title: Sons of Anarchy

text: "Sons of Anarchy" has been called ""Hamlet" on Harleys". Similar to "Hamlet", Jax's father was usurped by his father's SAMCRO "brother", who then married Jax's mother. There were also intermittent hints at an Oedipal complex between Jax and Gemma, reflecting 20th-century interpretations of the relationship between Hamlet and his mother Queen Gertrude. Jax's murder of the innocent Jury in season 7 mirrors Hamlet's murder of the innocent Polonius in that it ultimately leads to his downfall.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Sutter has said of the Shakespeare element, "I don't want to overplay that but it's there. It was Jax's father who started the club, so he's the ghost in the action. You wonder what he would have made of the way it turned out. It's not a version of "Hamlet" but it's definitely influenced by it." Ron Perlman believed they were "going to stick to the structure of "Hamlet" all the way to the end (of the series)."


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: In the Season 1 premiere, Gemma is shown cleaning Jax's house, and he notes that she is always cleaning. This behavior, combined with her ambitions and (sometimes murderous) machinations, have prompted some reviewers and commentators to liken her to Lady Macbeth.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: The series was created by Kurt Sutter. Sutter was also the showrunner, the series' most prolific writer, and a regular director; he directed each season finale. Sutter had previously worked as an executive producer for the FX series "The Shield". The "Sons of Anarchy"s other executive producers are father and son team Art Linson and John Linson; Jim Parriott served as an executive producer and writer for the first season only.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Paris Barclay joined "Sons of Anarchy" as an executive producer in the fourth season, after directing episodes in the first and second season. In addition to serving as Executive Producer in the fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons, Barclay directed three episodes each season, including the season 4 and 5 premieres, the top two highest-rated telecasts in the history of FX.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Jack LoGiudice served as a consulting producer and regular writer for the first season. He became co-executive producer for the second season, then left the series to work on "The Walking Dead".


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Dave Erickson also worked as a consulting producer for the first and second seasons, and then took over as co-executive producer for the third season. The series' other regular writers are supervising producer Chris Collins and co-producer Regina Corrado. Shawn Rutherford joined as consulting producer for seasons 6 and 7.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Sutter drew regular directors from "The Shield" including Stephen Kay, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Guy Ferland, and Billy Gierhart.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Although "Sons of Anarchy" is set in Northern California's Central Valley (with some scenes in the Bay Area), it was filmed primarily at Occidental Studios Stage 5A in North Hollywood. Main sets located there included the clubhouse, St. Thomas Hospital, and Jax's house. The production rooms at the studio used by the writing staff doubled as the Charming police station. External scenes were often filmed nearby in Sun Valley, Acton, California, and Tujunga. Interior and exterior scenes set in Northern Ireland during season 3 were also filmed at Occidental Studios and surrounding areas. A second unit shot footage in Northern Ireland used in the third season.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: "Sons of Anarchy" received very favorable reviews over the course of its run, with many singling out Katey Sagal's performance. On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the first season scored 68/100, the second season scored 86/100, the third season scored 84/100, the fourth season scored 81/100, the fifth season scored 72/100, the sixth season scored 74/100 and the final season scored 68/100.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: The first season received positive reviews from industry critics. It scored a 68 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Matthew Gilbert of "The Boston Globe" said the first season had "real potential". "The New York Times" Gina Bellafante spoke highly of the cast's acting ability, particularly Sagal's portrayal of Gemma. Brian Lowry of "Variety" gave a mixed review, admiring Sutter's creation of the club and the town of Charming but observing the early episodes lacked direction.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: The second season saw a substantial increase in positive reviews. Writing for "Chicago Tribune", Maureen Ryan called the second season "engrossing". She elaborated that "the pacing is better "[and]" the plotting is tighter" and commends Sagal and Perlman for their performances. "Variety"’s Stuart Levine stated that the new season was "compelling"; he also complimented the acting skill of Perlman, Sagal, Hunnam and Siff. James Poniewozik of "TIME" called Sagal's performance "devastatingly powerful" and named the series on his list of Top 10 Shows of 2009. In Alan Sepinwall's 2016 book titled "TV (The Book)", which he co-wrote with Matt Zoller Seitz, he included the second season of "Sons of Anarchy" in the section "A Certain Regard" where he praised how "[a]fter working out a few kinks in the first season, Sutter nailed everything in season 2".


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Some critics felt the third season was dragged down by the previous season's cliffhanger. James Poniewozik of "TIME" called the season three premiere "breathtaking" and praised Sagal's performance with Holbrook. He later stated that Abel's disappearance helped return the show to its central problem: Jax's allegiance to the club. "Entertainment Weekly"’s Ken Tucker agreed that Holbrook and Sagal's scenes were "beautiful". He also commented that the series handled themes of loyalty and family especially well. Maureen Ryan commented that the third season divided critics and fans alike, suggesting the expanded Belfast cast made it harder for the audience to invest in the characters' journeys. Ryan later questioned the credibility of Hector Salazar's story, noting that he was inferior to other villainous characters such as Stahl, Zobelle and Weston. However, she praised Ally Walker's performance, comparing her character to "The Shield"s Vic Mackey. Critic Alan Sepinwall said the season was "interesting but uneven", noting that the plot gained traction in later episodes. Tim Goodman of "The Hollywood Reporter" said "Sutter should be applauded for shaking things up", calling the slower pace a "creative necessity".


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Alan Sepinwall stated that the fourth season risked predictability by returning to a successful formula of storytelling, but he nonetheless preferred those episodes to those of season three. Maureen Ryan reviewed the fourth season positively. She praised the addition of Lincoln Potter (played by Ray McKinnon), comparing the character's quality to that of "Breaking Bad"'s antagonist, Gustavo Fring. "The A.V. Club" called the fourth season more "focused" and "operatic". "A.V. Club" reviewer Zack Handlen was fond of the season but felt disappointed with the finale, saying it featured a "lousy case of dictated convenience, of an arbitrary and unbelievable reveal used to shift characters around to where the writers want them to be for next season, as opposed to where they might land organically." However, the review did praise Charlie Hunnam's performance in the finale. "TIME" said the fourth season was the strongest since season two, but the show needed to end sooner rather than later. "TIME" also agreed that the finale's contrivances were sometimes too visible, stating "it's the principle: you can only turn up alive at your own funeral so many times before it starts to lose its impact."


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Ken Tucker of "Entertainment Weekly" praised the series by calling it a "richly detailed portrait of self-righteous villainy".


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Season seven received "generally favorable reviews" and scored a 68 out of 100 on Metacritic based on reviews from 6 critics.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: The seventh season's premiere on September 9, 2014, received the highest ratings in the series' history. The episode was watched by 6.20 million viewers.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Three EP soundtracks have been released by 20th Century Fox Records, on iTunes, featuring songs from each series. The first five-song EP, entitled "Sons of Anarchy: North Country – EP", was released on September 8, 2009, and featured the full version of the Emmy Award nominated theme song "This Life". A second five-song EP, entitled "Sons of Anarchy: Shelter – EP", was released on November 24, 2009, while a third six-song EP, entitled "Sons of Anarchy: The King is Gone - EP", was released on November 23, 2010.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: In November 2011, selected highlights from the EPs and new tracks were released in "Songs of Anarchy: Music from Sons of Anarchy Seasons 1–4", followed up by "" released in November 2012, "" released in December 2013, and "" released in February 2015.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: In 2013, Boom! Studios began publishing a "Sons of Anarchy" comic book. As of September 2015, 25 issues have been published. Issue 25 is the final issue. A new comic book prequel, "Sons of Anarchy: Redwood Original", was released on August 3, 2016.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: "Sons of Anarchy: Bratva", the first in a planned series of SOA novels to be written by Christopher Golden, was published in 2014.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: A prequel series, detailing the origin of the club, is planned. Sutter stated in an August 2014 interview that the prequel would focus on the "First 9" members of the club and be set around the time of the Vietnam War. He added that the prequel would likely consist of a miniseries or "maybe 10 episodes or two 8 episodes seasons". At the conclusion of the prequel, Sutter plans to release John Teller's manuscript, titled "The Life and Death of SAMCRO". However, the prequel is in limbo after some problems between Sutter and Disney arose. Sutter was quoted saying that the possibility of making the First 9 "doesn’t look that hopeful" since he was fired from FX and the studio owns "Sons of Anarchy".


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: "Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect" was an episodic adventure video game developed by Silverback Games and published by Orpheus Interactive. The game was originally slated to have ten episodes and to be released on Microsoft Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android. The first episode was released on February 1, 2015 for iOS only, and was met with mixed reviews. It has not seen an update since, and, although a season pass is being offered, no further episode was ever released. On April 7, 2016, refunds were issued to everyone who purchased the game or the season pass, and the game had been removed from the App Store.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: Despite the apparent cancellation and refunds, the game's publisher has not officially said anything about the development state of the nine unreleased episodes. Silverback Games has distanced themselves from the project, claiming to be "just a consultant" and having no knowledge of the state of the game or of Orpheus Interactive.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: As of May 11, 2016, a spin-off series was in the works titled "Mayans M.C.". The pilot began shooting in March 2017, directed by Sutter from a script he co-wrote with Elgin James.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: "Mayans M.C." takes place two and a half years after the events of "Sons of Anarchy" and is set hundreds of miles away in the fictional California border town of Santo Padre. The series focuses on the struggles of Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes (portrayed by J. D. Pardo), a prospect in Mayans Motorcycle Club charter based on the U.S.-Mexico border who eventually works his way up to president of the chapter. EZ is the gifted son of a proud Mexican family, whose American dream was snuffed out by cartel violence. On February 13, 2017, Edward James Olmos was attached to star as EZ's father Felipe Reyes, the family's once strong Mexican patriarch. Several aspects from Sons of Anarchy are included in the show, including the Sons of Anarchy themselves, as well as the Galindo Cartel, who plays a larger role in the series. The series features appearances from characters from Sons of Anarchy, including Marcus Álvarez (Emilio Rivera), Happy Lowman (David Labrava), an uncredited appearance in the pilot from Katey Sagal portraying Gemma Teller, Lincoln Potter (Ray McKinnon), among a few others.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: On January 5, 2018, FX picked up the series with an order of 10 episodes, which premiered on September 4, 2018. On October 1, 2018, it was announced that FX had renewed the series for a second season.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: "Sons of Anarchy" premiered in Australia, on the Showcase in 2009. In New Zealand, it appeared on TV3 on October 20, 2010, and, it has been announced, it is moving to the Box. In the UK, the show premiered on Bravo in 2009, but the channel only showed the first 2 series before it closed in 2011. It aired in its entirety on Spike in 2015. In the Republic of Ireland, the show aired on RTÉ Two from 2009. In Canada, it premiered on Super Channel on October 20, 2008. In India, season 6 began airing on Star World Premiere on September 26, 2013.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: In 2018, Universo announced an October 29, 2018 premiere of "Sons of Anarchy" season 3 in Spanish. The show was made available on Netflix in 2011, but all seasons were removed from Netflix on December 1, 2018.


