Monty Python's Flying Circus: Complete Series Blu US Release (1 Viewer)

[darkrock17]

I saw a few months go on bluray.com that the series was going to be getting a North American release from Universal of all companies.

Since then I have not seen any press releases anywhere that says this is an official release or not. It's street date is set for Nov. 24.

Does anyone know if this release will a complete duplicate of the UK release from last year?

Here is what the cover art might look like.

 

[moviebuff75]

It will be a disc duplicate, but won't contain the booklets for each season, and none of the packaging extras.

 

[darkrock17]

It will be a disc duplicate, but won't contain the booklets for each season, and none of the packaging extras.

Good to know, but Why didn't Universal post an official press release though? If I was them I would want the whole world to know we have the rights the iconic series now.

 

[Brian Himes]

My set arrived on Wednesday and I've been going through it. So far, these episodes look better than I've ever seen them look. Lots of original stuff restored. Unfortunately, there are still 3 edits to the series (that I've been able to confirm).

Series 1, Episode 2 (Sex & Violence) is missing David Frost's Production Company telephone number. I'm not 100% sure where this happened. I've read two different accounts of this. The first one says that Cleese says the number as belonging to the mouse man (who provided the film of the mouse party). The second account says the number appeared at the end of the sketch for people who had the same problem and wanted help. Either way, the reference to the phone number is not there.

Series 2, Episode 11 (How Not To Be Seen) is missing a line in the Conquistador Coffee Campaign sketch. John Cleese's line 'finally these tactless references to leprosy and terminal cancer' just after Eric Idle's 'soft sell' line is missing. However, an extended cut of the sketch in the special features has the line from a low quality recording. This leads me to believe that a good master copy of the unedited sketch was unable to be located.

Series 3, Episode 4 (Blood, Devastation, Death, War, and Horror) is missing a line in the Bus Conductor sketch. Graham Chapman sings 'Tonight. Tonight. I'm getting pissed, tonight' is missing. Again, in the special features, the missing line is shown from a low quality recording. So, I believe that this was not an edit due to music licensing, but once again due to not being able to locate a decent source for the unedited version of the sketch.

It appears that all of the other edits that have been talked about over the years (Satan animation, Dad's Doctors, Dad's Pooves and Other Interesting Stories sketch, Summarize Proust Competition sketch, Party Political Broadcast (Choreographed) sketch, The Undertaker sketch, Take Your Pick (Spot The Braincell) sketch, The Travel Agent sketch, The Prince and the Black Spot animation, and the Tree animation from The Nude Organist (Series 3, Episode 9) have all been restored.

So, it looks like this is the most complete that this series has ever been outside of the original broadcasts.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

My set arrived on Wednesday and I've been going through it. So far, these episodes look better than I've ever seen them look. Lots of original stuff restored. Unfortunately, there are still 3 edits to the series (that I've been able to confirm).

Series 1, Episode 2 (Sex & Violence) is missing David Frost's Production Company telephone number. I'm not 100% sure where this happened. I've read two different accounts of this. The first one says that Cleese says the number as belonging to the mouse man (who provided the film of the mouse party). The second account says the number appeared at the end of the sketch for people who had the same problem and wanted help. Either way, the reference to the phone number is not there.

Series 2, Episode 11 (How Not To Be Seen) is missing a line in the Conquistador Coffee Campaign sketch. John Cleese's line 'finally these tactless references to leprosy and terminal cancer' just after Eric Idle's 'soft sell' line is missing. However, an extended cut of the sketch in the special features has the line from a low quality recording. This leads me to believe that a good master copy of the unedited sketch was unable to be located.

Series 3, Episode 4 (Blood, Devastation, Death, War, and Horror) is missing a line in the Bus Conductor sketch. Graham Chapman sings 'Tonight. Tonight. I'm getting pissed, tonight' is missing. Again, in the special features, the missing line is shown from a low quality recording. So, I believe that this was not an edit due to music licensing, but once again due to not being able to locate a decent source for the unedited version of the sketch.

