Information AboutMonty Python |
|
Monty Python, or '''The Pythons''', is the collective name of the creators and stars of '' Monty Python's Flying Circus '', a British Television Comedy Sketch Show that first aired on October 5 , 1969 . It went on to make 45 episodes over four series. However, the Python phenomenon was much greater, spawning stage tours, four Film s, numerous Album s, several Computer Game s and Book s, as well as launching the members to individual stardom. The television series, broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974, was conceived, written and performed by Graham Chapman , John Cleese , Terry Gilliam , Eric Idle , Terry Jones and Michael Palin . Loosely structured as a Sketch Show , but with an innovative Stream-of-consciousness approach (aided by Terry Gilliam's Animation s), it pushed the boundaries of what was then considered acceptable, both in terms of style and content. The group's influence upon comedy has been compared to that which The Beatles had on Music (George Harrison regarded them as taking over where The Beatles left off). While their influence all over the British comedic spectrum has been apparent for years, in America it is especially evident in more recent Absurdist television programming like the '' Adult Swim '' programs, '' South Park '', '' The Simpsons '' and many others. The name was chosen simply because they thought it sounded funny. In 1998's ''Live at Aspen'' documentary, the group revealed how it came about. 'Monty' was selected as a tribute to Field Marshal Lord Montgomery , a legendary British general of World War II , and the team agreed that it wanted a 'slippery-sounding' name as well. The word ' Python ' fitted the bill. These explanations aside, some believe that the name of a character in several of humorist P. G. Wodehouse 's books, ' Monty Bodkin ', served on some level as an inspiration. In a 2005 poll to find '' The Comedian's Comedian '', three of the six members were voted among the top 50 greatest comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Michael Palin was at number 30, Eric Idle was voted 21st and John Cleese was at two, just beaten to the top by Peter Cook . HISTORY (PRE-PYTHON) ''.]] and David Jason in '' Do Not Adjust Your Set ''.]] Michael Palin and Terry Jones first met at Oxford University , while John Cleese and Graham Chapman met at Cambridge . Eric Idle was also there, but started a year after Cleese and Chapman. Cleese met Gilliam in New York while on tour with the Cambridge University Footlights Revue '' Cambridge Circus '' (originally entitled ''A Clump of Plinths''). Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Eric Idle were all members of the Footlights, which at that time also included the future '' Goodies '' — Tim Brooke-Taylor , Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden — as well as Jonathan Lynn (co-writer of '' Yes, Minister '' and '' Yes, Prime Minister ''). During the time of Eric Idle's presidency of the Club, Feminist icon Germaine Greer was also a member. Recordings of these so-called "Smokers" at Pembroke College include sketches and performances by Idle and Cleese. They are currently kept in the archives of the Pembroke Players , along with tapes of Idle's performances in some of the college drama society's theatrical productions. Variously, the Python members appeared in and/or wrote for the following shows before being united for ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'':
Several of these also featured other important British comedy writers and/or performers, including Ronnie Corbett , Ronnie Barker , Tim Brooke-Taylor , Graeme Garden , Bill Oddie , Marty Feldman , Jonathan Lynn , David Jason and David Frost . Following the success of ''Do Not Adjust Your Set'' among the adult Demographic , ITV offered Palin, Jones, Idle and Gilliam their own series together. At the same time, Cleese and Chapman were offered a show by the BBC, who had seen them on ''The Frost Report'', among other programmes. However, Cleese was reluctant to do a Two-man Show , for various reasons — including Chapman's supposedly difficult personality. Cleese had fond memories of working with Palin, and invited him to join the team. With the ITV series still in pre-production, Palin agreed, and brought Idle, Jones and Gilliam along. Much has been made of the fact that the Monty Python troupe is the result of Cleese's desire to work with Palin and the chance circumstances that brought the other four members into the fold. FLYING CIRCUS AND THE PYTHON STYLE The Pythons had a very definite idea about what they wanted to do with the series, and were a little dismayed when they saw Spike Milligan recording his series '' Q5 '' (1969), as it seemed like he'd beaten them to it. The group