title: Sons of Anarchy

text: As of 2021, the show is available to watch in some countries on Disney+'s Star section and available on Hulu.


title: Monty Python

text: Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show "Monty Python's Flying Circus", which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series. The Python phenomenon developed from the television series into something larger in scope and influence, including touring stage shows, films, albums, books and musicals. The Pythons' influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. Regarded as an enduring icon of 1970s pop culture, their sketch show has been referred to as being "an important moment in the evolution of television comedy".


title: Monty Python

text: Broadcast by the BBC between 1969 and 1974, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was conceived, written and performed by its members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Loosely structured as a sketch show, but with an innovative stream-of-consciousness approach aided by Gilliam's animation, it pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in style and content. A self-contained comedy team responsible for both writing and performing their work, the Pythons had creative control which allowed them to experiment with form and content, discarding rules of television comedy. Following their television work, they began making films, including "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975), "Life of Brian" (1979) and "The Meaning of Life" (1983). Their influence on British comedy has been apparent for years, while in North America, it has coloured the work of cult performers from the early editions of "Saturday Night Live" through to absurdist trends in television comedy. "Pythonesque" has entered the English lexicon as a result.


title: Monty Python

text: At the 41st British Academy Film Awards in 1988, Monty Python received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema. In 1998, they were awarded the AFI Star Award by the American Film Institute. Many sketches from their TV show and films are well-known and widely quoted. Both "Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian" are frequently ranked in lists of greatest comedy films. In a 2005 poll of over 300 comics, comedy writers, producers and directors throughout the English-speaking world to find "The Comedian's Comedian", three of the six Pythons members were voted to be among the top 50 greatest comedians ever: Cleese at No. 2, Idle at No. 21, and Palin at No. 30.


title: Monty Python

text: Jones and Palin met at Oxford University, where they performed together with the Oxford Revue. Chapman and Cleese met at Cambridge University. Idle was also at Cambridge, but started a year after Chapman and Cleese. Cleese met Gilliam in New York City while on tour with the Cambridge University Footlights revue "Cambridge Circus" (originally entitled "A Clump of Plinths"). Chapman, Cleese, and Idle were members of the Footlights, which at that time also included the future "Goodies" (Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, and Graeme Garden), and Jonathan Lynn (co-writer of "Yes Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister"). During Idle's presidency of the club, feminist writer Germaine Greer and broadcaster Clive James were members. Recordings of Footlights' revues (called "Smokers") at Pembroke College include sketches and performances by Cleese and Idle, which, along with tapes of Idle's performances in some of the drama society's theatrical productions, are kept in the archives of the Pembroke Players.


title: Monty Python

text: The BBC's satirical television show "The Frost Report", broadcast from March 1966 to December 1967, is credited as first uniting the British Pythons and providing an environment in which they could develop their particular styles.


title: Monty Python

text: Following the success of "Do Not Adjust Your Set", broadcast on ITV from December 1967 to May 1969, Thames Television offered Gilliam, Idle, Jones, and Palin their own late-night adult comedy series together. At the same time, Chapman and Cleese were offered a show by the BBC, which had been impressed by their work on "The Frost Report" and "At Last the 1948 Show". Cleese was reluctant to do a two-man show for various reasons, including Chapman's supposedly difficult and erratic personality. Cleese had fond memories of working with Palin on "How to Irritate People" and invited him to join the team. With no studio available at Thames until summer 1970 for the late-night show, Palin agreed to join Cleese and Chapman, and suggested the involvement of his writing partner Jones and colleague Idle—who in turn wanted Gilliam to provide animations for the projected series. Much has been made of the fact that the Monty Python troupe is the result of Cleese's desire to work with Palin and the chance circumstances that brought the other four members into the fold.


title: Monty Python

text: By contrast, according to John Cleese's autobiography, the origins of "Monty Python" lay in the admiration that writing partners Cleese and Chapman had for the new type of comedy being done on "Do Not Adjust Your Set"; as a result, a meeting was initiated by Cleese between Chapman, Idle, Jones, Palin, and himself at which it was agreed to pool their writing and performing efforts and jointly seek production sponsorship. According to their official website, the group was born from a Kashmir tandoori restaurant in Hampstead on 11 May 1969, following a taping of "Do Not Adjust Your Set" which Cleese and Chapman attended. It was the first time all six got together, reportedly going back to Cleese's apartment on nearby Basil Street afterwards to continue discussions.


title: Monty Python

text: The Pythons had a definite idea about what they wanted to do with the series. They were admirers of the work of Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore on "Beyond the Fringe"—seminal to the British "satire boom"—and had worked on "Frost", which was similar in style. They enjoyed Cook and Moore's sketch show "Not Only... But Also". One problem the Pythons perceived with these programmes was that though the body of the sketch would be strong, the writers would often struggle to then find a punchline funny enough to end on, and this would detract from the overall sketch quality. They decided that they would simply not bother to "cap" their sketches in the traditional manner, and early episodes of the "Flying Circus" series make great play of this abandonment of the punchline (one scene has Cleese turn to Idle, as the sketch descends into chaos, and remark that "This is the silliest sketch I've ever been in"—they all resolve not to carry on and simply walk off the set). However, as they began assembling material for the show, the Pythons watched one of their collective heroes, Spike Milligan, whom they had admired on "The Goon Show" (a show the Pythons regard as their biggest influence, which also featured Peter Sellers, whom Cleese called "the greatest voice man of all time") recording his groundbreaking BBC series "Q..." (1969). Not only was "Q..." more irreverent and anarchic than any previous television comedy, but Milligan also would often "give up" on sketches halfway through and wander off set (often muttering "Did I write this?"). It was clear that their new series would now seem less original, and Jones in particular became determined the Pythons should innovate. Michael Palin recalls "Terry Jones and I adored the "Q..." shows...[Milligan] was the first writer to play with the conventions of television."


title: Monty Python

text: After much debate, Jones remembered an animation Gilliam had created for "Do Not Adjust Your Set" called "Beware of the Elephants", which had intrigued him with its stream-of-consciousness style. Jones felt it would be a good concept to apply to the series: allowing sketches to blend into one another. Palin had been equally fascinated by another of Gilliam's efforts, entitled "Christmas Cards", and agreed that it represented "a way of doing things differently". Since Cleese, Chapman, and Idle were less concerned with the overall flow of the programme, Jones, Palin, and Gilliam became largely responsible for the presentation style of the "Flying Circus" series, in which disparate sketches are linked to give each episode the appearance of a single stream-of-consciousness (often using a Gilliam animation to move from the closing image of one sketch to the opening scene of another). The BBC states, "Gilliam's unique animation style became crucial, segueing seamlessly between any two completely unrelated ideas and making the stream-of-consciousness work."


title: Monty Python

text: Writing started at 9 am and finished at 5 pm. Typically, Cleese and Chapman worked as one pair isolated from the others, as did Jones and Palin, while Idle wrote alone. After a few days, they would join with Gilliam, critique their scripts, and exchange ideas. Their approach to writing was democratic. If the majority found an idea humorous, it was included in the show. The casting of roles for the sketches was a similarly unselfish process, since each member viewed himself primarily as a "writer", rather than an actor eager for screen time. When the themes for sketches were chosen, Gilliam had a free hand in bridging them with animations, using a camera, scissors, and airbrush.


title: Monty Python

text: While the show was a collaborative process, different factions within Python were responsible for elements of the team's humour. In general, the work of the Oxford-educated members (Jones and Palin) was more visual, and more fanciful conceptually (e.g., the arrival of the Spanish Inquisition in a suburban front room), while the Cambridge graduates' sketches tended to be more verbal and more aggressive (for example, Cleese and Chapman's many "confrontation" sketches, where one character intimidates or hurls abuse, or Idle's characters with bizarre verbal quirks, such as "The Man Who Speaks In Anagrams"). Cleese confirmed that "most of the sketches with heavy abuse were Graham's and mine, anything that started with a slow pan across countryside and impressive music was Mike and Terry's, and anything that got utterly involved with words and disappeared up any personal orifice was Eric's". Gilliam's animations ranged from the whimsical to the savage (the cartoon format allowing him to create some astonishingly violent scenes without fear of censorship).


