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UK Bbc2 has put a Python programme on at 11.15 tonight
Alan yentob's imagine....monty python and now for something rather similar
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Posted: |
Jan 24, 2020 - 1:36 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Terry Jones got his start in screen work in the late 1960s, writing for British television series such as “Twice a Fortnight,” “Marty,” and “Do Not Adjust Your Set.” He also acted on all of those, as well as “Complete and Utter History of Britain.”
Jones first came to the attention of American audiences in 1972, when Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Productions and Columbia Pictures brought to the U.S. the feature AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. The film was an anthology of the best sketches (newly filmed for the feature) from the first and second seasons of the British comedy show “Monty Python's Flying Circus,” which had yet to air anywhere in America.
Terry Jones and Carol Cleveland in AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
The writing and screenplay credits for the six Monty Python team members billed them for "screen foreplay & conception". Famous Monty Python sketches featured in the film include "Hell's Grannies", the "Dead Parrot" sketch, "The Lumberjack Song", the "Upperclass Twits", and the "Nudge Nudge Wink Wink" routine.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT was the debut theatrical feature directed by television director Ian MacNaughton. Although the film was primarily intended to introduce Monty Python to the U.S., the Python style of humor failed to connect with most American audiences, and the film did better in Britain than in the States, even though all the sketches had previously appeared on television. Douglas Gamley provided the uncredited music for the film.
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Posted: |
Jan 24, 2020 - 2:08 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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At the time of the original broadcasting of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” in the United Kingdom, the BBC used Time-Life Television to distribute its shows in the United States. For “Monty Python,” Time-Life had been concerned that the show was "too British" in its humor to reach American audiences, and did not opt to bring the program across. Additionally, the relative indifference that American audiences had shown to AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT also weighed in the decision.
Terry Jones and Michael Palin
During their first North American tour in 1973, the Pythons performed twice on U.S. television, first on “The Tonight Show,” hosted by Joey Bishop, and then on the music-comedy show “The Midnight Special.” The group spoke of how badly the first appearance went down with the audience; Eric Idle described “The Tonight Show” performance: "We did thirty minutes [of material] in fifteen minutes to no laughs whatsoever. We ran out onto the green grass in Burbank and we lay down and laughed for 15 minutes because it was the funniest thing ever. In America they didn’t know what on earth we were talking about."
Eric Idle and Terry Jones
In Britain, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” would run four seasons (1969-74), totaling 45 episodes. Despite the poor reception for their live appearances on American television, the Pythons' American manager, Nancy Lewis, began to push the show herself into the States. In 1974, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) station KERA in Dallas was the first television station in the United States to broadcast episodes of “Monty Python's Flying Circus,” and is often credited with introducing the program to American audiences. Many other local PBS stations acquired the show, and by 1975, it was often the most popular show on these stations. AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT was re-released to American theaters in 1974 and had a much better box office take that time.
Terry Jones and John Cleese
Although all of the Pythons played women, Terry Jones was renowned by the rest to be “the best Rat-Bag woman in the business.” His portrayal of a middle-aged housewife was louder, shriller, and more disheveled than that of any of the other Pythons. Other recurring characters were the upper-class reserved men, in "Nudge, Nudge" and the "It's a Man's Life" sketch; incompetent authority figures (Harry "Snapper" Organs); and the tobacconist in the "Hungarian translation sketch." He also played the iconic Nude Organist that introduced all of the third season. Generally, he deferred to the others as a performer, but proved himself behind the scenes, where he would eventually end up pulling most of the strings.
Graham Chapman and Terry Jones
The Pythons usually wrote their sketches in teams. Cambridge graduates John Cleese and Graham Chapman wrote together, as did Oxford men Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Eric Idle, another Cambridge alumnus, wrote alone. "Links" between sketches were the only pieces written by the entire group collectively. Animator Terry Gilliam worked independently of the five core members, but joined them for writers' meetings to help them piece it all together and act as a sort of test audience.
