broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines. It also featured Terry Gilliam's animations, often sequenced or merged with live action. The first episode was recorded on 7 September and broadcast on 5 October 1969 on BBC One, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV.

The show often targets the idiosyncrasies of British life, especially that of professionals, and is at times politically charged. The members of Monty Python were highly educated. Terry Jones and Michael Palin are Oxford University graduates; Eric Idle, John Cleese, and Graham Chapman attended Cambridge University; and American-born member Terry Gilliam is an Occidental College graduate. Their comedy is often pointedly intellectual, with numerous erudite references to philosophers and literary figures. The series followed and elaborated upon the style used by Spike Milligan in his ground breaking series Q5, rather than the traditional sketch show format. The team intended their humour to be impossible to categorise, and succeeded so completely that the adjective "Pythonesque" was invented to define it and, later, similar material.

The Pythons play the majority of the series characters themselves, including the majority of the female characters, but occasionally they cast an extra actor. Regular supporting cast members include Carol Cleveland (referred to by the team as the unofficial "Seventh Python"), Connie Booth (Cleese's first wife), series Producer Ian MacNaughton, Ian Davidson, Neil Innes (in the fourth series), and the Fred Tomlinson Singers (for musical numbers).

The series' theme song is the first segment of John Philip Sousa's The Liberty Bell, chosen because it was in the public domain and thus could be used without charge.

Title

The title Monty Python's Flying Circus was partly the result of the group's reputation at the BBC. Michael Mills, BBC's Head of Comedy, wanted their name to include the word "circus" because the BBC referred to the six members wandering around the building as a circus, in particular "Baron Von Took's Flying Circus", after Barry Took, who had brought them to the BBC. The group added "flying" to make it sound less like an actual circus and more like something from World War I. The group was coming up with their name at a time when the 1966 Royal Guardsmen song Snoopy vs. the Red Baron had been at a peak. Manfred von Richthofen, the WWI German flying ace known as The Red Baron, commanded a squadron of planes known as "The Flying Circus." The words "Monty Python" were added because they claimed it sounded like a really bad theatrical agent, the sort of person who would have brought them together, with John Cleese suggesting "Python" as something slimy & slithery, and Eric Idle suggesting "Monty". They later explained that the name Monty "...made us laugh because Monty to us means Lord Montgomery, our great general of the Second World War".

The BBC had rejected some other names put forward by the group including "Whither Canada?", "The Nose Show", "Ow! It's Colin Plint!", "A Horse, a Spoon and a Basin", "The Toad Elevating Moment" and "Owl Stretching Time". Several of these titles were later used for individual episodes.

Recurring characters

In contrast to many other sketch comedy shows, Flying Circus had only a handful of recurring characters, many of whom were involved only in titles and linking sequences, including:

• Arthur Pewtey (Palin), a socially inept, extremely dull man who appears most notably in the "Argument Clinic", "Marriage Guidance Counsellor", "Vocational Guidance Counsellor", and "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketches. His sketches all take the form of an office appointment with an authority figure (usually played by Cleese, but occasionally Chapman), which are used to parody the officious side of the British establishment by having the professional employed in the most bizarre field of expertise.

• The Reverend Arthur Belling (played by both Chapman and Palin) is the vicar of St Loony-Up-The-Cream-Bun-and-Jam. He is known for his bizarrely eccentric behavior. In one sketch he makes an appeal to the insane people of the world to drive sane people insane, and in another sketch politely joins a couple and "converts" them to his loony sect of Christianity by smashing plates on a table, shaking a baby doll, bouncing a rubber crab from a ping-pong paddle, and spraying shaving cream all over his face.

• The "It's" man (Palin), a Robinson Crusoe-type castaway with torn clothes and a long, unkempt beard who would appear at the beginning of the programme. Often he is seen performing a long or dangerous task, such as falling off a tall, jagged cliff or running a long distance towards the camera before introducing the show by just saying, "It's..." before being abruptly cut off by the opening titles and Terry Gilliam's animation sprouting the words 'Monty Python’s Flying Circus'. It's was an early candidate for the title of the series.

• Historical figures, such as Julius Caesar (Chapman), Napoleon (Jones), or a Viking (usually Gilliam), entering in the midst of a sketch to interrupt it, appearing randomly in a quick cut-away gag, or delivering a non sequitur in a cut-away shot.