title: Monty Python

text: Several names for the show were considered before "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was settled upon. Some were "Owl Stretching Time", "The Toad Elevating Moment", "A Horse, a Spoon and a Bucket", "Vaseline Review", and "Bun, Wackett, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot". "Flying Circus" stuck when the BBC explained it had printed that name in its schedules and was not prepared to amend it. Many variations on the name in front of this title then came and went (popular legend holds that the BBC considered "Monty Python's Flying Circus" to be a ridiculous name, at which point the group threatened to change their name every week until the BBC relented). "Gwen Dibley's Flying Circus" was named after a woman Palin had read about in the newspaper, thinking it would be amusing if she were to discover she had her own TV show. "Baron Von Took's Flying Circus" was considered as an affectionate tribute to Barry Took, the man who had brought them together. "Arthur Megapode's Flying Circus" was suggested, then discarded. The name "Baron Von Took's Flying Circus" had the form of "Baron Manfred von Richthofen's Flying Circus" of WWI fame, and the new group was forming in a time when the Royal Guardsmen's 1966 song "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" had peaked. The term 'flying circus' was also another name for the popular entertainment of the 1920s known as barnstorming, where multiple performers collaborated with their stunts to perform a combined set of acts.


title: Monty Python

text: Differing, somewhat confusing accounts are given of the origins of the Python name, although the members agree that its only "significance" was that they thought it sounded funny. In the 1998 documentary "Live at Aspen" during the US Comedy Arts Festival, where the troupe was awarded the AFI Star Award by the American Film Institute, the group implied that "Monty" was selected (Eric Idle's idea) as a gently mocking tribute to Field Marshal Lord Montgomery, a British general of World War II; requiring a "slippery-sounding" surname, they settled on "Python". On other occasions, Idle has claimed that the name "Monty" was that of a popular and rotund fellow who drank in his local pub; people would often walk in and ask the barman, "Has Monty been in yet?", forcing the name to become stuck in his mind. The name Monty Python was later described by the BBC as being "envisaged by the team as the perfect name for a sleazy entertainment agent".


title: Monty Python

text: "Flying Circus" popularised innovative formal techniques, such as the cold open, in which an episode began without the traditional opening titles or announcements. An example of this is the "It's" man: Palin, outfitted in Robinson Crusoe garb, making a tortuous journey across various terrains, before finally approaching the camera to state, "It's ...", only to be then cut off by the title sequence and theme music. On several occasions, the cold open lasted until mid-show, after which the regular opening titles ran. Occasionally, the Pythons tricked viewers by rolling the closing credits halfway through the show, usually continuing the joke by fading to the familiar globe logo used for BBC continuity, over which Cleese would parody the clipped tones of a BBC announcer. On one occasion, the credits ran directly after the opening titles. On the subversive nature of the show (and their subsequent films), Cleese states "anti-authoritarianism was deeply ingrained in Python".


title: Monty Python

text: Because of their dislike of finishing with punchlines, they experimented with ending the sketches by cutting abruptly to another scene or animation, walking offstage, addressing the camera (breaking the fourth wall), or introducing a totally unrelated event or character. A classic example of this approach was the use of Chapman's "anti-silliness" character of "the Colonel", who walked into several sketches and ordered them to be stopped because things were becoming "far too silly".


title: Monty Python

text: Another favourite way of ending sketches was to drop a cartoonish "16-ton weight" prop on one of the characters when the sketch seemed to be losing momentum, or a knight in full armour (played by Terry Gilliam) would wander on-set and hit characters over the head with a rubber chicken, before cutting to the next scene. Yet another way of changing scenes was when John Cleese, usually outfitted in a dinner suit, would come in as a radio commentator and, in a rather pompous manner, make the formal and determined announcement "And now for something completely different.", which later became the title of the first Monty Python film.


title: Monty Python

text: The Python theme music is the Band of the Grenadier Guards' rendition of John Philip Sousa's "The Liberty Bell" which was first published in 1893. Under the Berne Convention's "country of origin" concept, the composition was subject to United States copyright law which states that any work first published prior to 1924 was in the public domain, owing to copyright expiration. This enabled Gilliam to co-opt the march for the series without having to make any royalty payments.


title: Monty Python

text: The use of Gilliam's surreal, collage stop motion animations was another innovative intertextual element of the Python style. Many of the images Gilliam used were lifted from famous works of art, and from Victorian illustrations and engravings. The giant foot which crushes the show's title at the end of the opening credits is in fact the foot of Cupid, cut from a reproduction of the Renaissance masterpiece "Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time" by Bronzino. This foot, and Gilliam's style in general, are visual trademarks of the programme.


title: Monty Python

text: The Pythons used the British tradition of cross-dressing comedy by donning frocks and makeup and playing female roles themselves while speaking in falsetto. Jones specialised in playing the working-class housewife, or "ratbag old women" as termed by the BBC. Palin and Idle generally played the role more posh, with Idle playing more feminine women. Cleese played female roles more sparsely, while Chapman was frequently paired with Jones as a ratbag woman or with Idle portraying middle-class women commenting upon TV. Generally speaking, female roles were played by women only when the scene specifically required that the character be sexually attractive (although sometimes they used Idle for this). The troupe later turned to Carol Cleveland—often described as the unofficial seventh member—who co-starred in numerous episodes after 1970. In some episodes, and later in the stoning scene in "Monty Python's Life of Brian", they took the idea one step further by playing women who impersonated men.


title: Monty Python

text: Many sketches are well-known and widely quoted. "Dead Parrot sketch", "The Lumberjack Song", "Spam" (which led to the coining of the term email spam), "Nudge Nudge", "The Spanish Inquisition", "Upper Class Twit of the Year", "Cheese Shop", "The Ministry of Silly Walks", "Argument Clinic", "The Funniest Joke in the World" (a sketch referenced in Google Translate), and Four Yorkshiremen sketch" are just a few examples. Most of the show’s sketches satirise areas of public life, such as: Dead Parrot (poor customer service), Silly Walks (bureaucratic inefficiency), Spam (ubiquity of Spam post World War II), and Four Yorkshiremen (nostalgic conversations). Featuring regularly in skits, Gumbys (characters of limited intelligence and vocabulary) were part of the Pythons' satirical view of television of the 1970s which condescendingly encouraged more involvement from the "man on the street".


title: Monty Python

text: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) added "Monty Python's Flying Circus" to its national September 1970 fall line-up. They aired the 13 episodes of series 1, which had first run on the BBC the previous autumn (October 1969 to January 1970), as well as the first six episodes of series 2 only a few weeks after they first appeared on the BBC (September to November 1970). The CBC dropped the show when it returned to regular programming after the Christmas 1970 break, choosing to not place the remaining seven episodes of series 2 on the January 1971 CBC schedule. Within a week, the CBC received hundreds of calls complaining of the cancellation, and more than 100 people staged a demonstration at the CBC's Montreal studios. The show eventually returned, becoming a fixture on the network during the first half of the 1970s.


title: Monty Python

text: Sketches from "Monty Python's Flying Circus" were introduced to American audiences in August 1972, with the release of the Python film "And Now for Something Completely Different", featuring sketches from series 1 and 2 of the television show. This 1972 release met with limited box office success.


title: Monty Python

text: The ability to show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" under the American NTSC standard had been made possible by the commercial actions of American television producer Greg Garrison. Garrison produced the NBC series "The Dean Martin Comedy World", which ran during the summer of 1974. The concept was to show clips from comedy shows produced in other countries, including tape of the Python sketches "Bicycle Repairman" and "The Dull Life of a Stockbroker". Payment for use of these two sketches was enough to allow Time-Life Films to convert the entire Python library to NTSC standard, allowing for the sale to the PBS network stations which then brought the entire show to US audiences.


title: Monty Python

text: Through the efforts of Python's American manager Nancy Lewis, during the summer of 1974, Ron Devillier, the programming director for nonprofit PBS television station KERA in Dallas, Texas, started airing episodes of "Monty Python's Flying Circus". Ratings shot through the roof, providing an encouraging sign to the other 100 PBS stations that had signed up to begin airing the show in October 1974—exactly five years after their BBC debut. There was also cross-promotion from FM radio stations across the US, whose airing of tracks from the Python LPs had already introduced American audiences to this bizarre brand of comedy. The popularity on PBS resulted in the 1974 re-release of the 1972 "...Completely Different" film, with much greater box office success. The success of the show was captured by a March 1975 article headline in "The New York Times", "Monty Python's Flying Circus Is Barnstorming Here". Asked what challenges were left, now that they had made TV shows, films, written books, and produced records, Chapman responded, "Well, actually world supremacy would be very nice", before Idle cautioned, "Yes, but that sort of thing has got to be done properly".


title: Monty Python

text: In 1975 ABC broadcast two 90-minute "Monty Python" specials, each with three shows, but cut out a total of 24 minutes from each, in part to make time for commercials, and in part to avoid upsetting their audience. As the judge observed in "Gilliam v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.", where Monty Python sued for damages caused by broadcast of the mutilated version, "According to the network, appellants should have anticipated that most of the excised material contained scatological references inappropriate for American television and that these scenes would be replaced with commercials, which presumably are more palatable to the American public." Monty Python won the case.


title: Monty Python

text: With the popularity of Python throughout the rest of the 1970s and through most of the 1980s, PBS stations looked at other British comedies, leading to UK shows such as "Are You Being Served?" gaining a US audience, and leading, over time, to many PBS stations having a "British Comedy Night" which airs many popular UK comedies.


title: Monty Python

text: In 1976, Monty Python became the top rated show in Japan. The popularity of the show in the Netherlands saw the town of Spijkenisse near Rotterdam open a 'silly walks' road crossing in 2018. Believed to be a world first, the official sign asks pedestrians to cross the road in a comical manner.


title: Monty Python

text: Having considered the possibility at the end of the second season, Cleese left the "Flying Circus" at the end of the third. He later explained that he felt he no longer had anything fresh to offer the show, and claimed that only two Cleese- and Chapman-penned sketches in the third series ("Dennis Moore" and the "Cheese Shop") were truly original, and that the others were bits and pieces from previous work cobbled together in slightly different contexts. He was also finding Chapman, who was at that point in the full throes of alcoholism, difficult to work with. According to an interview with Idle, "It was on an Air Canada flight on the way to Toronto, when John (Cleese) turned to all of us and said 'I want out.' Why? I don't know. He gets bored more easily than the rest of us. He's a difficult man, not easy to be friendly with. He's so funny because he never wanted to be liked. That gives him a certain fascinating, arrogant freedom." Jones noted his reticence in 2012, "He was good at it, when he did it he was professional, but he’d rather not have done it. The others all loved it, but he got more and more pissed off about having to come out and do filming, and the one that really swung it, in my view, was when we had to do the day on the Newhaven lifeboat."


