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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that gives a quick look. It's something that

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Speaker 1: happened a long time ago. Today I'm Gabe Lousier and

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Speaker 1: in this episode, we're celebrating the day when a British

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Speaker 1: comedy troupe and one American did a silly walk onto

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Speaker 1: the world stage and changed comedy forever. The day was Sunday,

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Speaker 1: October five, nineteen sixty nine, at just before eleven pm.

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Speaker 1: The first episode of the groundbreaking comedy series Monty Python's

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Speaker 1: Flying Circus premiered in the United Kingdom. The debut episode

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Speaker 1: was titled Wither Canada and featured memorable sketches much as

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Speaker 1: Famous Deaths presented by Mozart and my personal favorite, an

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Speaker 1: interview with Arthur two Sheds Jackson, a man saddled with

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Speaker 1: a ridiculous nickname after mentioning in passing that he was

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Speaker 1: considering buying a second shed even though he never did.

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Speaker 1: No no, no, This ship business, it doesn't mean it

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Speaker 1: matter to me. It's just a few friends called me

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Speaker 1: two ships and that's olders to it. Spit up with

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Speaker 1: the ship. I wish never good. I expect you probably

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Speaker 1: thinking of anyone will so long then you'd be author

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Speaker 1: No ships Jackson, forget about the Jackson, I think with respect,

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Speaker 1: we all ought to talk about your symphony. The men

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Speaker 1: responsible for writing these sketches were the same team who

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Speaker 1: performed them, Graham Chapman, John Clice, Eric Idle, Terry Jones,

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Speaker 1: Michael Palin and the lone American Terry Gilliam. They were

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Speaker 1: joined in that first episode and in many future ones

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Speaker 1: by Carol Eveland, one of the few women to make

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Speaker 1: steady appearances on the show. Although some of the main

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Speaker 1: six performers had worked together on various earlier projects, it

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Speaker 1: was the network's comedy advisor, Barry Took, who had the

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Speaker 1: bright idea to bring them all together on the BBC.

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Speaker 1: The style of the show owed a lot to the

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Speaker 1: work of Spike Milligan, a British Irish actor and comedian

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Speaker 1: who created a surreal radio program called The Goon Show

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Speaker 1: and later made the jump to television with the equally

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Speaker 1: surreal sketch comedy show Q five. All of the Pythons

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Speaker 1: were big fans of Spikes show, especially the way he

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Speaker 1: played with and subverted the conventions of TV comedy. Terry

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Speaker 1: Jones later spoke of the inspiration, saying, quote, we had

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Speaker 1: been writing quickies or sketches for some three years, and

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Speaker 1: they always had a beginning, a middle, and a tagline. Suddenly,

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Speaker 1: watching Spike Milligan, we realized that they didn't have to

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Speaker 1: be like that. Feeling liberated by Spike's example, the Pythons

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Speaker 1: developed a show that followed only the loosest of narratives.

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Speaker 1: The sketches would flow from one to the next, sometimes

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Speaker 1: ending abruptly, with the only link between them being absurd

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Speaker 1: ist cartoons created by Terry Gilliam. Once the form of

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Speaker 1: the show was decided and much of the material had

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Speaker 1: been written, it was time to think of a title,

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Speaker 1: one that would capture the same gleeful, chaotic spirit of

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Speaker 1: the sketches. So in the summer before the premiere, the

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Speaker 1: Python started cycling through a host of potential titles. In fact,

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Speaker 1: they came up with a new non sequitur name for

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Speaker 1: every script they submitted At various points in production. The

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Speaker 1: series was called Baron von Tuk's Flying Circus Owl stretching time,

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Speaker 1: the toad, elevating moment, and a horse, a spoon and

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Speaker 1: a basin. Eventually The BBC head of Comedy got so

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Speaker 1: agitated with the ever changing titles that he sent a

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Speaker 1: memo to the show's director imploring him to make the

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Speaker 1: team choose a definitive title, and preferably one that made

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Speaker 1: at least a little sense. In the end, the show

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Speaker 1: was called Monty Python's Flying Circus, but only because the

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Speaker 1: network told the group they had already printed the programming

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Speaker 1: schedule with that name and it couldn't be changed. It's

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Speaker 1: unclear whether that was true or if the BBC had

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Speaker 1: just lost its patients and didn't want to risk getting

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Speaker 1: stuck with anything weirder. As for the name Monty Python,

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Speaker 1: that was just as meaningless as the earlier titles. Eric

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Speaker 1: Idyl suggested using Monty as a nod to the stereotype

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Speaker 1: of a drunk British gentleman, and John Clice added the

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Speaker 1: surname Python after suggesting that the ringleader of their flying

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Speaker 1: Circus should have a suitably slippery name. Same internal memos

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Speaker 1: from the BBC revealed that many higher ups at the

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Speaker 1: network were concerned about the show's chance of success. One

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Speaker 1: executive wrote that the Python's comedy went quote over the

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Speaker 1: edge of what was acceptable and the network's entertainment chief

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Speaker 1: wondered if the group had some sort of death wish.

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Speaker 1: After the first episode aired, the BBC pulled its viewers

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Speaker 1: and gotten overall positive response. The number of viewers wasn't great,

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Speaker 1: but those who had tuned in liked what they saw.

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Speaker 1: By the end of the first season, the show's ratings

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Speaker 1: had picked up and the BBC ordered a new batch

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Speaker 1: of episodes. Monty Python's Flying Circus remained on the air

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Speaker 1: from nineteen sixty nine to nineteen seventy four. The series

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Speaker 1: concluded after four seasons with a total of forty five episodes.

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Speaker 1: In Eternity and British television. Syndicated reruns made the show

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Speaker 1: a cult classic for decades to come, both in its

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Speaker 1: native country and beyond, but there was a point when

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Speaker 1: the episodes themselves were almost lost to history. In one

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Speaker 1: Terry Jones caught wind of a money saving practice at

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Speaker 1: the BBC that saw used video tapes being erased and

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Speaker 1: then reused to record new programming. At the time, shows

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Speaker 1: weren't often re aired and videotapes were expensive, it made

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Speaker 1: fiscal sense to erase and reuse the same tapes instead

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Speaker 1: of buying new ones. When Jones learned that the early

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Speaker 1: episodes of Flying Circus were next up on the chopping block.

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Speaker 1: He told the group and Terry Gilliam came to the rescue.

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Speaker 1: He bought all the original tapes from the BBC, ensuring

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Speaker 1: that their work would continue to offer fans something completely

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Speaker 1: different for generations to come. I'm Gabe Lousier and hopeful

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Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you enjoyed the show, consider following

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Speaker 1: us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at t d I

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Speaker 1: HC Show. And if you have any advice on whether

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Speaker 1: or not I should buy a second shed, you can

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Speaker 1: send it my way at this Day at I heart

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Speaker 1: media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thank you as always for listening. I'll see you

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Speaker 1: back here again tomorrow for another Day in History Class.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the iHeart

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