Customer Reviews

The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus 16-Ton Megaset (16 Discs)

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Six comic delights -- five British guys, and one American. Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.

These six guys created "Monty Python's Flying Circus," a groundbreaking comedy series made of skits. They were sometimes gross, naughty, and they were always strange. And their bizarre humour has influenced everything from "Saturday Night Live" to Jasper Fforde.

For dozens of episodes, these guys served up skits on every insane subject you can think of: defense against fresh fruit, the Ministry of Funny Walks, sitcoms based on the family life of Attila the Hun, lupin bandit Dennis Moore, obscene children's books, semaphores, racing twits, village idiots, goats, psychotic barbers, Vikings, "ALBATROSS!", killer sheep, lobotomies, pantomime horses, Tudor pornography, Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things, the dirty vicar, and giant alien blancmanges who are turning people into Scotsmen.

Certain sketches have reached the point of immortality, especially John Cleese's "dead parrot" sketch, in which he plays an increasingly peeved guy who is trying to return a parrot that was "nailed to its perch." Also Eric Idle playing the obnoxious guy who constantly thinks of sex, and refers to it as "wink wink, nudge nudge... say no MORE!" And of course, THE SPANISH INQUISTION, whose chief weapons are fear, surprise...

There are also some running jokes, like the pantomime Princess Margaret, and a mysterious knight who walks through hitting people with a dead chicken. And of course, Terry Gilliam's cartoons interspersing the skits -- goofy, surreal, sort of like Saturday morning cartoons if Dali were doing the animating.

Okay, not every skit is funny -- the "Mouse Problem" sketch takes a great idea and stretches it thin. But more often than not, they ARE quite funny. They also mock just about anything, from government officials to art to censorship to the military ("It's DANGEROUS, sir!").

There are also a pair of live discs, in which the guys also do their best little skits and songs onstage, and they're almost as funny onstage as they are on a soundstage. They make a nice bonus for Python fans, and are fun viewing after you've seen all fourteen discs of the TV show.

And all of this by men who often dress up as the world's most unattractive girls, with only a tiny budget and minimal cast. The 70s production values are omnipresent, and they are decidedly unpolitically correct. But in a weird way, these only make it even funnier than it would have been otherwise -- the writing and acting are pure, raw, unrefined comedy.

Probably the most memorable actors here are Cleese and Idle. Cleese does his psychotic shrieks better than anyone, as well as having that rubbery lanky body that twists itself into Silly Walks. And Idle not only has amazing comic timing, but he can adjust his voice and body language to... anything, from domestic goddesses to sleazy TV hosts. But the other actors are quite good too, especially Michael Palin, especially when he's playing someone timid or crazy.

This classic comedy series not only became a pop culture staple, but it's still fresh and funny more than thirty years after it was made. The full series is definitely a must-have.

And now for something completely different...

Take the best of material and it can still be wrecked by the incompetence of those charged with the license to put it on DVD.

Why is it that there needs to be DVD releases that just do not measure up to the original material?

Given that there are edits that remove or censor the content of the original series and thus make it incomplete - why would anyone spend the kind of money they are asking for on this pile of discs?

If I or anyone is expected to plunk down that level of cash, I would expect the DVD, as one should from any DVD release, that it be COMPLETE, it must include every second of every sketch as they aired in the tv series. If my ancient VHS recordings of the show provide a more complete library of the sketches than the DVD's then we have a failed series. Others have already pointed out some of the failures.

To anyone who wants a definitive DVD collection of the entire Monty Python's Flying Circus, I recommend NOT buying this but waiting, maybe another 5 or 10 years. Maybe, if the BBC releases their own version , they will get it right and not bungle the job like A&E has done.

SHAME ON YOU, A&E!

My only criticism is the one edit that I noticed from the original BBC re-masters.

Certain words are silenced from the "Summarize Proust" competition with respect to the contestant's hobbies. real fans will know . everyone else may simply wonder why there is a delay in laughter from the audience. This is not the fault of the presenter A&E, but rather the that of the BBC who were ahead of their time in the 60's, but who got nervous later.