Terry Jones, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin
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Posted: |
Jan 24, 2020 - 3:07 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL finds the Pythons as King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, embarking on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles. All of the Pythons played various characters in the film, but each had a primary character. For Terry Jones it was “Sir Bedevere.”
In addition to co-writing the film, Jones also co-directed it with Terry Gilliam. According to Eric Idle, the pair got the directing job because they were the only ones who were interested in it. There were numerous disagreements between Gilliam and Jones. Gilliam was more focused on technical aspects, while Jones was more focused on the comedy. After this, it was agreed that Jones would direct the future Python films.
Terry Jones and Graham Chapman in MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL
According to Michael Palin, the film’s casting “was largely determined mainly by who'd written what. Castle Anthrax was a Galahad thing and I'd written that with Terry, so I was cast as Galahad; Terry Jones had written Bedevere; Lancelot was a mixture of stuff we'd written, but John Cleese seemed to fit that well; Eric Idle had written Brave Sir Robin, so he got the Sir Robin parts, and the rest were subsidiary parts, which again I think were probably largely to do originally with who wrote what".
Unusually for a Monty Python feature, all the female roles (apart from Dennis's mother, played by Terry Jones) are played by women. In the two following films, the Pythons reverted to form, and almost all the female roles are played by men.
According to Terry Jones, the scene with “Lancelot” (John Cleese) and “Concorde” (Eric Idle) required twenty takes. While the second take was perfect, the cameraman noticed that there was a lot of smoke in the background. At one point, an annoyed John Cleese quipped, "Well, was the smoke funny enough?"
The film had a tracked music score from the De Wolfe Music Library. Arista Records released a “soundtrack” LP entitled "The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail - The Executive Version". It featured commentary about the film in addition to original music and dialogue.
During one of the first screenings of the film in front of a live audience, Terry Jones noticed that when music was played during the jokes, there was a marked reduction of laughter from the audience. He went back and edited the music out whenever a punchline was delivered. At subsequent screenings he noticed a dramatic increase in the audiences' positive reactions to the jokes. From that point on, whenever he directed, he remembered to stop the music for the funny parts.
In an auction of movie costumes in March 2007, the helmet worn by Jones’ Sir Bedevere sold for $29,000, more than ten times the original estimate.
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Posted: |
Jan 24, 2020 - 4:14 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Born on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus, “Brian Cohen” of Nazareth (Graham Chapman) spends his life being mistaken for a messiah in MONTY PYTHON’S LIFE OF BRIAN. The six Python members played forty characters in the film.
Terry Jones directed and played Brian’s mother in the 1979 film. After the first take of a scene where a nude Brian addresses the crowd from his window, Terry Jones pulled Graham Chapman aside and said, "I think we can see that you're not Jewish," referring to Chapman being uncircumcised. It was corrected in subsequent takes with a rubber band.
According to Terry Gilliam’s memoir Gilliamesque, Terry Jones actually wanted Terry Gilliam to co-direct the movie, but Gilliam wasn't interested after facing some tension with the Monty Python group on MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. Apparently, they wouldn't take his directions as seriously as other actors he worked with after that film, and Gilliam said he had a different experience on JABBERWOCKY. So, he was brought on officially as production designer instead. Nevertheless, Gilliam directed at least two scenes: the arrival of the Wise Men and the Nativity, and the abduction of Brian by aliens.
The film was shot on the same sets as the 1977 television miniseries JESUS OF NAZARETH, and with the same extras. Terry Jones recalled that some said to him, "Well, Franco Zeffirelli wouldn't have shot it like that, you know". LIFE OF BRIAN opened on 17 August 1979. It ultimately grossed $19.4 million in the U.S. and was the highest grossing British film in North America that year.
