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The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus Megaset

The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus Megaset

List Price: $199.95
Your Price: $159.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The most influential comedy ever
Review: It is hard to imagine a world without the Python's maniacal influence. We would have no sitcoms, britcoms, Mystery Science Theater 3000, or Saturday Night Live. It would, indeed, be a sad world to live in.
Alas, this wonderful DVD set showcases every single comedy bit the Pythons ever produced. The Dead Parrot Sketch will leave you in stitches even after repeated viewings, as will The Lumberjack Song, Nudge Nudge Wink Wink, Flying Grannies, as well as the daily cartoon.
It must also be pointed out that it is a treat to point out scenes where the actors play multiple characters in one scene. Chapman, Cleese, Jones, Idle, and Palin pull no punches with their comedy, and they don't take breaks with their character portrayals.
As pointed out above, Terry Gilliam's animation for the series is fantastic for the time it was created, and the frequent "bumpers" of cartoons are nothing short of hilarious, particularly the segment involving a man's dancing teeth.
A must-have for anyone with a sense of humor.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: #23....The Larch...The Larch. #24...The Spanish Inquisition
Review: What else can you say about it? It's the greatest show of all time. Before I heard of Monty Python, I had no clue how to defend my self against an assailant armed with fresh fruit. Now I know that not only will a tiger eat the foe, but it will also eat the raspberry's.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: NOT complete! (but still worth having)
Review: This is a great collection, and I'm a proud owner. However, the labelling calling it "complete" is inaccurate and misleading. Two very good episodes of the Flying Circus that were produced for German and Austrian TV in 1971 and 1972 are not included in this collection. Both were in English with German subtitles.

'Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus' 1971 episode included the excellent Silly Olympics sketch, and the 1972 episode had the hilarious International Philosophy sketch (where ancient Greek philosophers battle duel German philosophers at soccer).

Material from these two have been released previously on a VHS cassette, but I've not seen it on DVD yet. It would make a nice supplement to this collection of the BBC episodes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Reminds me why I love the Pythons...
Review: I remember seeing episodes of "Flying Circus" on TV when I was younger, but I wasn't re-exposed to the Pythons until I was in high school, when I discovered "The Holy Grail" and "The Life of Brian." Now that I've finally got this set, my Python Collection feels complete.

45 episodes, skits from their live show, "Pythonisms," visits to Gilliam's "attic" -- this set has EVERYTHING, and at a much better price than you'd get if you bought all 14 discs separately. The Python wit even extends to the cases, where they proclaim that every imperfection in the film has been captured with complete digital clarity -- and they're right. Plus, the episodes are uncut, including some racier bits I can only assume were cut out for American broadcast before they reached my young, innocent eyes.

Simply put: if you love Python, you've gotta get this set.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The ultimate Python collection for Python fans!
Review: At the time I purchased this set, I had seen perhaps half of the episodes of this tv series, most of them over ten years ago. I enjoyed the series, and wanted to see more. I had also read quite a bit about the series, but hadn't been able to fully comprehend what I had read due to a lack of exposure.

This set was a revelation.

First of all, the video quality is a good as possible for tv shows some of which are now over 30 years old. The photography is sharp, the picture bright, the colors clear. DVD allows all the colors to shine through, without that annoying color static that comes up with bright reds, which Python used quite a bit.

Secondly, seeing all the shows in order allowed me to really appreciate all the planning and effort that went into what often appears to be pure chaos. Running gags don't just recur in one episode, they re-occur in subsequent episodes. The first shows of the season are consistently funny, and the last shows of the season tend to have some weaker material, though still very good.

And, finally, there are many fun features, clips, archival artwork, and trivia questions to keep you amused when you have seen simply too much Monty for the moment.

I actually managed to watch this entire set over the course of two months. What is amazing is that I WANTED to - even after 30 episodes, I couldn't wait to see what was next!

The only thing missing is the tiny bits of footage edited out of shows here and there. I'm not even sure that it exists anymore, but it would have been nice to see the footage restored, or at least included as a bonus.

Overall, this was quite satisfying, and one of the best dvd purchases I've made!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: dinsdale!
Review: buy this and you will have a lifetime of laughs!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: DON'T BLAME A&E
Review: In response to Keith Meisel's review, A&E didn't edit the Monty Python masters. Most people don't know that when Monty Python aired in the UK, the BBC made a few edits before broadcast. When these episodes were aired in the US, they were shown uncut. Unfortunately, when A&E got the master tapes from the BBC to transfer to DVD, they got the edited BBC version. This may be unforgiveably sloppy on the part of A&E, but they did not do the editing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: With reservations...
Review: OK, anybody considering this boxed set is among the initiated, so an explanation of the benefits of owning the entire catalog of the Flying Circus is redundant. However, it should be noted that certain sketches in the DVD edition of MPFC are NOT as broadcast. The producers (A&E) thought it neccesary to 'edit' some content. Of note is the 'All England Summarize Proust' sketch. In the final analysis, I consider the edits a tolerable abomination. As a LONG TIME MPFC fan I've only caught a couple, and my old VHS copies are wearing out :)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: something completely different.
Review: there's not much to say. if you're a python maniac you've just one single option: pushing the 'add to shopping cart' button.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: For european customers only: runs also on regcode 2 player
Review: In contradiction to what the technical description says: this
DVD can also be played on region 2 players - i.e. it holds
either both, region code 1 AND 2, or no code at all (0).
Of course your player will create a NTSC signal, but if your TV
is not way too old, it will be able to handle that. Alternatively
practically all players allow you to chose the output signal
format, so in any case you should be fine.
The same holds true for the Criterion collection of 'The life of Brian', btw.


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