Monty Python Debuts on BBC: Comedy Revolution Begins
The BBC scheduled Monty Python's Flying Circus at 11 p.m. on October 5, 1969, a graveyard slot where failure wouldn't embarrass anyone. The first episode opened with a man announcing it was time for something completely different, followed by an Italian lesson that went nowhere and a sketch about a man with a tape recorder up his nose. Viewers complained. The BBC moved it earlier. John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin had met through Cambridge and Oxford comedy circuits and shared a conviction that punchlines were optional. They killed recurring sketches midway, animated sequences interrupted live action, and fourth walls didn't exist. Four seasons, four films, and a Broadway musical later, they'd rewritten comedy's rules by ignoring them all.
October 5, 1969
57 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on October 5
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Heraclius was crowned Byzantine Emperor in 610 after sailing from Carthage to Constantinople and overthrowing Phocas, who'd murdered the previous emperor. Phoca…
Pope Stephen IV traveled to Reims to crown Louis the Pious in 816, even though Louis had already crowned himself three years earlier. The Pope needed Frankish m…
The Fourth Council of Constantinople convened to settle the Photian Schism. Patriarch Photius had replaced Ignatius after Emperor Michael III forced Ignatius ou…
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