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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by Ben » May 5th, 2015, 4:18 pm

Actually, they weren't just restaged. ANFSCD used a bunch of old and new linking material (and new Gilliam animation) to create a new thread of sketches (for instance, sketches that ran into one sketch, which might not be included here, run into others instead). Indeed, the sketches were more more cinematic in execution and used real locations as opposed to the studio sets of the TV series.

Columbia - not Sony as they weren't in the picture yet, tisk tisk - didn't give it a wide release, but it was issued in the US and has also been attributed for kicking off the Python craze in America, so that by the time of their Hollywood Bowl concert (which also used filmed sequences from ANFSCD) the audiences came out in droves.

It was actually more of a success in the States, which was the reason for making it, to introduce the troupe there, than it was in the UK, where viewers had just seen the majority of the material. Some of the Pythons lament the lack of a laugh track and some of the staging (by their TV show director, which is why they took over for the remaining films), but others say some of the sketches come off better than on TV.

Whichever way you look at it, the film *is* their first entry, shot in true widescreen, and also shows the format of their fourth and last film, The Meaning Of Life, mirrors the sketch format (as they were aware it was probably their last outing) and even comes full circle by ending with the Liberty Bell theme.

There is the new movie Absolutely Anything coming along, but that isn't Python per se, despite being written and directed by Terry Jones and featuring the non-dead ones in vocal roles.

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by EricJ » May 5th, 2015, 7:48 pm

Ben wrote:Columbia - not Sony as they weren't in the picture yet, tisk tisk - didn't give it a wide release, but it was issued in the US and has also been attributed for kicking off the Python craze in America, so that by the time of their Hollywood Bowl concert (which also used filmed sequences from ANFSCD) the audiences came out in droves.
You mean NY City Center, in 1975?
Hollywood Bowl was in the early 80's, and we'd heard of them by then. (Unless there was another Bowl concert that didn't premiere the German film segments from "Fliegender Zirkus".)

ANFSCD got the press (check out Roger Ebert's review for the mainstream's first bemused reaction), but the Python craze, like classic Doctor Who in the US, started out in the days of maverick Public Television stations--as they were then called--in the wilderness on culty late nights. I remember thinking that wherever you were in the country on Friday night, some PBS station had to be showing a Python episode at 11pm.

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by GeorgeC » May 5th, 2015, 9:18 pm

Okay, Ben,

I understand what you're saying about the Python movie...

It's basically the same thing they've done for ages! Retread the same jokes over and over again... and, of course, there are plenty of fans who LIVE to hear this stuff said over and over again.

I can't do it, honestly. There are only so many times I can hear a joke in my lifetime and laugh at it. These guys have been doing the same thing for 30-40 years.

The surviving troupe members have almost come out of retirement or announced it as many times as Hayao Miyazaki!

Mickey Mouse took a longer break from the movies than these guys have with live performances!

As long as the fans want this, I don't begrudge them enjoying this or the Python guys making as much money as they can before they all need to use walkers... It's just not my thing. I'm okay with saying the films once every few years.

**********************************************

Funny, though... You could almost consider Time Bandits to be a Python film... It's not like at least half those guys weren't involved in that film!

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by Ben » May 6th, 2015, 9:28 am

So...ANFSCD, as I said, wasn't widely issued, but after the initial release it *was* picked up for one-off showings in avant guarde theaters, midnight movie places and the rest as sort of an underground thing, like Rocky Horror was later on.

No, the film wasn't responsible for breaking Python in America...that was the intention, but the limited release didn't help. The film went around in private and one-off rentals, but Eric is right in that showings of the TV show on PBS was what started the craze, even though ANFSCD had been made using material from the first *two* seasons of the original BBC show. After the PBS showings, ANFSCD was actually reissued in the US in 1974 to more popularity.

The Hollywood Bowl *movie* came in 1982, but the concert itself was from 1980, based on a whole bunch of live material that Python had performed live in the UK and US tours throughout the 70s (and from their many albums, also issued in America). Eric's right, though, that the show used filmed clips from the English-language German TV episode (of two, the other one being in German!), and not ANFSCD, which is my mistake.

As for ANFSCD itself, it wasn't really a rehash of old stuff that fans wanted to hear over and over again, George - the movie was "fresh" for those in the US who hadn't yet seen the first two seasons of the UK show, which wouldn't come to America until 1974 (ANFSCD was 1972 originally). Even in the UK, the first two seasons were watched by so few that the film material would have been pretty fresh there too, especially since VCRs weren't around yet and the only other way you could listen to a sketch again was from a record album.