Geoffrey Burgon scored the film. An album was released by Warner Bros. in 1979 in conjunction with the film. In addition to the "Brian Song" and "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", it contains scenes from the film with brief linking sections performed by Eric Idle and Graham Chapman. The album opens with a brief rendition of "Hava Nagila" on Scottish bagpipes. A CD version was released in 1997.
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Posted: |
Jan 24, 2020 - 7:31 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Terry Jones co-wrote and co-directed 1983’s MONTY PYTHON’S THE MEANING OF LIFE, in which the comedy team takes a look at life in all its stages in their own uniquely silly way.
In one sequence, a group of kids sing the song "Every Sperm is Sacred." Most of them later said they had no idea what they were singing about. In the song, Michael Palin actually said during the filming "those little rubber things on the end of my sock." The word "cock" was dubbed in later. The group later found out that Terry Jones had spent most of the budget on staging and filming this sequence.
"The Crimson Permanent Assurance" segment is about a group of elderly office clerks working in a small accounting firm. They rebel against yuppie corporate masters, transform their office building into a pirate ship, and raid a large financial district. The sequence, directed by Terry Gilliam, was filmed as if it were a completely separate project. Gilliam got his own soundstage, crew and cast. This segment continued to expand because, according to Gilliam, nobody told him to stop. A 5-minute scene became a 30-minute short movie. The group decided that they couldn't use the sequence in chronological order as featured in the script, right after the “Very Big Corporation of America” staff meeting, because it would slow the movie down. They decided to use it at the beginning, as a special presentation, and it was reduced to 16 minutes.
Perhaps the most infamous sketch in the film, was “Mr. Creosote,” in which a morbidly obese man comes into a restaurant and orders a big meal. Terry Jones wrote the sketch with Terry Gilliam in mind to play the title character. But Gilliam convinced Jones that he should do it himself. The scene was roundly rejected on its initial read-through. John Cleese saved it a few weeks later, after realizing the waiter was the funniest part.
Terry Jones as “Mr. Creosote” in MONTY PYTHON’S THE MEANING OF LIFE
During an interview to promote the film when it was first released, one Python said the meaning of life concept was the only way they could think of to tie together a lot of unrelated sketch material. Python refused to show Universal Studios a film script, figuring, as Eric Idle said, "If we couldn't work out how to make a Monty Python film, they couldn't tell us." Instead they showed them a poem, which was a summary of the film, and a budget projection. "And to their credit," says Idle, "they paid for the film on that." The $9 million gamble paid off, as the film grossed $15 million in the U.S. alone.
John Du Prez scored the film. MCA released a typical Python soundtrack LP, which was a mixture of original and tracked music, dialogue, and songs. However, the music underlying the “Crimson Permanent Assurance” segment, which was designed to mimic an Erich Wolfgang Korngold adventure score, was not included on the album.
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Posted: |
Jan 24, 2020 - 7:53 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Director Jim Henson’s inspiration to do the movie LABYRINTH came from his desire to correct a failure of his earlier picture, THE DARK CRYSTAL (1982). Despite that film’s critical and box-office success, Henson felt it suffered by not having human actors. LABYRINTH finds sixteen-year-old “Sarah” (Jennifer Connelly) being given thirteen hours to solve a labyrinth and rescue her baby brother “Toby” (Toby Froud) after her wish for him to be taken away is granted by the “Goblin King Jareth” (David Bowie).
Terry Jones was hired to script the film from a story by Dennis Lee and Jim Henson. Although Jones received sole screenplay credit, he and Henson had major disagreements on the direction of the story. Writer Elaine May did extensive rewrites, but was uncredited. Writer Laura Phillips also contributed to the screenplay. She received “special thanks” but no screen credit.
At the end of the rewrite process, Henson went back to Jones, saying the script had lost its humor, and asked Jones to put the jokes back in. Jones then tried to pull it back to his original version, but had to retain some of the different directions the script had taken by that point. Jones' biggest problem with the final draft was that the center of the labyrinth was shown before Sarah got there.