• A BBC continuity announcer in a dinner jacket (Cleese), seated at a desk, often in highly incongruous locations, such as a forest or a beach. His line, "And now for something completely different," was used variously as a lead-in to the opening titles and a simple way to link sketches. Though Cleese is best known for it, Idle first introduced the phrase in Episode 2, where he introduced a man with three buttocks. It eventually became the show’s catch phrase and served as the title for the troupe’s first movie. In Series 3 the line was shortened to simply: "And now..." and was often combined with the "It's" man in introducing the episodes.

• The Gumbys, a group of slow-witted individuals identically attired in gumboots (from which they take their name), high-water trousers, braces, and round, wire-rimmed glasses, with toothbrush mustaches and knotted handkerchiefs worn on their heads (a stereotype of the English, working class holidaymaker). They hold their arms stiffly at their sides, speak slowly in loud, throaty voices punctuated by frequent grunts and groans, and have a fondness for pointless violence. All of them are surnamed Gumby: D.P. Gumby, R.S. Gumby, etc. Even though all Pythons played Gumbys in the show's run, the character is most closely associated with Michael Palin.

• The Knight with a Raw Chicken (Gilliam), who would hit characters over the head with the chicken when they said something particularly silly. The knight was a regular during the first series and made another appearance in the third.

• Mr. Badger (Idle), a Scotsman whose specialty was interrupting sketches ("I won't ruin your sketch, for a pound"). He has also been seen as an airplane hijacker whose demands grow increasingly eccentric. He was once interviewed, in a sketch opposite Cleese, regarding his interpretation of the Magna Carta, which Badger believes was actually a piece of chewing gum on a bedspread in Dorset.

• A nude organist (played in his first appearance by Gilliam, later by Jones) who provided a brief fanfare to punctuate certain sketches, most notably on a sketch poking fun at Sale of the Century or as yet another way to introduce the opening titles. This character was addressed as "Onan" by Palin's host character in the ersatz game show sketch "Blackmail".

• Mr. Eric Praline, an eccentric, disgruntled man who often wears a Pac-a-Mac, played by Cleese. His most famous appearance is in the Dead Parrot sketch. His name is only mentioned once on-screen, during the "Fish Licence" sketch, but his attire (together with Cleese's distinctive, nasal performance) distinguishes him as a recognizable character who makes multiple appearances throughout the series. "Fish License" also reveals that he has multiple pets of wildly differing species, all of them named "Eric".

• Mr. Cheeky, a well-dressed mustachioed man, referred to in the published scripts as "Mr. Nudge" (Idle), who pointedly annoys uptight characters (usually Jones). He is characterized by his constant nudging gestures and cheeky innuendo. His most famous appearance is in "Nudge Nudge", his initial sketch, though he appears in several later ones too, including "The Visitors" sketch, where he claimed his name was Arthur Name.

• Biggles (Chapman, and in one instance Jones), a WWI pilot. Derived from the famous series of fiction stories by W. E. Johns.

• The "Pepperpots" are screeching middle-aged, lower-middle class housewives, played by the Pythons in frocks, and engage in surreal and inconsequential conversation. The Pythons played most of the female roles themselves, unless the part called for a younger, more glamorous actress. "Pepperpot" refers to what the Pythons believed was the typical body shape of middle-class, British housewives, as explained by John Cleese in "How to Irritate People". On the rare occasion these women were named, it was often for comic effect, featuring such names as Mrs. Scum, Mrs. Non-Gorilla, or the duo Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclusion. Terry Jones is perhaps most closely associated with the Pepperpots, but all the Pythons were frequent in performing the drag characters.

• Luigi Vercotti (Palin), a mafioso entrepreneur and pimp featured during the first season, accompanied in his first appearance by his brother Dino (Jones). He appears as Ron Obvious's manager, the owner of La Gondola restaurant and as a victim of the Piranha Brothers . With his brother, he attempts to talk the Colonel into paying for protection of his Army base.

• Brief black-and-white stock footage, lasting only two or three seconds, of middle-aged women sitting in an audience and applauding. The film was taken from a Women’s Institute meeting and was sometimes presented with a colour tint.

