Season 3 - Organists with Organs

"...And we now miss very few chances to be illogical and confusing." - Michael Palin diary entry, 1/7/72

It was around this time that Monty Python began doing live performances. Although they'd performed a sketch or two as part of an evening of revues for charity or political causes, they were now the main event, if not the only event, and the causes they performed for were often their own. It seems that Cleese was the spearhead of this particular operation, that money-grubbing beanpole, and he would round up Palin and Jones and go do a "cabaret" at Oxford or Coventry or wherever for a couple hundred pounds. Audience members would show up dressed as Gumbies, and every line would be met with howls and cheers, much like the live performances we have on video and tape. Endearingly, Palin actually pines for a less easy crowd than the boisterous ones he might get, which he refers to as "the vocal majority killing lines, laughs, and all attempts at timing." Sucks to be him.

We have a hit movie appearing in cinema, a TV special in Germany, a Christmas book in the works, a second album coming out, and live performances, all of them falling outside of their BBC contract and under the umbrella of their LLC, Python (Monty). The TV show itself, while coming under increased scrutiny at the BBC, was finding a wider audience, with sketches being requested like bandstand hits on weekend shows that played such requests.

In the swell of such accomplishment, the lads reconvened for a third season. Cleese was a tad restless, not as enamored of the long and unglamorous hours preparing the shows, and questioning whether they were still doing anything original. Idle, too, was less committed than before, seeing Python as a means to an end. But Jones, Palin and Gilliam understood Python to be an end in itself-- a revolutionary television show that would continue to test the boundaries of standard sketch television. They had ample reason to think that what they were doing was working, and they wanted to double down. Gilliam, meanwhile, was drunk.

He's so drunk!

Season Three stands as their greatest accomplishment, in my opinion. Many of the episodes are more complex and daring than any of their movies. They border on brilliance, if not actually occupying it. The lads seem to accept that they are more of an ensemble than they are individual performers, and heady concepts become the rule. "Characters" like Gumby, Shabby, and the Spanish Inquisition take a back seat. In fact, comedy itself takes a back seat, with the strange and offbeat bogarting the wheel. While this sometimes takes us into strange and bewildering territory, the creative minds keep us relaxed enough to enjoy the ride.

The episodes of the final two seasons are the least seen of the whole syndicated lot. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, commercials are more deadly to this ambitious enterprise than in the prior seasons. Two, the lads explore bad taste and nudity more aggressively than in the past, perhaps chafing under the benign and befuddled censorship at the BBC. In challenging the norms of television, they've created television that is very challenging.

It's strange that, just as their live performances started taking off, they created new material that was, for the most part, unsuited to cabaret. In a quick scan of their Hollywood Bowl show, I can only spot two sketches from Season 3, and one from Season 4. (And I personally don't think the season 4 representative has any business being in the live shows-- it's just not funny.) The rest are all taken from or inspired by the first two seasons.  The cult that we know as Monty Python was, for the most part, already complete, the favorite material established by the cheering, quoting crowd.

But screw those uproarious, timing-killing audiences, just getting in the way of their brilliance. The lads had shit to do.

Next week; Episode 27 - "Whicker's World"!