The First 20 Years of Monty Python [Paperback]

Kim "Howard" Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Thomas Dunne book | Publication Date: October 15, 1989

This book celebrates the group's career with exclusive interviews, rare photographs, and an episode guide detailing the original TV shows still being aired daily across the country. Photos throughout.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Longtime Python fanatic Kim "Howard" Johnson's update of The First 200 Years of Monty Python retains at its core the nearly blow-by-blow account of each of the 45 classic episodes in which this British troupe blew gale-force fresh air into television comedy. But for this new volume the author has extensively reinterviewed the Pythons, as well as Carol Cleveland (the lone female performer--unless you count the guys in drag); expanded the material on individual members and their work before and after Monty Python's Flying Circus; and added a bibliography of their output in every medium (plus coverage of PythOnline).

Johnson first met John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and the late Graham Chapman in 1978, when he published a Python fanzine, and he actually worked on their third film, Life of Brian. That 21-year relationship gives the book a jovial insider's tone making it a nice complement to David Morgan's more conventional oral history, Monty Python Speaks! Johnson conscientiously profiles every manifestation of Python's creative madness, but his first loves remain "The Spanish Inquisition," "Cheese Shop," "Dead Parrot," and all the other insanely inventive sketches that are as fresh and funny in reruns as they were 280 years ago. --Wendy Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A wonderful, brilliant, incisive, transcendental, and mystical work, except for the bits about Terry Gilliam. And Eric Idle. And the rather uninteresting and unnecessary details about Michael Jones and Terry Palin. And perhaps it would have been even better had it gone on less about Graham Chapman. The rest is superb." --John Cleese

"A book to make you laugh or cry (depending on whether you tear out the pages and tickle your feet with them or roll them up tightly into thin cylindrical rolls and poke yourself in the eye)." --Terry Jones

"There's really nothing an agnostic can't do if he really doesn't know whether he believes in anything or not." --Graham Chapman

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (October 15, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312033095
• ISBN-13: 978-0312033095
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,666,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Annoying To Read, November 8, 1999

By 

C Ballew (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The First 20 Years of Monty Python (Paperback)

This may be the best book about python yet, but it is very annoying to read because it is rife with repetitions of previously stated information. Every time a particular incident is mentioned (for example: when Terry Gilliam and John Cleese met during a photo session for HELP magazine), the author goes back and retells the entire story and its events before adding the new bit of information that he could just have easily mentioned the first time around. This doesn't just happen in two's though. He retells stories sometimes as many as ten times! Also, when an incident is spoken of by more than one person, each of their comments are reproduced, even if they aren't much different than the other person's version. Then two chapters later, another person may talk about the same event, again, not adding anything to the story! I just wanted to scream "I just read about that! STOP WASTING MY TIME!" I think he may have felt it was necessary to put stories in proper historical context, but that would have served better by creating a chart of significant events and dates for us to refer to if we weren't too sure about when they happened. I'm enjoying it otherwise, but mostly due to the brilliance of the pythons themselves, rather than the skill of the author, who is very disorganized and writes with supprisingly little humor or cleverness. I recently read a book about the making of SCTV by one of the cast members, and that one was brilliantly funny, inciteful, and far more eyeopening than this book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lemon curry?, June 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The First 28 Years of Monty Python, Revised Edition (Paperback)

Personally, I love this stuff. I can't get enough of the Pythons, and I love reading about the minutiae of their relationships. The book is also very episodic, which is perfect for people like me who have no attention span.

But, as much as I love the Pythons, and thrilled as I am to hear about who was bickering with whom, and where most of the material for the Michael Ellis show came from, I can't imagine the casual reader having much interest in it all. This is not a book to introduce you to these guys. It's for the die-hard addict who's seen every show and movie so many times that they can launch into Pepperpot mode whenever someone says "Hello, Mrs. Premise..."

But that said, if you number among the Python faithful, it's a must have.

Regards, Ken Biggles, in a white wine sauce, with shallots, garlic and a fried egg on top.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate guide to Python..., January 11, 2002

By 

David L. White (Everett, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First 28 Years of Monty Python, Revised Edition (Paperback)

This is a fantastic guide to Monty Python. Pre-Python, The TV Show, the films, the records: it's all there. It is full of facts & photos. I often refer to it while I'm watching a Python TV show or film on DVD. There are other books about Python, but none that cover the history so thouroughly. It's a very enjoyable, funny read. I particularly like the Pre-Python photo comic from Harvey Kurtzman's Help Magazine, which is reprinted in the book. It features John Cleese as a man who falls in love with his daughter's Barbie doll. This book, combined with David Morgan's book Monty Python Speaks, will tell you everything you want to know about Monty Python.