• The Spanish Inquisition would burst into a previously unrelated sketch whenever their name was mentioned. Their catchphrase was "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" They consist of Cardinal Ximinez (Palin), Cardinal Fang (Gilliam), and Cardinal Biggles (Jones). They premiered in series two and Ximinez had a cameo in "The Buzz Aldrin Show".

• Frenchmen: Cleese and Palin would sometimes dress in stereotypical French garb, e.g. striped shirt, tight pants, beret, and speak in garbled French, with incomprehensible accents. They had one fake mustache between them, and each would stick it onto the other's lip when it was his turn to speak. They appear giving a demonstration of the technical aspects of the flying sheep in episode 2 ("Sex and Violence"), and appear in the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch as the developers of "La Marche Futile".

• The Compère (Palin), a sleazy nightclub emcee in a red jacket. He linked sketches by introducing them as nightclub acts, and was occasionally seen after the sketch, passing comment on it. In one link, he was the victim of the Knight with a Raw Chicken.

• Spiny Norman, a Gilliam animation of a giant hedgehog. He's introduced in Series 2, Episode 1 in the Piranha Brothers sketch as an hallucination experienced by Dinsdale Piranha when he's depressed. Later, Spiny Norman appears randomly in the background of animated cityscapes, shouting "Dinsdale!"

• Cardinal Richelieu (Palin) is impersonated by someone or is impersonating someone else. He is first seen as a witness in court, but he turns out to be Ron Higgins, a professional Cardinal Richelieu impersonator. He is later seen as himself impersonating Petula Clark.

• "The Colonel" (Chapman), a British Army officer who interrupts sketches that are "too silly" or that contain material he finds offensive. The Colonel also appears when non-BBC broadcast repeats need to be cut off for time constraints in syndication).

• Ken Shabby (Palin) appeared in his own sketch in the first series. In the second series he appeared in several vox populi segments. He later founded his own religion and called himself Archbishop Shabby.

• Raymond Luxury-Yacht (Chapman) is described as one of Britain's leading skin specialists. He wears an enormous fake nose made of polystyrene. He proudly proclaims that his name, "is spelled 'Raymond Luxury-Yacht', but it's pronounced 'Throatwobbler Mangrove'."

• A Madman (Chapman) Often appears in vox pops segments. He wears a bowler hat and has a bushy moustache. He will always rant and ramble about his life whenever he appears and will occasionally foam at the mouth and fall over backwards. He appears in "The Naked Ant", "The Buzz Aldrin Show", and "It's a Living"

Other returning characters include a married couple, often mentioned but never seen, Ann Haydon-Jones and her husband Pip. In the "Election Night Special" sketch, Pip has lost a political seat to Engelbert Humperdinck. Several recurring characters are played by different Pythons. Both Palin and Chapman played the insanely violent Police Constable Pan Am. Sgt. Jones, and Palin portrayed Harry "Snapper" Organs of Q division. Various historical figures were played by a different cast member in each appearance, such as Mozart (Cleese, then Palin), or Queen Victoria (Jones, then Palin, then all five Pythons in Series 4).

Some of the Pythons' real-life targets recurred more frequently than others. Reginald Maudling, a contemporary Conservative politician, was singled out for perhaps the most consistent ridicule. Then-Secretary of State for Education and Science, and later Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was occasionally mentioned. In particular referring to Thatcher's brain as being in her shin received a hearty laugh from the studio audience. Then-US President Richard Nixon was also frequently mocked, as was Conservative party leader Edward Heath, Prime Minister for much of the series run. The British police were also a favourite target, often acting bizarrely, stupidly, or abusing their authority, often in drag.

Popular character traits

Although there were few recurring characters, and the six cast members played many diverse roles, each perfected some character traits.

Chapman

Graham Chapman often portrayed straight-faced men, of any age or class, frequently an authority figure such as a military officer, policeman or doctor. His character could, at any moment, engage in "Pythonesque" maniacal behaviour and then return to their former sobriety. He was also skilled in abuse, which he brusquely delivered in such sketches as "The Argument Clinic" and "Flying Lessons". He adopted a dignified demeanour as the leading "straight man" in the Python feature films Holy Grail (King Arthur) and Life of Brian (title character Brian). Chapman was also called upon to play cross-dressing and gay stereotypes, although he was in fact the troupe's only gay member, a fact that was not publicly known when the series began.

