With word arriving today that the surviving members of legendary comedy troupe Monty Python are getting back together for a new stage show it seems a good time to take a look at some of the more neglected corners of the Monty Python universe. And so here we have a selection of some of my very favorite bits of non-Python projects featuring the various members in different combinations. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that anybody reading this is already well familiar with
Fawlty Towers,
Brazil, etc so I'm leaving those better known titles out - and if you haven't seen either of those, in particular, then run don't walk - as well as the wealth of pre-Python that is near impossible to come across these days. though if anybody knows how I could see
The Frost Report or
That Was The Week That Was, I'd be much obliged.
Plagued by health and addiction issues, Graham Chapman was by far the least prolific of the six member comedy troupe with his only really significant post-Python outing coming in Yellowbeard, which he both wrote and starred in.
Though Chapman was already in decline at this point and the quality is certainly a step down from his peak the astounding cast in the film - Cheech and Chong, Peter Cook, Spike Milligan, Marty Feldman, and David Bowie join former Pythons John Cleese and Eric Idle - stand as a testament to the respect given Chapman by comedy royalty of the time.
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Terry Jones writes and directs this tale of a pacifist Viking warrior - played by a young Tim Robbins - on an epic quest to find Valhalla and end the age of Ragnarok.
While it's not the best post-Python effort, Erik The Viking might be my favorite and it's certainly the most quotable title in this list. Robbins has never really gotten to do much comedy since this, which is a shame because he's great, while Jones and John Cleese both have amazing support roles, while frequent Python collaborator Charles McKeown also turns up alongside Mickey Rooney, Eartha Kitt and Jim Broadbent.
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Co-written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones (who, surprisingly, does not direct or star), Ripping Yarns was a nine episode series very much built around the versatile Palin, who stars as a different lead character for each episode's 'Yarn'.
More story oriented than, perhaps, people were expecting from this duo in 1976, immediately following the end of the Flying Circus, Ripping Yarns never had much of a life on first broadcast but is so high quality that it has been one of those titles that simply never goes away with new generations discovering it in regular cycles. Charles McKeown's in this one as well.
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Unfortunately saddled with negative expectations due to the well publicized cost over runs and other problems on set, Terry Gilliam's 1988 The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen remains one of his best (and oddest) works. If you bought into the negative press, now is a good time to rectify that as it has aged very well, indeed.
John Neville stars as the titular character, fighting continuously to stave off the end of innocence and fantasy, alongside an absolutely brilliant cast that includes a very young Sarah Polley, a slightly less young Uma Thurman, Oliver Reed, Jonathan Price, Sting, Eric Idle, Robin Williams - a career highlight as the manic King Of The Moon - and, once again, Charles McKeown who seems to be in more of these post-Python projects than the Pythons themselves are.
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Before there was Weird Al's UHF or Canadian sketch comedy icon SCTV there was Eric Idle's Rutland Weekend Television, purporting to be the product of a low budget regional television station. The show is best known these days for its Beatles parody act, The Rutles, but there's more going on that just that and it proved popular enough that it spawned a 1978 TV movie and a 2004 follow up.
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Okay, yes, many of you will have seen Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits but, still, if there's a Gilliam film that people haven't seen which they really should, that film tends to end up being Time Bandits. As opposed to Jabberwocky, which most people haven't seen and really shouldn't because it's not very good.
Enormously entertaining and hugely funny - with Michael Palin and John Cleese's fantastic cameo parts being outshone by David Warner's performance as Evil, Warner perhaps putting the lie to my earlier claim that Erik The Viking is the most quotable film on the list thanks to Warner being so damn fantastic - there's actually surprising depth to it as well. Surprising not because it is ostensibly a kid's film, but because it's something that Gilliam and Palin wrote the basic script for over a weekend purely to make a few bucks to finance the movie they actually wanted to make, Brazil.
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Yeah, you've seen A Fish Called Wanda, too. Go see it again. It's amazing. Written by and starring John Cleese - who, depending on who you ask, may also have ghost directed - this is so good that even the Oscar voters had to agree and give Kevin Kline one of their fancy golden statues, which never ever ever happens for comedy films. Palin's in this one, too, as is comedy god Stephen Fry.
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John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones all occupy key roles in the Jones directed adaptation of classic children's novel The Wind In The Willows - released in many territories as Mr Toad's Wild Ride - which was a dismal economic failure upon release thanks to skewing too young for the established Python crowd and too weird for the normal kiddie audience.
But, hey! There's a lot to like here! A young Steve Coogan in the lead role as Mole, for one thing. And a courtroom faceoff between John Cleese and Stephen Fry, for another. Not brilliant, by any means, but still significantly better than word of mouth would have you believe.
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John Cleese and Graham Chapman know how to irritate people. And they would like to teach you how to, too. Cleese and Chapman wrote and star in this series of mock-instructional videos with Michael Palin and Connie Booth - an alumnus of both the Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers - both popping up throughout. It is what it says on the box and it's pretty fantastic.
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