Forty Years of Monty Python's Flying Circus

Historical British Sketch Comedy Television Show Turns Forty

Oct 3, 2009

Four decades have gone by and Monty Python's Flying Circus has made an indelible mark on the television and cultural landscape of the world.

The BBC broadcast Monty Python’s Flying Circus for the first time on October 5, 1969. It ran for four seasons generating 46 episodes, with the last episode being broadcast on December 5, 1974. The very year that saw the last episode of Monty Python in Great Britain was the year the show was introduced to the United States via the Public Broadcasting System. Its popularity grew and it became so popular that regular network television actually picked it up for a short time.

The Cast

The main cast consisted of six actors. With one exception these actors performed in all 46 episodes of the series.

Graham Chapman earned his MD but only practiced medicine for a short time. Eric Idle went on to write the play/musical Spamalot, a musical reprise of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Terry Jones worked on several other programs with Michael Palin. While probably best known for his work on Monty Python, he is also well known for his travel documentaries such as Around the World in 80 Days (1989) and Full Circle with Michael Palin (1997). Terry Gilliam was born in Minnesota and is probably best known for his weird and wild animation sequences in the series. John Cleese is perhaps the best known of the group. He dropped out of the series during the last season and went on to create perhaps one his greatest characters, Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers. He has continued to act in movies and is currently the newest iteration of Q in the James Bond movies.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Monty Python enriched our language with quaint little euphemisms. It seemed like any time a skit started going nowhere—or perhaps the writers didn’t know how to end it—an announcer or some costumed character would suddenly appear and say, “And Now for Something Completely Different.” This would begin a new sketch. Sometimes the original sketch would reappear and finish up near the end of the show. Sometimes not.

Early in the second season Python fans were introduced to the Spanish Inquisition. “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” This phrase and the inimitable Cardinal Ximenez, who can’t quite count the major weaponry of the Spanish Inquisition, is a classic. As the cardinal attempts to count the major weapon then the two major weapons, then three, and so on. The audience is then introduced to the tools of torture consisting of a dish rack, big soft sofa cushions, and the comfy chair which seem to be most ineffective.

Spam

In episode 25 the Pythons introduced, unfortunately for Hormel Foods, spam to one of their skits. People are in a restaurant that serves every meal with spam. The waitresses list ingredients for patrons, always certain to mention the portion of spam that comes with the meal. In a section of the restaurant a group of Vikings (if you have to ask, it can’t be explained) start to sing, “Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam! Wonderful spam!” As defined by Brad Templeton, in an amazing web site “Origin of the Term "Spam" to Mean Net Abuse,” spam is “something that keeps repeating and repeating to great annoyance.” There has never been a clearer explanation of spam as it applies to email. And less than a decade later the term started to appear in reference to junk postings in Usenet groups and email. The Python spam sketch started the ball rolling.

Monty Python Lives

The series shot its last regular episode in December of 1974 but it has never stopped being a part of our culture. There have been three movies and a musical play that have roots deep in the Monty Python creative soil.

Old episodes can be seen on many public broadcasting stations. Hulu also has a large collection of full episodes and short sketches for those wishing to view this historic comedy ensemble group. Normally a television series requires at least a hundred episodes before it can lay claim to being an entertainment icon. Monty Python’s Flying Circus did it with a mere 46 episodes.

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References

The copyright of the article Forty Years of Monty Python's Flying Circus in British/Australian TV is owned by Joe Nowak. Permission to republish Forty Years of Monty Python's Flying Circus in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.