And to be honest, the guys themselves have never repeated the same old jokes again and again. Obviously it's true that's what they did for their live stage shows, but then that's why fans went, just like a rock band is expected to play the hits on tour, but on screen all their material has been fresh each time. It was actually *after* they disbanded (no-one has ever actually "retired", so none of them has ever actually come out of retirement) as Python that the fans kept it going by repeating and staging their favorite jokes and moments.

The Pythons kept working, just not as a group, making a bunch of films with each other and on their own, but never under the Python name. Jabberwocky is often mistaken for a Python film, as is Time Bandits ("Jolly good...jolly, jolly good!"), and Baron Munchausen too, although there are many more crossovers. The Disney Wind In The Willows movie Mr Toad's Wild Ride is a good possible one...directed by Terry J, produced by John Goldstone and featuring four of the six in main roles, but even this two is an unofficial one.

Even Live At The Hollywood Bowl isn't considered a true Python film since it's essentially a TV videotape recording of a concert that was later blown up for theatrical release when it looked like the group would not be getting back together. Then they did Meaning Of Life and, after Chapman died, that was pretty much it. There was that Chapman biography, which featured all their voices and some new material, but wasn't actually a comedy, and following the recent live shows (we were at the second night!), there's now a documentary film, The Meaning Of Live, on the behind the scenes aspects - but even this isn't a true film as it was made for UK TV and has already shown here constantly on a classic comedy channel we have!

Even the new Absolutely Anything film coming out isn't a real Python project, since the live-shows really were the end of Python. This is essentially a Terry J project with the others' participation (like Mr Toad). There are some grey areas and crossovers, but the Pythons themselves only made four movies (ANFSCD, Holy Grail, Life Of Brian, and Meaning Of Life).

They have, and always well, however, package and repackage their stuff over and over and over, and as long as the fans lap it up, they will continue to do so!

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by Randall » May 11th, 2015, 9:13 am

Mark Evanier's blog brought this to my attention:


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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by EricJ » May 11th, 2015, 10:35 am

It was a required fine-print clause in the standard Rich and Famous Contract. :)

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by Ben » May 11th, 2015, 10:49 am

Awesome Orson. Great! :)

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by GeorgeC » May 12th, 2015, 4:35 am

... AND on the subject of Orson Welles.


Maurice LaMarche is probably the best known Orson Welles impersonator or certainly the most-exposed because of him patterning characters after Orson on at least three animated series -- Tiny Toons (whale character), The Critic (where he played Orson Welles), and Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain.

There's an infamous audio tape circulating of Orson Welles complaining about retakes for a commercial -- I don't know if it was for TV and radio. They actually adapted that tape into an episode of Pinky and the Brain.

Here's an excerpt with The Brain/Orson...





P.S. -- The same YouTube video I linked to has another link to the Frozen Peas audio that the Pinky & The Brain episode adapted dialogue from... This IS a real-life rant from Orson that was saved on tape!

[Moral of the story -- be NICE to people because you don't know who's recording and you WILL be remembered for decades for bad behavior when it's caught on tape... ESPECIALLY if you're a celebrity or politician.]

William Shatner also has a rant or two on tape...

Shatner just could NOT pronounce the word 'sabotage' correctly (or say it the way most people in the English-speaking world say it). He always came out with "SAB-a-taj" instead "sab-AH-tajh." He finally ended his rant by telling the director that his correction 'sickens me'.

"SAB-a-taj"



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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by Ben » May 12th, 2015, 6:45 am

The 70s wee tough for Orson. Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming article here where a bit of an explanation is made in passing...

LaMarche also was Welles himself - in voice - for Burton's Ed Wood...he dubbed Vincent D'Onofrio in the fictional restaurant scene.

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by EricJ » May 12th, 2015, 12:50 pm

Orson tried to go into TV in the 50's (with the same "collage" style that he later refined into F For Fake), but by the 70's, he was just doing voiceovers, wine commercials, Q&A appearances, and showing off a few of his old magic tricks.

In his intro to a 70's PBS silent-movie series, ask yourself: Film-history raconteur speaking off the cuff without cue cards, or just plain smashed?

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by Dacey » June 4th, 2015, 2:42 pm

Behold Kung Fury in all of its glory (contains some strong language):

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by addseo2015 » July 2nd, 2015, 2:53 am

Useful and interesting links.
I have enjoyed with this forum.
Thanks for the welcome.

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by Dacey » August 2nd, 2015, 7:43 pm

Impressive. Most impressive...

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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by James » September 3rd, 2015, 11:33 pm

Wall-e vs The Martian


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Re: YouTube Goodness

Post by EricJ » September 4th, 2015, 12:28 am

Now all we need is a "Martian" mashup set to "Put On Your Sunday Clothes". :)

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