It appears that all of the other edits that have been talked about over the years (Satan animation, Dad's Doctors, Dad's Pooves and Other Interesting Stories sketch, Summarize Proust Competition sketch, Party Political Broadcast (Choreographed) sketch, The Undertaker sketch, Take Your Pick (Spot The Braincell) sketch, The Travel Agent sketch, The Prince and the Black Spot animation, and the Tree animation from The Nude Organist (Series 3, Episode 9) have all been restored.

So, it looks like this is the most complete that this series has ever been outside of the original broadcasts.

In several cases the shows are more than complete, as they contain bits that were excised before original transmission.

Frosty's number appears in the new edition of Series One, Episode Two, "Sex and Violence" at 27:52.

The other two edits you mention were not included in the main episodes as the restoration team determined that they were not part of original transmission. It is another case of pick-and-choose for the team, as they chose to include other footage, such as the fabled Satan animation and the tree animation from Series 3, Episode 9, which was known to be cut before the original broadcast.

The folks involved in the restoration work some real magic when it comes to making the content look and sound as good as possible. It's just that they may often contradict their own terms of what constitutes "restored" as they promise episodes as originally broadcast, then go on to add and delete whatever they see fit. Less prevalent in the Monty Python material as in, say, vintage Doctor Who but, nonetheless, we're still subject to their creative choices and aesthetic tastes.

As an ultra-nitpicky example, a couple of Gilliam cartoons had animation errors that the team decided must be corrected digitally for the Bluray, even though they were there all along and barely noticeable. However, reinstating 10 seconds of blank screen at the end of Michael Ellis was, according to Paul Vanezis, taking "a purist view".

In one of the bonus features, Jonathan Wood of the restoration team addressed the notion that fans don't like even the smallest changes, as he discussed with Gilliam the removal of a stray bit of cutout animation, and that he toyed with replacing some wonky blue screen transitions with before and after examples shown. According to Wood, it was decided to leave those transitions as-is (though I think one or two fixes sneaked into the shows, anyway) so people like me wouldn't whine, but the animation thing just had to be fixed which, surprise to no one, pleased Gilliam to no end!

Double-edge sword, good-and-bad, give-and-take, and so on. The shows look better than they ever have, there's more material collected in the set than ever before.. but the reasoning behind some of the changes.. ??

Better quality footage of the cut Bus Conductor sketch line does exist, at least it does on NTSC laserdisc. Zoomed in a bit, probably wouldn't look great recoverted to PAL. Still, no reason not to reinstate it, like the extended tree animation, or the extra material in Mr. Neutron, other than the person twiddling the knobs decided it shouldn't be there.

 

[Brian Himes]

Thanks for the info. Glad to see I was incorrect about the Frost phone number. I did see that, but the way it was described in the various sources I read, had things all wrong so I thought it wasn't the one shown. Michael Palin was the one that read the number and not John Cleese. That was the first thing that threw me off. Anyway, glad that got fixed.

I get what you mean about the pick and choose for the restorations. While the Tree animation was restored, the original music wasn't. To see the Tree animation with the correct music, you have to watch the Terry Gilliam approved sound mix version of The Nude Organist in the special features section. Odd. I would have just fixed the music in the main version, since it was there as the episode was originally filmed but I get why it wasn't presented that way. I would have presented each episode as it was intended to be shown before the censors got to it. That's just me. I prefer to see things as the creators intended and not what outsiders dictate how they should be seen.

I'm really enjoying watching these shows for the first time in several years and it's great to see them in such great quality and as complete as they are. I'm just about finished with series 3. I remember not liking much in series 4 since Cleese left the show. The show seemed to be on life support for those last 6 episodes. Maybe this time around, I'll appreciate them a bit more.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

I'm one of the few who enjoys the long-format styling of Series Four. Michael Ellis and Mr. Neutron are mini-masterpieces imho. There should have been more adventures with Teddy Salad.

 

[Ejanss]

I'm one of the few who enjoys the long-format styling of Series Four. Michael Ellis and Mr. Neutron are mini-masterpieces imho. There should have been more adventures with Teddy Salad.

(chuckling) I take it you're kidding...
As even if I ever have heard anyone say anything good about the fourth season--and Terry Jones/Michael Palin now dominating the long-form episodes with first draft scripts for "Ripping Yarns"--I've never heard ANY fans say good things about the Mr. Neutron episode.
Michael Ellis, yes, and the Light Entertainment War seems to be the only one that ever gets quoted, but not Mr. Neutron.

