I saw John Cleese just before he died...
PGage
the wife and kid, and he said this was his best selling t-shirt on his
concert tour. I really enjoyed the show, which he has apparently been
doing for a while now, consisting of stories and clips (but only one
short one from the Circus (Fish Slapping Dance, which he says all
surviving cast members have said is their favorite bit). One of the
cooler parts was a clip from an early show with Marty Feldman, Tim
Brooke-Taylor, and Graham Chapman (I did not remember the name from
the show tonight, but looking it up I see it was "At Last the 1948
Show"). He said the David Frost people had erased all of the masters,
but someone in Scandinavia found 6 copies in a vault somewhere and
sent them to him. Of course he had an extended bit about Chapman,
including the back story and clip of his remarks at Graham's memorial.
It was a little bit like sitting at a computer watching youtube clips
with John Cleese, but still very cool.
Kevin M.
I recently discovered his podcast and, though it hasn't been updated
in a while, it still contains some fun, funny, and informative
segments.
He may have been pulling your leg about the 1948 show, as it is widely
available on DVD (the graininess was supposedly intentional,
reflecting "age" of the show's title), as is the kids show that united
the other half of Python, "Do Not Adjust Your Set."
--
Kevin M. (RPCV)
PGage
You are right, he may have been teasing us, he did that a lot - though
he seemed serious when he said the Frost people destroyed the masters.
I was not familiar with the show. He also talked about and showed a
clip from "Do Not Adjust Your Set".
He also may have been teasing when he made frequent references to
having played a lot of small towns in California recently (Chico,
Modesto) - but when we walked out we did see a huge luxury bus that
could have been used by him on a California tour (though he is 70).
PGage
whatever that is worth):
"The show was made shortly before colour on ITV. There were two short
series totalling 13 25-minute episodes (six in the first series, seven
in the second). Thames Television wiped the material once they had
acquired the Rediffusion London archive, and all but two episodes were
destroyed. John Cleese rescued two episodes when he became aware of
what was happening. Five compilation episodes for Swedish television
also survived. Much missing material has been recovered in video or
audio recordings from the series, or from the LP version, and
surviving video has reportedly been restored by the British Film
Institute.
Of the surviving footage, only the five Swedish compilation episodes
have been released on DVD. This includes the "Four Yorkshiremen
sketch", written and performed by Cleese, Chapman, Brooke-Taylor and
Feldman.[3] The DVDs were issued by Pinnacle Vision in the UK (Region
2) and by Tango Entertainment in the US (Region 1). The DVD
incorrectly states these as "recently recovered episodes", titles them
as "episodes [1-5]", and also presents them in the wrong series order.
There is no mention on the DVD that the content is a compilation."