Forebears a must for Python fans
Forebears a must for Python fans
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Fri, Jul. 29, 2005
Some like to imagine that Monty Python's Flying Circus emerged, Hydra-like, and comically raging against the empire.
In fact, there were a number of antecedents for one of the three great comedy troupes of the era - the others being the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players of "Saturday Night Live" and the Canadian company of Second City.
This can now be verified with the stateside DVD release of "At Last: The 1948 Show", broadcast on the BBC in 1967, and the following year's "Do Not Adjust Your Set", Tango, $29.98).
The former featured a pre-Python Graham Chapman and John Cleese in slightly surreal and absurd skits influenced by British radio's "The Goon Show" (with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers) and "A Hard Day's Night's" rendition of The Beatles as a rock 'n' roll Marx Brothers. Featured performers also included comedy writer Marty Feldman finally getting his bug-eyed bit on camera.
The follow-up was more like a warm-up for Python, ostensibly a children's show in which Cleese was joined by Eric Idle, who guested on "1948," Terry Jones and Michael Palin, in skits that were even more satirical and topical than the "1948" material. Watch for musical interludes from the Bonzo Dog Band, a sort of vaudeville-meets-dada review.
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