title: Monty Python

text: The rest of the group carried on for one more "half" season before calling a halt to the programme in 1974. While the first three seasons contained 13 episodes each, the fourth ended after just six. The name "Monty Python's Flying Circus" appears in the opening animation for season four, but in the end credits, the show is listed as simply "Monty Python". Although Cleese left the show, he was credited as a writer for three of the six episodes, largely concentrated in the "Michael Ellis" episode, which had begun life as one of the many drafts of the "Holy Grail" motion picture. When a new direction for "Grail" was decided upon, the subplot of Arthur and his knights wandering around a strange department store in modern times was lifted out and recycled as the aforementioned TV episode. Songwriter Neil Innes contributed to some sketches, including "Appeal on Behalf of Very Rich People".


title: Monty Python

text: The Pythons' first feature film was directed by Ian MacNaughton, reprising his role from the television series. It consisted of sketches from the first two seasons of the "Flying Circus", reshot on a low budget (and often slightly edited) for cinema release. Material selected for the film includes: "Dead Parrot", "The Lumberjack Song", "Upper Class Twit of the Year", "Hell's Grannies", "Self-Defence Class", "How Not to Be Seen", and "Nudge Nudge". Financed by "Playboy"s UK executive Victor Lownes, it was intended as a way of breaking Monty Python into America, and although it was ultimately unsuccessful in this, the film did good business in the UK, and later in the US on the "Midnight movie" circuit after their breakthrough television and film success, this being in the era before home video would make the original material much more accessible. The group did not consider the film a success.


title: Monty Python

text: In 1974, between production on the third and fourth seasons, the group decided to embark on their first "proper" feature film, containing entirely new material. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was based on Arthurian legend and was directed by Jones and Gilliam. Again, the latter also contributed linking animations (and put together the opening credits). Along with the rest of the Pythons, Jones and Gilliam performed several roles in the film, but Chapman took the lead as King Arthur. Cleese returned to the group for the film, feeling that they were once again breaking new ground. "Holy Grail" was filmed on location, in picturesque rural areas of Scotland, with a budget of only £229,000; the money was raised in part with investments from rock groups such as Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, and Led Zeppelin, as well as UK music industry entrepreneur Tony Stratton-Smith (founder and owner of the Charisma Records label, for which the Pythons recorded their comedy albums).


title: Monty Python

text: The backers of the film wanted to cut the famous Black Knight scene (a Sam Peckinpah send-up in which the Black Knight loses his limbs in a duel), but it was eventually kept in the movie. "Tis but a scratch" and "It's just a flesh wound…" are often quoted. "Holy Grail" was selected as the second-best comedy of all time in the ABC special "". and viewers in a Channel 4 poll placed it sixth.


title: Monty Python

text: Following the success of "Holy Grail", reporters asked for the title of the next Python film, though the team had not even begun to consider a third one. Eventually, Idle flippantly replied "Jesus Christ – Lust for Glory", which became the group's stock answer to such questions. However, they soon began to seriously consider a film lampooning the New Testament era in the same way "Holy Grail" had lampooned Arthurian legend. Despite sharing a distrust of organised religion, they agreed not to mock Jesus or his teachings directly. They also mentioned that they could not think of anything legitimate to make fun of about him. Instead, they decided to write a satire on credulity and hypocrisy among the followers of someone [Brian] who had been mistaken for the "Messiah", but who had no desire to be followed as such. Terry Jones adds it was a satire on those who for the next 2,000 years "couldn't agree on what Jesus was saying about peace and love".


title: Monty Python

text: The focus therefore shifted to a separate individual, Brian Cohen, born at the same time, and in a neighbouring stable. When Jesus appears in the film (first, as a baby in the stable, and then later on the Mount, speaking the Beatitudes), he is played straight (by actor Kenneth Colley) and portrayed with respect. The comedy begins when members of the crowd mishear his statements of peace, love, and tolerance ("I think he said, 'Blessed are the cheesemakers).


title: Monty Python

text: Directing duties were handled solely by Jones, having amicably agreed with Gilliam that Jones' approach to film-making was better suited for Python's general performing style. "Holy Grail's" production had often been stilted by their differences behind the camera. Gilliam again contributed two animated sequences (one being the opening credits) and took charge of set design. The film was shot on location in Tunisia, the finances being provided this time by The Beatles' George Harrison, who together with Denis O'Brien formed the production company Hand-Made Films for the movie. Harrison had a cameo role as the "owner of the Mount".


title: Monty Python

text: Despite its subject matter attracting controversy, particularly upon its initial release, it has (together with its predecessor) been ranked among the greatest comedy films. In 2006 it was ranked first on a Channel 4 list of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films. In 2013, Richard Burridge, a theologian decorated by Pope Francis, called "Life of Brian" an "extraordinary tribute to the life and work and teaching of Jesus—that they couldn't actually blaspheme or make a joke out of it. They did a great satire on closed minds and people who follow blindly. Then you have them splitting into factions...it is a wonderful satire on the way that Jesus's own teaching has been used to persecute others. They were satirising fundamentalism and persecution of others and at the same time saying the one person who rises above all this was Jesus".


title: Monty Python

text: Monty Python performed four consecutive dates at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in September 1980 during preparations for "Meaning of Life". The performances were filmed and released in the concert film, "Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl" (directed by Terry Hughes), with the Pythons performing sketches from the television series in front of an audience. The released film also incorporated footage from the German television specials (the inclusion of which gives Ian MacNaughton his first on-screen credit for Python since the end of "Flying Circus") and live performances of several songs from the troupe's then-current "Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album". Monty Python's 4-night stint as headliners at the Hollywood Bowl set a record for a comedy act at the venue that has since been equalled by Dave Chappelle in May 2022.


title: Monty Python

text: The Pythons' final film returned to something structurally closer to the style of "Flying Circus". A series of sketches loosely follows the ages of man from birth to death. Directed again by Jones solo, "The Meaning of Life" is embellished with some of the group's most bizarre and disturbing moments, as well as various elaborate musical numbers, which include "Galaxy Song" (performed by Idle) and "Every Sperm Is Sacred" (performed by Palin and Jones). The film is by far their darkest work, containing a great deal of black humour, garnished by some spectacular violence (including an operation to remove a liver from a living patient without anaesthetic and the morbidly obese Mr. Creosote exploding over several restaurant patrons after finally giving in to the smooth maître d' telling him to eat a mint – "It's only a wafer-thin mint..."). At the time of its release, the Pythons confessed their aim was to offend "absolutely everyone", adding "It is guaranteed to offend".


title: Monty Python

text: The Liver Donor scene (which sees someone come to a man's door to take his liver) is a satire on bureaucracy, a common Python trope. Besides the opening credits and the fish sequence, Gilliam, by now an established live-action director, no longer wanted to produce any linking cartoons, offering instead to direct one sketch, "The Crimson Permanent Assurance". Under his helm, though, the segment grew so ambitious and tangential that it was cut from the movie and used as a supporting feature in its own right. (Television screenings also use it as a prologue.) This was the last project on which all six Pythons collaborated, except for the 1989 compilation "Parrot Sketch Not Included," where they are all seen sitting in a closet for four seconds. This was the last time Chapman appeared on screen with the Pythons.


title: Monty Python

text: Members of Python contributed their services to charitable endeavours and causes—sometimes as an ensemble, at other times as individuals. The cause that has been the most frequent and consistent beneficiary has been the human rights work of Amnesty International. Between 1976 and 1981, the troupe or its members appeared in four major fund-raisers for Amnesty—known collectively as the "Secret Policeman's Ball" shows—which were turned into multiple films, TV shows, videos, record albums, and books. The brainchild of John Cleese, these benefit shows in London and their many spin-offs raised considerable sums of money for Amnesty, raised public and media awareness of the human rights cause, and influenced many other members of the entertainment community (especially rock musicians) to become involved in political and social issues. Among the many musicians who have publicly attributed their activism—and the organisation of their own benefit events—to the inspiration of the work in this field of Monty Python are Bob Geldof (organiser of Live Aid), U2, Pete Townshend, and Sting. Bono told "Rolling Stone" in 1986, "I saw "The Secret Policeman’s Ball" and it became a part of me. It sowed a seed..." Sting states, "before [the Ball] I did not know about Amnesty, I did not know about its work, I did not know about torture in the world." On the impact of the Ball on Geldof, Sting states, "he took the ‘Ball’ and ran with it."


title: Monty Python

text: "Ball" co-founder Cleese and Jones had an involvement (as performer, writer or director) in all four Amnesty benefit shows, Palin in three, Chapman in two, and Gilliam in one. Idle did not participate in the Amnesty shows. Notwithstanding Idle's lack of participation, the other five members (together with "Associate Pythons" Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes) all appeared together in the first "Secret Policeman's Ball" benefit—the 1976 "A Poke in the Eye" held at Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End—where they performed several Python sketches. In this first show, they were collectively billed as "Monty Python". Peter Cook deputised for the absent Idle in a courtroom sketch. In the next three shows, the participating Python members performed many Python sketches, but were billed under their individual names rather than under the collective Python banner. The second show featured newcomer Rowan Atkinson and Scottish comedian Billy Connolly. The "Secret Policeman's Ball" were the first stage shows in the UK to present comedic performers (such as Monty Python and Rowan Atkinson) in the same setting and shows as their contemporaries in rock music (which included Eric Clapton, Sting and Phil Collins). After a six-year break, Amnesty resumed producing "Secret Policeman's Ball" benefit shows which were held at the London Palladium in 1987 (sometimes with, and sometimes without, variants of the title) and by 2006 had presented a total of twelve shows. Since 1987 the Balls featured newer generations of British comedic performers, such as Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and puppets from the satirical TV show "Spitting Image", with many attributing their participation in the show to their desire to emulate the Python's pioneering work for Amnesty. Cleese and Palin made a brief cameo appearance in the 1989 Amnesty show; apart from that, the Pythons have not appeared in shows after the first four.


