Monty Python's Flying Circus

We can learn a lot from the Brits.  They have been at it so much longer than we have.  They speak and write the language better.  They take better care of their citizens.  They produced the greatest rock band of all time (The Beatles).  And, they produced the greatest comedy group ever assembled - Monty Python's Flying Circus (almost named "Owl Stretching Time") - consisting of Graham Chapman (1941-1989), John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones (1943-2020) and Michael Palin with appearances by Carol Cleveland, Connie Booth and a few others.

The Pythons gave us great silly/clever television sketches: "Ministry of Silly Walks," "Dead Parrot," "Spanish Inquisition", "Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink," "Wuthering Heights with Semaphores," "Upperclass Twit of the Year" and many, many others.  They wrote and performed in wonderful parody movies: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.  Some of their songs are classics: Lumberjack Song, Spam Song and Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.  The Python group took sketch and parody performance comedy to a new level that has yet to be matched. [JAM 3/5/2009]

Television:

Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC)  - (1969-1974)

Movies:

And Now for Something Completely Different - 1971

Romance with a Double Bass - 1974

Monty Python and the Holy Grail - 1975

Fawlty Towers - (1975-1979)

 

Monty Python's Life of Brian - 1979

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl - 1982

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life - 1983

Monty Python Live at the O2 London - 2014

Books:

Monty Python's Big Red Book - Methuen - 1971 - 64 pages

This book is much too silly.  Save your money.  Eat a frog.  [JAM 6/15/2020]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (screenplay) - Methuen - 1977 - 92 pages

Monty Python's Life of Brian (script) - Ace Books - 1979 - 172 pages

The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: All the Words (two volumes) - Pantheon Books - 1989 - 674 pages

The First 28 Years of Monty Python (Kim "Howard" Johnson) - St. Martin's Griffin - 1999 - 424 pages

Monty Python Encyclopedia (Robert Ross) - Barnes & Noble Books - 2001 - 288 pages

Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years (Michael Palin) - St. Martin's Press - 2007 - 650 pages

Monty Python Live! (edited by Eric Idle) - Hyperion - 2009 - 233 pages

So, Anyway ... (John Cleese) - Crown Archetype - 2014 - 392 pages

John Cleese wrote this book to pay the alimony costs of his third wife.  However, it is well worth the $28 cover price.  Since so much has already been written about Monty Python's Flying Circus, Cleese planned this autobiography to cover his life from birth until just before the Python days.  But, since the Pythons reunited in 2013 (to pay legal costs), the publisher prevailed upon him to add one Python chapter at the end.  Throughout the volume, the Cleese wit is in full evidence.  He came from a modest and mostly uneducated family and knew little about the outside world until his love of comedy and sense of humor propelled him into various school performing groups that led directly to his writing/acting career in spite of a law degree that he never used.  Cleese has an excellent memory for anecdotes and hilarious stories that seemed to follow him.  He was also fortunate to have excellent working relationships with David Frost (1938-2013), Peter Sellers (1925-1980), Marty Feldman (1934-1982), Graham Chapman (1941-1989), Eric Idle, Michael Palin and others.  His relationships with the two Terrys (Jones and Gilliam) were troubling at times.  Cleese has no good words for his third wife (Alyce Eichelberger) and never mentions his second wife (Barbara Trentham) but fills many pages about the long affair and short marriage (1968-1978) to actor/psychotherapist Connie Booth who was certainly the love of his life.  Cleese is currently happily married to fourth wife, Jennifer Wade.  Read this book if you are a lover of modern humor.  [JAM 12/2/2014]

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Eric Idle) - Crown Archetype - 2018 - 289 pages

This is the second great autobiography from members of Monty Python's Flying Circus after John Cleese's So Anyway ... in 2014.  The Monty Python phenomenon was the culmination of British humor that bubbled out of their comedy scene in the 1960s.  They had three glorious years on BBC and then one so-so year, but peaked again with the classic 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  The Pythons, British humor and humor in general has slowly gone downhill since then.  The peak period for performance comedy (and jukebox music) was 1965 to 1975.  We will not see those days again.  As Cleese, Eric Idle does an excellent job of explaining how Monty Python came to be and what happened after that.  The formation of the group of six giant comedy egos can best be summarized by Idle's quote about 1969: "We didn't know what we were doing, and insisted on doing it."  After losing his father in 1945, and spending 12 years in an orphanage, Eric Idle found comedy and that saved his life as he tells it.  It seems that he has been a nonstop comedy/acting/singing/writing machine for over 50 years.  Cleese said that his career was done in 2014 but then he and Idle toured three countries to sold-out crowds (136,000) through 2016.  They always say that this is the last reunion.  But even though Graham Chapman (1941-1989) is dead; Terry Jones has a touch of dementia; Michael Palin is off making travelogues; and Terry Gilliam was always just a yank who wanted to make epic movies; they will somehow pull themselves together for some sort of entertainment event.  After all, Paul and Ringo are still working on Beatles projects.  This proves for all time that Eric Idle always was the philosopher of the group.  The following quote from the book says it all.  [JAM 10/7/2018]

"So, what were we Pythons, we who were once so young and who are now so not?  Were we friends, comrades, coworkers, teammates, gang members, rivals, siblings, brothers, brothers-in-law, or brothers-in-arms?  I noticed we had become legends quite a while ago.  We used to be icons, and before that stars, and before that celebrities, and before that merely TV comedians, but the Reaper keeps on Reaping and you go up a notch each time until you finally end up as myths, which is when you know you're dead."

 

Albums:

Monty Python's Flying Circus - 1970

Another Monty Python Record - 1971

Monty Python's Previous Record - 1972

The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief - 1973

 Monty Python Live at Drury Lane - 1974

The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail - 1975

Monty Python Live at City Center - 1976

The Monty Python Instant Record Collection - 1977

Monty Python's Life of Brian - 1979

Monty Python Examines the Life of Brian - 1979

Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album - 1980

The Monty Python Instant Record Collection (U.S. version) - 1981 

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life - 1983

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life Press Kit - 1983

The Final Rip Off - 1987

Monty Python Sings - 1989

The Lifetime Final Rip Off - 1994

Monty Python Sings Again - 2014

The Hastily Cobbled Together for a Fast Buck Album - ????

Plays:

Spamalot - (2004-2015)