immediately scurried for a new style to call its own. After much debate, Terry Jones remembered an Animation Terry Gilliam had created for ''Do Not Adjust Your Set'' called "Beware of the Elephants". Having no real theme, it was more of a stream-of-consciousness piece. Jones felt it would be a good concept to bring to the series, allowing sketches to blend into each other. Michael Palin was just as fascinated by another of Gilliam's efforts, entitled "Christmas Cards". "It was absolutely brilliant," he later recalled, "with missiles coming out of church steeples. Terry's stream-of-consciousness animation was one of the examples of a way of doing things differently." As a result, the style of Monty Python was born. The first series of the television show was originally planned as a vehicle for John Cleese's career. However, he wanted to work in Collaboration , and so the group was assembled in an organised and disciplined manner. Each day of writing started at 9am and finished at 5pm. Typically, Cleese and Chapman worked as one pair of writers isolated from the others, as did Jones and Palin, while Idle wrote alone. After a few days of working in this configuration, they would all join together with Gilliam, critique their scripts and exchange ideas. Their approach to writing was Democratic . If the majority found the idea to be humorous, it would be included in the show. The casting of Role s for the sketches was a similarly unselfish process, since each member viewed himself as a ''writer'', rather than an actor who was desperate for screen time. When the themes for sketches were finally chosen, Gilliam had ''carte blanche'' to decide how to bridge them with fanciful animations, armed with his camera, scissors, and airbrush. Several names for the show were bandied about before the title ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' was settled upon. Some of the more memorable were ''Owl Stretching Time'', ''The Toad Elevating Moment'' and ''Bun, Wackett, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot''. "Flying Circus" came about when the BBC explained to the group that it had already printed the name in its schedules and had no wish to amend it, leaving the Pythons no choice in the matter. Many variations then came and went. ''Gwen Dibley's Flying Circus'' was named after a woman Michael Palin had read about in the newspaper, thinking it would be amusing if she were to discover she had her own TV show. '' Barry Took 's Flying Circus'' was an affectionate tribute to the man who had brought them together. ''Arthur Megapode's Flying Circus'' was suggested, then discarded. Cleese then added "Python", liking the image of a slippery, sly individual that it conjured up. The origin of "Monty" is somewhat confused, but Idle claims it was a popular and rotund fellow who drank in his local pub. People would often walk in and ask the barman, "Has Monty been in yet?", forcing the name to become stuck in his mind. ''Flying Circus'' pioneered some innovative formal techniques, such as the garb, making a tortuous journey across various terrains, before finally approaching the camera to state, "It's...", to be then followed by the Title Sequence . On several occasions the Pythons would even trick viewers by rolling the Closing Credits halfway through the show. Inspired by Milligan's earlier ''Q'' series, they also realised that they did not necessarily have to conclude a sketch with the traditional Punchline . They experimented with ending segments by cutting abruptly to another scene or animation, walking offstage, addressing the camera, or introducing a totally unrelated event or character. A classic example of this approach was the use of Chapman's "Colonel" character, who walked into several sketches and ordered them to be stopped because they were "too silly." The use of Gilliam's Surreal , Collage Stop Motion animations was another innovative intertextual element of the Python style. Many of the images Gilliam used were lifted from famous works of art, and from Victorian illustrations and Engraving s. The giant foot, which crushes the title at the end of the opening credits, is in fact the foot of Cupid , cut from a reproduction of the Renaissance masterpiece '' Venus, Cupid, Folly, And Time '' by Bronzino . This foot, and Gilliam's style in general, have come to be considered the visual Trademark s of the series. The Pythons built on and extended the great British tradition of Cross-dress ing comedy. Rather than dressing a man as a woman for comic effect, the (entirely male) Python team would don frocks and make-up and play middle-aged women in an entirely straight manner (straight as in comedy style, rather than sexual preference). Thus a scene requiring a housewife would feature one of the male