And Now for Something Completely Different VHS

I was 12 or 13 when Monty Python seaped into my subconsious. It played on PBS on Tuesday nights around 9:30 or 10:00 safely ensconced away from the senses of impressionable adolescents like yours truly. Teamed with the infant season of Saturday Night Live this duo of the gonzo comic sensibility did a lot to inform(corrupt?) the mindset of this pre-teen. I wouldn’t say this is necessarily a best of Python but a sampling designed to appeal to an audience outside of Britain i.e. America. Anybody who has seen most of the Python episodes can attest that they reflect a literary sensibility and they comment on British culture of the time. The beauty of this FILM, yes it is a film, is that it cobbles together sketches in a way that make it seem like an aesthetic whole. These segments were not picked arbitrarily but were designed to compliment one another. Terry Gilliam’s cartoon segues brilliantly bridge one sketch to the next. The best(or most famous) sketches are on hand here(Dead Parrot, Lumberjack Song, Upper Class Twit of the Year)as well as some lesser known gems. I remember this was supposed get it’s broadcast premiere on ABC late night but for some reason or other it was pulled. “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” had it’s U.S. broadcast debut on the CBS late movie. We finally caught up with the Pythons because a few years later Eric Idle and Michael Palin were perrenials on “Saturday Night Live”