October 6, 1974. The day that charted the course of British comedy in the U.S. for decades to come. Thanks to a ground-breakingly brilliant decision by then KERA President/CEO Bob Wilson and Program Director Ron Devillier, the legend of Monty Python’s Flying Circus had its American beginning on KERA/Dallas as part of one seemingly uneventful Sunday evening 50 years ago this past month.

• Monty Python visits KERA TV in 1975 (Youtube)
• After four decades, the mystery of the ‘Monty Python’ armadillo is solved!
• More Monty Python blog posts on Tellyspotting

Thankfully, the British sketch comedy series has gone on to not only be one of the foremost comedy efforts of the last half century but continues to be a major influencer of comedians on both side of the pond to this day.

Given the relatively conservative climate in Dallas at the time, this decision was monumental…for Dallas, but not for public broadcasting in North Texas. KERA, under Bob Wilson, was already known for its efforts in local news journalism when it launched Newsroom which started the television career of Jim Lehrer among others.

On October 6, 1974, the collective comic genius of John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Graham Chapman conquered North Texas. While it was probably uncertain at the time what the audience reaction would be, both Wilson and Devillier knew they had witnessed comic greatness.

Fortunately, for us all, their intuition was correct in that that initial broadcast garnered the largest audience KERA had seen in years. The rest, as ‘they’ say, is history as PBS stations in New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia followed suit by acquiring the broadcast rights from the BBC.

To celebrate, KERA will host an evening that has the potential to set cinema back some 900 years with a screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail on Wednesday, November 13 at 7:00p at the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff. If that’s not enough to mark the occasion, did I mention that this will be the SING-ALONG version of Holy Grail? How about a costume content, prizes and photo ops to sweeten the deal?

Oh…now your interested!

Wherever you find yourself in America going forward, when you stumble across your favorite British comedy on your local public television station, remember KERA and that 50 year-old decision by Bob Wilson and Ron Devillier as the moment that started it all! Hope to see you at the Texas Theatre on November 13! Tickets will go fast so click here to get your tickets.

Now…go away or I will taunt you a second time!