One might think this decision should have been reversed for the private home use of the box set.

for the record the man's hobbies include "strangling animals, golf and masturbation"

A&E made more than their share of sloppy and easily preventable mistakes when mastering this collection. Aside from the unwanted edits that were mentioned by a previous reviewer, I have found this set to have a relatively alarming (if not totally pervasive) quantity of momentary digital glitches, particularly in the audio. These are NOT problems with the source tapes, as can be verified by watching earlier releases of the same episodes on VHS or even on PBS. Since my career is in digital audio, I can tell that they were "generated" during the process of transferring to the digital medium.

A&E didn't bother to restore any of these episodes, and I can't blame them, but I do have to object to the fact that they apparently just threw these onto DVD so hastily without pre-screening the results of the conversion process. One almost suspects that this conversion process was performed largely unattended.

In addition, there are other confusing and ridiculous errata-- such as the episode "Intermission" showing up as "It's the Arts" when the DVD is stuck in the deck, even though the back of the case is labeled correctly.

Dear Sirs: I also feel I should complain about the patronizing and extraordinarily annoying menu titles ("Main Bloody Menu," etc.) and, along similar lines, the totally worthless "extras."

I'm glad these are out on DVD, and I'm glad to have the "entire" set at my digital disposal after wearing out my ten-year-old VHS tapes... but I can't help but suspect that A&E or the Pythons themselves are hoping to cash in on this series yet one more time at some later date, when they do a full restoration and fix their first set of grievous errors. Call me picky, but when I plop down close to 2 bills for a set of "historically significant" DVDs, I expect perfection... especially when this set was the only reason I purchased a DVD player in the first place.

Yours truly, Sgt. R.B. Knickers (Mrs.) (Deceased)

Despite A & E's claim to the contrary ["Now, every single moment of the legendary Flying Circus is together in this comprehensive DVD set. From the original "It's..." to "Dead Parrot" to the "Olympic Hide and Seek Final" every single sketch, every silly song, every Monty moment from the legendary TV show is preserved here in better-than-original form, digitally remastered and augmented with extras like Monty Karaoke, Gillianimations art gallery, rare skits from the "Fliegender Zirkus" (it's German, you work out the translation) and much, much more." -- from their web site], THIS SET IS NOT COMPLETE.

I repeat: Despite A & E's claim to the contrary, THIS SET IS NOT COMPLETE. To give you an example, episode # 38 is supposed to begin with a "Party Political Broadcast", but begins with the opening credits and goes immediately into "A Book at Bedtime", which is the second skit. In other words, the beginning of the show is simply chopped off. You can see what the beginning is supposed to be from the list at A & E's own site by looking at their list of the sketches, or in the second volume of THE COMPLETE MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS ALL THE WORDS (a book available from Amazon, so you can check this for yourself).

Additionally, A & E appears to have used a version in which the picture frames are all slightly cropped at the top, bottom, and sides. This appears to be the case in every frame in every episode, from beginning to end. For most skits, this is not a serious problem, but it shows extreme carelessness by A & E.

It is ridiculous to think of this set as being anything close to being a "definitive" collection.

Of course, if this were complete, it would be 5 stars (it would also be nice if they had restored the video, but that is a relatively small matter). Complain to A & E, and wait for them to come out with complete episodes.

Please buy this for your own culture. Impress your friends buy learning by heart sketches of those ground breaking intellectually funny lads.

I have wanted to aquire some of the Monty Python shows for a while.This set is the perfect answer,and a great gift idea for anyPython fan.Plus the price,throu Amazon,makes a double bonus

If you were at university back in the seventies you heard people reciting various lines from this show all the time. Great Stuff. Nice to have the whole run in one package at a new lower price. Nostalgia and still funny...very funny.

If, like me, you consider Monty Python to be the best tv show of all time, then obviously you'll consider this set the best thing ever. Comes with Monty Python Live, which is only really worthwhile for Hollywood Bowl.

This product was as fun as a Volvo full of Elderberries!
Seriously though, if you are a Monty Python fan, you have to own this. Sure, we all know the famous skits, but what about the ones that didn't become memes? Own them all!