Public Television in the US was launched in 1967. Before that, it had been known as Educational Television. It was a hodgepodge of non-commercial programs that ran without advertising, or government intervention. It was largely supported by contributions, with a little tax money thrown in.
Public Television stations were pretty rare about then. KOED, the Tulsa affiliate, actually began operation in early 1959. It was one of the first. many metropolitan areas didn't get PBS affiliates until the 70's.
But it didn't take long for the upstart network to get some programming that attracted the attention of viewers. These included Sesame Street, Masterpiece Theater, and a British import known as Monty Python's Flying Circus.
When word got out that these excellent offerings were being shown on the funky, commercial-free (but telethon-laden) network, the public began demanding PBS stations in the various areas they called home.
Monty Python was a big hit in England, when it debuted in 1969. But it soon became a worldwide phenomenon with its airing over American PBS stations.
Its premise was too good to ever have been spawned over here. The closest we came was SNL's Not Ready for Prime Time Players. You see, Monty Python's Flying Circus assumed that its audience was smarter than a shrubbery. Their humor explored such intellectual ground as philosophy, literature, and history. And if you didn't know who Immanuel Kant was, they figured you would look him up, and find out why it was funny to refer to him as a drunk.
The writing was brilliant. So was the ensemble.
Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, the late Graham Chapman, and Yank Terry Gilliam were talented in comedy, music, and, in Gilliam's case, animation
Audiences were treated to sketches that forced them to think, even though they involved dead parrots, giant cats, and lots of guys dressed like women. I remember staying up until 10:00 on Saturday nights to watch MPFC on the local PBS station and laughing until I had tears. Then, later on, when Mayberry RFD would come on, I would shake my head sadly.
The cast all went on to bigger and better things, further proof of their genius. Idle, Cleese, Palin, and Jones are familiar faces on TV and the big screen. Chapman was a fixture on American TV before his untimely 1989 death from pneumonia. Gilliam co-directed the smash Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Jones, then went on to direct Twelve Monkeys, The Fisher King, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, among other successful films.
And what additions they have made to the English language! For example, the word "pythonesque" is found in the Oxford English Dictionary. And what internet surfer isn't familiar with "spam?" And when someone coughs noticeably in cubicleland, who hasn't heard "bring out yer dead!"
The timeless episodes, with all of their references to non-current events, are as much fun to watch now as when we were much younger.
So here's to Monty Python's Flying Circus: an acme that television may never again reach.
Comments (4)
Contrary to being saddened when Mayberry
RFD came on, I would be
saddened that Goober and Ken Berry weren't in the Monty Python cast. Surely George Lindsey would have been a most vital addition
to the python pantheon.
How enriched the cast would have also been with Ken berry dressed
in drag as only he could. The laughs that would have burst forth
will never be known.
Posted by scott | July 13, 2007 2:04 AM
Posted on July 13, 2007 02:04
Of course, SNL emerged from Second City, which originated in 1959 from the Compass Players, many of whom were undergraduates at the University of Chicago. You want intellectual stuff? Find and listen to "Football Comes to the University of Chicago", "Museum Piece", Severn Darden's "Metaphysics Lecture" and "Oedipus Rex" (aka "What Would Have Happened to Oedipus If He Had Read the Book Before Going on the Journey").
Posted by Jim C. | October 11, 2007 8:05 PM
Posted on October 11, 2007 20:05
It took me awhile to warm up to British humor. But as I started going to the midnight movies in the late 70s, Monty Python Flying Circus were a staple. It was funny stuff and today, many of my friends will reciet lines from MPFC! Including the other movies!
Bring out your dead! NOT DEAD YET! Classic stuff! Palin and Cleese are to cool!
Posted by Rivers End | June 19, 2009 11:35 PM
Posted on June 19, 2009 23:35
It took me awhile to warm up to British humor. But as I started going to the midnight movies in the late 70s, Monty Python Flying Circus were a staple. It was funny stuff and today, many of my friends will reciet lines from MPFC! Including the other movies!
Bring out your dead! NOT DEAD YET! Classic stuff! Palin and Cleese are to cool!
Posted by Rivers End | June 19, 2009 11:35 PM
Posted on June 19, 2009 23:35