Monty Python's Flying Circus: Set 1, Episodes 1-6

Monty Python's Flying Circus: Set 1, Episodes 1-6


Starring:Monty Python's Flying Circus
Studio: A&E Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Product Description
Contains episodes 1-6 from Season 1 of Monty Python s Flying CircusVery possiby the most tragic waste of Oxbridge educations ever broadcast. The programme that made all of America sit up and say: what? That put Spam back in the national pantry, launched crossdressing as a national craze, and made Rene Descartes a household name. Now it s back in its original order--the first six episodes of the premiere season-- as if that had any empirical value whatsoever.

Format: DVD MOVIE
Amazon.com essential video
In 1969, five overeducated British comics and an American illustrator invaded the homes of unsuspecting BBC viewers with a brand of comedy that was, at the very least, odd. "Absurd," "bizarre," and "incomprehensible" are other descriptions that jump to mind. Nonetheless, this wacky sextet inaugurated an absurd tradition that continued through three and a half seasons of half-hour TV episodes, a series of live performances, a handful of movies, and a legacy of dead parrots and upper-class twits. Monty Python's Flying Circus, Set 1 features the first episodes foisted on a still-reeling public, introducing running gags ("And now for something completely different") and recurring characters (an armor-clad Terry Gilliam wielding a rubber chicken, Graham Chapman's pompous Colonel intruding on sketches he deems simply too silly, and of course Michael Palin's "It's a Man" wandered through the entire season). Among the sketch highlights in the first three shows are Nudge Nudge, the Funniest Joke in the World, How to Defend Yourself from a Man Attacking You with Fresh Fruit, Confuse a Cat, and The Dull Life of a City Stockbroker, all interspersed with various and sundry cut-out animation sequences by Terry Gilliam. These early episodes may lack the consistency and stream-of-consciousness flow of their later, more assured work, but they're packed with some of the most memorable moments of the group's brief but brilliant history. --Sean Axmaker
Monty Python's Flying Circus: Set 1, Episodes 1-6
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Upperclass Twit of the year
  • information please!
  • But It's My Only Line!
  • Not as concise as the movies, but still just plain awesome
  • And Now For Something Completely Different
 Monty Python's Flying Circus: Set 1, Episodes 1-6
Starring: Monty Python's Flying Circus
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. Monty Python's Flying Circus: Set 2, Episodes 7-13
  2. Monty Python's Flying Circus: Set 3, Episodes 14-19
  3. Monty Python's Flying Circus, Set 4, Eps. 20-26
  4. Monty Python's Flying Circus - Set 5 (Epi. 27-32)
  5. Monty Python's Flying Circus - Set 6 (Epi. 33-39)

ASIN: B00000JSJE
Release Date: 1999-09-28

Product Description

Contains episodes 1-6 from Season 1 of Monty Python s Flying CircusVery possiby the most tragic waste of Oxbridge educations ever broadcast. The programme that made all of America sit up and say: what? That put Spam back in the national pantry, launched crossdressing as a national craze, and made Rene Descartes a household name. Now it s back in its original order--the first six episodes of the premiere season-- as if that had any empirical value whatsoever.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com essential video

In 1969, five overeducated British comics and an American illustrator invaded the homes of unsuspecting BBC viewers with a brand of comedy that was, at the very least, odd. "Absurd," "bizarre," and "incomprehensible" are other descriptions that jump to mind. Nonetheless, this wacky sextet inaugurated an absurd tradition that continued through three and a half seasons of half-hour TV episodes, a series of live performances, a handful of movies, and a legacy of dead parrots and upper-class twits. Monty Python's Flying Circus, Set 1 features the first episodes foisted on a still-reeling public, introducing running gags ("And now for something completely different") and recurring characters (an armor-clad Terry Gilliam wielding a rubber chicken, Graham Chapman's pompous Colonel intruding on sketches he deems simply too silly, and of course Michael Palin's "It's a Man" wandered through the entire season). Among the sketch highlights in the first three shows are Nudge Nudge, the Funniest Joke in the World, How to Defend Yourself from a Man Attacking You with Fresh Fruit, Confuse a Cat, and The Dull Life of a City Stockbroker, all interspersed with various and sundry cut-out animation sequences by Terry Gilliam. These early episodes may lack the consistency and stream-of-consciousness flow of their later, more assured work, but they're packed with some of the most memorable moments of the group's brief but brilliant history. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Upperclass Twit of the year.......2007-03-03

To the person who asked about this skit. It's on this DVD set. It's the funniest I've seen.

4 out of 5 stars information please!.......2006-12-24

can anyone advise me as to which dvd set has the 'upper class twit of the year contest' on it? thank you kindly!

5 out of 5 stars But It's My Only Line!.......2006-08-16

OK, now that the DVD versions are out, and the Personal Bests, and the Entire Series', it's unlikely you will want to purchase a puny little set of VHS' of the first season of Tony M. Nythop's Flying Ricsu. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we were doing anagrams. I meant Monty Python's Flying Circus. But it's all I have! So I'm reviewing it.

I love the Flying Circus series. Aside from Life of Brian, and bits of The Holy Grail, I would pit the series against any of the Python movies. I think Terry and Michael, and John and Graham, and Eric (the three teams who wrote together or solo as the case may be) were most brilliant doing sketch comedy, and this particular packet shows that they arrived from The Frost Report, Do Not Adjust Your Set, and Doctor In the House hitting the ground running. It's amazing to realize that such time honored skits as Dead Parrot, Nudge Nudge, and Confuse-a-Cat are all here--in the first season!

One could argue that these Oxbridge thespians were "to the manor born", having all been products of either the Cambridge Footlights or the Fringe Festivals. And that would be true. However, rather than rest on their laurels and serve up a formulaic comic television show, the Pythons deliberately focused on a stream-of-conciousness style, taking cues from heroes like Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook. Although there were many TV shows at the time that were tending towards the absurd, there weren't any that didn't have punch lines at the end of skits, and this caused some apparent discombobulation with audiences at first. Thankfully, however, Python remained popular enough to remain on the BBC for another 5 seasons and in American hearts for over twenty years.

Do yourself a favor. Even if you have seen all the Monty Python films, even if you have heard some of their records....buy this or another VHS or DVD collection of the best showcase of their patchwork, tangential comedy---Monty Python's Flying Circus.

4 out of 5 stars Not as concise as the movies, but still just plain awesome.......2006-03-17

I have seen a lot of the Monty Python movies, and until now, I didn't really put two and two together that all of the miscellaneous sketches were part of a TV show. A TV show that gave them the chance to do the movies. I got these with expectations that they would be like the movies. They are much more random and not a "cult classic" as I would have figured except for certain sketches that most people know. But I still loved watching these and getting a sense where they started and where a lot of sketch comedy got their ideas today. If you are a die hard fan I would get these, I probably won't use my own money to get the rest, but I would love to get them as gifts, and I will probably be the oddball here. Everyone I know would buy the whole set outright.

5 out of 5 stars And Now For Something Completely Different.......2006-02-17

*Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more!*

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