Cleese

John Cleese played ridiculous authority figures. Gilliam claims that Cleese is the funniest of the Pythons in drag, as he barely needs to be dressed up to look hilarious, with his square chin and 6'5" (196 cm) frame (see the "Mr. and Mrs. Git" sketch). Cleese also played very intimidating maniacs, such as an instructor in the "Self Defence Against Fresh Fruit" sketch. His character Mr. Praline, the put-upon consumer, featured in some of the most popular sketches, most famously in "Dead Parrot". One star turn that proved most memorable among Python fans was "The Ministry of Silly Walks", where he worked for the eponymous government department. The sketch features some rather extravagant physical comedy from the notoriously tall and loose-limbed Cleese. Despite its popularity, particularly among American fans, this proved to be one sketch Cleese himself particularly disliked, feeling that many of the laughs it generated were cheap and that no balance was provided by what could have been the true satirical centrepoint. Another of his trademarks is his over-the-top delivery of abuse, particularly his screaming "You bastard!"

Cleese often played foreigners with rather ridiculous accents, especially Frenchmen, most of the time with Palin. Sometimes this is extended to the usage of actual French or German (such as "The Funniest Joke in the World", "Hitler in Minehead", or "La Marche Futile" at the end of "The Ministry of Silly Walks"), but still with a very heavy accent (or impossible to understand, as for example Hitler's speech).

Gilliam

The famous Python Foot can here be seen in its original format in the bottom left corner of "Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time"

Many Python sketches were linked together by the cut-out animations of Terry Gilliam, including the opening titles featuring the iconic giant foot that became a symbol of all that was "Pythonesque." Gilliam’s unique visual style was characterised by sudden, dramatic movements and deliberate mismatches of scale, set in surrealist landscapes populated by engravings of large buildings with elaborate architecture, grotesque Victorian gadgets, machinery, and people cut from old Sears Roebuck catalogues. Gilliam added airbrush illustrations and many famous pieces of art. All of these elements were combined in incongruous ways to obtain new and humorous meanings in the tradition of surrealist collage assemblies.

The surreal nature of the series allowed Gilliam’s animation to go off on bizarre, imaginative tangents. Some running gags derived from these animations were a giant hedgehog named Spiny Norman who appeared over the tops of buildings shouting, "Dinsdale!", further petrifying the paranoid Dinsdale Piranha, and The Foot of Cupid, the giant foot that suddenly squashed things. The foot is appropriated from the figure of Cupid in Agnolo Bronzino’s "Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time".

Notable Gilliam sequences for the show include The Killer Cars, Conrad Poohs and his Dancing Teeth, the rampage of the cancerous black spot, and a giant cat that stomps its way through London, destroying everything in its path.

Initially only hired to be the animator of the series, Gilliam was not thought of (even by himself) as an on-screen performer at first. The others felt they owed him something and so he sometimes appeared before the camera, usually in the parts that no one else wanted to play, generally because they required a lot of make-up or involved uncomfortable costumes. The most recurrent of these was The-Knight-Who-Hits-People-With-A-Chicken, a knight in armour who would walk on-set and hit another character on the head with a plucked chicken when they said something really corny. Some of Gilliam's other on-screen portrayals included:

• A man with a stoat through his head
• Cardinal Fang in The Spanish Inquisition sketch
• A dandy wearing only a mask, bikini underwear and a cape, for example in "The Visitors" sketch from episode 1.09
• A hotel clerk in The Cycling Tour episode

Despite, or, according to Cleese in the DVD commentary for Life of Brian, perhaps because of, an obviously deficient acting ability in comparison to the others, Gilliam soon became distinguished as the go-to member for the most obscenely grotesque characters. This carried over into the Holy Grail feature film, where Gilliam played King Arthur's hunchbacked page "Patsy".