Henson and his team spent two years designing the puppets in the film, claiming that they were “more sophisticated than the radio controlled R2D2 of Star Wars and the creatures in THE DARK CRYSTAL". Principal photography began 15 April 1985 in London. All nine sound stages at Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire, England, were used during the twenty-week schedule. The film’s budget was $25 million, and it was a financial loser, grossing under $14 million in the U.S. Trevor Jones’ score shared space with David Bowie’s songs on the EMI soundtrack release.
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Posted: |
Jan 25, 2020 - 3:44 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Terry Jones wrote, directed, and co-starred in the live action filmization of the beloved children’s classic THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. The story follows “Mole” (Steve Coogan) whose home is bought up and marked for development by the evil Weasels (led by Antony Sher). Working with his friends, “Rat” (Eric Idle) and “Toad” (Terry Jones), Mole attempts to win back his home.
Steve Coogan, Terry Jones, and Eric Idle in THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
“Wind In the Willows” was also the name of the 30-minute featurette that makes up the first half of Walt Disney's 1949 feature THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD. And that is where the troubles began regarding the fate of Terry Jones’ film in the U.S. To be sure, the film was not a big hit in the UK when it was released there in October 1996. Nevertheless, Columbia Pictures acquired the film for a 1997 U.S. release. But Disney objected and threatened an injunction.
Columbia Pictures obtained theatrical distribution rights only as the result of a lawsuit against Disney. However, as part of the settlement, Disney retained the home video rights. This placed Columbia in the position that if it heavily promoted the film for a theatrical release, such a push would benefit only Disney when the movie left theaters and went to video. So, Columbia decided that it wasn’t worth the effort, and THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS was deliberately buried, playing on a total of just seven screens in New York and Los Angeles for a single week at the end of October 1997. In early 1998 the film played in a few other cities (among them San Francisco and Austin), but all told, the film earned less than $100,000 in the U.S.
John Du Prez and André Jacquemin provided the film’s unreleased score. When Disney released the DVD of the film in 1998, it was retitled “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.”
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Posted: |
Jan 25, 2020 - 4:42 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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After THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, Terry Jones would direct only one more feature, 2015’s ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING, in which a group of eccentric aliens confers a human being with the power to do absolutely anything, as an experiment. The film made $6 million in Europe, but only $20K in a few U.S. theaters in 2017 before going to video. Jones also directed shorts and videos and had some minor acting roles in the past 20 years.
Jones’ lifelong fascination with medieval and ancient history (and Geoffrey Chaucer in particular) led to writing a series of television documentaries (“Medieval Lives” (2004) and “Barbarians” (2006)), receiving an Emmy nomination for the former. He also wrote several well researched, if sometimes controversial, books including Chaucer's Knight: The Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary and Who Murdered Chaucer?: A Medieval Mystery.
Although Graham Chapman died in 1989, Jones would continue to write and perform with the remaining Pythons in the UK, doing several anniversary shows:
The 1989 British television special “Python Night: 30 Years of Monty Python”.
The 2010 video “Not the Messiah: He's a Very Naughty Boy,” a comic oratorio inspired by Monty Python's LIFE OF BRIAN filmed at its only European performance at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2009 to celebrate 40 years of Monty Python.
“Monty Python Live (Mostly): One Down, Five to Go,” the 2014 reunion of the Monty Python team on stage for the last time ever.
The subtitle of that last show gave rise to John Cleese’s remark, upon hearing of Terry Jones’ passing: “Two down, four to go.”
Jones once said "The thing is, we never thought Python was a success when it was actually happening. It was only with the benefit of hindsight". It is with the benefit of hindsight that we can look back on Jones’ career in merriment and give thanks for the pleasures we have derived from it. Thanks, Terry.
Terry Jones and Eric Idle in AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
(left to right) Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, and John Cleese at the Hollywood Bowl (1980)
(clockwise, from top left) John Cleese, John Oliver, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam
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Nice tribute Bob.
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