Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python
Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python is a British television special dedicated to Monty Python, created to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the debut of the comedy group's television series, Monty Python's Flying Circus. Produced by Tiger Television for the BBC, it was compiled by renowned British comedy producer John Lloyd and aired on BBC1 on 18 November 1989.
Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python is a British television special dedicated to Monty Python, created to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the debut of the comedy group's television series, Monty Python's Flying Circus. Produced by Tiger Television for the BBC, it was compiled by renowned British comedy producer John Lloyd and aired on BBC1 on 18 November 1989.
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Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python is a British television special dedicated to Monty Python, created to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the debut of the comedy group's television series, Monty Python's Flying Circus. Produced by Tiger Television for the BBC, it was compiled by renowned British comedy producer John Lloyd and aired on BBC1 on 18 November 1989.
Introduced by actor and Monty Python fan Steve Martin, the special showcases various sketches from Monty Python's Flying Circus, along with some sketches from the two German specials, Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus. As indicated by its title, the "Dead Parrot sketch" is intentionally omitted. It concluded with the final appearance of all six Python members together, before Graham Chapman's death in October 1989.
The special was broadcast in the US on the Showtime network on 17 March 1990. This was 90 seconds shorter than the UK version due to a cut scene from the end of the pre-credits sequence which had Steve Martin revealing, via a slowed down clip of the Bruces sketch, that the Pythons were Satanists. This shorter version was released on VHS in the UK by CBS/Fox in 1990 and later on DVD in the US by A&E in 2001, as part of their Monty Python Live box set.
Sketches included
Willam Tell
The Merchant of Venice as performed by a herd of cows
Silly Olympics
Dennis Moore
How Not To Be Seen
Exploding Version of The Blue Danube
Dennis Moore (again)
World Forum/Communist Quiz
The Philosophers' Football Match
RAF Banter
French Lecture on Sheep-Aircraft
Conrad Poohs and His Dancing Teeth
Architects Sketch
How to Recognize a Mason
The Ministry of Silly Walks
Queen Victoria Handicap
The Wacky Queen
Working Class Playwright
The Fish-Slapping Dance
A man with a Stoat Through His Head
Roy and Hank Spim – Mosquito hunters
Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days"
Patient Abuse
Hospital Run by RSM
Come Back to My Place
Homicidal Barber
The Lumberjack Song
Film Trailer
Spam
A man With a Tape Recorder up His Nose
Musical Mice
The Mouse Problem
House Hunters
Rival Documentaries
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto Escape Act
Argument Clinic
The Spanish Inquisition
Bus Animation
The Spanish Inquisition (again)
And Then
The Visitors
Man-Powered Flight
Raymond Luxury Yacht
Television is Bad for Your Eyes
Last Gumby announcement
Deleted sequence
Originally, a brand new sketch featuring the Monty Python members and Steve Martin was to be included in the special. Filmed at Twickenham Studios on 3 September 1989, the sequence featured the Monty Python members dressed as school boys, asking Martin questions and taking notes. Although present at the recording, Graham Chapman did not perform in the sketch. The sequence was removed at the Pythons' request, as Terry Jones explained: "There was this new sketch which featured us and Steve Martin. Somebody had cobbled this thing together and was passing it off, saying it was written by John or whatever. When I read it I thought, 'This is just terrible, we can't do this'. So we arrived and Steve Martin was there at the film studios. We had to turn up to do it and I'm very glad that they cut it". Footage of the Pythons meeting up to record the sketch was aired in the US version of the Life of Python documentary.
The Pythons gave an alternative version of their appearance, which is featured in the special, in which Steve Martin briefly reveals that they are all in a cupboard. Chapman appears very pale and sallow; at the time the throat cancer that would kill him was advancing rapidly. This would be his last filmed appearance before his death on 4 October 1989, which coincidentally was the day before the 20th anniversary of the broadcast of the first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.