Idle

Eric Idle is perhaps best remembered for his roles as a cheeky, suggestive playboy, "Nudge Nudge", as a crafty, slick salesman ("Door-to-Door Joke Salesman", "Encyclopedia Salesman"), and the merchant who loves to haggle in Monty Python’s Life of Brian). He is acknowledged as 'the master of the one-liner' by the other Pythons. He is also considered the best singer/songwriter in the group; for example, he wrote and performed "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from The Life of Brian. Unlike Jones, he often played female characters in a more straightforward way, only altering his voice slightly, as opposed to the falsetto shrieking used by the others. Several times, Idle appeared as upper-class, middle-aged females, such as Rita Fairbanks ("Reenactment of the Battle Of Pearl Harbor") and the sexually-repressed Protestant wife in the "Every Sperm is Sacred" sketch, The Meaning of Life.

Younger than his colleagues and not from an already-established writing partnership prior to Python, Idle wrote his sketches alone.

Jones

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, shriller, and more dishevelled than that of any of the other Pythons. Examples of this are the "Dead Bishop" sketch, his role as Brian's mother Mandy in Life of Brian, Mrs. Linda S-C-U-M in "Mr. Neutron" and the café proprietor in "Spam". Also recurring was the upper-class reserved men, in "Nudge, Nudge" and the "It's A Man's Life" sketch, and incompetent authority figures (Harry "Snapper" Organs). He also played the iconic Nude Organist in series three and four. Generally, he deferred to the others as a performer, but proved himself behind the scenes, where he would eventually end up pulling most of the strings.

Palin

Michael Palin was regarded by the other members of the troupe as the one with the widest range, equally adept as a straight man or wildly over the top character. He portrayed many working-class northerners, often portrayed in a disgusting light: "The Funniest Joke in the World" sketch and the "Every Sperm Is Sacred" segment of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life). In contrast, Palin also played weak-willed, put-upon men such as the husband in the "Marriage Guidance Counsellor" sketch, or the boring accountant in the "Vocational Guidance Counsellor" sketch. He was equally at home as the indefatigable Cardinal Ximinez of Spain in "The Spanish Inquisition" sketch. Another high-energy character that Palin portrays is the slick TV show host, constantly smacking his lips together and generally being over-enthusiastic ("Blackmail" sketch). In one sketch, he plays the role with an underlying hint of self-revulsion, where he wipes his oily palms on his jacket, makes a disgusted face, then continues. One of his most famous creations was the shopkeeper who attempts to sell useless goods by very weak attempts at being sly and crafty, which are invariably spotted by the customer (often played by Cleese), as in the "Dead Parrot" and the "Cheese Shop" sketches. Palin is also well known for his leading role in the "The Lumberjack Song".

Palin also often plays heavy-accented foreigners, mostly French ("La marche futile") or German ("Hitler in Minehead"), usually alongside Cleese. In one of the last episodes, he delivers a full speech, first in English, then in French, then in heavily accented German.

Of all the Pythons, Palin played the fewest female roles. Among his portrayals of women are: Queen Victoria in "Michael Ellis", Debbie Katzenberg the American in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, or as a rural idiot's wife in the "Idiot in rural society" sketch.

Lost sketches

John Cleese was unhappy with the use of scatological humour in Python sketches. The final episode of the third series included a sketch called "Wee-Wee Wine Tasting", which was censored following the BBC's and Cleese’s objections. The sketch involves a man taking a tour of a wine cellar where he samples many of the wine bottles' contents, which are actually urine. Also pulled out, though for unknown reasons, was a sketch where Cleese had hired a sculptor to carve a statue of him. The sculptor (Chapman) had made an uncanny likeness of Cleese, except that his nose was extremely long, almost Pinocchio size. The only clue that this sketch was cut out of the episode was in the "Sherry-Drinking Vicar" sketch, where, towards the back of the room, a bust with an enormously long nose sits.

Some material originally recorded went missing later, such as the use of the word "masturbation" in the "Summarize Proust" sketch (which was muted during the first airing, and later cut out entirely) or "What a silly bunt" in the Travel Agent sketch (which featured a character [Idle] who has a speech impediment that makes him pronounce "C"s as "B"s), which was cut before the sketch ever went to air. However, when this sketch was included in the album Monty Python's Previous Record and the Live at the Hollywood Bowl film, the line remained intact.

