Cheap Monty Python's Flying Circus - Season 2 (Video) (John Howard Davies, Ian MacNaughton) Price

What do you do for an encore after confounding the general public with something completely different? Simple: give them more of something completely different, from a semaphore version of Wuthering Heights to the last meeting of the Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things (you were expecting the Spanish Inquisition?). This six-volume set contains in chronological order the second season of Monty Python's Flying Circus. No sophomore slump here. Episodes 14 to 19, which originally aired in 1970, contain the signature Python sketches The Ministry of Silly Walks and The Spanish Inquisition. Also in the Python pantheon are the documentary about the Piranha brothers and their reign of violence and sarcasm, the Architect Sketch, and the scandalous game show Blackmail. While the sketches, filmed bits, and Terry Gilliam animations are enduringly silly, Monty Python's Flying Circus remains a loony marvel in the way it shattered television convention. In Episode 15, a clueless Graham Chapman character is recruited to be the straight man in a sketch, but is not given the punch line. In the same show, the dreaded, but tardy, Spanish Inquisition race to make their entrance before the closing credits run their course. Episodes 20 through 26 include sketches that were adapted for the Pythons' first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, such as How Not to Be Seen, Conrad Poohs and His Dancing Teeth, the camped-up military drill, and the alleged English-Hungarian phrasebook ("The Hungarian phrase meaning 'Can you direct me to the station?' is translated by the English phrase 'Please fondle my bum'"). Also on the menu are such tasty classics as Spam; the Lifeboat and Undertaker cannibalism sketches and spam; spam, spam, the Man Who Says Things in a Very Roundabout Way and spam; spam, spam, the Hospital for Over-Acting and spam; spam, The Exploding Version of the Blue Danube and spam; The Death of Mary Queen of Scots and spam. "And, of course, there's sport." Not content with foregoing traditional punch lines, Monty Python further subverted television convention with these episodes. In episode 23, for example, the credits don't appear until midway through. They further demonstrate why Entertainment Weekly ranked Monty Python No. 77 (only 77th?) among the top 100 entertainers of the last half of the 20th century. --Donald Liebenson

CATEGORY:	Video
DIRECTOR:	John Howard Davies, Ian MacNaughton
THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE:	1970
MANUFACTURER:	A&E Home Video
MPAA RATING:	NR (Not Rated)
FEATURES:	Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
TYPE:	Comedies & Family Ent., Comedy Video, Gift Set, Movie, TV Shows, Television
MEDIA:	VHS Tape
# OF MEDIA:	6
UPC:	733961174298