Subj : Re: Python Resurrection!
To   : I Am *Not* Mentok
From : Albert Sims
Date : Mon Oct 30 2006 07:12 am

From: Albert Sims <alsims65@nospamhotmail.com>

I Am *Not* Mentok wrote:
> I was amused to have seen *Motorau* write this:
>
>> It is sad that the UK is not producing humorous material like that of
>> the Monty Python in the 1970s
>
>> Perhaps the BBC might consider having a Next Generation of Pythons if
>> Dr Who can regenerate itself and Star Trek can re invent itself
>> Why not the Python Genre? Or are we not making funny people anymore...?
>
> Not to be querulous, but were the follow-ups to said programs /really/  the
same
> or even on a par with the original?  Well, in their own way, no, but even a
> re-invention would take a lot of wiggle room for viewers to develop a taste
for
> it.  For example, when "Twilight Zone" was brought back (and for a mercifully
> short time) it just did not have the same tone, feel, tension or expectation
as
> what bore the imprimatur of its originator, Rod Serling.  As for a
Python-type
> show, only "Kids in the Hall" (from Canada) have come even close, and they
had
> the support of the producer of "Saturday Night Live", Lorne Michaels, a show
> which itself was essentially a Python clone, following closely on the heels
of
> the disbanding of that group in the early 70's.
>
> Sure, a "new" Python may create a following, and there will certainly be
> detractors, but in today's creative uber-micro-management style, you end up
with
> a camel;  a horse as designed by a committee.  Not to mention the
patronizing,
> ever-spiraling-downward dumbing down of what they think is "funny" nowadays.
> Python was inspired lunacy, derived from its diverse influences stemming from
> its authors coming from a school of comedy as developed in their respective
> adolescent, collegiate and post-graduate endeavors.  Today's audiences are
fed
> by people who believe they know /so/  much more than you or me as to what
they
> think we as the audience will find funny;  the "will-it-play-in-Peoria?"
> mentality, i.e., will the average viewer who lives outside of their
> entertainment-world-cocoon be amused?  Control is in the hands of those whose
> main concern is the bottom line, not the belly laugh, people who have never
even
> heard of the comic influences of those whose artistic lives they hold in
their
> overeducated fist.
>
> Monty Python was a product of its time, its creators and the overall
zeitgeist,
> all of which were brought together in some manner of supreme comic cosmic
> convergence, never duplicated, always imitated, so to answer my own question
-
> and in my opinion - any "Next Generation" Python would be merely a pale,
flimsy
> and clumsy carbon copy at best.
>
> Also, considering the relative autonomy the Pythons had over their show, I
> seriously doubt that the practices of BBC management ('eck, the U.S. is even
> worse.  Committees, focus groups, demographic studies, "Notes, notes, notes"
all
> serving to stifle the artist's inspiration) in today's market would allow
such
> creative freedom and thus suffocate the baby in the crib.
>
> So, it may (or more than likely, not) be funny as hell, but it just wouldn't
be
> the same.
>

Anyone remember "The New Monkees", "The New Munsters"??

Thought not... same would apply to a "New Python".

--
Albert Sims
West Monroe,Louisiana

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