At Last the 1948 Show
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Movie Reviews of At Last the 1948 Show
Movie Review: Yes, that's how you'd say "A"
Summary: 5 Stars
On its own merits, At Last the 1948 Show could have kept going and thousands of dateless geeks sitting at home on the weekend or in one of the geek's basements playing some TSR produced role playing game would be reciting "Four Sydney Lotterbys" inbetween gulps of Jolt instead of our, I mean THEIR usual recitations of episodes of The Young Ones (Anyway, 'round about now, I usually have a Pot NOO-dle, yes...) or Monty Python (They're very good scissors.)
Outside of the annoying (not lovely, despite what she says) Aimi MacDonald, this set is the audiovisual equivalent of an Aero Bar. You love it. It's over with way too soon. You want more. Highlights? The whole bloody thing but if I must, okay: John Cleese as the fascist game show host, Tim Brooke-Taylor unable to maintain as John and the late great Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman play police officers going undercover to bust a prostitute ring (I like "Bubbles," sir), the chasing the criminal in the library, the university quiz show I recognized from one of the Amnest Secret Policeman's Ball concerts (The answer is: Pork) and the Four Sydney Lotterbys. Well well well, funny old world, isn't it? Buy it. Love it. And if you don't, I'm afraid I'll have to shoot you.
Signed,
epsteinsmutha f-tang f-tang f-tang zoopom "don't sleep in the subway darling" nip nip bwoing IV (very silly)
Movie Review: If you're a fan of Monty Python, you should enjoy At Last The 1948 Show
Summary: 5 Stars
Aired in 1967, these five surviving episodes of At Last the 1948 Show are truly funny and definitely contain material that would fit nicely into Monty Python's Flying Circus. Some notable examples of this are the following: a sketch nearly identical to the 4 Yorkshiremen sketch, a sketch with John Cleese as a fascist gameshow host, and a sketch about a stubborn actor in a "Learning English" video. I found all five episodes extremely funny, and I would recommend it to any Python fan.Movie Review: at last i get to see it!
Summary: 5 Stars
i was raised on a long-playing record of these skits, and thirty plus years later, i can still repeat them word for word.
it was hilarious and wonderful to finally SEE some of them.
the lovely aimi macdonald was just as blonde and brainless, yet slyly self-promoting as i always imagined....very funny.
it was also great to see feldman, cleese et al looking so young!
Movie Review: "Will somebody PLEASE sing something?"
Summary: 4 Stars
Before there was "Monty Python's Flying Circus," there were two other series produced by the legendary comedians later known as Monty Python. One of those was the hilarious "At Last the 1948 Show" -- not quite as funny as the series that came after it, but definitely hilarious and full of weird Pythonian moments.
Each episode (and most skits) are introduced by "The Lovely Aimi MacDonald," a blonde airhead who basically does nothing but pose and self-promote (such as the Make the Lovely Aimi MacDonald a Rich Lady Fund, or Aimi MacDonald songs), and occasionally make out with sailors.
Then there are the hilarious skits: a man visits a shrink because he thinks he's a rabbit, karate-chopping docs, a severely underfunded secret agent who has to burn down the Kremlin, a man who claims to be an underpaid gorilla, snake devourings, a game show where the only answer is "pork," a robotic visitor at a hospital, an invasion of tourists on a soap opera set, and others.
You can definitely see seeds of Monty Python here -- the constant chartered accountant jokes, cross-dressing, surreal sketches, mockery of the BBC, and John Cleese going ballistic ("OF COURSE YOU'RE NOT A RABBIT!"). Well, we don't have Terry Gilliam's weird animation, but at least we have Marty Feldman in a frothy dress and blonde wig.
In fact, the skits themselves are often comedy that could have been lifted from the Flying Circus -- lots of weird scenarios (Feldman desperately trying to answer the question of "Is there free speech?", but not being able to get a word in) and equally weird dialogue ("Just you and me... and an Arab"), which usually ends up in some explosive or strange confrontation. It's not quite perfect, though -- the Aimi MacDonald stuff gets old quickly, and a few skits (like the Charted Accountant dance) fall flat.
John Cleese and Graham Chapman are, obviously, hilarious -- lots of kooky stuff, like Chapman as the pitiful vicar begging the congregation to sing anything. But Tim Brooke-Taylor is also funny, albeit in a more hammy way. And there's the buggy-eyed Feldman of "Young Frankenstein" fame, who fits in seamlessly (even if he is of a different nationality).
It should be noted that this show is rather old, and apparently wasn't stored very well. As a result, the black-and-white prints have gotten a bit fuzzy over time, and occasionally the picture jumps. This apparently wasn't really reparable, but eventually you stop noticing it so much.
"At Last the 1948 Show" is not quite as hilarious as its successor, but it is a funny, surreal little show that is definitely worth watching. At last! The 1948 Show!
Movie Review: A pre-Monty Python TV Seroes!
Summary: 4 Stars
"At Last the 1948 Show " + "Do Not Adjust Your Set" = "Monty Python's Flying Circus". Really.
There are skits on these DVD sets that are as funny as those by Monty Python.
I have read since the 1970s that British viewers of Monty Python recognized the cast from earlier TV series such as these. Pythons John Cleese and Graham Chapman (along with Marty Feldman!) starred in "At Last the 1948 Show" (with a few small parts by Eric Idle). Pythons Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin starred in "Do Not Adjust Your Set".
"At Last the 1948 Show" was, as seen on these DVDs, very much an on-stage skit program with lots of dialog. In contrast "Do Not Adjust Your Set" had a lot more outdoor location scenes and special effects for more of a visual gag-type program.
"Monty Python's Flying Circus" was the next step in a growing community of comedians in the U. K. Surely this is what British viewers must have thought, at least some. Here in the U. S. the initial exposure of Monty Python came with no advance warning. It was a delightful shock. In fact most of everything Monty Python had released by the mid-1970s (TV series, movies, books, records, live stage show) was dumped on the American market at about the same time. It was pretty amazing. We just didn't get to work-up to Monty Python by first viewing TV series such as "At Last the 1948 Show" and "Do Not Adjust Your Set".
After the years of reading about the numerous pre-Python TV series it is nice to finally see some.
It might be worth noting that the picture and sound quality of the shows (particularly in the case of "At Last the 1948 Show") were probably a bit clearer than seen on these DVDs. I am very sure that what are seen here are cinescopes of the original programs. Cinescopes were made by placing a film camera directly at a TV monitor and filming live or video tape TV programs directly off of a TV screen. Once made the films were permanent. The original video tapes of these programs very likely no longer exist as British TV and radio producers were notorious for reusing video and audio tape through the 1970s leaving no archive copy of many TV and radio programs unless they happened to be cinescoped, often for broadcast in
other countries like Australia, for instance. Many fondly remembered British TV shows originally recorded on video tape are long gone. When shows like these finally turn up in any form, fans can be thankful, as I am.