Monty Python's Flying Circus

The original surreal sketch comedy showcase for the Monty Python troupe.

Genre: Comedy

Cast:Graham Chapman , John Cleese , Terry Gilliam , Eric Idle , Terry Jones , Michael Palin , Carol Cleveland , John Hughman , Monty Python , Ian Davidson , The Fred Tomlinson Singers , Frank Lester , Bob Raymond , Connie Booth , Lyn Ashley , Rita Davies , Maureen Flanagan , Peter Brett

1Season 1

S1.E1 ∙ Whither Canada?

Sun, Oct 5, 1969

'It's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart', Famous Deaths, Italian Lesson, Whizzo Butter, 'It's the Arts', Arthur "Two-Sheds" Jackson, Cycling Race, and The Funniest Joke in the World.

2Season 1

S1.E2 ∙ Sex and Violence

Sun, Oct 12, 1969

Flying Sheep, French Lecture on Sheep-Aircraft, A Man With Three Buttocks, A Man With Two Noses, Musical Mice, Marriage Guidance Counselor, The Wacky Queen, Working-Class Playwright, A Scotsman on a Horse, The Wrestling Epilogue, and The Mouse Problem.

3Season 1

S1.E3 ∙ How to Recognise Different Types of Trees from Quite a Long Way Away

Sun, Oct 19, 1969

Court Scene, The Larch, Bicycle Repair Man, Children's Stories, Restaurant Sketch, Seduced Milkmen, Stolen News Reader, Children's Interview, and Nudge Nudge.

4Season 1

S1.E4 ∙ Owl Stretching Time

Sun, Oct 26, 1969

A change from street clothes to swim trunks turns into a burlesque act; a karate class exercises defense tactics against fresh fruit; a man tries to buy a book about false teeth.

5Season 1

S1.E5 ∙ Man's Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the 20th Century

Sun, Nov 16, 1969

Confuse-a-Cat, The Smuggler, A Duck, a Cat and a Lizard (Discussion), Vox Pops on Smuggling, Police Raid, Letters on Vox Pops, Newsreader Arrested, Erotic Film, Cartoon - Charles Fatless, Silly Job Interview, Careers Advisory Board, Burglar/Encyclopaedia Salesman

6Season 1

S1.E6 ∙ The BBC Entry for the Zinc Stoat of Budapest (or, It's the Arts)

Sun, Nov 23, 1969

Sketches include: a German composer with an extraordinarily long name; crooks plan an elaborate scheme to buy a watch; a chocolate-company owner markets "Crunchy Frog."

7Season 1

S1.E7 ∙ You're No Fun Any More

Sun, Nov 30, 1969

Invaders from another galaxy turn Englishmen into Scotsmen. Also: a comedy about camels; a corporate board meeting.

8Season 1

S1.E8 ∙ Full Frontal Nudity

Sun, Dec 7, 1969

A pet-shop customer returns his dead parrot; a gang of female senior citizens attacks a town's young men; a young army officer who joined the service to water-ski tries to resign.

9Season 1

S1.E9 ∙ The Ant: An Introduction

Sun, Dec 14, 1969

A man with double vision organizes a mountain-climbing expedition; llamas are celebrated in a rousing Spanish song; a barber is afraid to cut hair; a couple's romantic evening is ruined by uncouth visitors.

10Season 1

S1.E10 ∙ Untitled

Sun, Dec 21, 1969

Sketches include: Bank Robber in Lingerie Shop, It's a Tree, Ron Obvious, Pet Conversations, Gorilla Librarian, Strangers in the Night

11Season 1

S1.E11 ∙ The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes to the Bathroom

Sun, Dec 28, 1969

A half-inch-tall man appears on a talk show; a town's women's guild reenacts Pearl Harbor; the entire Royal Philharmonic Orchestra retires to the restroom.

12Season 1

S1.E12 ∙ The Naked Ant

Sun, Jan 4, 1970

The 127th annual Twit of the Year Show. Also: Hitler and Himmler are guests for tea in a boarding house; a BBC broadcast is interrupted when a British minister falls into a fissure.

13Season 1

S1.E13 ∙ Intermission

Sun, Jan 11, 1970

Among "historical" impersonations are Cardinal Richelieu as Petula Clark and Julius Caesar as Eddie Waring. Also: a police fairy tale; a vegetarian restaurant's menu, featuring a naked man with an apple in his mouth.