title: Monty Python

text: Each member has pursued various film, television, and stage projects since the break-up of the group, but often continued to work with one another. Many of these collaborations were very successful, most notably "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988), written by Cleese, in which he starred along with Palin. The pair also appeared in "Time Bandits" (1981), a film directed by Gilliam, who wrote it together with Palin. Gilliam directed "Jabberwocky" (1977), and also directed and co-wrote "Brazil" (1985), which featured Palin, "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988), which featured Idle; he followed these with writing and directing an additional six (as of 2021) films.


title: Monty Python

text: "Yellowbeard" (1983) was co-written by Chapman and featured Chapman, Idle, and Cleese, as well as many other English comedians including Peter Cook, Spike Milligan, and Marty Feldman.


title: Monty Python

text: Palin and Jones wrote the comedic TV series "Ripping Yarns" (1976–79), starring Palin. Jones also appeared in the pilot episode and Cleese appeared in a nonspeaking part in the episode "Golden Gordon". Jones' film "Erik the Viking" also has Cleese playing a small part. In 1996 Terry Jones wrote and directed an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's novel "The Wind in the Willows". It featured four members of Monty Python: Jones as Mr. Toad, Idle as Ratty, Cleese as Mr. Toad's lawyer, and Palin as the Sun. Gilliam was considered for the voice of the river. The film included Steve Coogan who played Mole.


title: Monty Python

text: Cleese has the most prolific solo career, appearing in dozens of films, several TV shows or series (including "Cheers", "3rd Rock from the Sun", Q's assistant in the James Bond movies, and "Will & Grace"), many direct-to-video productions, some video games and a number of commercials. His BBC sitcom "Fawlty Towers" (written by and starring Cleese together with his wife Connie Booth) is the only comedy series to rank higher than the "Flying Circus" on the BFI TV 100's list, topping the whole poll. Cleese's character, Basil Fawlty, was ranked second (to Homer Simpson) on Channel 4's 2001 list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.


title: Monty Python

text: Idle enjoyed critical success with "Rutland Weekend Television" in the mid-1970s, out of which came the Beatles parody the Rutles (responsible for the cult mockumentary "All You Need Is Cash"), and as an actor in "Nuns on the Run" (1990) with Robbie Coltrane. In 1976 Idle directed music videos for George Harrison songs "This Song" and "Crackerbox Palace", the latter of which also featured cameo appearances from Neil Innes and John Cleese. Idle has had success with Python songs: "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" went to no. 3 in the UK singles chart in 1991. The song had been revived by Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 1, and was consequently released as a single that year. The theatrical phenomenon of the Python musical "Spamalot" has made Idle the most financially successful of the troupe after Python. Written by Idle (and featuring a pre-recorded cameo of Cleese as the voice of God), it has proved to be an enormous hit on Broadway, London's West End and Las Vegas. This was followed by "Not the Messiah", which revises "The Life of Brian" as an oratorio. For the work's 2007 premiere at the Luminato festival in Toronto (which commissioned the work), Idle himself sang the "baritone-ish" part.


title: Monty Python

text: Since "The Meaning of Life", their last project as a team, the Pythons have often been the subject of reunion rumours. In 1988 Monty Python won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema, with four of the six Pythons (Jones, Palin, Gilliam and Chapman) collecting the award. The final appearance of all six together occurred during the 1989 "Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python" TV special. The death of Chapman in October 1989 put an end to the speculation of any further reunions. However, there were several occasions after 1989 when the remaining five members gathered together for appearances — albeit not formal reunions. In 1996 Jones, Idle, Cleese, and Palin were featured in a film adaptation of "The Wind in the Willows", which was later renamed "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride". In 1997 Palin and Cleese rolled out a new version of the "Dead Parrot sketch" for "Saturday Night Live".


title: Monty Python

text: Monty Python were the inaugural recipients of the Empire Inspiration Award in 1997. Palin, Jones and Gilliam received the award on stage in London from Elton John while Cleese and Idle appeared via satellite from Los Angeles. In 1998 during the US Comedy Arts Festival, where the troupe were awarded the AFI Star Award by the American Film Institute, the five remaining members, along with what was purported to be Chapman's ashes, were reunited on stage for the first time in 18 years. The occasion was in the form of an interview called "Monty Python Live at Aspen", (hosted by Robert Klein, with an appearance by Eddie Izzard) in which the team looked back at some of their work and performed a few new sketches. On 9 October 1999, to commemorate 30 years since the first "Flying Circus" television broadcast, BBC2 devoted an evening to Python programmes, including a documentary charting the history of the team, interspersed with new sketches by the Monty Python team filmed especially for the event.


title: Monty Python

text: The surviving Pythons had agreed in principle to perform a live tour of America in 1999. Several shows were to be linked with Q&A meetings in various cities. Although all had said yes, Palin later changed his mind, much to the annoyance of Idle, who had begun work organising the tour. This led to Idle refusing to take part in the new material shot for the BBC anniversary evening. In 2002, four of the surviving members, bar Cleese, performed "The Lumberjack Song" and "Sit on My Face" for George Harrison's memorial concert. The reunion also included regular supporting contributors Neil Innes and Carol Cleveland, with a special appearance from Tom Hanks.


title: Monty Python

text: In an interview to publicise the DVD release of "The Meaning of Life", Cleese said a further reunion was unlikely. "It is absolutely impossible to get even a majority of us together in a room, and I'm not joking," Cleese said. He said that the problem was one of busyness rather than one of bad feelings. A sketch appears on the same DVD spoofing the impossibility of a full reunion, bringing the members "together" in a deliberately unconvincing fashion with modern bluescreen/greenscreen techniques.


title: Monty Python

text: Idle responded to queries about a Python reunion by adapting a line used by George Harrison in response to queries about a possible Beatles reunion. When asked in November 1989 about such a possibility, Harrison responded: "As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead." Idle's version of this was that he expected to see a proper Python reunion, "just as soon as Graham Chapman comes back from the dead", but added, "we're talking to his agent about terms."


title: Monty Python

text: "The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons" (2003), compiled from interviews with the surviving members, reveals that a series of disputes in 1998, over a possible sequel to "Holy Grail" that had been conceived by Idle, may have resulted in the group's split. Cleese's feeling was that "The Meaning of Life" had been personally difficult and ultimately mediocre, and did not wish to be involved in another Python project for a variety of reasons (not least amongst them was the absence of Chapman, whose straight man-like central roles in the "Grail" and "Brian" films had been considered to be an essential anchoring performance). The book also reveals that Cleese saw Chapman as his "greatest sounding board. If Graham thought something was funny, then it almost certainly was funny. You cannot believe how invaluable that is.' Ultimately it was Cleese who ended the possibility of another Python movie.


title: Monty Python

text: A full, if nonperforming, reunion of the surviving Python members appeared at the March 2005 premiere of Idle's musical "Spamalot", based on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". It opened in Chicago and has since played in New York on Broadway, London, and numerous other major cities across the world. In 2004 it was nominated for 14 Tony Awards and won three: Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for Mike Nichols, and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Sara Ramirez, who played the Lady of the Lake, a character specially added for the musical. The original Broadway cast included Tim Curry as King Arthur, Michael McGrath as Patsy, David Hyde Pierce as Sir Robin, Hank Azaria as Sir Lancelot and other roles (e.g., the French Taunter, Knight of Ni, and Tim the Enchanter), Christopher Sieber as Sir Galahad and other roles (e.g., the Black Knight and Prince Herbert's Father). Cleese played the voice of God, a role played in the film by Chapman.


title: Monty Python

text: Owing in part to the success of "Spamalot", PBS announced on 13 July 2005 that it would begin to re-air the entire run of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and new one-hour specials focusing on each member of the group, called "Monty Python's Personal Best". Each episode was written and produced by the individual being honoured, with the five remaining Pythons collaborating on Chapman's programme, the only one of the editions to take on a serious tone with its new material.


title: Monty Python

text: In 2009, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus", a six-part documentary entitled "" was released, featuring interviews with the surviving members of the team, as well as archive interviews with Graham Chapman and numerous excerpts from the television series and films. Each episode opens with a different re-recording of the theme song from "Life of Brian", with Iron Maiden vocalist and Python fan Bruce Dickinson performing the sixth.


title: Monty Python

text: Also in commemoration of the 40th anniversary, Idle, Palin, Jones, and Gilliam appeared in a production of "Not the Messiah" at the Royal Albert Hall. The European premiere was held on 23 October 2009. An official 40th anniversary Monty Python reunion event took place in New York City on 15 October 2009, where the team received a Special Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.


title: Monty Python

text: In June 2011, it was announced that "", an animated 3D movie based on the memoir of Graham Chapman, was in the making. The memoir "A Liar's Autobiography" was published in 1980 and details Chapman's journey through medical school, alcoholism, acknowledgement of his gay identity, and the tolls of surreal comedy. Asked what was true in a deliberately fanciful account by Chapman of his life, Terry Jones joked: "Nothing ... it's all a downright, absolute, blackguardly lie." The film uses Chapman's own voice—from a reading of his autobiography shortly before he died of cancer—and entertainment channel Epix announced the film's release in early 2012 in both 2D and 3D formats. Produced and directed by London-based Bill Jones, Ben Timlett, and Jeff Simpson, the new film has 15 animation companies working on chapters that will range from three to 12 minutes in length, each in a different style. John Cleese recorded dialogue which was matched with Chapman's voice. Michael Palin voiced Chapman's father and Terry Jones voiced his mother. Terry Gilliam voiced Graham's psychiatrist. They all play various other roles. Among the original Python group, only Eric Idle was not involved.