In fact, it's led to the fan urban-legend of just how much writing Douglas Adams did on the series, during his days at BBC LE:
Accdg. to Terry & Michael, he only did some minor script-doctoring, and yet the fan search for "What sketches did Adams write?" persists, if only because the Mr. Neutron comes off too weird and inscrutably unfunny, and "off" the usual humor from the first three seasons, and fans keep trying to find Hitchhiker's Guide parallels.

(We've had fourth-wall gags before, but when we got that joke where Eric Idle blows his American accent on a line and the director comes onscreen for a retake, I thought "How did a Monkees gag suddenly find its way into a Python episode?"

I'm really enjoying watching these shows for the first time in several years and it's great to see them in such great quality and as complete as they are. I'm just about finished with series 3. I remember not liking much in series 4 since Cleese left the show. The show seemed to be on life support for those last 6 episodes. Maybe this time around, I'll appreciate them a bit more.

Without Cleese's Basil-Fawlty sense of farce or nasty-humor, the glue went out of the group's writing, and you could see each comic's individual guitar licks, that didn't create a harmonious style anymore.
(Which was Cleese's complaint about why they weren't happy with the "Meaning of Life" movie, where "everyone was just working on their own bits".)

Terry Jones was trying to do absurd half-hour plots, Michael Palin pretty much played his one character of the nerdy oddball who destroys the conversation by getting hung up on some minor point, Eric Idle liked non-sequiturs, and all three hoped that milking them into endless running-gags with no point or payoff would make them funny...And let's not even DISCUSS Terry Gilliam trying to act.
Graham Chapman ends up being the star of the fourth season, since he has the best "formal" deadpan for doing silly humor as the straight man, and still has the strongest sense of Satire--Even though most of that satire was just nastily biting the BBC hands that fed them, and with more passive-hostility than silliness.

It will be a disc duplicate, but won't contain the booklets for each season, and none of the packaging extras.

Darn. I'd say "I knew this would happen", but the 50th box was presented as so much of an "event", I honestly thought it wouldn't get a double-dip for the cheap seats.
Still, even though I haven't gotten through all the books (at 185 pp., they're hardly "booklets") for each season, I wouldn't trade 'em.

 

[Ejanss]

It appears that all of the other edits that have been talked about over the years (Satan animation, Dad's Doctors, Dad's Pooves and Other Interesting Stories sketch, Summarize Proust Competition sketch, Party Political Broadcast (Choreographed) sketch, The Undertaker sketch, Take Your Pick (Spot The Braincell) sketch, The Travel Agent sketch, The Prince and the Black Spot animation, and the Tree animation from The Nude Organist (Series 3, Episode 9) have all been restored.

But--probably because of BBC standards--we still didn't get the legendary line from the Drug Raid sketch:

Idle: "You just got that bag out of your pocket! What's in it, anyway?...Sandwiches?"
Policeman: "Sandwiches?...Blimey, what EVER did I give the wife? "
Wife: "I don't know, but it was better than sandwiches... "

(You can still hear a jarring cut of the audience's laugh.)

 

[texboil]

My set arrived on Wednesday and I've been going through it. So far, these episodes look better than I've ever seen them look. Lots of original stuff restored. Unfortunately, there are still 3 edits to the series (that I've been able to confirm).

Series 1, Episode 2 (Sex & Violence) is missing David Frost's Production Company telephone number. I'm not 100% sure where this happened. I've read two different accounts of this. The first one says that Cleese says the number as belonging to the mouse man (who provided the film of the mouse party). The second account says the number appeared at the end of the sketch for people who had the same problem and wanted help. Either way, the reference to the phone number is not there.

Series 2, Episode 11 (How Not To Be Seen) is missing a line in the Conquistador Coffee Campaign sketch. John Cleese's line 'finally these tactless references to leprosy and terminal cancer' just after Eric Idle's 'soft sell' line is missing. However, an extended cut of the sketch in the special features has the line from a low quality recording. This leads me to believe that a good master copy of the unedited sketch was unable to be located.

