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Well A&E didn't fix Monty Python" Book at Bedtime edit,"they did list it right in their Booklet

post #1 of 12
11/8/09 at 10:54am
Thread Starter 
When I got the Latest(and I am Sure not the Last) Python Box set,I was happy to see that they included a
Booklet with some information about each show,It even has the last two Fake trailors listed at the end of
the Book at Bedtime ep.But thats just in the booklet!!! The show is still edited,How could they keep making
this mistake,since this is the 3rd(or fourth)time around for this stuff?? Glad I still have the paramount tape.
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post #2 of 12
11/8/09 at 11:39am
Because they've used the *exact same* masters for every DVD release!  They know die hard pythonites will purchase anything no matter the expense or redundancy!

I keep waiting for them to truly go back to the original masters (or at least the tapes that were used for the VHS releases) and give us a full, unedited, as originally aired, "Monty Python Deluxe Unedited Fully Restored Ridiculously Overpriced Megaset with Cutting Room Sweepings" set.  This one would have *everything*... all the documentaries from various US sets, all the films from the group as well as individual members, the "Personal Best" sets (gotta inflate the price somehow while providing little value, eh?), as well as the series.
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post #3 of 12
11/8/09 at 2:15pm
Thread Starter 
I Take ir the Blue Ray is next
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post #4 of 12
11/8/09 at 6:11pm


Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Neski View Post

I Take ir the Blue Ray is next

The whole show, being shot in standard definition PAL, could fit on 1 Blu-Ray. I don't know if they could present the original 720x576 resolution on an NTSC BD disc.

As for restoration, the BBC restored "Fawlty Towers," but there were only 12 episodes and the restoration is funded the same way everything of theirs is funded: the TV license in the UK. Python (Monty) Pictures has to rely on crummy old voluntary purchases of the material they own. But I would kill to see something like this for Python.

I have heard that three episodes on iTunes that were cut on DVD are the uncut versions there. However, as for the series being totally uncut, Andy McKinney has stated that it is not possible, because there is supposedly one sketch that only exists from an off-air recording of a PBS broadcast with a pledge week phone number on the bottom, and one sketch that had a line from a song in "West Side Story" that cannot be cleared no matter what. And the archival situation on everything else is, well, "interesting." Recently Terry Jones claimed that this show might have been one of many victims of BBC's wiping policy had Terry Gilliam not intervened:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/21/monty.python.40/index.html

We'll definitely get the three remaining movies eventually. I'd settle for fully uncut, restored DVDs but would be interesting to see how this or other SD videotape material is handled in Blu-Ray.
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post #5 of 12
11/9/09 at 7:13am


Quote:
Originally Posted by MatthewA View Post


As for restoration, the BBC restored "Fawlty Towers," but there were only 12 episodes and the restoration is funded the same way everything of theirs is funded: the TV license in the UK.

Not true. The TV licence is used solely and specifically for funding broadcast television and radio, and the BBC's web presence (to the chagrin of competing commercial websites). Any restorations for DVD retail are funded from the budgets of the separate commercial company used to release and market them - its budgets coming from the profits of those sales.
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post #6 of 12
11/11/09 at 6:58am


Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonathan Kaye View Post




Not true. The TV licence is used solely and specifically for funding broadcast television and radio, and the BBC's web presence (to the chagrin of competing commercial websites). Any restorations for DVD retail are funded from the budgets of the separate commercial company used to release and market them - its budgets coming from the profits of those sales.

Thanks for correcting me. I was unaware of that set up.
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post #7 of 12
11/11/09 at 3:26pm


Quote:
Originally Posted by MatthewA View Post



I have heard that three episodes on iTunes that were cut on DVD are the uncut versions there. However, as for the series being totally uncut, Andy McKinney has stated that it is not possible, because there is supposedly one sketch that only exists from an off-air recording of a PBS broadcast with a pledge week phone number on the bottom, and one sketch that had a line from a song in "West Side Story" that cannot be cleared no matter what.
 

Okay, hold on a minute here...

I apologize for being late to the table here, but can someone fill me in on which sketch you're referring to here? PBS ran the shows many times -- from 1974 to 1980 (as I recall), then again starting in 1983 to ? -- I have most on tape somewhere from a 1998 marathon on our local PBS station. I believe somewhere in between, the show changed US distributors and was actually withdrawn (I think during the 1980-1983 period) -- if by chance the episode in question is one I have from 1998, would the missing part be in there? (It's not Graham Chapman saying the "M" word, is it?)

Whatever it is -- there is only ONE home recording of it "in existence?" You've piqued my curiosity...

I have the "16 ton megaset" which I picked up at Sam's Club maybe 4 or 5 years ago...so then this new edition uses the same masters, if I understand correctly.
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post #8 of 12
11/11/09 at 5:11pm
The full version of the "All-England Summarize Proust Competition" presumably still exists in the masters and was on the Paramount VHS version, all of which were taken from the 1980s era Devilier Donegan Enterprises copies. In those, Graham Chapman DOES state what he likes to do besides strangling animals and golf. It's not the one that was missing.

Here's what I found, and the sketch in question was "Choreographed Party Political Broadcast" from Series 3, episode 12:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/279611/monty-python-s-flying-circus-collector-s-edition

Here's what I could find from IMDb (but as is to be expected, I can't vouch for its accuracy)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063929/alternateversions
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post #9 of 12
11/14/09 at 11:53am
Thread Starter 
 "and one sketch that had a line from a song in "West Side Story" that cannot be cleared no matter "

which sketch is this?
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post #10 of 12
11/14/09 at 2:42pm


Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Neski View Post

 "and one sketch that had a line from a song in "West Side Story" that cannot be cleared no matter "

which sketch is this?
The Bus Conductor sketch, from Ep. 30

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post #11 of 12
11/14/09 at 7:24pm
Matthew, what exactly was spoken from that "West Side Story" song, and has it been cleared on other TV Shows before? Does the sketch featuring that spoken verse circulate among collectors?

Finally, who/why is holding that song up?
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post #12 of 12
11/15/09 at 5:02am
 The song is "Tonight", which has been cleared on several other TV shows, was sung in part by Graham Chapman in that sketch as "Tonight, tonight, I'm getting pissed tonight", that apparently was cleared by Paramount:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/278308/complete-monty-python-s-flying-circus-collector-s-edition
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