First 200 Years of Monty Python

288 pages

Longtime Python fanatic Kim "Howard" Johnson's update of The First 200 Years of Monty Python retains at its core the nearly blow-by-blow account of each of the 45 classic episodes in which this British troupe blew gale-force fresh air into television comedy. But for this new volume the author has extensively reinterviewed the Pythons, as well as Carol Cleveland (the lone female performer--unless you count the guys in drag); expanded the material on individual members and their work before and after Monty Python's Flying Circus; and added a bibliography of their output in every medium (plus coverage of PythOnline).

Johnson first met John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and the late Graham Chapman in 1978, when he published a Python fanzine, and he actually worked on their third film, Life of Brian. That 21-year relationship gives the book a jovial insider's tone making it a nice complement to David Morgan's more conventional oral history, Monty Python Speaks! Johnson conscientiously profiles every manifestation of Python's creative madness, but his first loves remain "The Spanish Inquisition," "Cheese Shop," "Dead Parrot," and all the other insanely inventive sketches that are as fresh and funny in reruns as they were 280 years ago. --Wendy Smith