Monty Python

On the data. There is no order here, because there is no story. Python is a sketch troupe: no recurring characters, no arcs, nothing to keep up with. You can start anywhere. What is worth knowing is which of the films are new and which are not. Three are original: Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. Two are compilations. And Now for Something Completely Different refilms sketches from the first two television series, without an audience, to sell Python to America. Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a stage performance drawing on the series, earlier revues and the German specials. Watch the television and then both of those and you will see the dead parrot and the lumberjack three times over. The television count is forty five episodes across four series: thirteen, thirteen, thirteen and six. The short fourth series is a different programme in practice. John Cleese had left, it went out under the shortened title Monty Python, and it is the weakest stretch. The two German specials are not part of the forty five. The first was performed in German by people who did not speak it. Two dates get misreported. And Now for Something Completely Different came out in Britain in 1971 and America in 1972. Live at the Hollywood Bowl was filmed in September 1980 and not released until 1982. The Pythons own their own work, through their own company, which is unusual for a group of that era. The catalogue is still split in practice: The Meaning of Life was a Universal production and sits apart from the rest, so the six films are rarely on one service. Solo work is deliberately left out. Fawlty Towers, Time Bandits, A Fish Called Wanda and the Gilliam films are not Python, whatever a streaming service's category page says.

On your progress. Checkmarks are saved on this device and are tied to permanent title IDs, not to list positions, so new episodes, titles, and whole franchises can be added later without disturbing anything you've already marked. Use Sync & backup to move progress to another device.