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Post by KennyG on Jul 6, 2006 14:52:17 GMT
In fact, mr. Saunders told me recently that columbia tristar will do a special edition Life of Brian once they have finished with the Flying Circus. So we can expect that around 2100 then? It's taking them centuries to get around to do the Flying Circus.... |
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Post by David Morgan on Jul 6, 2006 15:04:06 GMT
I'd gone through the 3/4" tapes that had been held by the Pythons' US press representative, which hadn't been played in years, using a HUGE Sony U-matic player that, despite being 30 years old, still put out picture and sound. Lots of TV interviews and some esoteric stuff, like this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5iLDUQcQlwThe Pythons also guest-hosted ABC's "A.M. America," a precursor to "Good Morning America," in '75 (when "Holy Grail" was opening here) which was fun to watch. Sadly, the news -- unrest in the Middle East, high gas prices, a fiscally irresponsible Republican administration -- was the same. Some of the material later cut from the MPFC series still existed on tapes either dubbed or recorded off-air in the late '70s. Alas, a "Satan Animation" tape from 1975 had been dubbed over. Drat! The "Life of Brian" rough cut with temp tracks -- lacking the score but including the "Brian" theme song -- had for-position-only, non-Terry Gilliam, titles up front. It was on two NTSC U-Matics dated 2/27/79. Terry Jones was very pleased it turned up. David |
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Jul 6, 2006 16:53:28 GMT
Umatic, still not quite dead yet. On one or two occasions I came accross umatic as well. Very heavy usually equals very reliable.
By the way, do we know what Life of Brian material was trashed in 1998? Rough cuts or something like that?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2006 14:01:27 GMT
I find U-Matic to be a very solid format (both low and high band) and I still keep my tapes and working machines just in case! The machines are a bit clunky and heavy but reliable and give far superior pictures to SVHS etc.
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Jul 7, 2006 16:15:45 GMT
Speaking of outtakes, we all know that the "Brian" offcuts were dumped a few years ago, but does anyone know whether anything survives from "Grail" and "And Now For Something...". Definitely dropped from the latter were Ken Shabby and the Flying Sheep Frenchman, both of which appear in the Big Red Book. ANFSCD is the only movie that is not owned by python ltd., apart from that I have never heard about there being raw footage around. Believe it or not the film is owned by the playboy company. Grail: apparently there are a few bits left at Terry J.'s place? The CDROM-game by the way also contains an animated scene originally deleted from the script, "King Brian the Wild". |
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Post by Martin OGorman on Jul 11, 2006 12:59:50 GMT
Ah, but was King Brian ever filmed? There's a hefty scribble through the pages in question in the Holy Grail book that suggest it was cut before the whole thing went before the cameras.
Glad to hear a better version of those deleted Brian scenes has turned up - I always wanted to see the "longer" cut.
I forgot that ANFSCD was a Victor Lownes production - I expect that Ken Shabby and the Frenchman found themselves in a bin outside a Soho cutting room. Bah. Still, at least we have the TV versions. On another note, what's all this about the "muted" opening to this film, as mentioned in Kim "Howard" Johnson's 200 Years Of Monty Python book? I know that book isn't the most reliable (he's never seen The Amazing Kargol And Janet discuss criminology and the description of one of the German episodes is bizarrely inaccurate), but has anyone ever seen the first Python film with a different set of titles (or intro to the titles, I was never quite sure what he meant)?
And thanks to David Morgan for keeping us abreast of the situation - nice to know that someone's saving all this fabulous stuff for future use (hopefully)
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Jul 11, 2006 17:36:48 GMT
No, King Brian was never filmed, but it was animated in a Gilliam style, and the voices were the original cast apart from two (one was dead and the other couldn't be bothered). This was done for the 1997 CDROM game.
Was Ken Shabby ever filmed for ANFSCD?
Mind you, when Kin wrote some of his python books there was no such thing as a DVD with the German episodes.
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Jul 11, 2006 22:02:48 GMT
PPS
One thing DID appear in this rerun: in the summarize Proust competition sketch, Harry Bagot did get a chance to mention all of his hobbies: golf, strangling animals and masturbating.
So far on the DVD release this bit had been removed, because golf wasn't very popular at A&E entertainment.
And the waving loony at the end. Hurrah!
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Post by KennyG on Jul 12, 2006 10:01:13 GMT
One thing DID appear in this rerun: in the summarize Proust competition sketch, Harry Bagot did get a chance to mention all of his hobbies: golf, strangling animals and masturbating. That's greats news! When RTE had their last repeat season about five years ago, his hobbies were still cut. |
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Post by Martin OGorman on Jul 12, 2006 11:44:41 GMT
Was Ken Shabby ever filmed for ANFSCD? Yes - photos appear in the Big Red Book, along with pix from the film version of the flying sheep Frenchmen. "Rosemary's father suggests the abbey." Mind you, when Kin wrote some of his python books there was no such thing as a DVD with the German episodes. No, which leads me to believe he was working from an early script for his precis of the German episodes. If I recall correctly, he mentions some weird stuff about "Learning To Swim" in one of the shows - which obviously doesn't appear in either of the finished programmes. |
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Jul 12, 2006 12:33:42 GMT
ANFSCD deleted scenes... we should ask the owner about that, which is the playboy company. But if I could choose I would rather loose those then any other lost python sketch. After all, these sketches are exactly the same as the TV series.
I can receive a playboy UK tv channel where I live, but so far they never showed ANFSCD! Strange, isn't it?
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Post by Monty Burstein on Jul 13, 2006 2:03:13 GMT
Maybe I posted this before, but back in '74 I saw a version of ANFSCD that differed from the generally released version.This print had a longer version of "Fresh Fruit", the vercotti bros. terrorizing the colonel, slightly different versions of "Milkman" and "Killer Joke",and perhaps the original opening animation.This was a US Columbia-distributed print, so I don't know why it was different than every subsequent version I saw.
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Post by Charles Roberts on Jul 28, 2006 12:16:52 GMT
Just wondering whatever became of these repeats? Did the telly station ever get to the "Satan" or "choreographed political" episodes?
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Jul 28, 2006 13:18:39 GMT
Masturbating: yes
Satan: no
Choreographer: haven't checked yet
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Post by paul welton on Jul 28, 2006 19:26:06 GMT
When BBC 1 repeated all the Python episodes in the 80's(but not series 4),the Golf,strangling animals and masturbating Proust sketch was there in all it's glory. I laughed my head off,astounded that this could have gone out in 1973. I have that on tape somewhere. I'm in the process of transferring anything of value from video tape to DVD,which may take some months. If anyone is interested in a copy of the above,let me know,although you may have to be patient. Currently I am watching Monty Python repeats on Belgian TV; it's quite possible their tapes aren't new. I can still see the BBC logo, which I believe was cut when the episodes became property of python pictures ltd. but I could eb wrong. So I was wondering: what bits should I watch to see if they are there or not? So far I know of *part political choreographer (episode 38) *'masturbating' in summarise Proust competition (episode 31) *satan animation (episode 24) Anything else I should keep an eye on, just in case? |
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