Pythons wearing a housecoat and apron, speaking in falsetto. The comic effect was accentuated by this, but the comedy itself was based on the role, not the cross-dressing aspect — had a genuine woman played the role, the sketch would still have had great comic effect. Many of the sketches have endured, being quoted to this day. "The Dead Parrot ", " The Lumberjack Song ", " Spam ", " Nudge Nudge ", " The Spanish Inquisition ", " Upper Class Twit Of The Year ", and " The Ministry Of Silly Walks " are but a few. LIFE AFTER PYTHON Python (Monty) Pictures ''.]] The five surviving members of the main Monty Python team are directors of Python (Monty) Pictures Limited which was Incorporated in 1973 and now manages ongoing activities resulting from their previous work together. In the accounts return, the company describes its activities as the 'exploitation of television and Cinematographic productions'. In the last Financial Year for which accounts are available (to March 2004), the company's turnover was £4.9M (source: Creditsafeuk.com). When ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' was shown in the USA by ABC in their "Wide World of Entertainment" slot 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 them gaining the rights from the BBC once their original contracts ended at the end of 1980 (a unique arrangement at the time). 5 A driving force behind Python in the late 1970s was the Beatles' George Harrison , who not only funded and appeared in '' Monty Python's Life Of Brian '' as Mr. Papadopolous (though his voice is dubbed by Palin), but produced a number of their songs from that period, including "The Lumberjack Song" Single . He also made a Cameo Appearance in Eric Idle's Cult Beatles Parody '' All You Need Is Cash '' (aka ''The Rutles''), which incidentally united (for the most part) the Pythons and '' Saturday Night Live '', and was co-produced by Broadway Video , SNL's production company. Harrison once said in an interview, "Monty Python helped me get over the trauma of the breakup of the Beatles." 1 Going solo Each member pursued other film and television projects after the break-up of the group, but often continued to work with one another. Many of these collaborations were very successful, such as '' Fawlty Towers '' (written by and starring John Cleese and Connie Booth), and '' A Fish Called Wanda '' (1988) (also written by Cleese, and in which he starred along with Michael Palin). The latter pair also appeared in '' Time Bandits '' (1981), a movie written by Gilliam and Palin, and directed by Gilliam. Gilliam also directed and co-wrote '' Brazil '' (1985) and '' The Adventures Of Baron Munchhausen '' (1988), which featured Michael Palin and Eric Idle respectively. Terry Gilliam has now become a cult director, he often struggles to find the money for his work because his films tend to go over-budget and fail at the box-office. The latter had success in '' Nuns On The Run '' (1990) with Robbie Coltrane . Palin and Jones wrote the parody series '' Ripping Yarns '' starring Palin with an assortment of British actors. Palin's BBC travel series have also proved extremely popular. In terms of numbers of productions, John Cleese has had the most prolific solo career, having appeared in 59 theatrical movies, 22 TV shows or series, 23 direct-to-video productions, and six video games 2 . The End? The Pythons are often the subject of reunion rumours. The death of Graham Chapman in 1989 (on the eve of their 20th anniversary) seemed to put an end to this speculation, but in 1998 the five remaining members, along with what was purported to be Chapman's ashes, were reunited on stage for the first time in 18 years. The occasion was in the form of an interview (hosted by Robert Klein , with an appearance by Eddie Izzard ) in which the team looked back at some of their work and performed a few new Skit s. At one point during the event, Chapman's urn was "accidentally" spilled, and the ashes were cleared away with a Vacuum Cleaner . On 9 October 1999 , to commemorate 30 years since the first ''Flying Circus''' TV broadcast, BBC2 devoted an evening to Python programmes, including a documentary charting the history of the team, interspersing them with new sketches filmed especially for the event. In an interview to publicise the DVD release of ''The Meaning of Life,'' Cleese said a further reunion was unlikely. "It is absolutely impossible to get even a majority of us together in a room, and I'm not joking," Cleese said. He said that the problem was one of busy-ness rather than one of bad feelings. And on that same Meaning of Life DVD, they did a sketch spoofing the at some moments impossibillity of a full reunion as they were trying to have a reunion with the modern bluescreen/greenscreen technique. Eric