Series 3, Episode 4 (Blood, Devastation, Death, War, and Horror) is missing a line in the Bus Conductor sketch. Graham Chapman sings 'Tonight. Tonight. I'm getting pissed, tonight' is missing. Again, in the special features, the missing line is shown from a low quality recording. So, I believe that this was not an edit due to music licensing, but once again due to not being able to locate a decent source for the unedited version of the sketch.

It appears that all of the other edits that have been talked about over the years (Satan animation, Dad's Doctors, Dad's Pooves and Other Interesting Stories sketch, Summarize Proust Competition sketch, Party Political Broadcast (Choreographed) sketch, The Undertaker sketch, Take Your Pick (Spot The Braincell) sketch, The Travel Agent sketch, The Prince and the Black Spot animation, and the Tree animation from The Nude Organist (Series 3, Episode 9) have all been restored.

So, it looks like this is the most complete that this series has ever been outside of the original broadcasts.

I have the Network version and the travel agent sketch line "What a silly bunt" is NOT restored. Is it in this US version?

 

[darkrock17]

From what I'm hearing is both releases aren't as uncut as we were lead to believe.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

(chuckling) I take it you're kidding...

Nope. The transition to long format, plot-driven character sketches makes a nice change from the Cleese-era Goon Show clone days.

From what I'm hearing is both releases aren't as uncut as we were lead to believe.

More uncut than ever before, but not entirely historically accurate due to creative and aesthetic choices. Episodes had material added that had been vetoed before originally airing, while some omissions of existing material were of the, "Oh, we could have included this here, but.." mentality. No consistency, there.

I have the Network version and the travel agent sketch line "What a silly bunt" is NOT restored. Is it in this US version?

According to info from the restoration gang, neither Silly Bunt nor the aforementioned Drug Raid cuts could be located.

 

[Ejanss]

Nope. The transition to long format, plot-driven character sketches makes a nice change from the Cleese-era Goon Show clone days

By that logic, so would the "Cycling Tour" episode. (Of which the only funny bit was Cleese's, with the Russian firing squad.)

And not to nitpick, but...wasn't the Goon Show a long-format show? As opposed to the sketch roots of Cleese/Chapman's "At Last the 1948 Show" and Idle/Palin/Jones' "Do Not Adjust Your Set"?

 

[darkrock17]

By that logic, so would the "Cycling Tour" episode. (Of which the only funny bit was Cleese's, with the Russian firing squad.)

I liked the music that accompanied Michael Palin as he rode his bike through the countryside right before he would crashed because
the pump caught in my trouser leg.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

Let's not even DISCUSS Terry Gilliam trying to act.

Why not? The Jailer and the Bridge Keeper remain two of the greatest, cocaine-fueled performances ever caught on film! And, of course, you can never un-see:

By that logic, so would the "Cycling Tour" episode. (Of which the only funny bit was Cleese's, with the Russian firing squad.)

Short answer, yes. And as for the "only funny bit", well, Frank Zappa said it best: "There's no accounting for taste!" Housey, housey!

And not to nitpick, but...wasn't the Goon Show a long-format show? As opposed to the sketch roots of Cleese/Chapman's "At Last the 1948 Show" and Idle/Palin/Jones' "Do Not Adjust Your Set"?

Goon Show started as a half-sketch, half-music show featuring "surreal", non-sequitur humor (what Chapman called OJRIL, Old Jokes and Ridiculously Irrelevant Links). It is the early material that Cleese took the greatest inspiration from-- especially the notion that not all setups, or jokes as it were, need a punchline. Jones and Palin seemed more inspired (and intimidated!) by the Q television series.

Eventually, Goon Show would settle into a more conventional, long-format show (three-act plays, really) relying heavily on catchphrases-- a tactic of humor by repetition that Cleese considers anathema ("I am from Barcelona" aside, of course!).

Although progressing on a similar path of conventionality, Series Four Python managed to avoid catchphrases and didn't fit the framework of light entertainment with musical interludes, et al. It did adopt a premise of comedy leitmotif edging up close to modern sitcom format: shows followed a theme and characters developed and interacted under an umbrella premise that, at best, had a beginning, middle and conclusion, only occasionally breaking away from that "norm" with a cartoon, a bit of satire, or a flame-thrower!

