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None of those were really Monty Python.
THIS is Monty Python (and also Terry Jones' most frequent recurring role.) This show used to run on PBS and has been shown on regular TV millions of times, so hopefully DAZ won't zap it
Somewhere in Heaven, a naked man is playing the piano.
You know the saddest thing about Monty Python? The BBC used to care so little about their shows that they would wipe the original videotapes to reuse them and Monty Python's Flying Circus was one of the shows nearly erased from existence. Fortuantely, Terry Gilliam, the one American Python, found out about that when the first batch was about to be destroyed, so he scrounged up the money to buy replacent tapes himself (which were a couple of hundred each) and saved the originals. If he hadn't found out in time and done that, there would have been no masters to show on PBS, and almost certainly none of the later Python projects like Life of Brian or so on. Definitely one of the all time great "last minute saves."
edit note - I just remembered that Holy Grail was actually filmed between two of the series seasons, so it would have still existed, but without the TV series, it peobably wouldn't have even made it to the states..
RIP Terry Jones, Purveyor of spam, Sir Bedevere, director of Life of Brian, and Mr. Creosote. He will be missed.
Thats crazy! Id never heard that before.
Always hated spam, but brought up on Monty Python. Perhaps with eggs and beans. Anyone for tennis?
...nah ate too much, and that last crate of brown ale after that double helping of Pate with the eggs on top and 6 bottles of Chateau Latour 45 was just too much, feel like I'm about to burst.
Sad news.... RIP Terry :(
That's also what happened to the older series of Doctor Who (without the rescue), which is why some have had to be recovered from (sometmes poor) copies (or reconstructed)
Oh, yes it is. Everybiody sing...
Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!
Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam
Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!
Spam spam spam spam!
A sad day indeed. I owe my very warped sense of humor to watching Monte Python Sunday nights on PBS in the 70's
Rest in peace Terry
Forget that. The original tapes of the moon landing were erased, but at least there were a lot of copies made. There's even one entire US TV channel whose entire output has been lost. Old film and video storage methods required tons of space and special care, the raw media was extremely expensive, and prior to the 1970s, the introduction of home video, and better archiving techniques, the cost of maintaining the masters for a lot of older shows was seen as more expensive than the value they had for syndication. In that environment all it takes is one person in a cost saving mood, or an accident like a fire, and millions of dollars worth of productions can get destroyed in a heartbeat. That's why less that 25% of the films from the silent era still survive, and the survival rate for older TV shows that weren't shot on film isn't much better... but even with all that in mind, the BBC's record is especially bad, as several of those Who episodes managed to disappear even after the show was in active syndication in multiple countries.
and then Universal Studios storage burnt down
I think he also played the nude pianist (hope I spelled that correctly!)
Most of the time (see image posted above). For the NP's first appearance, the part was actually played by Terry Gilliam, but thereafter Jones was the one to doff trou and tinkle on the ivories.
And MGM's burnt down and a bunchof others burnt down. Before the development of modern safety stocks, old film was based on silver nitrate, which has the unfortunate habit of becoming highly explosive as it ages.
Yup, that is also why there was only ONE (mostly) complete copy of the original cut of Fritz Lang's Metropolis... and even THAT one got discovered by the movie restoration team only after the 16mm (I tihnk it was) silver nitrate copy had been recopied onto 8mm film (or was it 32mm to 16mm? I forget) the wrong way and without ANY care taken before the copy to remove dust and grime and scratches off the older copy of the film, and with one edge of the picture lopped off because they copied it as if it was a sound film insterad of a silent one, in which the actual frame size is different in order to accomodate the audio part of the filmstrip. Some film collector had the silver nitrate copy up to some time in the 70s, but when his collection was donated off to some museum or something of the sort, they didn't have the correct knowledge, budget, or fascilities to properly and safely store silver nitrate film... so they picked some less-than-knowlegable film copier outfit who clearly did NOT know what in the sphincter of... heck they were doing. 0o
...yeah I remember episodes of programmes like the Ernie Kovack's show that have been lost to time. His late widow Edie Adams managed to save what she could. but it is only a portion of his genius work. Videotape was still a rather "new" technology in the late 1950s - early 1960s.
Videotape really wasn't being used much at all until the 60s.... the first recorders weren't even sold until 1956 and those were so expenisve that only the networks and a few major stations could afford them. Prior to that the only way to save a show was to eitehr shoot it entirely on film like a feature film, or to save a live perfoprmance for re-broadcast with a kinoscope.... which was literally a film camerea taking pictures of a video monitor. Ironically, this means that shows like I love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver look great in HD since they were shot on high-rez 35mm or 16m film, while later TV series like All In The Family, shot on 1" video can only be converted to a quasi-fake HD via a lot of artifical conversions,
I thought some of the Monty Python films weren't exactly in good taste. But my condolences all the same...
...the episodes of the Kovacs show I saw were on ABC in the early 1960s. which all were done on videotape. They were aired at 9:30 PM in Milwaukee just before the late night local news.
...but I digress, this thread is for homage to another comedic wizard, Terry Jones.
...well, when The Meaning of LIfe was released, the Pythons confessed their aim was to offend "absolutely everyone", adding "It is guaranteed to offend".
Everyone?
Including themselves?
..hmm not sure, I'll have to consult the cat I put in the box a while back.
I read somewhere that the international distribution of Doctor Who was what saved some of the epiosdes. Apparently the deal was often that the BBC would send a video tape but it wasn't worth the postage to send it back so the customer agreed to erase the tape when they'd done their licenced broadcasts. Some of those tapes didn't get erased, and the BBC asked anyone who had one to please send it back, and we won't complain about you not following the terms of the contract.
It's kind of funny how Monty Python's offensiveness has almost come full circle. I read an article (from some online mag, probably not worth finding and linking), about how their work is still highly insensitive in *Current Year* but for reasons they never realised when they made it. When it was new it was offensive because it took aim at the establishment, which at the time wasn't used to be poked at yet. Then there was a periode where people got more and more chill, and the bite wasn't as bad as it had once been. But now that we're modern and enlightened, we know whats offensive and not in a way those old time people never had the insight to understand. Bottom line: MP's work was made for a different world and not all of it is suitable for modern audiences, the author claimed.
WM, trying not to get in hot water, just parroting (no pun intended, as she is Norwegian and potentially offended) something she read somewhere.
A sad day. One of my favorite comedians. RIP Mr. Jones.
Will have Spam for breakfast, in his honor.
Wafer thin Mint? it's wafer thin!
I think he used to "look on the bright side of life". Thanks for bringing more joy into life.