title: Monty Python

text: On 26 January 2012, Terry Jones announced that the five surviving Pythons would reunite in a sci-fi comedy film called "Absolutely Anything". The film would combine computer-generated imagery and live action. It would be directed by Jones based on a script by Jones and Gavin Scott, and in addition to the Python members it would also star Simon Pegg, Kate Beckinsale and Robin Williams (in his final film role). The plot revolves around a teacher who discovers aliens (voiced by the Pythons) have given him magical powers to do "absolutely anything". Eric Idle responded via Twitter that he would not, in fact, be participating, although he was later added to the cast.


title: Monty Python

text: In 2013, the Pythons lost a legal case to Mark Forstater, the film producer of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", over royalties for the derivative work "Spamalot". They owed a combined £800,000 in legal fees and back royalties to Forstater. They proposed a reunion show to pay their legal bill.


title: Monty Python

text: On 19 November 2013, a new reunion was reported, following months of "secret talks". The original plan was for a live, one-off stage show at the O Arena in London on 1 July 2014, with "some of Monty Python's greatest hits, with modern, topical, Pythonesque twists" according to a press release. The tickets for this show went on sale in November 2013 and sold out in just 43 seconds. Nine additional shows were added, all of them at the O, the last on 20 July. They have said that their reunion was inspired by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who are massive Monty Python fans.


title: Monty Python

text: Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts featured in a promotional video for the shows: "Who wants to see that again, really? It's a bunch of wrinkly old men trying to relive their youth and make a load of money—the best one died years ago!" Michael Palin stated that the final reunion show on 20 July 2014 would be the last time that the troupe would perform together. It was screened to 2,000 cinemas around the world. Prior to the final night, Idle stated, "It is a world event and that’s really quite exciting. It means we’re actually going to say goodbye publicly on one show. Nobody ever has the chance to do that. The Beatles didn’t get a last good night." The last show was broadcast in the UK on Gold TV and internationally in cinemas by Fathom Events through a Dish Network satellite link.


title: Monty Python

text: Graham Chapman was originally a medical student, joining the Footlights at Cambridge. He completed his medical training and was legally entitled to practise as a doctor. Chapman is best remembered for the lead roles in "Holy Grail", as King Arthur, and "Life of Brian", as Brian Cohen. He died of metastatic throat cancer on 4 October 1989. At Chapman's memorial service, Cleese delivered an irreverent eulogy that included all the euphemisms for being dead from the "Dead Parrot" sketch, which they had written; and was also the first person to say “fuck” at a British memorial service. Chapman's comedic fictional memoir, "", was adapted into an in 2012.


title: Monty Python

text: John Cleese is the oldest Python. He met his future Python writing partner, Chapman, in Cambridge. Outside of Python, he is best known for setting up the Video Arts group and for the sitcom "Fawlty Towers" (co-written with Connie Booth, whom Cleese met during work on Python and to whom he was married for a decade). In "Fawlty Towers" Cleese starred as hotel owner Basil Fawlty, and received the 1980 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance. Cleese has also co-authored several books on psychology and wrote the screenplay for the award-winning "A Fish Called Wanda", in which he starred with Michael Palin, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.


title: Monty Python

text: Terry Gilliam, an American by birth, is the only member of the troupe of non-British origin. He started off as an animator and strip cartoonist for Harvey Kurtzman's "Help!" magazine, one issue of which featured Cleese. Moving from the US to England, he animated features for "Do Not Adjust Your Set" and was then asked by its makers to join them on their next project: "Monty Python's Flying Circus". He co-directed "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and directed short segments of other Python films (for instance "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", the short film that appears before "The Meaning of Life").


title: Monty Python

text: When Monty Python was first formed, two writing partnerships were already in place: Cleese and Chapman, as well as Jones and Palin. That left two in their own corners: Gilliam, operating solo due to the nature of his work, and Eric Idle. Regular themes in Idle's contributions were elaborate wordplay and musical numbers. After "Flying Circus", he hosted "Saturday Night Live" four times in the first five seasons. Idle's initially successful solo career faltered in the 1990s with the failures of his 1993 film "Splitting Heirs" (written, produced by, and starring him) and 1998's "" (in which he starred). He revived his career by returning to the source of his worldwide fame, adapting Monty Python material for other media. Idle wrote the Tony Award-winning musical "Spamalot", based on "Holy Grail". Following the success of the musical he wrote "Not the Messiah", an oratorio derived from the "Life of Brian". Representing Monty Python, Idle featured in a one-hour symphony of British Music when he performed at the London 2012 Olympic Games closing ceremony.


title: Monty Python

text: Terry Jones has been described by other members of the team as the "heart" of the operation. Jones had a lead role in maintaining the group's unity and creative independence. Python biographer George Perry has commented that should "[you] speak to him on subjects as diverse as fossil fuels, or Rupert Bear, or mercenaries in the Middle Ages or Modern China ... in a moment you will find yourself hopelessly out of your depth, floored by his knowledge." Many others agree that Jones is characterised by his irrepressible, good-natured enthusiasm. However, Jones' passion often led to prolonged arguments with other group members—in particular Cleese—with Jones often unwilling to back down. Since his major contributions were largely behind the scenes (direction, writing), and he often deferred to the other members of the group as an actor, Jones' importance to Python was often under-rated. However, he does have the legacy of delivering possibly the most famous line in all of Python, as Brian's mother Mandy in "Life of Brian", "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!", a line voted the funniest in film history on two occasions. Jones died on 21 January 2020 from complications of dementia.


title: Monty Python

text: Sir Michael Palin attended Oxford, where he met his Python writing partner Jones. The two also wrote the series "Ripping Yarns" together. Palin and Jones originally wrote face-to-face, but soon found it was more productive to write apart and then come together to review what the other had written. Therefore, Jones and Palin's sketches tended to be more focused than that of the others, taking one bizarre situation, sticking to it, and building on it. After "Flying Circus", Palin hosted "Saturday Night Live" four times in the first 10 seasons. His comedy output began to decrease in amount following the increasing success of his travel documentaries for the BBC. Palin released a book of diaries from the Python years entitled "Michael Palin Diaries 1969–1979", published in 2007. Palin was awarded a knighthood in the 2019 New Year Honours, which was announced by Buckingham Palace in December 2018.


title: Monty Python

text: Several people have been accorded unofficial "associate Python" status over the years. Occasionally such people have been referred to as the 'seventh Python', in a style reminiscent of George Martin (or other associates of the Beatles) being dubbed "the Fifth Beatle". The two collaborators with the most meaningful and plentiful contributions have been Neil Innes and Carol Cleveland. Both were present and presented as Associate Pythons at the official Monty Python 25th-anniversary celebrations held in Los Angeles in July 1994.


title: Monty Python

text: Neil Innes is the only non-Python besides Douglas Adams to be credited with writing material for "Flying Circus". He appeared in sketches and the Python films, as well as performing some of his songs in "Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl". He was also a regular stand-in for absent team members on the rare occasions when they recreated sketches. For example, he took the place of Cleese at the Concert for George. Gilliam once noted that if anyone qualified for the title of the seventh Python, it would be Innes. He was one of the creative talents in the off-beat Bonzo Dog Band. He would later portray Ron Nasty of the Rutles and write all of the Rutles' compositions for "All You Need Is Cash" (1978), a mockumentary film co-directed by Idle. By 2005, a falling out had occurred between Idle and Innes over additional Rutles projects, the results being Innes' critically acclaimed Rutles "reunion" album "The Rutles: Archaeology" and Idle's straight-to-DVD "The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch", each undertaken without the other's participation. According to an interview with Idle in the "Chicago Tribune" in May 2005, his attitude is that Innes and he go back "too far. And no further." Innes died of a heart attack on 29 December 2019 near Toulouse, where he had lived for several years.


title: Monty Python

text: Carol Cleveland was the most important female performer in the Monty Python ensemble, commonly referred to as "the female Python". She was originally hired by producer/director John Howard Davies for just the first five episodes of the "Flying Circus". The Pythons then pushed to make Cleveland a permanent recurring performer after producer/director Ian MacNaughton brought in several other actresses who were not as good as she was. Cleveland went on to appear in about two-thirds of the episodes, as well as in all of the Python films, and in most of their stage shows, as well. According to "Time", her most recognisable film roles are playing Zoot and Dingo, two maidens in the Castle Anthrax in "Holy Grail".


title: Monty Python

text: Cleese's first wife, Connie Booth, appeared as various characters in all four series of "Flying Circus". Her most significant role was the "best girl" of the eponymous Lumberjack in "The Lumberjack Song", though this role was sometimes played by Carol Cleveland. Booth appeared in a total of six sketches and also played one-off characters in Python feature films "And Now for Something Completely Different" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".


title: Monty Python

text: Douglas Adams was "discovered" by Chapman when a version of "Footlights Revue" (a 1974 BBC2 television show featuring some of Adams' early work) was performed live in London's West End. In Cleese's absence from the final TV series, the two formed a brief writing partnership, with Adams earning a writing credit in one episode for a sketch called "Patient Abuse". In the sketch—a satire on mind-boggling bureaucracy—a man who had been stabbed by a nurse arrives at his doctor's office bleeding profusely from the stomach, when the doctor makes him fill in numerous senseless forms before he can administer treatment. He also had two cameo appearances in this season. Firstly, in the episode "The Light Entertainment War", Adams shows up in a surgeon's mask (as Dr. Emile Koning, according to the on-screen captions), pulling on gloves, while Palin narrates a sketch that introduces one person after another, and never actually gets started. Secondly, at the beginning of "Mr. Neutron", Adams is dressed in a "pepperpot" outfit and loads a missile onto a cart being driven by Terry Jones, who is calling out for scrap metal ("Any old iron ..."). Adams and Chapman also subsequently attempted a few non-Python projects, including "Out of the Trees". He also contributed to a sketch on the soundtrack album for "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".


