Life of Python Page #3

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respected writer

who had worked with

Marty and all that,

was acting as a sort of

entrepreneur of comedy

at the time.

In 1969, I was the advisor

to the comedy department at the BBC,

And we'd just finished

a very successful

second series of Marty,

starring Marty Feldman.

The BBC asked me, "What comes next?"

I'd been looking around

at the various people

who were extremely good

writer-performers.

There were a lot of them,

and I, in my mind's eye,

put together a group of four

which subsequently became six.

They were John Cleese

and Graham Chapman,

Michael Palin and Terry Jones,

Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.

When you look back,

it was an amazing act of courage.

I was the only one who'd been

much on as a performer,

except that the others--

Mike, Terry, and Eric,

and Terry Gilliam's

first animation--

first appeared on

Do Not Adjust Your Set,

but nobody knew that.

It was the funniest

thing on television,

but it went out at half past 4:00.

It was extraordinary they

went straight into a series

without asking for a pilot.

I thank them for that.

They used to meet and

argue first at my home,

then go to their homes,

then through the evening

they'd phone me and say,

"Am I ruining my career

"by being a part

of this new thing?"

Nobody knew what to call it.

The first title was "It's".

We thought the idea of

somebody saying "It's"

And then being immediately cut off

before they could

announce the program

was funny.

It's...

The BBC said, "Why don't

you just have something

really wacky or

off the wall like...

like somebody's flying circus?

how about that,

John Cleese's flying circus

or something like that?"

John, commendably, didn't

want to be associated

that closely with the show.

And it wasn't any one person's show.

That was something we didn't want--

The David Frost Show,

the John Cleese Show.

We merged our identities

as much as possible.

John suggested Python,

and I suggested Monty

'cause in my pub in Warwickshire,

there was this guy wore a bow tie.

Monty was the guy--

slightly overweight,

was always there in his corner

and had his own pint mug.

It was this wonderful,

warming sort of name.

shows, the early ones.

The first one was called

Whither Canada?

A silly send up of a

documentary subtitle.

Sex And Violence-- we liked that.

The BBC said, "We hope there

won't be any sex and violence."

Weren't we naughty?

Gosh, we were naughty boys.

Aah!

Monty Python's Flying Circus.

It was important to us

to have control

because even when we'd been

writing for other people

and had become well-

established writers,

artists would change a line.

Producers would change a line.

"We think this is better."

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