Klappentext One of the most innovative comedic programs to air on television! Monty Python's Flying Circus was a mix of the carnivalesque and the critical. The show has become famous for eschewing many of the conventions of situation comedy! the fully formed and coherent script! narrative closure! predictable characters! and the decorum associated with presentation. Its curious transatlantic popularity defied the assumption that comedy is regional and exclusive! and the show's cult status still lives on in the United States and United Kingdom through reruns! videos! DVDs! and continual reappearances by the show's now iconic stars. Most written accounts of Monty Python's Flying Circus focus solely on members of the Pythons! histories of the sketches! or the development of other Monty Python projects! leaving a dearth of scholarly and contextual analysis on the television show itself. Zusammenfassung Marcia Landy examines Monty Pythons Flying Circus within the context of its time! analyzing the show's influence on 1960s and 1970s British television as well as British cultural influence on the show's legendary material. Landy explores not only why the series' complex form of comedy was important but also why it was so well received.

Autorentext

Marcia Landy is Distinguished Service Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She has authored and edited many books; most recently, she wrote Italian Film (Cambridge, 2000) and co-edited The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media (Rutgers University Press, 2001). She is also editor of Imitations of Life: A Reader on Film and Television Melodrama (Wayne State University Press, 1991).

Klappentext

One of the most innovative comedic programs to air on television, Monty Python's Flying Circus was a mix of the carnivalesque and the critical. The show has become famous for eschewing many of the conventions of situation comedy, the fully formed and coherent script, narrative closure, predictable characters, and the decorum associated with presentation. Its curious transatlantic popularity defied the assumption that comedy is regional and exclusive, and the show's cult status still lives on in the United States and United Kingdom through reruns, videos, DVDs, and continual reappearances by the show's now iconic stars. Most written accounts of Monty Python's Flying Circus focus solely on members of the Pythons, histories of the sketches, or the development of other Monty Python projects, leaving a dearth of scholarly and contextual analysis on the television show itself.

Zusammenfassung
Marcia Landy examines Monty Pythons Flying Circus within the context of its time, analyzing the show's influence on 1960s and 1970s British television as well as British cultural influence on the show's legendary material. Landy explores not only why the series' complex form of comedy was important but also why it was so well received.