Amoeblog

Monty Python’s Flying Circus - 39 years ago today

Posted by Whitmore, October 5, 2008 08:38pm | Post a Comment


39 years ago today
, light ceased radiating; the World stopped spinning, coughed up a hairball, then turned on its side and attempted to shake loose all the other furry dust berries clinging to its nipple-ly peaks. Fearful of this new creepy darkness, the World tried to catch the tail of a passing comet only to stagger badly and get singed by the fiery interloper.

But seconds before collapsing gloomily into one last catatonic stupor, the World accidentally stepped on the remote control, triggering a channel change and so discovered that there was in fact something worthwhile to watch on television.

October 5th 1969, Monty Python’s Flying Circus was unleashed onto the airwaves of the BBC … six rather handsome young gents (Terry Jones and Michael Palin from Oxford, Eric Idle, John Cleese and Graham Chapman from Cambridge and American born Terry Gilliam from a little school in Los Angeles called Occidental College) changed history itself by saving the World, and us, from sheer utter boredom.

Candy Coated Life Lessons: Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre

Posted by Kelly S. Osato, September 12, 2008 11:25am | Comments (2)
Shelley Duvall as Rapunzel in Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre  

Growing up a latch-key kid in the mid-eighties meant that I spent many hours every day after school in front of the tv. Adding up all that time well spent I estimate that had my pre-adolescent life been stripped of my cable network companions I might be a very different person indeed. That said, I’d like to direct a hearty “thank you” to Shelley Duvall and her quality family program Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre for instilling in me a healthy dose of common sense and propriety by way of deliciously thrilling fantasy entertainment. I’ll never forget my first viewing of this stellar program: Rapunzel starring Duvall herself as the o’er tressed damsel and Jeff Bridges displaying raw and regal sexual appeal in his portrayal as the ill-fated prince who happens upon Rapunzel’s secluded tower. I know that I squandered countless innocent daydreams pondering the exemplary portrait of Bridges’ male beauty while also wonderiFaeire Tale Theatre DVDng what the heck chocolate dipped radishes might taste like and why pregnant women risked the lives of their loved ones to procure them. I began to seriously consider future career paths ripe for the treading as a witch or princess or mermaid. Thanks to cable tv,  a VHS recorder and an insatiable appetite for all things fantastical, my life took on a weekly cycle of significance, punctuated at the ends by my favorite show.