Happy 70th, Mr. Cleese

What better way to celebrate John Cleese’s 70th birthday than with a look back at, perhaps, the two most classic clips from the greatest British comedy of all time. I will admit, however, that I’m feeling the same way about hearing John Cleese turned 70 on October 27 as I did when seeing the 25th […]

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Pythons reunite for BAFTA award

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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Basil Fawlty earns an "A" in the Science of Great Comedy

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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It was 20 years ago today…actually, 2×20 years ago tomorrow

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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Time for Tellyspotting!

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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