OT - The Return of Monty Python TONIGHT

[TheEqualizer]

Its Monty Python's 40th Anniversary

From Press Release

QUOTE

By visiting IFC.com or PythOnline.com Thursday, October 15 at approximately 9:00 PM EST, audiences across the U.S. can watch the historic event reuniting all five surviving members of the Monty Python team -- John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin -- as they take to the stage for a Q&A discussion with the audience. IFC will produce the live stream in conjunction with UStream, the leading internet broadcasting platform.

This event marks the first time The Pythons have been together in this manner in more than ten years. In true Python fashion, the troupe will somehow appear in its complete six-member form for their 40th reunion, although Python member Graham Chapman died in 1989. The Pythons will also accept a Special Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) honoring their outstanding contribution to film and television.

END QUOTE

They were on Jimmy Fallon last night, which I've Tivo'ed but have not yet watched.

Starting Sunday at 9 pm on IFC, there will be a six hour documentary called "Monty Python: Almost the Truth." It runs in installments until Friday.

[Throb]

Thanks for posting. I'll be in the car on the way home when it is six West Coast but I am sure there will be ways to see it again on the web.


Can't wait for the documentry, I love the full title:

Monty Python: Almost The Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)

[Krokodyle]

I watched this a couple weeks ago (gotta love the internet) and it was pretty decent, even to someone who's cynical (as I am) about the many, MANY Monty Python specials and tributes and how they tend to re-hash the same stuff over and over...this did a respectable job, but I won't give away any spoilers.

[animal]

Is this the right thread for an argument?

No it isn't

Yes it is

No it isn't

Yes it is

[sect404]

Watching the best skits of Eric Idle right now on PBS.

[TheEqualizer]

Wow. Their apparence on Fallon was AWFUL. We're talking Sacred Love awful.

[Throb]

Bummer.
I will trust you EQ and not try and find a clip on the Internet. I don’t want to see them unfunny.

Did you see the IFC online?

[moonstone]

So how did Graham Chapman appear?
Was he a cardboard cut out or maybe a hologram like Richard Burton in The War of the Worlds stage show?

Wish I'd seen it. I loved Monty Python, mostly 'cos it was one of those programmes that our Dad wouldn't let us watch when we were kids

[TheEqualizer]

For those who did not see it live:

http://www.ifc.com/python-live/

FAR superior to the egg they laid on Jimmy Fallon.

[moonstone]

[quote="TheEqualizer"]For those who did not see it live:

http://www.ifc.com/python-live/

FAR superior to the egg they laid on Jimmy Fallon.[/quote]


Thank you very much.

[Moeskido]

These very smart gentlemen are responsible for a great deal of what we now consider standard satirical style. I celebrate their continued success as new fans discover their work.

The Python brand of intellectual ridicule still works, and it's still relevant. Swap out topical names of politicians and pop stars. In some aspects, we've gone straight back to the stuffy authoritarianism they poked at. If you disagree, try asking your employer's Human Resources department for help with almost anything.

I adore every one of these guys. Some of them continued to produce individual stuff that deserves attention as well.

[TheEqualizer]

Reviews of the IFC series:

Entertainment Weekly gives it an “A” and says:

Six hours of silly bliss … They say analyzing comedy kills it, but in this case, it's one revelation after another. Add rare footage of their early years, some non-Python TV appearances, tense on-set footage filmed during the making of their movies, and clips of their greatest hits, and you've got Monty nirvana. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… excellent … beats any Python documentary yet made for comprehensiveness and depth. …

The Chicago Tribune says:

… excellent … The Pythons are still in fine comedic form, and their self-deprecating anecdotes are even more fun than their still-palpable delight in goading each other …

The Washington Post says:

… Six hours is deliriously too much to look at, or look away from … Fans will bathe happily in IFC's documentary series … And as for non-fans? Well, they were always a dour lot, weren't they? …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… comedy catnip … History. Hysterics. Silly walks. All bundled into an everything-you-wanted-to-know-or-rediscover chronicle of this legendary British comedy troupe … No soaring introductory pronouncements of what Python accomplished and represents. That will be spelled out, step by step, in the fullness of six hours, as interviews, film and audio clips decipher how Monty Python became the most groundbreaking, transforming wellspring of comedy in the history of the world (OK, maybe a wee exaggeration). …

The Newark Star Ledger says:

… for every boy (and, in rarer cases, girl) who, like Fallon, ever tried to do a silly walk, or entered rooms with the taunt, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!," or simply wanted to know how the most legendary sketch troupe of all time came up with their signature bits and rewrote the rules of comedy in the process. …

Variety says:

Exhaustively splayed across six wonderfully messy parts … There's some fat here, to be sure, but producers Bill Jones and Ben Timlett have assembled so much juicy stuff as to make this destined DVD release indispensable for Pythons fans and a more-than-just-nostalgic introduction for anyone else. …

[Throb]

Bill Jones is Terry Jones' son.
So the son does a documentry on the Dad's group.
What a great idea.