1Season 2

S2.E1 ∙ Dinsdale!

Tue, Sep 15, 1970

A sketch about the Ministry of Silly Walks. Also: a British minister---attired in a pink tulle dress---talks about housing; 30 gas-company men investigate the installation of a stove; a giant hedgehog wanders London.

2Season 2

S2.E2 ∙ The Spanish Inquisition

Tue, Sep 22, 1970

An offbeat look at the Spanish Inquisition; an unconventional version of "Wuthering Heights." Also: a jury plays charades while delivering its verdict; a man attempts to find one nontaxable pleasure.

3Season 2

S2.E3 ∙ Déjà Vu

Tue, Sep 29, 1970

Sketches include: Flying Lessons, Hijacked Plane, Psychiatrist Milkman, Complaints, Déjà vu.

4Season 2

S2.E4 ∙ The Buzz Aldrin Show

Tue, Oct 20, 1970

A supersleuth bishop investigates a suspicious insurance business; an elderly couple construct a house that has no walls.

5Season 2

S2.E5 ∙ Live from the Grill-o-Mat

Tue, Oct 27, 1970

Contestants vie for incriminating photos in "The Blackmail Game"; a boxer spars with schoolgirls.

6Season 2

S2.E6 ∙ It's a Living

Tue, Nov 3, 1970

Sketches include: The time on BBC 1, School Prize Giving, Films by Mr. Dibley, Timmy Williams Interview, Election Night Special

7Season 2

S2.E7 ∙ The Attila the Hun Show

Tue, Nov 10, 1970

"The Attila the Hun Show"; a burlesque performance by government ministers; a documentary study of village idiots. Also: political groupies pursue MPs.

8Season 2

S2.E8 ∙ Archaeology Today

Tue, Nov 17, 1970

A dissatisfied bridegroom tries to exchange his spouse; hunters pursue a terrifying mosquito; domestic problems interrupt the work of Beethoven, Shakespeare, Michelangelo and other creative geniuses.

9Season 2

S2.E9 ∙ How to Recognise Different Parts of the Body

Tue, Nov 24, 1970

A University of Woolamaloo philosophy-department meeting---the members of which are all named Bruce; an exploding penguin; a radio version of "The Death of Mary Queen of Scots." Also: advice on how to pick up a cosmetic surgeon.

10Season 2

S2.E10 ∙ Scott of the Antarctic

Tue, Dec 1, 1970

Foam-rubber snow and a stuffed lion are featured in a scene from "Scott of the Antarctic"; a football match is waged between gynecologists and Long John Silver impersonators.

11Season 2

S2.E11 ∙ How Not to Be Seen

Tue, Dec 8, 1970

Conquistador coffee campaign; Repeating groove; Ramsey MacDonald striptease; Job hunter; International Chinese Communist Conspiracy; Crelm Toothpaste/Shrill petrol; Agatha Christie sketch (railway timetables); Mr Neville Shunte - railroad playwright; Gavin Millarrrrr writes; Film director/dentist Martin Curry (teeth); City gents vox pops; 'Crackpot Religions Ltd'; 'How not to be seen'; Crossing the Atlantic on a tricycle; Interview in filing cabinet; 'Yummy yummy'; Monty Python's Flying Circus again in thirty seconds.

12Season 2

S2.E12 ∙ Spam

Tue, Dec 15, 1970

World revolutionaries are quizzed about football scores; figures from works of art go on strike throughout galleries in England; the search continues for a cure for over-acting; Viking marauders kidnap Englishmen who ask for canned ham.

13Season 2

S2.E13 ∙ Royal Episode Thirteen

Tue, Dec 22, 1970

Miners brawl over historical facts; hospital patients serve the doctors; five shipwrecked mariners decide whom they will have for dinner.

1Season 3

S3.E1 ∙ Whicker's World

Thu, Oct 19, 1972

A courteous murderer wins a suspended sentence by virtue of his charm; a search for Paris by way of Iceland is interrupted by a plane crash and a shipwreck. Also: how to dispose of pets before going on vacation.

2Season 3

S3.E2 ∙ Mr. and Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular

Thu, Oct 26, 1972

A couple investigate the cultural similarities between two London districts, seven miles apart; schoolboys' extracurricular activities are examined; a TV farming club comments on Tchaikovsky.

