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Post by Kev Mulrenan on Jul 1, 2019 19:02:36 GMT
Hi Paul, I am guessing that the "longest" bit that needs to be recovered is the "Party Political Broadcast", correct? Funny, but that particular bit is one of my fondest memories of Python. I actually saw it here in the US in the early 70s during the initial run of showings on PBS. I tape recorded it (audio only), along with all of the othet shows, and had it for years until some swine stole all of my python audio tapes when I was in college in the 80s. Even so, I had listened to it so much before that that I can still hear Idle's opening announcement and Cleese's speech in my head. I have a copy of the nth generation-dub of the bit that has circulated for years, but it would be wonderful to be able to see and hear it again in all its glory. When I got the email announcement from Network yesterday I was stunned to see the news. Thanks for all that you and the restoration folks are doing to make this happen. As Stimpy would say, "Joy!" You guess wrong Tom, but I can say no more just yet. Paul I'll have a guess! I'm talking from memory here! Is it the sketch where Graham Chapman encourages John Cleese to eat his dead mother? Not raw, fried. I remember reading it got cut from one repeat sometime. When they reshowed it years ago you could tell it was from a smeary NSTC transfer. So they must have lost the original 2 inch vt, perhaps?
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Post by Ben Walker on Jul 2, 2019 1:56:44 GMT
That's a shame to hear that the NTSC broadcast source has been wiped. I would have hoped that a pile of PBS broadcast masters would still exist but the time for analogue copy masters still existing is long past.
Extremely excited for the set though, especially knowing that Paul is working on it. Anything will be better than the last Sony set with the godawful mpeg compression.
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Post by Mark Tinkler on Jul 2, 2019 9:29:13 GMT
That was the last time Graham appeared with the rest of the guys wasn't it? He was found to be in a closet - I've certainly got it as it did appear in the final show, though maybe a full length version wasn't used because of Grahams' obvious ill-health. Perhaps the Pythons wouldn't want it to be included for that reason...
...I had the pleasure of "looking after" Graham Chapman a little while before at BAFTA when the Pythons won the Fellowship Awards (I think it was) - I was slightly shell-shocked as I didn't know that was to part of my brief that night! I think Eric Idle may have been the only one who didn't turn up to accept the Award - at the Dorchester it was.
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Jul 2, 2019 9:51:49 GMT
That's a shame to hear that the NTSC broadcast source has been wiped. I would have hoped that a pile of PBS broadcast masters would still exist but the time for analogue copy masters still existing is long past. Extremely excited for the set though, especially knowing that Paul is working on it. Anything will be better than the last Sony set with the godawful mpeg compression. Well, it's not strictly true that all NTSC masters have all been wiped... nor that PAL copy masters have been wiped. I'll be able to say a bit more about this in the very near future. Paul
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Post by rmackenziefehr on Jul 2, 2019 15:34:46 GMT
That was the last time Graham appeared with the rest of the guys wasn't it? He was found to be in a closet - I've certainly got it as it did appear in the final show, though maybe a full length version wasn't used because of Grahams' obvious ill-health. Perhaps the Pythons wouldn't want it to be included for that reason... Two different bits intended for Parrot Sketch Not Included- the bit with everyone in the cupboard is in the special as aired, the one with everyone but Graham Chapman dressed as schoolboys was filmed (I believe that I've seen publicity stills associated with it somewhere) but not used.
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Post by martinogorman on Jul 2, 2019 16:02:45 GMT
Thanks for the news Paul - pleased to hear you're working on this project! I know it will be the best it can possibly be.
Have to admit I'm wracking my brains trying to think of which three and a half minutes went missing? I'd suggest the whole "Wee-Wee/Half A Bee" section, but of course that was never broadcast.
Is it the Series 4 stuff that fell off for the repeats, maybe?
"And now on BBC-1, three and a half more minutes of Monty Python's Flying Circus"
Very excited for this now. Be nice to have Montreuuuuxxx in nice quality, I agree.
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Post by Richard Marple on Jul 2, 2019 21:31:09 GMT
Parrot Sketch Not Included had some different material from Steve Martin for the introduction if you compare the TV & video versions.
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Post by Ben Walker on Jul 2, 2019 22:46:55 GMT
That's a shame to hear that the NTSC broadcast source has been wiped. I would have hoped that a pile of PBS broadcast masters would still exist but the time for analogue copy masters still existing is long past. Extremely excited for the set though, especially knowing that Paul is working on it. Anything will be better than the last Sony set with the godawful mpeg compression. Well, it's not strictly true that all NTSC masters have all been wiped... nor that PAL copy masters have been wiped. I'll be able to say a bit more about this in the very near future. Paul That's very good to hear! The thought of a restored, vidfire'd, chroma-dot colored Satan Animation is just too much to take!
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Post by Chris Singh on Jul 2, 2019 23:38:26 GMT
Elvis Presley was a big Python fan and recorded it off-air in the US. His mid to late 70's home recording tapes sold at auction a few years ago. I always wondered if they contained lost Python material.