title: Monty Python

text: Other than Carol Cleveland, the only other non-Python to make a significant number of appearances in the "Flying Circus" was Ian Davidson. He appeared in the first two series of the show, and played over 10 roles. While Davidson is primarily known as a scriptwriter, it is not known if he had any contribution toward the writing of the sketches, as he is only credited as a performer. In total, Davidson is credited as appearing in eight episodes of the show, which is more than any other male actor who was not a Python. Despite this, Davidson did not appear in any Python-related media subsequent to series 2, though footage of him was shown on the documentary "Python Night – 30 Years of Monty Python".


title: Monty Python

text: Stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard, a devoted fan of the group, has occasionally stood in for absent members. When the BBC held a "Python Night" in 1999 to celebrate 30 years of the first broadcast of "Flying Circus", the Pythons recorded some new material with Izzard standing in for Idle, who had declined to partake in person (he taped a solo contribution from the US). Izzard hosted "The Life of Python" (1999), a history of the group that was part of Python Night and appeared with them at a festival/tribute in Aspen, Colorado, in 1998 (released on DVD as "Live at Aspen"). Izzard has said that Monty Python was a significant influence on her style of comedy and Cleese has referred to her as "the lost Python".


title: Monty Python

text: Series director of "Flying Circus", Ian MacNaughton, is also regularly associated with the group and made a few on-screen appearances in the show and in the film "And Now for Something Completely Different". Apart from Neil Innes, others to contribute musically included Fred Tomlinson and the Fred Tomlinson Singers. They made appearances in songs such as "The Lumberjack Song" as a backup choir. Other contributors and performers for the Pythons included John Howard Davies, John Hughman, Lyn Ashley, Bob Raymond, John Young, Rita Davies, Stanley Mason, Maureen Flanagan, and David Ballantyne.


title: Monty Python

text: By the time of Monty Python's 25th anniversary, in 1994, the point was already being made that "the five surviving members had with the passing years begun to occupy an institutional position in the edifice of British social culture that they had once had so much fun trying to demolish". A similar point is made in a 2006 book on the relationship between Python and philosophy: "It is remarkable, after all, not only that the utterly bizarre "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was sponsored by the BBC in the first place, but that Monty Python itself grew into an institution of enormous cultural influence."


title: Monty Python

text: A self-contained comedy unit responsible for both writing and performing their work, Monty Python's influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. Author Neil Gaiman writes, "A strange combination of individuals gave us Python. And you needed those people, just in the same way that with the Beatles you had four talented people, but together you had the Beatles. And I think that's so incredibly true when it comes to Python."


title: Monty Python

text: Monty Python have been named as being influential to the comedy stylings of a great many people including: Eddie Izzard, Sacha Baron Cohen, David Cross, Rowan Atkinson, Seth MacFarlane, Seth Meyers, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Vic and Bob, Mike Myers, Russell Brand, Jerry Seinfeld, and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons", was influenced by Python's "high velocity sense of the absurd and not stopping to explain yourself", and pays tribute through a couch gag used in seasons five and six. Appearing on "Monty Python's Best Bits (Mostly)", Jim Carrey—who refers to Monty Python as the "Super Justice League of comedy"—recalled the effect on him of Ernest Scribbler (played by Palin) laughing himself to death in "The Funniest Joke in the World" sketch. Simon Pegg, co-writer of the "Three Flavours Cornetto" trilogy of British comedy films


title: Monty Python

text: (from "Shaun of the Dead" to "The World's End"), stated his "love of comedy was hugely informed by Monty Python." In an interview with "Parade", Seinfeld stated, "Monty Python was a gigantic influence on me. They were just about silly, funny things that meant nothing, and that’s the stuff I love. There’s a wonderful childlike freedom in those kinds of things." "Monty Python's Flying Circus" served as an inspiration for voice actor Rob Paulsen in voicing Pinky from the animated television series "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain", giving the character "a goofy whack job" of a British accent.


title: Monty Python

text: Comedian John Oliver states, "Writing about the importance of Monty Python is basically pointless. Citing them as an influence is almost redundant. It's assumed. This strange group of wildly talented, appropriately disrespectful, hugely imaginative and massively inspirational idiots changed what comedy could be for their generation and for those that followed." On how Python's freeform style influenced sketch comedy, Tina Fey of the US television show "Saturday Night Live" states, "Sketch endings are overrated. Their key was to do something as long as it was funny and then just stop and do something else." Stephen Merchant, co-creator of "The Office" with Ricky Gervais, stated, "I don’t remember where I got this grand idea that I could somehow be John Cleese. That was my overriding passion from my mid-teens. Cleese had grown up in Weston-Super-Mare, not far from Bristol where I grew up, and he was tall and he was very funny and very British and it’s almost like I thought ‘well if they want tall people from the west country I can do that.'"


title: Monty Python

text: Among the more visible cultural influences of Monty Python is the inclusion of terms either directly from, or derived from, Monty Python, into the lexicon of the English language.


title: Monty Python

text: The Japanese anime series, "Girls und Panzer", featured the special episode, "Survival War!", which referenced the 'Spam' sketch, but the word "spam" was censored to avoid legal issue with the Pythons.


title: Monty Python

text: On St George's Day, 23 April 2007, the cast and creators of "Spamalot" gathered in Trafalgar Square under the tutelage of the two Terrys (Jones and Gilliam) to set a new record for the world's largest coconut orchestra. They led 5,567 people "clip-clopping" in time to the Python classic, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", for the "Guinness World Records" attempt.


title: Monty Python

text: On 5 October 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of Monty Python's first show, the "first official Monty Python Guinness world record attempt" tried to break the record for "the largest gathering of people dressed as Gumbys." A recurring character on the show, a Gumby wears a handkerchief on their head, has spectacles, braces, a knitted tank top, and wellington boots. The shirt sleeves and trouser legs are always rolled up, exposing their socks and knees. Dimwitted, their most famous catchphrases are "My brain hurts!" and repeated shouts of "Hello!" and "Sorry!".


title: Gene Wilder

text: Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is known mainly for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" (1971). He is also known for his collaborations with Mel Brooks on the films "The Producers" (1967), "Blazing Saddles" (1974) and "Young Frankenstein" (1974), as well as with Richard Pryor in the films "Silver Streak" (1976), "Stir Crazy" (1980), "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" (1989) and "Another You" (1991). He also starred in Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)" (1972).


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder began his career on stage, and made his screen debut in an episode of the TV series "The Play of the Week" in 1961. Although his first film role was portraying a hostage in the 1967 motion picture "Bonnie and Clyde", Wilder's first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1967 film "The Producers" for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This was the first in a series of collaborations with writer/director Mel Brooks, including 1974's "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein", which Wilder co-wrote, garnering the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder directed and wrote several of his own films, including "The Woman in Red" (1984). With his third wife, Gilda Radner, he starred in three films, the last two of which he also directed. Her 1989 death from ovarian cancer led to his active involvement in promoting cancer awareness and treatment, helping found the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles and co-founding Gilda's Club. After his last acting performance in 2003 – a guest role on "Will & Grace" for which he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Wilder turned his attention to writing. He produced a memoir in 2005, "Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art"; a collection of stories, "What Is This Thing Called Love?" (2010); and the novels "My French Whore" (2007), "The Woman Who Wouldn't" (2008), and "Something to Remember You By" (2013).


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder was born Jerome Silberman on June 11, 1933, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Jeanne (Baer) and William J. Silberman, a manufacturer and salesman of novelty items. His father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant, as were his maternal grandparents. Wilder first became interested in acting at age eight, when his mother was diagnosed with rheumatic fever and the doctor told him to "try and make her laugh."


title: Gene Wilder

text: At the age of 11, he saw his sister, who was studying acting, performing onstage, and he was enthralled by the experience. He asked her teacher if he could become his student, and the teacher said that if he were still interested at age 13, he would take Wilder on as a student. The day after Wilder turned 13, he called the teacher, who accepted him; Wilder studied with him for two years.


title: Gene Wilder

text: When Jeanne Silberman felt that her son's potential was not being fully realized in Wisconsin, she sent him to Black-Foxe, a military institute in Hollywood, where he was bullied and sexually assaulted, primarily because he was the only Jewish boy in the school, according to his own account. After an unsuccessful short stay at Black-Foxe, Wilder returned home and became increasingly involved with the local theatre community. He performed for the first time in front of a paying audience at age 15, as Balthasar (Romeo's servant) in a production of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Gene Wilder graduated from Washington High School in Milwaukee in 1951.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder was raised Jewish, but he held only the Golden Rule as his philosophy. In a book published in 2005, he stated, "I have no other religion. I feel very Jewish and I feel very grateful to be Jewish. But I don't believe in God or anything to do with the Jewish religion."


