Search - The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus Mega Set on DVD

Its...every single episode! - "Can't be bad."

B-MAN | Earth, occasionally. Until I get bored. | 07/28/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a set of 14 DVDs which contain all 45 episodes, every sketch you know and love (all 4 seasons, 1969-1974) of the ground-breaking Monty Python's Flying Circus starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. It comes in a neat and pretty orange and pink box that's roughly 5.5 x 8.5 inches. In terms of digital format there are some minor blemishes but this show dates back to 1969! Get a grip! Its almost as if the presenters new that people would be complaining about this and wrote on the DVD cases - "...enjoy the original scratches, pops and hisses with crystal clarity." The bigger complaint you will hear or read about is the fact that somethings (mostly a word or two) have been censored from the original episodes. I admit there is nothing sillier than censoring a completely normal word and yet leaving the topless woman in, but this is a minor detail to having the entire series at the push of a button. I'm not about to hunt down all the VHS tapes just so I can have a few (and I do mean a few) words. I also don't plan on aging a decade to see if they will bring out another set. If you love this show, I don't recommend you do that either. This will be the definitive set for quite some time, if not until the next new format arrives, so why wait? Start the lunacy right now! Here are the episode titles and corresponding DVDs. Why? Because I care, silly.DVD 1 (1-3): Wither Canada, Sex & Violence, How to recognize different types of trees from quite a long way away
DVD 2 (4-6): Owl-stretching time, Man's crisis of identity in the latter half of the 20th century, Its the arts
DVD 3 (7-9): Youre no fun anymore, Full frontal nudity, The Ant-an introduction
DVD 4 (10-13): Untitled, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra goes to the bathroom, The Naked ant, Intermission
DVD 5 (14-16): Face the press, The spanish inquisition, Deja Vu
DVD 6 (17-19): The Buzz Aldrin show, Live from the grill-o-mat, Its a living
DVD 7 (20-22): The Atilla the Hun show, Archaeology today, How to recognize different parts of the body
DVD 8 (23-26): Scott of the Antarctic, How not to be seen, Spam, Royal Episode 13
DVD 9 (27-29): Whicker's world, Mr. & Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular, The Money Programme
DVD 10 (30-32): Blood Devastation Death War & Horror, The All England summarize Proust competition, The war against pornography
DVD 11 (33-35): Salad days, The cycling tour, The nude organist
DVD 12 (36-39): E. Henry Thripshaw's disease, Dennis Moore, A book at bedtime, Grandstand
DVD 13 (40-42): The golden age of ballooning, Michael Ellis, The light entertainment war
DVD 14 (43-45): Hamlet, Mr. Neutron, Party Political Broadcast"

THIS IS EDITED VERSIONS, NOT COMPLETE EPISODES.

A. Bender | 08/06/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Despite A & E's claim to the contrary ["Now, every single moment of the legendary Flying Circus is together in this comprehensive DVD set. From the original "It's..." to "Dead Parrot" to the "Olympic Hide and Seek Final" every single sketch, every silly song, every Monty moment from the legendary TV show is preserved here in better-than-original form, digitally remastered and augmented with extras like Monty Karaoke, Gillianimations art gallery, rare skits from the "Fliegender Zirkus" (it's German, you work out the translation) and much, much more." -- from their web site], THIS SET IS NOT COMPLETE. I repeat: Despite A & E's claim to the contrary, THIS SET IS NOT COMPLETE. To give you an example, episode # 38 is supposed to begin with a "Party Political Broadcast", but begins with the opening credits and goes immediately into "A Book at Bedtime", which is the second skit. In other words, the beginning of the show is simply chopped off. You can see what the beginning is supposed to be from the list at A & E's own site by looking at their list of the sketches, or in the second volume of THE COMPLETE MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS ALL THE WORDS (a book available from Amazon, so you can check this for yourself).Additionally, A & E appears to have used a version in which the picture frames are all slightly cropped at the top, bottom, and sides. This appears to be the case in every frame in every episode, from beginning to end. For most skits, this is not a serious problem, but it shows extreme carelessness by A & E. It is ridiculous to think of this set as being anything close to being a "definitive" collection.Of course, if this were complete, it would be 5 stars (it would also be nice if they had restored the video, but that is a relatively small matter). Complain to A & E, and wait for them to come out with complete episodes."

The ultimate Monty Python episode collection!

A. Bender | Pennsylvania, USA | 10/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This collection of 7 sets (14 DVDs total) of Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes (#1-45) is a must for any fan of Python, or British humor in general! It will keep you rolling in the aisles for years! It includes ALL the classic episodes and skits (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink... The parrot sketch, The Spanish Inquisition, Marriage Councelor, Spam, and ALL the rest in a beautifully restored digital format. It also includes outtakes from their later live performances, behind the scenes info, trivia, special programs for computers with DVD drives, and more! I can't recommend this enough! Plus, since you're getting all the sets in one bundle, you can save a bunch of money. Rediscover how all the episodes are so cleverly interwoven with the theme of the evening (How not to be seen, etc.), and brilliantly come full circle by the end of the episode. I have every Python CD and DVD made, and couldn't survive without this set! Buy it, watch them often, and enjoy!"

Serious Python purists beware...

A. Bender | 06/30/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"A&E made more than their share of sloppy and easily preventable mistakes when mastering this collection. Aside from the unwanted edits that were mentioned by a previous reviewer, I have found this set to have a relatively alarming (if not totally pervasive) quantity of momentary digital glitches, particularly in the audio. These are NOT problems with the source tapes, as can be verified by watching earlier releases of the same episodes on VHS or even on PBS. Since my career is in digital audio, I can tell that they were "generated" during the process of transferring to the digital medium. A&E didn't bother to restore any of these episodes, and I can't blame them, but I do have to object to the fact that they apparently just threw these onto DVD so hastily without pre-screening the results of the conversion process. One almost suspects that this conversion process was performed largely unattended.In addition, there are other confusing and ridiculous errata-- such as the episode "Intermission" showing up as "It's the Arts" when the DVD is stuck in the deck, even though the back of the case is labeled correctly. Dear Sirs: I also feel I should complain about the patronizing and extraordinarily annoying menu titles ("Main Bloody Menu," etc.) and, along similar lines, the totally worthless "extras."I'm glad these are out on DVD, and I'm glad to have the "entire" set at my digital disposal after wearing out my ten-year-old VHS tapes... but I can't help but suspect that A&E or the Pythons themselves are hoping to cash in on this series yet one more time at some later date, when they do a full restoration and fix their first set of grievous errors. Call me picky, but when I plop down close to 2 bills for a set of "historically significant" DVDs, I expect perfection... especially when this set was the only reason I purchased a DVD player in the first place.Yours truly, Sgt. R.B. Knickers (Mrs.) (Deceased)"