Product Review

Disc 6 of the Monty Python's Flying Circus series comprises three episodes from the second season. Beginning with one of Monty Python's best, episode 17, "The Buzz Aldrin Show," is a must-own for fans of the Gumbys. Those thick-headed, handkerchief-bedecked and suspender-clad characters introduce a trio of classic sketches, including The Architect Sketch, in which slaughterhouse-designer John Cleese unveils his design for a residential block of flats ("The tenants are carried along on the corridor on a conveyor belt in extreme comfort past murals depicting Mediterranean scenes toward the rotating knives...."). Jones, yet again, shines in a brilliant bit of Bondian nonsense, The Bishop. Episode 18 is also a knockout, with John Cleese as Ken Clear-Air System, a boxer with a "brain problem." (His opponent, Petulia Wilcox, who is "keen on knitting and likes Cliff Richard records," is portrayed by Connie Booth, the former Mrs. Cleese and coauthor of Fawlty Towers.) Other highlights include the last meeting of the Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things. Eric Idle has a brief but memorable bit as a butcher who is alternately rude and polite to confused customer Michael Palin. Episode 19 is vintage Python, with characters that have entered the fan lexicon, including Graham Chapman's Raymond Luxury Yacht (it's pronounced "Throatwarbler Mangrove") and Terry Jones's Mr. Dibley, an unfortunate filmmaker who is the victim of "petty critical nibbling" over his films Midnight Cowboy, Rear Window, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Finigan's Rainbow (starring the Man from the Off-Licence), which even Dibley admits is "10 seconds of solid boredom." Eric Idle appears as one of his signature characters, smarmy, self-absorbed talk show host Timmy Williams, whom desperate friend Terry Jones makes the mistake of seeking out for counsel. --Donald Liebenson