3Season 3

S3.E3 ∙ The Money Programme

Thu, Nov 2, 1972

"The Money Program" features a Swiss banker, a city accountant and a song of praise.

4Season 3

S3.E4 ∙ Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror

Thu, Nov 9, 1972

A program called "Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror," featuring a man who speaks exclusively in anagrams; a timorous TV announcer, before and after he undergoes psychiatric treatment; the employment of "pantomime horses."

5Season 3

S3.E5 ∙ The All England Summarise Proust Competition

Thu, Nov 16, 1972

Contestants in "The All-England Summarize Proust Competition" are judged in swimsuit and evening-gown categories; an irate customer confronts his travel agent. Also: an expedition to Mount Everest, made by an international group of hairstylists.

6Season 3

S3.E6 ∙ The War Against Pornography

Thu, Nov 23, 1972

Surgical tools applied to a mildly anesthetized patient include a power drill and a mallet; a TV program features a lecture on gastropods, highlighted by the visit of a whelk.

7Season 3

S3.E7 ∙ Salad Days

Thu, Nov 30, 1972

A climbing expedition negotiates a hazardous London road; an attempt is made to determine whether an urban dwelling is a house or a lifeboat. Also: a mouse's quest for cheese, which leads to the production of a Western called "Rogue Cheddar."

8Season 3

S3.E8 ∙ The Cycling Tour

Thu, Dec 7, 1972

Mr Pither; Clodagh Rogers; Trotsky; Smolensk; Bingo-crazed Chinese (British Ambassador); 'Jack in a Box'.

9Season 3

S3.E9 ∙ The Nude Man

Thu, Dec 14, 1972

A housing project induced by hypnosis stands---as long as the tenants believe in it. Also: highlights of the Olympic Hide-and-Seek finals; suggestions for improving bullfighting, such as the use of radar.

10Season 3

S3.E10 ∙ E. Henry Thripshaw's Disease

Thu, Dec 21, 1972

A police investigator is mistaken for Sir Philip Sidney in a Tudor-period job agency, which actually deals in pornography; King Solomon judges the case of a stray bee; a panel of dead people debates the question "Is There a Life After Death?"

11Season 3

S3.E11 ∙ Dennis Moore

Thu, Jan 4, 1973

A highwayman steals "lupins" from the rich and tries to give them to the poor. Also: the first episode in a tatty, tedious 18th-century serial is brought to a screeching halt; peasants clamor for Titian paintings and Venetian glass.

12Season 3

S3.E12 ∙ A Book at Bedtime

Thu, Jan 11, 1973

'A Book at Bedtime'; 'Red Gauntlet'; Kamikaze Highlanders; No time to lose; Penguins; BBC pro-gramme planners; Unexploded Scotsmen; 'Spot the Looney'; Rival documentaries; 'Dad's Doctors'; Dad's Pooves'.

13Season 3

S3.E13 ∙ Grandstand

Thu, Jan 18, 1973

Oscar Wilde, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, George Bernard Shaw and the future Edward VII exchange epigrams at an evening party; mechanical brain surgery fails to dramatically affect a woman's mentality.

1Season 4

S4.E1 ∙ The Golden Age of Ballooning

Thu, Oct 31, 1974

The Montgolfier brothers prepare for the first balloon flight.

2Season 4

S4.E2 ∙ Michael Ellis

Thu, Nov 7, 1974

In this episode, Chris Quinn enters a department store and demands to buy an ant named Marcus.

3Season 4

S4.E3 ∙ The Light Entertainment War

Thu, Nov 14, 1974

A parody of war includes the invasion of Norway by tutu-clad commandos and a plea to the public to treat the war seriously.

4Season 4

S4.E4 ∙ Hamlet

Thu, Nov 21, 1974

Hamlet undergoes psychoanalysis; eight Queen Victorias compete in the Queen Victoria handicap race; a boxing contender gets his head knocked off.

5Season 4

S4.E5 ∙ Mr. Neutron

Thu, Nov 28, 1974

The search for Mr. Neutron, who plans to dominate the world, stretches from a London suburb to the Yukon, and results in the destruction of earthly civilization.

6Season 4

S4.E6 ∙ Party Political Broadcast

Thu, Dec 5, 1974

A spoof of British political-party broadcasts includes the finals of "the worst family in Britain" contest, a violent cricket match and a housewife who revolutionized beekeeping.