Monty Python's Flying Circus was the totally meaningless name coined for the innovative English comedy troupe comprised of John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, and the late Graham Chapman. Embraced by the critics and public alike, the team enriched airwaves with their distinctive brand of irreverent and often surreal sketch comedy and satire on BBC-1 from 1969 through 1973 and on BBC-2, without Cleese, for the last few months of 1974. The show offered savage broadsides against the pomposity and repression of the British establishment, outlandish spoofs of European history, knowing satires of leading intellectual and cultural figures, and lots of men in dresses.
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The two shows had a similar, zany feel and Do Not Adjust Your Set was spiced-up further by the inclusion of some hilariously surreal animations by an eccentric young American upstart named Terry Gilliam.
Forming a strong mutual respect, the six decided to team up and work together on 'something new' and with the help of Barry Took (who was then a comedy consultant at the BBC) they were given their own series, famously being told "you can have thirteen shows, but that's it".
Having toyed with several names (including Owl Stretching Time and The Toad Elevating Moment), the group settled on the appropriately bizarre Monty Python's Flying Circus: 'circus' being suggested by the BBC, and Monty Python being envisaged by the team as the perfect name for a sleazy entertainment agent.
Their writing effectively threw away the rulebook of traditional sketch writing, dispensing with punchlines and allowing sketches to blend into each other or simply stop abruptly.
It was a technique already pioneered by Spike Milligan, but the ruthlessly self-critical Pythons mastered it.
Gilliam's unique animation style became crucial, segueing seamlessly between any two completely unrelated ideas and making the stream-of-consciousness work.
Flying Circus was fortunate too in being broadcast in colour, unlike their previous shows, helping transmit to viewers the Pythons' vibrant, crazy ideas.
The show took a short while to find a fanbase but grew into a phenomenon, so much so that George Harrison claimed the spirit of the Beatles had passed onto Monty Python.
Episodes often had a surreal and barely identifiable theme and the Pythons joyfully weaved sketches throughout every show so viewers had no idea where they would be taken next.
www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/montypython/
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