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder studied Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of Iowa, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Following his 1955 graduation from Iowa, he was accepted at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, England. After six months of studying fencing, Wilder became the first freshman to win the All-School Fencing Championship. Desiring to study Stanislavski's system, he returned to the U.S., living with his sister and her family in Queens. Wilder enrolled at the HB Studio.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder was drafted into the Army on September 10, 1956. At the end of recruit training, he was assigned to the medical corps and sent to Fort Sam Houston for training. He was then given the opportunity to choose any post that was open, and wanting to stay near New York City to attend acting classes at the HB Studio, he chose to serve as paramedic in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Valley Forge Army Hospital, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. In November 1957, his mother died from ovarian cancer. He was discharged from the army a year later and returned to New York. A scholarship to the HB Studio allowed him to become a full-time student. At first living on unemployment insurance and some savings, he later supported himself with odd jobs such as a limousine driver and fencing instructor.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder's first professional acting job was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he played the Second Officer in Herbert Berghof's production of "Twelfth Night". He also served as a fencing choreographer.


title: Gene Wilder

text: After three years of study with Berghof and Uta Hagen at the HB Studio, Charles Grodin told Wilder about Lee Strasberg's method acting. Grodin persuaded him to leave the studio and begin studying with Strasberg in his private class. Several months later, Wilder was accepted into the Actors Studio. Feeling that "Jerry Silberman in "Macbeth"" did not have the right ring to it, he adopted a stage name. He chose "Wilder" because it reminded him of "Our Town" author Thornton Wilder, while "Gene" came from the character Eugene Gant in Thomas Wolfe's first novel, "Look Homeward, Angel". He also liked "Gene" because as a boy, he was impressed by a distant relative, a World War II bomber navigator who was "handsome and looked great in his leather flight jacket". He later said that he could not see Gene Wilder playing "Macbeth", either.


title: Gene Wilder

text: After joining the Actors Studio, he slowly began to be noticed in the off-Broadway scene, thanks to performances in Sir Arnold Wesker's "Roots" and in Graham Greene's "The Complaisant Lover", for which Wilder received the Clarence Derwent Award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Nonfeatured Role". One of Wilder's early stage credits was playing the socially awkward mental patient Billy Bibbit in the original 1963–64 Broadway adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" opposite star Kirk Douglas.


title: Gene Wilder

text: In 1963, Wilder was cast in a leading role in "Mother Courage and Her Children", a production starring Anne Bancroft, who introduced Wilder to her boyfriend (and later husband) Mel Brooks. A few months later, Brooks mentioned that he was working on a screenplay called "Springtime for Hitler", for which he thought Wilder would be perfect in the role of Leo Bloom. Brooks elicited a promise from Wilder that he would check with him before making any long-term commitments. Months went by, and Wilder toured the country with different theatre productions, participated in a televised CBS presentation of "Death of a Salesman", and was cast for his first role in a film—a minor role in Arthur Penn's 1967 "Bonnie and Clyde". After three years of not hearing from Brooks, Wilder was called for a reading with Zero Mostel, who was to be the star of "Springtime for Hitler" and had approval of his co-star. Mostel approved, and Wilder was cast for his first leading role in a feature film, 1967's "The Producers".


title: Gene Wilder

text: "The Producers" eventually became a cult comedy classic, with Mel Brooks winning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Wilder being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Nevertheless, Brooks' first directorial effort did not do well at the box office and was not well received by all critics; "New York Times" critic Renata Adler reviewed the film and described it as "black college humor".


title: Gene Wilder

text: In 1969, Wilder relocated to Paris, accepting a leading role in Bud Yorkin's "Start the Revolution Without Me", a comedy that took place during the French Revolution. After shooting ended, Wilder returned to New York, where he read the script for "Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx" and immediately called Sidney Glazier, who produced "The Producers". Both men began searching for the perfect director for the film. Jean Renoir was the first candidate, but he would not be able to do the film for at least a year, so British-Indian director Waris Hussein was hired. With Margot Kidder co-starring with Wilder, it was filmed on location in Dublin, and at the nearby Ardmore Studios, in August and September 1969.


title: Gene Wilder

text: In 1971, Wilder auditioned to play Willy Wonka in Mel Stuart's film adaptation of Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". After reciting some lines, director Mel Stuart immediately offered him the role. Before Wilder was officially cast for the role, Fred Astaire, Joel Grey, Ron Moody, and Jon Pertwee were all considered. Spike Milligan was Roald Dahl's original choice to play Willy Wonka. Peter Sellers even begged Dahl for the role.


title: Gene Wilder

text: The film was not a big success on its opening weekend, although it received positive reviews from critics such as Roger Ebert, who compared it to "The Wizard of Oz". The film currently holds an 89% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the critical consensus stating ""Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" is strange yet comforting, full of narrative detours that don't always work but express the film's uniqueness".


title: Gene Wilder

text: The three films Wilder appeared in following "The Producers" were box office failures: "Start the Revolution" and "Quackser" seemed to audiences poor copies of Mel Brooks films, while "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" was not a commercial success, although it later gained a cult following and an Oscar nomination for Best Score, as well as a Golden Globe award nomination for Wilder.


title: Gene Wilder

text: When Woody Allen offered him a role in one segment of "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)", Wilder accepted, hoping this would be the hit to put an end to his series of flops. "Everything ... " was a hit, grossing over $18 million in the United States alone against a $2-million budget.


title: Gene Wilder

text: After "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)", Wilder began working on a script he called "Young Frankenstein". After he wrote a two-page scenario, he called Mel Brooks, who told him that it seemed like a "cute" idea, but showed little interest. A few months later, Wilder received a call from his agent, Mike Medavoy, who asked if he had anything where he could include Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman, his two new clients. Having just seen Feldman on television, Wilder was inspired to write a scene that takes place at Transylvania Station, where Igor and Frederick meet for the first time. The scene was later included in the film almost verbatim. Medavoy liked the idea and called Brooks, asking him to direct. Brooks was not convinced, but having spent four years working on two box-office failures, he decided to accept. While working on the "Young Frankenstein" script, Wilder was offered the part of the Fox in the musical film adaptation of Saint Exupéry's classic book, "The Little Prince". When filming was about to begin in London, Wilder received an urgent call from Brooks, who was filming "Blazing Saddles", offering Wilder the role of the "Waco Kid" after Dan Dailey dropped out at the last minute, while Gig Young became too ill to continue. Wilder shot his scenes for "Blazing Saddles" and immediately afterwards filmed "The Little Prince".


title: Gene Wilder

text: After "Young Frankenstein" was written, the rights were to be sold to Columbia Pictures, but after having trouble agreeing on the budget, Wilder, Brooks, and producer Michael Gruskoff went with 20th Century Fox, where both Brooks and Wilder had to sign five-year contracts. "Young Frankenstein" was a commercial success, with Wilder and Brooks receiving Best Adapted Screenplay nominations at the 1975 Oscars, losing to Francis Coppola and Mario Puzo for their adaptation of "The Godfather Part II". While filming "Young Frankenstein", Wilder had an idea for a romantic musical comedy about a brother of Sherlock Holmes. Marty Feldman and Madeline Kahn agreed to participate in the project, and Wilder began writing what became his directorial début, 1975's "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother".


title: Gene Wilder

text: In 1975, Wilder's agent sent him a script for a film called "Super Chief". Wilder accepted, but told the film's producers that he thought the only person who could keep the film from being offensive was Richard Pryor. Pryor accepted the role in the film, which had been renamed "Silver Streak", the first film to team Wilder and Pryor. They became Hollywood's first successful interracial movie comedy duo.


title: Gene Wilder

text: While filming "Silver Streak", Wilder began working on a script for "The World's Greatest Lover", inspired by Fellini's "The White Sheik". Wilder wrote, produced, and directed "The World's Greatest Lover", which premièred in 1977, but was a critical failure. "The Frisco Kid" (1979) was Wilder's next project. The film was to star John Wayne, but he dropped out and was replaced by Harrison Ford, then an up-and-coming actor.


title: Gene Wilder

text: In 1980 Wilder teamed up again with Richard Pryor in "Stir Crazy", directed by Sidney Poitier. Pryor was struggling with a severe cocaine addiction, and filming became difficult, but once the film premiered, it became an international success. "New York" magazine listed "Skip Donahue" (Wilder) and "Harry Monroe" (Pryor) as number nine on their 2007 list of "The Fifteen Most Dynamic Duos in Pop Culture History", and the film has often appeared in "best comedy" lists and rankings.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Poitier and Wilder became friends, with the pair working together on a script called "Traces"—which became 1982's "Hanky Panky", the film where Wilder met comedian Gilda Radner. Through the remainder of the decade, Wilder and Radner worked on several projects together. After "Hanky Panky", Wilder directed his third film, 1984's "The Woman in Red", which starred Wilder, Radner, and Kelly Le Brock. "The Woman in Red" was not well received by the critics, nor was their next project, 1986's "Haunted Honeymoon", which failed to attract audiences. "The Woman in Red" did win an Academy Award for Best Original Song for Stevie Wonder's song "I Just Called to Say I Love You".


title: Gene Wilder

text: TriStar Pictures wanted to produce another film starring Wilder and Pryor, and Wilder agreed to do "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" only if he were allowed to rewrite the script. The studio agreed, and "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" premiered in May 1989 to mostly negative reviews. Many critics praised Wilder and Pryor, as well as Kevin Spacey's performance, but they mostly agreed that the script was terrible. Roger Ebert called it "a real dud"; the "Deseret Morning News" described the film as "stupid", with an "idiotic script" that had a "contrived story" and too many "juvenile gags", while Vincent Canby called it "by far the most successful co-starring vehicle for Mr. Pryor and Mr. Wilder", also acknowledging that "this is not elegant movie making, and not all of the gags are equally clever".


title: Gene Wilder

text: After starring as a political cartoonist who falls in love in the 1990 film "Funny About Love", Wilder performed in one final movie with Pryor, the 1991 feature "Another You", in which Pryor's physical deterioration from multiple sclerosis was clearly noticeable. It was Pryor's last starring role in a film (he appeared in a few cameos before he died in 2005) and also marked Wilder's last appearance in a feature film. His last two movies were not financially successful. Wilder's remaining work consisted of television movies and guest appearances in TV shows.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder was inducted into the Wisconsin Performing Arts Hall of Fame, at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in Milwaukee, on April 9, 1991.


title: Gene Wilder

text: In 1994, Wilder starred in the NBC sitcom "Something Wilder". The show received poor reviews and lasted only one season. He went back to the small screen in 1999, appearing in three television movies, one of which was the NBC adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland". The other two, "Murder in a Small Town" and "The Lady in Question", were mystery movies for A&E TV that were cowritten by Wilder, in which he played a theatre director turned amateur detective.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Three years later, Wilder guest-starred on two episodes of NBC's "Will & Grace", winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor on a Comedy Series for his role as Mr. Stein, Will Truman's boss. This ended Wilder's screen career; from 2003 forward, Wilder focused his creative energies on writing novels and stories, as well as painting.