Idle has said that he expects to see a proper Python reunion, "just as soon as Graham Chapman comes back from the dead." (This echoed a comment George Harrison of The Beatles once made: "As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead.") The 2003 "autobiography", compiled from a series of interviews with the surviving Pythons, reveals that a series of disputes in 1990 over a '' Monty Python And The Holy Grail '' sequel conceived by Idle may have resulted in the group's permanent fission. Cleese's feeling was that '' Monty Python's Meaning Of Life '' was both personally difficult and ultimately mediocre, and for other reasons, did not wish to do the film. Apparently Idle was angry with Cleese for refusing to do the film, which most of the remaining Pythons thought reasonably promising. Idle then refused to do what he saw as the Cleese-dominated reunion show a few years later. March 2005 saw the full reunion of the surviving cast members at the premiere of Eric Idle's musical '' and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Sara Ramirez , who played the Lady Of The Lake , a character specially added for the musical. Owing in part to the success of ''Spamalot'', PBS announced on July 13 , 2005 , that the network would begin to re-air the entire run of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', as well as new one-hour specials focusing on each member of the group, called '' Monty Python's Personal Best ''. Each is to be written and produced by the individual being honoured, with the five remaining Pythons collaborating on Graham Chapman's programme. THE PYTHONS Michael Palin Main article: Michael Palin Born on May 5 , 1943, the youngest Python by a matter of weeks, Palin is often labelled "the nice one." He attended the University Of Oxford , where he met his Python writing partner Terry Jones. The two also wrote the series '' Ripping Yarns '' together. Palin and Jones originally wrote together, but soon found it was more productive to write apart and then come together and review what the other had written. Therefore, Jones and Palin's sketches tended to be more focused than that of the other four, taking one bizarre, hilarious situation, sticking to it, and building on it. Examples include "The Spanish Inquisition" sketch and the "fish-slapper" in the Fish-Slapping Dance. These sketches take everyday situations (talking in the sitting room, dining out) but then introduce an unexpected, impossible to predict, rogue element (the Spanish Inquisition, a grotesquely overweight man). From here, Palin and Jones could play around with the newly created environment, taking it to impossible, unbelievably stupid extremes, for example, attempting to torture old ladies with cushions and comfy chairs, or having waiter Cleese feed Mr. Creosote until he actually explodes, showering the other diners in viscera. In recent years, Palin has starred in a number of documentary travel series for the BBC in which he visits various — usually remote — locales, often along some predetermined route, for example his series ''Pole to Pole'' and the BBC-sponsored ''Around the World in Eighty Days'', where he followed the route of the fictional journey of Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne 's novel of the same name. He also starred in Gilliam’s '' Brazil '' and '' Time Bandits '', and hosted '' Saturday Night Live '' several times. Palin is one of the most popular personalities in Britain today. He was also voted the best-looking member of the Monty Python group by the public. Terry Jones Main article: Terry Jones Terry Jones was born on 1 February 1942 in North Wales . All the Pythons have an eclectic range of talents, but Terry Jones is particularly hard to compartmentalise. George Perry has commented that should you "speak to him on subjects as diverse as Fossil Fuel s, or Rupert Bear , or mercenaries in the Middle Ages or Modern China and in a moment you will find yourself hopelessly out of your depth, floored by his knowledge." However, not everyone considers Jones a show-off, merely that he has a good-natured enthusiasm. It is this same cheery devotion that has led to his unflagging loyalty to the preservation of the group. As long as there is Terry Jones, there will be, in some way, a Monty Python. Jones' dedication to Python is not a recent occurrence however. As well as writing with Michael Palin, he committed himself to directing the Python films '' Monty Python And The Holy Grail '', '' The Life Of Brian '', and '' Monty Python's Meaning Of Life '', when it was felt that a member of the group should be in charge. Though the rest of the group appreciates such efforts, it would be a lie to say that there was not a little resentment at being bossed around by a man they viewed as an