Some sketches were deleted in their entirety and later recovered. One such sketch is the "Political Choreographer" sketch, where a Conservative Party spokesman (Cleese) delivers a party political broadcast before getting up and dancing, being coached by a choreographer (Idle), and being joined by a chorus of spokesmen dancing behind him. The camera passes two Labour Party spokesmen practicing ballet, and an animation featuring Edward Heath in a tutu. Once deemed lost, a home-recorded tape of this sketch, captured from a broadcast from Buffalo, New York PBS outlet WNED-TV, recently turned up on YouTube. Another high-quality recording of this sketch, broadcast on WTTW in Chicago, has also turned up on YouTube. The Buffalo version can be seen as an extra on the new Region 2/4 eight-disc The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus DVD set.

Another lost sketch is the "Satan" animation following the "Cartoon Religion" piece and preceding to "How Not To Be Seen", which had been edited out of the official tape. Three frames of the animation can be seen at the end of the episode, wherein that particular episode is repeated in fast-forward. A black and white 16 mm film print has since turned up (found by a private film collector in the USA) showing the animation in its entirety.

At least two references to cancer were censored, both during the second series. In the sixth episode ("It's A Living" or "School Prizes"), Rita Davies' narration of a Gilliam cartoon suddenly has Graham Chapman's voice dub "gangrene" over the word cancer (although the word "cancer" was used unedited when the animation appeared in the movie And Now for Something Completely Different). Another reference was removed from the "Conquistador Coffee Campaign" sketch in the second series' eleventh episode "How Not to Be Seen", although a reference to leprosy remained intact. This line has also been recovered from the same 16 mm film print as the above mentioned "Satan" animation.

A restored Region 2 DVD release of Series 1–4 was released in 2007, with no additional features.

Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus

Main article: Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus

Two episodes were produced in German for WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk), both entitled Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus, the literal German translation of the English title. While visiting the UK in the early 1970s, German entertainer and TV producer Alfred Biolek caught notice of the Pythons. Excited by their innovative, absurd sketches, he invited them to Germany in 1971 and 1972 to write and act in two special German episodes.

The first episode, advertised as Monty Python’s Fliegender Zirkus: Blödeln für Deutschland ("Monty Python's Flying Circus: Clowning around for Germany"), was produced in 1971 and performed in German. The second episode, advertised as Monty Python’s Fliegender Zirkus: Blödeln auf die feine englische Art ("Monty Python's Flying Circus: Clowning around in the distinguished English way"), produced in 1972, was recorded in English and dubbed into German for its broadcast in Germany. The original English recording was transmitted by the BBC in October 1973.

Stage incarnations

The members of Monty Python embarked on a series of stage shows during and after the television series. These mostly consisted of sketches from the series, though they also included other famous sketches that had preluded them. One such sketch was the Four Yorkshiremen sketch, written by Cleese and Chapman, and performed for At Last the 1948 Show; the sketch subsequently became part of the live Python repertoire. The shows also included songs from collaborator Neil Innes.

Recordings of three of these stage shows have subsequently appeared as separate works:

1. Monty Python Live at Drury Lane (aka Monty Python Live at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), released as their fifth album in 1974
2. Monty Python Live at City Center, released in 1976
3. Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, released as a film in 1982

In 2005 a troupe of actors headed by Rémy Renoux, translated and "adapted" a stage version of Monty Python’s Flying Circus into French. Usually the original actors defend their material very closely, but given in this case the "adaptation" and also the translation into French (with subtitles), the group supported this production. The adapted material sticks close to the original text, mainly deviating when it comes to ending a sketch, something the Python members themselves changed many times over the course of their stage performances. Language differences also occur in the lyrics of several songs. For example, "sit on my face" (which translated into French would be "Asseyez-vous sur mon visage") becomes "come in my mouth".

Landing of The Flying Circus

John Cleese left the show after the third series. Apart from a brief voice-over for one of Gilliam's animations in episode 41 ("Michael Ellis") and a walk-on role in drag, he did not appear in the final six episodes of series four. However, he did receive writing credits for sketches derived from the writing sessions for Holy Grail). Neil Innes and Douglas Adams are the only two non-Pythons to get writing credits in the show – Innes for songs in episodes 40, 42 and 45 (and for contributing to a sketch in episode 45), and Adams for contributing to a sketch about a doctor whose patients are stabbed by his nurse, in episode 45. Innes frequently appeared in the Pythons' stage shows and can also be seen as Sir Robin's lead minstrel in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and (briefly) in Life of Brian. Adams had become friends with Chapman, and they later went on to write the failed sketch show pilot Out of the Trees.

