57th anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus
The first episode of seminal comedy series MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS (subtitled 'Whither Canada?') was broadcast just before 11pm 57yrs ago today.
Zvyozdochka 🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇬🇱12My best friend's subversive older brother introduced us both to Monty Python and our parents were FURIOUS. The joy remains to this day.
Avadi 🌀(DebraLittle)6We went to a friend’s house at lunch break back in the mid 70s when I was a teenager. His mother worked so the house was empty. We’d watch python and then back to school for math or history. It was foundational for the development of my twisted sense of humour.
No Good At This5And it didn’t reach Canadian television until 1971 🙄
Jay Whozblue5Great comedy. Seen them all.
Peasant with questions4The twisted comedy of my youth. Saturday nights got even better when I discovered pot.
Smiling Chauffeur 🇨🇦⚛️4Did not know one of the names proposed for "Monty Python's Flying Circus was "Whither Canada" or that the title of the first episode of MPFC was called "Whither Canada".
5 October 1969. Monty Python’s Flying Circus was 1st broadcast on BBC1 at 11 PM. The comedy group were left to right: Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin. There were 45 episodes from 1969 to 1974 and 2 episodes for German TV.
Duncan Weldon116If the Great War was long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror, then MPFC is long periods of tedium punctuated by moments of genius.
Margaret Morgan 🇪🇺🇳🇱🇦🇺11When people still smoked pipes unironically.
morrismummer9I believe Python is something you definitely 'get', or definitely don't. And it's aged better than might be expected. Mostly good, with intervals of genius and periods of what were they even thinking.
Craig Winstanley3Saw someone else asking what tv show meant most to you as a youngster. As a 10-16 year old, probably this (along with the records & later the films). I can’t possibly have seen the first series when it was first broadcast. I was only 8… Repeats, I guess (& the records/books).
MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS debuted on the BBC #OTD in 1969. “Literally nothing was funny," TV GUIDE’s Cleveland Amory wrote when it aired on PBS in 1975. "And the less funny something was—such as a Spanish Inquisition sketch with three cardinals—the more you saw of it." #TVSky #ClassicTV
YesBiscuit7Discovering Monty Python on PBS changed my life. As a kid who felt alone and misunderstood with no hope of fitting in anywhere, ever, Monty Python made me aware that not only did I have people in the world but we were all laughing and being absurd - a far cry from the world as I knew it.
witty-or-not.bsky.social3Well then, Cleveland Amory, I guess Monty Python won't be around long.
Grumpy Old Manchild2It seems appropriate that the Pythons got the last laugh.
Frank Pozen Toronto, Canada2I still watch Monty Python on @plutotvca.bsky.social
Dennis Hartley1Clearly, Mr. Amory wasn't down with Dada.
Allan "Pealed Grapes" Mott1I remember taking out an Amory collection from the humour section of the library when I was a kid. This explains why it didn't make sense to me that it was in that section.
Emily J. Edwards26a wonderful day to say that for an embarrassingly long time i thought michael palin and michael pollan were the same person and was really tickled by one of the best pythons being super into good nutrition
Feral T. Robot, Oil Swamp Utility Bot #76292TIL Cleveland Amory was supposed to be funny.
#IsmuasMonthOfMusic 🎼 #MusicChallenge 🎶 Day 5️⃣: A song that makes you laugh. 🗣️ Monty Python 🔊 Sit On My Face
TNHound✌️🌊🏝🍊🏈🏀⚾️🥎12#IsmuasMonthOfMusic 🎼 #MusicChallenge 🎶 Day 5️⃣: A song that makes you laugh. My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink And I Don't Live Jesus - Jimmy Buffett youtube.com/watch?v=FNRp...
Timothy Taubes10#IsmuasMonthOfMusic 🎼 #MusicChallenge 🎶 Day 5️⃣: A song that makes you laugh. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRMW...
Roz.A 10#IsmuasMonthOfMusic 🎼 #MusicChallenge 🎶 Day 4️⃣: A song you wish you could hear for the first time again. One of my favorite songs ever, since I was 12 years old. youtu.be/lbtH4YO9ntc?...
There’s loads of television anniversaries today. 1969 - first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus 1970 - first episode of The Magic Roundabout But most importantly, on this date in 1984, the first episode of The Family News was shown.
Nostalgic Things that go bump in the night 17Family-ness, even. Fuck you, autocorrect
Nostalgic Things that go bump in the night 11And a year after this triumph, ITV fought back with the first ever edition of Saint & Greavsie
Joe Scaramangaaaarrrggghhh!!!5I still remember the absolute joy of seeing the episode of The Family Ness that features the full version of theme tune.
Kuji1You can knock it, you can rock it, you can go to Timbuctoo, but you'll never find an nessie in the zoo.
Robot1It's good that they did news for the whole family, but what's the screenshot from?
Eleanor G1Thank you for that earworm 😱😁
On this date in 1969, the British television series "Monty Python’s Flying Circus" debuted on the BBC and proved to be a watershed for TV comedy around the world.
Steve Danger Moore2When most people say they like British comedy, they mean Monty Python. The majority who say that have probably never heard of The Goodies or Frye and Laurie, they are The Beatles of British comedy.
Steve Danger Moore1Famously bug eyed comedy writer and actor, Marty Feldman, got his start writing with John Cleese, but found an outlet with Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder. They worked together on Young Frankenstein and Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother as well as other projects, but reunited on the 1983film Yellowbeard.
OTD 1969: Monty Python’s Flying Circus Some of it was very funny and it’s all now an interesting historical artefact, but I don’t imagine anyone from there will be trying too hard to still be relevant— Oh good LORD [Shuts Internets]
But Andrew Hickey Died Ten Years Ago This Very Night21Also OTD seven years earlier, the Beatles' first single, the Beach Boys' first UK single, and the first Bond film, thus starting the sixties, which lasted seven years.
Godspeed You! BOOsky Emperor2Michael Palin is the Python we truly didn't deserve
We can take the 70s as starting either in July 1969 with "Space Oddity" or go for the neat Monty Python date. Handily the Beatles split in September 69, between the two.
Bill Zuka (Debuting This Week)2And in typical fashion, the 70s starts a few years later in the states
B J O'Shea2Not sure if as important, but The War Games (starring Patrick Troughton as Dr Who) also wrapped up in June, perhaps another psychic sign that the decade was coming to an end. Cream also released their final album "Goodbye" in February. Maybe minor details, but something was in the water that year
For the 60s, Larkin liked 1963, but he had personal reasons.