Text 482, 88 rader
Skriven 2005-10-26 11:31:30 av Stacie (1:379/45)
    Kommentar till text 481 av TheWiseOne (1:379/45)
Ärende: Re: Python went too far in the franchise
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From: "Stacie" <staciey@gmail.com>

Is this supposed to be our cue to rush in as a mob and threaten to burn you at
the stake for blasphemy or something?

TheWiseOne wrote:
> It was a tv show that lasted four years (and there was only a few eps each
> of those four years).

Four series, 13 eps the first three series, six the last. Compared to most
shows starting on the Beeb that I'm familiar with, that's right in line with
other shows. I'm confused, though. You seem to be simultaneously saying that is
too few and too many. Which did you think it was? Oh, and you might throw in
the two German eps.

>A few movies and two movies were pretty much just
> rehashes of the show.

Five to be exact, counting Hollywood Bowl, which, to be fair, was actually a
film of a stage show that was part rehash of the show, part newly recycled
material. And Now For Something Completely Different was produced with an eye
toward introducing American audiences to Python. You have to remember this was
back in the ancient times before ye olde home video market or the mass
importation of foreign telly for endless reruns instead of our own domestic
endless reruns. Instead of just showing the same old show again on telly in
another country, you actually had to go out and produce the whole thing again
in a different format.

A movie was pretty much the only way to get Python in front of American
eyeballs. It didn't really accomplish that, but still, they tried. ANFSCD never
pretended to be much more than a superlong episode of the show for the big
screen. But it did have one advantage over the show when it hit home video. It
was more "rentable". Only in the last few years has it been proven that people
will rent/buy television series on DVD/Video. Common wisdom used to be that
people would definitely risk a cheap rental on a movie they might or might not
like and spend 90 minutes with it. But an entire series was the scary unknown.
Most smaller rental stores didn't used to stock television shows for rent.
Stocking a television show is a bigger investment than a single movie. Renting
one is a bigger investment. Renting ANFSCD used to be pretty much the only easy
way to get yourself exposed to any Python sketch comedy if Flying Circus wasn't
in syndication in your area.

>It wasn't enough to build such a big franchise with.

Seems to have been profitable enough. Some of the material is repetitive to
varying degrees, but it is rather interesting to see how they often tweaked the
same material to better fit the medium or the flow of other material around it.
Personally, I kind of enjoy comparing how they fit select sketches/animations
together for ANFSCD as compared to the show, for instance. And if it sells, I
tend to think of that as supporting the franchise.

> There's only so many books or anything else you can base on a franchise
> like this. They tried too much Python material and the result was it
> becoming painfully obvious there was not enough to merit all this.

If the books and toys and whatever-elses keep selling decently to fans old and
new alike, such as those pesky people like myself who were came of age well
after ye olde home video market, I guess I'd have to say Python does merit all
this. If it were selling poorly, I wouldn't think they would keep coming out
with merchandise of all kinds. Someone in marketing evidently thinks they do
merit it. And someone at the cash register. Some of the new fans are literally,
well, new. If the material's new to you, it's new. It's like, oh, say, the
Narnia books, Harry Potter, Warner Brothers classic cartoons or Disney classic
movies. New generations keep coming along that get introduced to something
that's already old hat to some of us, and they want to buy it. Nothing wrong
with reissuing the same material in different forms (or even the same forms) if
there's an eager audience for it. That's what franchises are for.

Now, does that mean that even hardcore fans are automatically going to think
that everything ever produced and likely to be produced that has a Python
connection is unfailingly innovative, fresh and brilliant? Nope. That's all
personal taste. And probably everyone here has a different opinion about what
they love, what they hate, and what feels like "retread". Part of that depends
on what other sketch shows you might have been exposed to and when, as well. If
you've seen some of the original sketch shows that Python "borrowed and
adapted" from, for instance.

It's not as though you can expect them to come out with something literally new
at this point. Unfortunately, that's all the Python material there's ever going
to be. With Graham Chapman dearly departed, there won't be any new Python
material. Sorry, but old and recycled is all we can have. If you want freshly
produced, never-before-seen comedy, you're going to have to find a comedy group
that's still working together and all alive. And even then, good luck getting
anything truly new or different. Formulaic and safe seems to be the norm these
days.

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