Although Cleese stayed for the third series, he claimed that he and Chapman only wrote two original sketches ("Dennis Moore" and "Cheese Shop"), whereas he felt everything else was derivative of previous material. Either the third series, or the fourth series, made without Cleese, are often seen as the weakest and most uneven of the four series, by both fans and the Pythons themselves. However, with the fourth series the Pythons started making episodes into more coherent stories that would be a precursor to their films, and featured Terry Gilliam onscreen more.

The final episode of Series 4 was recorded on 16 November and broadcast on 5 December 1974. That year NBC's summer replacement series, Dean Martin's Comedyworld aired several segments from the Python shows. This paid enough to the BBC-TV distributors, Time-Life Films, to finally pay for the conversion of the Flying Circus programmes from PAL to the American NTSC system. This meant the PBS stations could afford the series at last. It was an instant hit, rapidly garnering an enormous loyal cult following nationwide that surprised even the Pythons themselves, who did not believe that their humour was exportable without being tailored specifically, even without a language barrier.

In 1974, the PBS station KERA was the first television station in the United States to broadcast episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and is often credited with introducing the programme to American audiences. When several episodes were broadcast by ABC in their Wide World of Entertainment showcase in 1975, the episodes were re-edited, thus losing the continuity and flow intended in the originals. When ABC refused to stop treating the series in this way, the Pythons took them to court. Initially the court ruled that their artistic rights had indeed been violated, but it refused to stop the ABC broadcasts. However, on appeal the team gained control over all subsequent US broadcasts of its programmes. The case also led to their gaining the rights from the BBC once their original contracts ended at the end of 1980.

In April 2006, Monty Python's Flying Circus returned to non-cable American television on PBS. In connection with this, PBS commissioned Monty Python's Personal Best, a six-episode series featuring each Python’s favourite sketches, plus a tribute to Graham Chapman, who died in 1989. BBC America has aired the series on a sporadic basis since the mid-2000s, in an extended 40-minute time slot in order to include commercials. Independent Film Channel acquired the rights to the show in 2009, though not exclusive, as BBC America still airs occasional episodes of the show. Independent Film Channel airs the show uncut roughly twice a week in a late night time slot. IFC also presented a six-part documentary Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyers Cut), produced by Terry Jones' son, Bill Jones.

Awards and honours

Monty Python's Flying Circus placed fifth on a list of the BFI TV 100, drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, and voted for by industry professionals.

Time magazine included the show on its 2007 list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time".

In a list of the 50 Greatest British Sketches released by Channel 4 in 2005, five Monty Python sketches made the list:

• #2 – Dead Parrot
• #12 – The Spanish Inquisition
• #15 – Ministry of Silly Walks
• #31 – Nudge Nudge
• #49 – The Lumberjack Song

In 2004 and 2007, Monty Python's Flying Circus was ranked #5 and #6 on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever.

Legacy

The Monty Python troupe produced a number of other stage and screen productions together following the production of this series.

In computing, the terms spam and the Python programming language are both derived from the series.

As of 2013, questions concerning the Pythons' most famous sketches are incorporated in the examinations required of those seeking to become British subjects.

Production

The production team was headed by Ian MacNaughton. Other regular team members included Hazel Pethig (costumes), Madelaine Gaffney (makeup) and John Horton (video effects designer).

See also

• List of Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes
• Do Not Adjust Your Set
• At Last the 1948 Show
• Crosby by-election, 1981 (Candidate Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel)
• Big Train

References

Bibliography

• Landy, Marcia (2005). Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3103-3.
• Larsen, Darl. Monty Python's Flying Circus: An Utterly Complete, Thoroughly Unillustrated, Absolutely Unauthorized Guide to Possibly All the References From Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson to Zambesi. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2008. ISBN 0-8108-6131-3

External links

• The Official Monty Python website
• Monty Python’s Flying Circus at IMDb
• Museum of Broadcast Television
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• "Monty Python’s Flying Circus" – Nostalgia Central