equal, especially when he acted as director. This has resulted in light-hearted joking at Jones' expense: Eric Idle, for example, constantly hails him as the most boring man on the planet. Of Jones' innumerable contributions to the show, his parodic, screechy-voiced depictions of middle-aged women are among the most memorable. In 2004, Jones was the presenter and actor for The History Channel 's miniseries, '' Terry Jones' Medieval Lives ''. He has also directed and starred in '' Erik The Viking ''. Eric Idle Main article: Eric Idle Eric Idle was born on 29 March 1943 in South Shields , England . When with Monty Python, two writing partnerships were formed — John Cleese and Graham Chapman, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. That left Terry Gilliam in his own corner, considered to be a sensible position in view of the arcane nature of his work, and Eric Idle. Idle was content to be cast as the group loner, preferring to write by himself, at his own pace, although he sometimes found it difficult in having to present material to the others and make it seem funny without the back-up support of a partner. Cleese claimed that, though he often felt his position was unfair, Idle was an independent person and worked best on his own. Idle claimed, "It was easier in a show where there were thirteen in a series than with a film, where stuff was read out all the time, and you had to convince five others. And they were not the most un-egotistical of writers either." Idle studied at the University Of Cambridge , a year behind John Cleese and Graham Chapman. His participation was essential to the Python synergy. His talent for verbal humour is exceptional, leading the group to dub him "master of the one-liner". As a performer, he can master with ease tongue-twisting wordplays that verge on impossible. He is also a talented songwriter and accomplished guitarist with an ear for lyrics and styles. This talent lent heavily to the Python's work, composing, amongst others, " Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life ", which has become the group's signature tune. Since Python, Idle has starred in movies ranging from '''' to '' 102 Dalmatians '' to television shows such as '' The Simpsons '', '' MADtv '' and ''Saturday Night Live''. Idle is the writer of the three time Tony award-winning Broadway musical, '' Spamalot ''. John Cleese Main article: John Cleese Born on 27 October 1939 in Weston-super-Mare , England, Cleese’s surname had originally been Cheese. His father, however, had the name changed to Cleese when he joined the army during World War II . Perhaps the best known of the Pythons, Cleese attended Clifton College , Bristol where he developed a taste for performing by appearing in the house plays. He moved on to the University Of Cambridge , where he met his future Python writing partner, Graham Chapman. His work with Chapman was, aside from Gilliam's animations, perhaps the most surreal of the Pythons' work and almost certainly the most intentionally satirical. Unlike Palin and Jones, Cleese and Chapman actually wrote together, in the same room. Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved him sitting with pen and paper, and Chapman sitting back, not speaking for lengths at a time, but when he did speak, it was often brilliant. Without Chapman's input, the "dead parrot" sketch would have been about the duller subject of a car (it is much harder to imagine Cleese throwing about a car in the same way he threw about the parrot). Their work often involved ordinary people in ordinary situations, doing incredibly strange and surreal things. For example, Cleese and Chapman transformed the ordinary sight "a civil servant in black suit and bowler hat makes his way to work" into a bizarrely unforgettable scene; the straight-faced Cleese used his physical potential to its full force as the crane-legged civil servant performing an athletic, grotesque, utterly unique walk to his office at the "Ministry of Silly Walks". This sketch was in fact written by Palin and Jones, but Cleese made it his own, showcasing his talent for physical comedy (also famously used in '''', although completely oblivious to the fact that he is actually savaging wedding guests. Another popular device used by the two was highly articulate arguments over completely arbitrary subjects, such as in the "cheese shop", the "dead parrot" sketch or the "argument clinic". All of these roles were opposite Michael Palin, who Cleese often claims is his favourite Python to work with. He played Q 's assistant ("R") and finally the new Q himself in the James Bond movies. He also has done work for '' Shrek 2 '', and appeared in the first two Harry Potter movies, '' Rat Race '', and several '' Saturday Night Live '' episodes. Cleese