October 5 will mark the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Monty Python's Flying Circus on the BBC. It replaced a rerun of a religious show and six years later Monty Python became a phenomenon in the United States after a Dallas PBS station became the first to air the show.

Wow, 50 years old! Who'd a thunk it? I remember when it just hit the 20 year mark.

I still have my old VHS copies from all the way back in the 1980s when the local PBS station ran a marathon after it lost its rights to air the show. I still have my VCR. Maybe I'll rewatch the episodes for old time's sake.

When it comes down to good British comedies none can match the humor of Monty Python's Flying Circus and who knew that Monty Python's Flying Circus would be the start to a series of Monty Python movies such as Monty Python's And The Holy Grail and The Life Of Brian and a Broadway play Spamalot and with stars such as Eric Idle John Cleese Terry Gilliam and others it's no secret that Monty Python's Flying Circus is still a favorite of fans who love British comedy. In the UK it's so hard to find good sitcoms full of humor as Monty Python's Flying Circus because like other British shows such as The Benny Hill Show and Are You Being Served? Monty Python's Flying Circus is a true comedy classic and any new British comedians should use Monty Python as a good role model for good old fashioned British humor in TV today
Bestie

Hi, Bestie! I agree! MPFC was a great comedy show. I wish I had all of their shows and Benny Hill too. British comedy is not funny now. It is boring. Thanks for reminding me about it. even though it makes me feel old when I see it is 50 years old.
DTK

I'm thinking that BBC will the Monty Python's 50th Anniversary Marathon on the Weekend of October 4th, 5th & 6th.

But I guarantee you, there will be nothing about the 50th anniversary of Benny Hill's first Thames show, which was transmitted via the ITV network on Nov. 19, 1969. It was as monumental in its own way. Especially since that first airing was positioned to air once BBC1 and ITV both "went colour."

But I wonder if Hill's defection to Thames (which so angered the BBC that they destroyed the master videotapes of his last three shows of 1968 in retaliation) played a role in the shaping of Python. After all, at the time Hill's agent Richard Stone set in motion the chain of events that culminated in Benny making the move, Thames had just completed airing the second series of Do Not Adjust Your Set which had four of the Pythons in their cast - Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and animator Terry Gilliam - and had expressed interest in putting out a third series but, in part due to their Hill signing (and also their signing of other talent such as Bernard Cribbins and Dickie Henderson), couldn't guarantee a studio for such a series for another year to 18 months - which doubtless would have given the BBC an opening to poach these four to join John Cleese and Graham Chapman in a sketch comedy show which Barry Took envisioned would have revolved around Cleese. I also note that in the entire history of Python, not one Richard Stone client ever appeared in a supporting, bit-part or walk-on role; and that James Balfour who lensed the filmed inserts of Hill's show in his last years with the 'Beeb', would do same for the first two series of Python.