モンティ・パイソンコミュのChoreographed Conservative Party Speech

今日発見したばかりなんですが、これ何と”Monty Python Speaks!のDavid Morgan本人からの投稿みたいです。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGvnEsEAs0w

One of the tragedies of broadcast media is that, once broadcast, much material is lost or erased, never to be seen again. For example, there is no known copy of the First Super Bowl broadcast from 1967.

This kind of tragedy was even the case with "Monty Python's Flying Circus." The opening sketch of episode #38, first shown in the U.K. in 1973, featured John Cleese as a Conservative Party member addressing the nation before an election. This wonderful bit [I believe that's PM Edward Heath in the tutu] was cut by the BBC from a repeat several years later, ostensibly because it was to air right before an election. [It was replaced with a series of captions.] Unfortunately the cut sketch was NEVER PUT BACK IN, and subsequent repeats were of the revised episode. The footage is considered lost.

The original aired in the U.S. on PBS, in 1975/76, then again in 1978. However, all subsequent showings -- on PBS, on cable -- and all VHS, laserdisc and DVD releases show the cut version. [In fact, the DVD and the recent PBS broadcasts are missing even the captions!]

With only an audio copy, I have been searching for the original version, but no PBS station or archive in the U.S. or Canada I've contacted seems to have it. All tapes they possess are copies of the cut version (since earlier tapes were replaced with tapes that are close captioned), and the Library of Congress doesn't have THAT episode on original 2-inch tape. However, last year, an off-air half-inch tape of a 1978 broadcast turned up from a Canadian collector, which I had copied and forwarded to the Pythons. Alas, the show was aired during a pledge drive for the station, WNED in Buffalo, and so their pledge drive phone number is burned onto the screen for much of the sketch, which means this tape can likely not be restored into the show proper.

So far this is the only copy that I know of this sketch in existence.

If ANYONE has a recording of this uncut show dating from the late '70s, in ANY format (Umatic, reel, Beta, VHS, whatever), please contact me so we can see about a proper restoration. In the meantime, enjoy this qualified find.

Cheers,
David Morgan ("Monty Python Speaks")

他にも貴重なテレビ映像をいくつもあげてくださってます。驚きました。