has recently had a species of Lemur named after him, ''Avahi cleesei'' (or "Cleese's Woolly Lemur"). This was in recognition of his promotion of conservation issues after the release of his film '' Fierce Creatures '', which featured such an animal, and '' Operation Lemur With John Cleese '', which highlighted their plight on the island of Madagascar — their natural habitat. Graham Chapman Main article: Graham Chapman Born in Leicester , England on January 8 1941, Graham Chapman was originally a medical student, but changed to theatre when he joined Footlights at the University of Cambridge. Chapman was perhaps best remembered for taking on the lead roles in ''The Holy Grail'', as King Arthur, and ''Life of Brian'', as Brian Cohen. The movie roles were fairly straight, the comedy deriving from the stereotypical lead in bizarre situations, encountering eccentric characters, still being played as serious, and unflinching. These roles, however, were unusual for the Graham Chapman the public had come to know on the ''Flying Circus'', where he figured as the tall, craggy pipe smoker who gave the impression of calmness, disguising a manic unpredictability as real in his characters as they were in reality. For behind the pipe-smoking, rugby-playing exterior lay an alcoholic homosexual, with whom the rest of the Pythons often had trouble dealing. This was one of the reasons that Cleese left the television show after series three. Chapman particularly had trouble filming the ''Holy Grail'' in Scotland , where he got a case of Delirium Tremens , often called DTs. During his worst alcoholism, he was reportedly consuming two quarts of gin every day. However, by the time his definitive role of Brian arose, he was sober and continued to produce some of his best work with the Pythons. Besides starring in Monty Python features, Chapman starred in movies such as '' The Odd Job '' (he was also the producer) and '' Yellowbeard '', also making several appearances on '' Saturday Night Live ''. Graham Chapman died of spinal and throat cancer on 4 October 1989. Thanks to the nature of the other Pythons, he is now lovingly referred to as "the dead one." Terry Gilliam Main article: Terry Gilliam Terry Gilliam, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1940, is the only non-British member of the troupe. He started off as an animator and strip cartoonist for ''Help!'' magazine, one issue of which featured John Cleese. Moving from the USA to England, he animated features for '' Do Not Adjust Your Set '' and then joined '' Monty Python's Flying Circus '' when it was created. He was the principal artist-animator of the distinctive, surreal cartoons, which frequently linked the show's sketches together, and defined the group's visual language in other mediums. He mixed his own art, characterized by soft gradients and odd bulbous shapes, with backgrounds and moving cutouts from antique photographs, mostly from the Victorian era. The style has been mimicked repeatedly throughout the years: in the children's television cartoon '' Angela Anaconda '', a series of television commercials for Guinness Beer, the Jibjab cartoons featured on '' The Tonight Show '' with Jay Leno , and the television history series ''Terry Jones' Medieval Lives''. The title sequence for '' Desperate Housewives '' and the visits to the land of the living in '' Grim Fandango '' are also highly Gilliamesque. Besides doing the animations for the ''Flying Circus'', he also appeared in several sketches, usually playing parts that no one else wanted to play (generally because they required a lot of make-up or uncomfortable costumes, such as a recurring knight in armour who would end sketches by walking on and hitting one of the other characters over the head with a plucked chicken) and played side parts in the films. He co-directed '' Monty Python And The Holy Grail '' and directed short segments of other Python films (for instance "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", the short film that appears before '' The Meaning Of Life ''). Gilliam has gone on to become a celebrated and imaginative film director of such notable titles as '' Time Bandits '', '' Brazil '', '' The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen '', '' The Fisher King '', '' Twelve Monkeys '', '' Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas '', '' The Brothers Grimm '' and '' Tideland ''. The 7th Python Carol Cleveland Commonly referred to as the "Seventh Python," or the "Python Girl," Carol Cleveland was the only significant female performer in the Monty Python ensemble. Originally hired by producer/director John Howard Davies for just the first five episodes of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', she went on to appear in nearly every episode