A mere 24 hours after an unknown film with no distributor called Monty Python and the Holy Grail premiered in Los Angeles, four of the Monty Python troupe appeared at the KERA-TV studios in Dallas in 1975. The following video was discovered on a former KERA broadcast engineer’s “save” reel where it had gone unnoticed […]
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Fast forward five years. It’s 1974. The average home price – just under $11,000. A gallon of gas – 55 cents. Average new car price just under $4,000. Oh, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 616! Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. president to resign after the Watergate scandal. Lucy the skeleton was […]
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Stay up all night with KERA, Saturday, October 10 from 7p-5a (yes, that’s 5:00am) as we celebrate the 35th anniversary of the beginning of British comedy in the United States and then challenge your brain at Trinity Hall, Mockingbird Station on Sunday, October 11 at 7:00p for a special edition of their ever popular Pub […]
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As we continue to pay tribute to the true beginning of television comedy as we know it (or think we know it), the Pythons will reunite in New York on October 15 to receive a BAFTA award. Let’s hope that Graham Chapman gets a little bit better treatment this time than he did during the […]
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Fawlty Towers has to be the greatest 12 episodes of comedy ever. The UK version of The Office is a close second (much better, I think, than the American version, but that’s a debate for another day). This is a re-write of an article I did several years ago, but bears repeating as we begin […]
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Celebrate Monty Python Day (October 5, 1969) with the BBC as Ricky Gervais, Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, Stephen Merchant (co-writer, The Office) and Justin Lee Collins share their favorite bits. Check it out here…BBC. Ok, it’s self-declared as Monty Python Day, but I can do that, I think. Dare you to Silly Walk down Main Street […]
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October 5, 1969. Not as momentous an occasion as, say, July 20, 1969 or August 15-17, 1969 but it is a date that will live in not only television comedy history, but comedy history. 40 years ago Monday, Monty Python’s Flying Circus hit the airwaves on the BBC. Maybe you remember, maybe you don’t. […]
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Thanks to everyone who voted and, more importantly, thanks for doing my job the last several days. FYI, results are being tabulated as we speak, picking specific episodes from the series you voted in to the marathon. Don’t forget to tune in to KERA Channel 13, Saturday, October 10, 2009 from 7:00p-5:00a, for the 35th […]
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Welcome to Tellyspotting – Your Brit TV Pub! From Peter Cook to Ricky Gervais and from Upstairs/Downstairs to MI5 (Spooks), the Brits produce some of the best shows on television. As Vice President of Television Programming at KERA (Dallas/Ft. Worth), I have a job that affords me the opportunity to screen and evaluate much of the […]
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