>I have questions.
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>1) Do any episodes of this still exist?
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>2) Should we be interested in seeing it?
Roger Wilmut's 1980 book From Fringe To Flying Circus said that (apparently) only about a quarter of the two series survived wiping by executive producer David Frost's company. (According to another book that I can't identify, Cleese has never forgiven Frost for this.) In any case, you'd have been lucky to have seen it outside the London area (the regions had their own programmes).
Is it worth it? I think it probably is - Four Yorkshiremen originated in At Last...
I remember seeing an episode on TV Heaven in 1992, which was pretty funny. I'll try and dig it out - still got it somewhere.
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There was a record, which has some pretty good, embryonic Python-type stuff, and some less good, more obviously mainstream material. Plus things which were more suited to a crap edition of "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again" (specifically the Song Of The Ferret...).
I seem to remember having seen this re-released recently on some format, but I might just have got it confised with something else... can anyone confirm / deny?
A couple of compilation editions turned up a couple of years ago - I saw one of these, and can confirm that it was ace. I believe this may have been shown by Channel 4 as part of some theme night or other.
'The Ferret Song' has indeed been reissued, on the CD "Thunderbirds and other 60s TV Themes". One of the few listenable tracks on it.
>1) Do any episodes of this still exist?
Far too few episodes exist but Channel 4 have shown a couple of episodes and it's a cracking little show, without it we may never have had Python.
>2) Should we be interested in seeing it?
Anyone interested in comedy should not just be interested but should crave seeing the long lost episodes with a passion. According to the NFT, they have found an additional complete show and five compilations from Sweden that they have tried to reconstruct the missing episodes from so let's wish for a video/DVD release soon. A special event will be taking place at the NFT on the 1st October to celebrate this fantastic show so how's that for timing.
Geee willikers, Sirs, it has come to my attention that this thread refers to the television program known as At Once The 1958 Show. As you may be aware, Graham Chapman was in this program, and as executor of his estate, I must order you to ceast and desist and remove all references to this program from the thread already.
Keep up the good though y'all - always with the humour already!
Have a nice day,
Hiram K Moneygrabber
i've got a couple of episodes on video, and it's terrific, although it was recorded on the worst video stock this side of the crab nebula, so don't expect any future dvd release to look even half palatable.
j xxx
please ceast and desist and hand over your videos at once
Exactly where can you get good film stock the other side of the Crab Nebula? My wife and I will be visiting the area shortly and we'd happily go out of our way to pick up some decent 16mm stock.
According to TV Heaven eight compilation shows made for swedish TV were discovered about 10 years ago.
Got the LP somewhere. We would have put it up on-line but we were worried that some bloke who once met the late Marty Feldman in a lift might complain...
Incidentally, the fanzine pisstake in COMMENT (a link from the Ben Elton article) features a nod towards Youkum-style Yanky Python fans.
>Incidentally, the fanzine pisstake in COMMENT (a link from the Ben Elton article) features a nod towards Youkum-style Yanky Python fans.
Any particular reason why the editors stayed out of the 'out of the trees' debacle?
PJ - I think Rob's comments on the 'what Jim Yoakam's final word should have been' thread shed some light on this...
hmm
>i've got a couple of episodes on video, and it's terrific, although it was recorded on the worst video stock this side of the crab nebula, so don't expect any future dvd release to look even half palatable.
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>j xxx
Actually, like most black and white shows it was transferred from 2" 405-line VT (now obsolete) onto 16mm film with unfortunately crappy optical sound quality. Even so, as one of the two main precursors of Monty Python (the other being Do Not Adjust Your Set), it's a must-see. What's left of it.