Monty Python's Flying Circus British TV Show

Monty Python’s Flying CircusIt’s…still one of the funniest and most influential shows on television (albeit in reruns). Monty Python’s Flying Circus was the disturbed and delirious creation of its troupe of actors – John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, and Terry Jones. It also featured now-director and Oscar-nominated screenwriter, Terry Gilliam (Time Bandits, Brazil, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas), who not only appeared in various sketches but also did all of the now-iconic animations for the show.  ‘Flying Circus was a groundbreaking sketch comedy that aired on BBC1between 1969 and 1974, melding original characters and Gilliam’s cartoons in an irreverent, often surreal style. Its classic sketches are still referenced and quoted today. These included the dead parrot sketch, “Ministry of Silly Walks”, the “Lumberjack Song”, “The Spanish Inquisition”, and the “Nudge Nudge” sketch. The show was nominated for multiple BAFTA TV awards, and took home Best Light Entertainment Programme in 1973 and a special award for Terry Gilliam’s animations in 1970. The success of the show ballooned and spawned a live theater tour, including a famous recorded show at the Hollywood Bowl, books, radio shows, and five films. The movies have become classics in their own right, particularly 1975’s Monty Python And The Holy Grail, which is considered one of the best comedies put to film. Their other films were the biblically-set Life Of Brian (1978), And Now For Something Completely Different, Live At The Hollywood Bowl (1982), and The Meaning Of Life (1983). It also inspired the recent musical, Spamalot. Each of the show’s stars went on to individual success, largely on TV and film and in print. Cleese starred in the cult classic TV comedy, Fawlty Towers in the mid ‘70s and wrote and starred in the popular 1988 film, A Fish Called Wanda, co-starring Palin, Kevin Kline, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Recent television appearances included a guest spot on Will & Grace as one of Karen’s husbands. In addition to scratching his author’s itch with his novels and children’s books, Palin has been a successful travel guru, hosting multiple series and releasing many books about his adventures. Idle has been in many TV shows and films, recently providing the voice of Merlin in Shrek The Third. He also helped create the Beatles parody group, The Rutles. Jones has authored fiction and non-fiction books, penned screenplays, and written editorials for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Observer. Chapman died in 1989 at the age of 48 from a rare spine cancer. Heath Ledger was working on the Gilliam-directed Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus at the time of his death in January 2008.

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