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This anarchic and silly series starring Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and cartoonist Terry Gilliam is revered and sought-after along with At Last the 1948 Show as a prologue to the lunlacy of Monty Python's Flying Circus
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This was THE show I had to watch when I was at school.
Watching it agin, the first thing that strikes you is that it is still very funny. Not quite everything works, but then not everything Python works either. The quality is pretty bad in places too, as this was a film from TV, copied onto video and now put onto DVD and all without restoration - or even lip synch at times. That said, it's amazing that any survive at all as the tapes at Redifusion TV were wiped and re-used (!).
The performers give their all and are uniformly excellent. The Bonzos are always great fun, clinicaly insane, but brilliant, and Captain Fantastic is the stuff of legends.
With this much star quality on show, plus live performances from the Bonzos of Monster Mash, Hunting Tigers and Hello Mabel! - this has to be watched. Incidentally, my son, who is 11 (about the age when I last saw it!) has watched them all 3 times now and rolls around the floor with laughter every time.
It's a great piece of fun!
Watching it agin, the first thing that strikes you is that it is still very funny. Not quite everything works, but then not everything Python works either. The quality is pretty bad in places too, as this was a film from TV, copied onto video and now put onto DVD and all without restoration - or even lip synch at times. That said, it's amazing that any survive at all as the tapes at Redifusion TV were wiped and re-used (!).
The performers give their all and are uniformly excellent. The Bonzos are always great fun, clinicaly insane, but brilliant, and Captain Fantastic is the stuff of legends.
With this much star quality on show, plus live performances from the Bonzos of Monster Mash, Hunting Tigers and Hello Mabel! - this has to be watched. Incidentally, my son, who is 11 (about the age when I last saw it!) has watched them all 3 times now and rolls around the floor with laughter every time.
It's a great piece of fun!
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Possibly one of the most eagerly-awaited DVD releases for a long time "Do Not Adjust Your Set" will both please and disappoint.
On the plus side, it's been a long wait to view this legendary series. Pre-Pythons Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones, ably assisted by a young David Jason and Denise Coffey, put their early comic ideas to the test. Idle's irreverant wordplay is already in place. Jones and Palin's visual prowess is coming to the fore. There are glimpses of what was to come in DNAYS.
The Bonzo Dog Band, led by Viv Stanshall and Neil Innes, take the lunacy to another level and probably did for DNAYS what Terry Gilliam's animations would do for Python.
Those expecting a Monty Python-ish romp will probably feel let down. What blots this first series of DNAYS is the reliance of the traditional formula of every sketch having a punchline or ending. Some bits work, some do not. Other material is screaming for the stream-of-consciousness approach that Python championed.
It has to be noted that the second series of DNAYS (run by Thames in early 1969) is more familiar and experimental, aided by a sympathetic director and Gilliam's revolutionary "Elephants" animation ; a key signpost to the way Python would be made later in the year. A DVD release for the second series would be welcomed, however many of these shows are missing. A shame.
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I have fond (if distant) memories of DNAYS, and welcomed this release. Top marks to Amazon and the UK postal service for getting it to Australia in just one week.
Did it live up to expectations? Yes and no - I agree with much of what previous reviewers have written. There are certainly plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, the Bonzo's are superb - worth the price for their performances alone - and the evil Mrs Black is kinda cute (and has a wicked laugh). But my fading memories of the show do seem to recall more of a Terry Gilliam influence than is evident here.
Technically this series is fairly primitive - it's in B&W for a start, it doesn't always fit on the screen, the sets are basic, and where there are edits, they are not subtle. But as Terry Jones explains in his feature interview, although this was (mostly?) recorded on tape, it was essentially live - there was no editing equipment (other than scissors) and editing was in any event heavily discouraged, as it devalued the tape. Considering these constraints, it holds up very well.
Note - the DVD is only divided into whole episodes, making finding individual sketches a real chore. This was an unnecessarily retro thing to do. The packaging is also careless at times ("...series that lead to the creation of Monty Python" - I think "led to" is the phrase you were looking for). But I do appreciate the decision to make the discs region-free.
I hope there is a second series to come - I'll buy it anyway, but a little more attention to detail would be nice.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Do Not Adjust Your Set
Hard to say who would get the most pleasure from this DVD - Bonzo fans or subsequent Monty Python lovers. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. James E. Hoskings
wacky comedy
Before Monty Python`s flying circus, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam along with David Jason, Denise Coffey created this show for ITV children`s tv between... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Ms. M. Potter
You can't go back.
I remembered this series so well - I thought. The passage of time hasn't dimmed the nostalgia but maybe I should have stuck to the memories instead of trying to revive them. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Sheila
definitely not a forgotten gem!
9 episodes of a children's comedy show in grimy unrestored black and white. Despite the stellar cast this is definitely not a forgotten gem and is only in circulation because 3... Read more
Published 22 months ago by B
A fruitful branch of comedy's family tree
In the late 60s, television was still at the relatively primitive stage where it was necessary to flash up a message from time to time that there was a technical problem in the... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Peter Reeve
Life Before Python
I used to run home from school to watch this every week.I loved Michael Palin and the Bonzo Dog Band.This was of course before Monty Python and sometimes it shows. Read more
Published on 3 April 2009 by Alan Butcher
Just Like Yesterday
This was an iconic programme from the start. I was quite young at the time but I and all my friends knew that this was going somewhere special. Read more
Published on 16 Jun 2008 by Numinous Ugo
Still waiting to see it
I intend to buy it whatever the revues say however no one seems to have mentioned that this was a kids programme. Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2005 by S. Hill
Minor adjustment of golden memories
If, like me, you have very fond (but dim) memories of Do Not Adjust Your Set - my one act of vandalism at school was tracing the start date of the second series on the dusty wall... Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2005 by Pismotality
Superlative product poorly packaged
DNAYS was the kids' show that treated us for real. No-one has ever avoided condescension so completely either before or since. Read more
Published on 30 July 2005 by Philip Palmer
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