as well as in all of the Python films. Her common portrayal as the stereotypical "blonde bimbo" eventually earned her the sobriquet "Carol Cleavage" by the other Pythons, but she felt that the variety of her roles should not be described in such a pejorative way. Connie Booth John Cleese's ex-wife Connie Booth , who went on to write and star with him in '' Fawlty Towers '', was probably the only other significant female performer. She appeared in, amongst others, " The Lumberjack Song " and as the "witch" in ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail''. It has been suggested that she may also have assisted Cleese and Chapman in their writing. Neil Innes Neil Innes is the only non-Python, besides Douglas Adams , to be credited with writing material for the Flying Circus. He appeared in sketches and the Python movies, as well as performing some of his songs in '' Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl ''. He was also a regular stand-in for absent Pythons on the rare occasions when they appear to re-create sketches. For example, he took the place of John Cleese when he was unable to appear at the Memorial Concert For George Harrison . Terry Gilliam once noted that if anyone qualified for the title of the "Seventh Python," it would certainly be Innes. Innes was one of the creative talents in the off-beat Bonzo Dog Band , appreciated for such nutty compositions as "The Intro and the Outro" and "I'm The Urban Spaceman." He would later portray Ron Nasty of the Rutles and write virtually all of the Rutles' compositions. Eddie Izzard Eddie Izzard , a massive fan of the group, also occasionally stands in for absent members. When the BBC held a "Python Night" in 1999 to celebrate 30 years of the first broadcast of ''Flying Circus'', the Pythons recorded some new material with Izzard standing in for Eric Idle, who was in America . He also appeared with them "Live at Aspen" and hosted a history of the group entitled "The Life of Python." 'PYTHONESQUE' Monty Python casts a considerable shadow over modern comedy. As such, the term 'pythonesque' has become a byword in surreal humour. However, this is perhaps somewhat misleading, since the humour of Monty Python, whilst certainly nonsensical and surreal, is still strongly characterised by a preoccupation with the British Social Class system — most notably with British Working Class Stereotypes . These themes cannot be said to be essential to surrealist comedy as a whole. PYTHON MEDIA See Also: Monty Python mediagraphy Television
:The show that started the Python phenomenon. See also List Of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' Episodes .
:Two 45-minute specials made by WDR for West German television. The first was recorded in German, while the second was in English with German Dubbing .
Films ''.]] There were five Monty Python films:
:A collection of re-filmed sketches from the first and second series of Monty Python's Flying Circus .
:King Arthur and his knights embark on a low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering humorous obstacles along the way. Some of these turned into standalone sketches.
:Brian is born on the first Christmas, in the stable next to Jesus '. He spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
:Live performance of skits directed by Ian MacNaughton . Anyone for Albatross?
:The one with the machine that goes PING! An examination of the meaning of life in a series of sketches from conception to death and beyond, from the uniquely Python perspective. Albums
Theatre
:Written by Eric Idle , directed by Mike Nichols , with music and lyrics by John Du Prez and Eric Idle, and starring Hank Azaria , Tim Curry , and David Hyde Pierce , ''Spamalot'' is a musical adaptation of the film ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail''. It ran in Chicago, Illinois from December 21 , 2004 to January 23 , 2005 , and began showing on Broadway on March 17 , 2005 .
TRIVIA
REFERENCES #Anglin, A. (2004). The Alt.Fan.Monty-Python FAQ . Retrieved Dec. 5, 2004. #Clarkson, M. (1994). Monty Python...Facts and Trivia. ''Britcomedy Digest'' 1 (3). #Chapman, Graham (1997). ''Graham Crackers: Fuzzy Memories, Silly Bits, and Outright Lies''. Career Pr Inc. ISBN 1564143341. #Morgan, David (June 1999). Monty Python Speaks; a Spike imprint, Avon Books, Inc., New York, New York ISBN 0-380-80479-4 # IMDB ; as of January 2005; includes pre-release items. # BBC Comedy Guide #''From Fringe to Flying Circus'' — 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960–1980' — Roger Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980. #''The Pythons: Autobiography by The Pythons'' — Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Bob McCabe, Orion, 2003. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|