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Post by Ben Walker on Jul 3, 2019 1:55:11 GMT
Just running over a bunch of the more common edits and versions known to exist:
S01E02 - David Frost's phone number (does not exist unless on 16mm T/R)
S02E06 - Prince and the Black spot "cancer" (does not exist unless on 16mm T/R) S02E09 - Girl From Impanema vs redubbed Genie With the Light Brown Hair (both exist, correct on Sony DVD) S02E11 - "cancer" line in Conquistador Coffee and of course the Satan animation (both exist on 16mm T/R and possibly NTSC dubs) S02E13 - Undertakers Sketch
S03E04 - Graham's "Tonight Tonight, I'm getting pissed tonight!" line from the Bus Conductor sketch (missing from all but US Paramount VHS) S03E05 - "masturbating" in Summarize Proust (correct on Sony DVD) S03E09 - changed music over the ZDP Microphone & Trees animation (may exist?) S03E12 - Choreographed Party Political Broadcast / alternate intros (exists on 16mm T/R)
S04E03 - Much longer original edit (exists) S04E05 - Much longer original edit (may not exist)
Thank christ none of the "restoration" efforts from the Sony DVD will be on the new one!
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RWels
Member
Posts: 2,857
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Post by RWels on Jul 3, 2019 7:21:31 GMT
Parrot Sketch Not Included had some different material from Steve Martin for the introduction if you compare the TV & video versions. Yes; there was also a short bit about the pythons being satanists if you played a certain clip backwards. The DVD omits that - but it's in the same 16 ton set that censored other things, like the hobbies in the Summarise Proust sketch. (The Japanese laserdisc even had a mysterious "last chapter" after the end of the program. I was unable to ever check it. But that could also just be nothing. It was not usually the Asian laserdiscs that had bonus material.) That was the last time Graham appeared with the rest of the guys wasn't it? He was found to be in a closet - I've certainly got it as it did appear in the final show, though maybe a full length version wasn't used because of Grahams' obvious ill-health. Perhaps the Pythons wouldn't want it to be included for that reason... Two different bits intended for Parrot Sketch Not Included- the bit with everyone in the cupboard is in the special as aired, the one with everyone but Graham Chapman dressed as schoolboys was filmed (I believe that I've seen publicity stills associated with it somewhere) but not used. Yes, that's the one. The schoolboys. It's not even certain that any copies still exist; I was reliably informed that neither the BBC nor Tiger Aspect, who produced it, have kept it. Tiger Aspect had been spring cleaning at some point... But it is the one sketch that no-one has ever seen, not on any bootleg or any demo or clip compilation. I wonder if it would be appropriate to include the full tape of the memorial service. The clips in "Life of Python" certainly were memorable.
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Post by Matthew Kurth on Jul 3, 2019 7:23:04 GMT
I'm sure this is old hat, but I recall from the Michael Palin diaries that Phillips 1500 copies were made when the Pythons learned the masters might be wiped.
I'm curious whether those dubs still exist.
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Post by George D on Jul 3, 2019 9:30:14 GMT
The NTSC master that was used for the repair was wiped in (I think) 2007. There is no broadcast master to reverse convert unfortunately. Paul Sad things were still being wiped even in 2007
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Post by martinogorman on Jul 3, 2019 13:03:48 GMT
S02E02 This show also exists in two versions - the repeat of S01E02 on 6 November 1986 was missing a short piece of animation, noted at the bottom of this page:
There were also alternate versions of S02E07, which had the "Spot The Braincell" sketch replaced by the railway timetables/Gavin Millarrrrrrr bit from show 11, which was an edit from the summer of '71 when "Take Your Pick" presenter Michael Miles died.
And confusingly, I understand that the Undertakers sketch from S02E13 was replaced by "Spot The Braincell", but I've never seen this cut, as Roger Wilmut claimed in "From Fringe To Flying Circus" that it was never repeated.
None of these wacky edits should appear on the box set, and I'm sure Paul V and co are aware of them!
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Post by rmackenziefehr on Jul 4, 2019 21:41:30 GMT
Just running over a bunch of the more common edits and versions known to exist: S01E02 - David Frost's phone number (does not exist unless on 16mm T/R) S02E06 - Prince and the Black spot "cancer" (does not exist unless on 16mm T/R) S02E09 - Girl From Impanema vs redubbed Genie With the Light Brown Hair (both exist, correct on Sony DVD) S02E11 - "cancer" line in Conquistador Coffee and of course the Satan animation (both exist on 16mm T/R and possibly NTSC dubs) S02E13 - Undertakers Sketch S03E04 - Graham's "Tonight Tonight, I'm getting pissed tonight!" line from the Bus Conductor sketch (missing from all but US Paramount VHS) S03E05 - "masturbating" in Summarize Proust (correct on Sony DVD) S03E09 - changed music over the ZDP Microphone & Trees animation (may exist?) S03E12 - Choreographed Party Political Broadcast / alternate intros (exists on 16mm T/R) S04E03 - Much longer original edit (exists) S04E05 - Much longer original edit (may not exist) Thank christ none of the "restoration" efforts from the Sony DVD will be on the new one! A couple of addendum to this list: S02E06 survives as used in And Now For Something Completely Different. There are at least two separate versions of the Choreographed Party Political Broadcast from S03S12 known to exist in NTSC copies from off-air broadcasts, and I've been led to understand that the "captions" introduction also survives by a similar source. And, having checked- there's no way the S03E12 materials could be the ones referenced earlier, and, even combined, they are only slightly over two minutes in length.
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