That type of writing and staying beneath one great premise solidified with Holy Grail where, collectively, the group learned how to transition to the cinema and not have two directors!; rose to epic heights in the collaborative effort, Life of Brian (despite its conception intrusion on an extravagant holiday in Tunisia); and fell on it's big, red clown nose for Meaning of Life which tried to hard to be a big-budget Python tv show, and no one wanting to work together since, by that time they'd each settled into their own, respective careers. Set in their ways, you might say.

So, yeah. I dosed off a minute, there. Where was I? Series Four?

Me likey!

D'habitude.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I thought the line of singing "Tonight, Tonight" had been cut in recent years due to changing music clearance/copyright reasons (as that line is only slightly different to the similar line from West Side Story).

I have a hard time believing a "good copy couldn't be found" for that one. It was present and correct in the 1980s Paramount VHS releases (and, presumably, the laserdisc also). I'm pretty sure that edit only came about in the '90s. I highly doubt that it was NTSC-only either. If so, then the "Undertaker" sketch also came from NTSC, but that is included.

I suspect that this particular cut was for music clearance reasons. A bit disappointed by that, because I, like others, had assumed these were going to be 100% unedited (or as unedited as possible).

I haven't gone through my set completely. Is that cut line in the extras anywhere? If not, then I definitely stand by my theory.

 

[texboil]

The first instance of the "Tonight" song getting cut that I was aware of was the A&E DVDs. I grew up with that line on my PBS-taped VHS version and then on the Paramount VHS tapes that I upgraded to. I was disappointed not only that that line wasn't inserted back into the episode but that the version shown in the special features was of such poor quality.

I still think these blu rays are fantastic and I love seeing some "new" Python stuff after all this time. Of course they aren't perfect -- and I'm really bummed that the trio of "Cocktail Bar," "Big-Nosed Sculptor" and "Wine Tasting" aren't there -- but these discs are such a no-brainer upgrade from the A&E DVDs that I certainly have no regrets over the purchase.

 

[Ejanss]

And as for the "only funny bit", well, Frank Zappa said it best: "There's no accounting for taste!" Housey, housey!

Well, I'm not with the secret police, anyway...

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

The first instance of the "Tonight" song getting cut that I was aware of was the A&E DVDs. I grew up with that line on my PBS-taped VHS version and then on the Paramount VHS tapes that I upgraded to. I was disappointed not only that that line wasn't inserted back into the episode but that the version shown in the special features was of such poor quality.

The A&E discs were littered with mistakes, edits and omissions, but this was the first time an edit was made for a music rights issue. I think. Anyway, the episode looks great on my laserdisc copy and the sketch is intact!

As it is, Mr. Vanezis had stated that he didn't know the footage was on the laserdisc, as indicated when responding to an inquiry about the footage at the missing episodes forum:

"No idea it was on the laser disc or VHS. Who released them?

"Tonight, tonight..." was cut before TX, but like several other episodes (Book at Bedtime being one), the original edits survived long enough to be given to The Pythons at the end of 1979. Unfortunately those original PAL tapes were sent to the US when Devillier Donegan distributed the series for a short time.

We only have an NTSC umatic recording of this and Book at Bedtime, although we have resurrected 'Book at Bedtime' as you will see. What is common to both of these NTSC recordings is that they are cropped big time due to a crude late 70's converter being used.

Paul"

Even if he had been aware of the ld version, it would likely have been relegated to a bonus feature, anyway, but the quality would have been improved slightly.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

I'm really bummed that the trio of "Cocktail Bar," "Big-Nosed Sculptor" and "Wine Tasting" aren't there --

Yeah, I kinda got the impression, what with the photos published regarding Big-Nose Sculptor and all the talk-up about the Wine Tasting recording-gone-wrong, that the set might have been just ever-so-slightly partially marketed on the remotest possibility that those fabled, long-lost bits might just turn up as, at least, an incomplete bonus feature.. Things were talked about in a roundabout way, kind of hush-hush (and whoosh-whoosh!).. At least until the Radio Times Python edition definitively put the notion to rest.

Before the discs were released, I don't recall any other discussion on the internets or otherwise where it was actually stated that the footage couldn't be located. Tantalizing, the photos were, but.