RWels
Member
Posts: 2,863
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Post by RWels on Sept 27, 2008 14:09:21 GMT
A non-technical thread on Monty Python's Flying Circus: How many of the series' sketches were actually parodies of real identifiable programs? A good example that I found by accident was this: www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/480350/synopsis.htmlSounds VERY similar to the Mouse Problem, not just the subject but the program as well... And of course there were more recognisable parodies on the Krays, and French and Italian avant garde cinema (Nouvelle Vague and Pasolini). And in the movies too, we can see some smaller references to The Seventh Seal or Spartacus. But I wasn't born when the Tv series aired, so I was wondering if there are many more that perhaps I simply don't recognise. Anything from your memories, perhaps? |
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Post by Koen Br on Sept 27, 2008 16:48:00 GMT
From the top of my head, there's at least The Money Programme, Jackanory, Whicker's World and the news. And isn't there a Blue Peter sketch as well? Quite a lot of Python sketches relate to studio-based magazine/interview type programmes, which have since then gone out of fashion, a fact that makes the setting of many items rather dated, while the material in itself is not. That's my opinion anyway.  |
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Post by Peter Elliott on Sept 27, 2008 22:49:27 GMT
Yes, they did parody Blue Peter. Also the Eurovision Song Contest, BBC Election Specials, Panorama, BBC linking material, various historical and costume dramas, whatever Film program there was before Barry Norman's shows, Late Night Line Up... quite a few shows.
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RWels
Member
Posts: 2,863
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Post by RWels on Sept 28, 2008 9:15:44 GMT
What was Blue Peter? "How to do it"?
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Post by Peter Elliott on Sept 28, 2008 10:27:13 GMT
What was Blue Peter? "How to do it"? Yes. That's the one. Actually come to think of it I guess that sends up "How" as well. The look and style is very Blue Peter though, with three presenters sat together (Chapman as Valerie Singleton!) and with the traditional pet dog. |
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Post by Alan Scott on Sept 30, 2008 19:34:09 GMT
Eric Idle did the Singleton part in that sketch.
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Post by Peter Elliott on Sept 30, 2008 19:50:43 GMT
Eric Idle did the Singleton part in that sketch. Of course he did! Duh... my memory's playing tricks. It's Idle who explains how one could rid the world of diseases isn't it? lol... Haven't seen it in a while and now I think of it, I think Chapman was in a white polo neck stroking a dog... possibly smoking his pipe. Thanks for correcting me. |
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Post by Stephen Doran on Oct 1, 2008 15:48:02 GMT
Wasnt Timmy Williams from S2 a parody of David Frost?
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Post by William Martin on Oct 1, 2008 16:59:59 GMT
acording to john cleese in the marty feldman doc, some of the first season python sketches were rejected marty jokes do we know what they were
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RWels
Member
Posts: 2,863
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Post by RWels on Oct 1, 2008 23:14:00 GMT
Wasnt Timmy Williams from S2 a parody of David Frost? The sketch about the type who really doesn't care wether his friend lives or dies? Yes, I thought so, although I can't remember where I heard it. Didn't they use Frost's phone number in another sketch? And I also never understood what was up with Sydney Lotterby in the 1948 show and Flying Circus - was that just coincidence or did they have a grudge? |
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Post by Adrian Gregg on Oct 2, 2008 0:32:51 GMT
bloody el.. I though us all being missing tv type of people we would all know this!! (having seen oddles of archive telle. um have we..) Yes a whole load of the show was parody!!!!
when i first saw python in the mid to late 80's I had NO idea about half of the material. so i spent a couple of years reserching TV and Politics etc from the period, and when seeing it again it WAS funny nad yes all of it..!!
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Post by Kev Mulrenan on Oct 2, 2008 9:03:21 GMT
I stumbled on some Python the other night.
Graham Chapman launching an appeal for rich people I think. The sort that Ronnie Barker used to do.
These were commonplace in the 70's but no longer really take place. Superceded by Comic relief etc.
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Post by Stephen Doran on Oct 2, 2008 9:19:52 GMT
There were so many good sketches EG John Cleese as the banker and Terry Jones asks for a pound for the orphans.
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Post by Pete Morris on Dec 17, 2011 7:33:38 GMT
I know this is an old thread, I hope I'm not breaking any rules by raising it. But I see the OP is still an active member and might be interested. The trouble at t'mill sequence from The Spanish Inquisition episode is a parody of a (then) popular and well known TV series Inheritance starring Michael Goodliffe, John Thaw and James Bolam. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_%28TV_series%29 |
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Post by Anthony Harvison on Dec 17, 2011 8:12:45 GMT
Python also did parodies of then-current adverts. (I wonder whether all those sketches that were suspiciously similar to earlier Goons or BTF ones were 'parodies'? ) |
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