Do Not Adjust Your Set

Along with the 1948 Show (which featured Pythons-to-be John Cleese and Graham Chapman), DNAYS is revered and sought-after as a missing piece of the puzzle of pre-Python lunacy. Bringing together the other four Pythons (Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle - all looking impossibly young - and cartoonist Terry Gilliam) it was an anarchic and silly series, aimed (supposedly) at kids but with much to offer everyone else.

Alongside Palin & co. there was David Jason (now a huge favourite of British TV with Only Fools and Horses, A Touch of Frost, and much more), Denise Coffey (now whatever happened to her?) and the musical antics of the wonderful Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band. Basically a dozen or so twenty-something guys (and a girl) letting their hair down and having a laugh would sum up DNAYS perfectly.

Although the series has rarely been re-run - I think two episodes have been on TV in the last twenty years as part of retrospective telly nights, including the Christmas special Do Not Adjust Your Stocking - the good news is that over half the episodes as filmed have survived the ravages of time and the mass wiping of tapes that went on in the 1960s and 1970s. Occasionally liberated from archives for the odd screening, the series holds up well and is extremely off-the-wall and funny. It would be wonderful to see it out on DVD.

I just finished watching the first season of "Do Not Adjust Your Set". I was interested in this show because it was a pre-"Monty Python" show starring and written by several people who were to become part of Monty Python. Seen in that context, the show can be interesting. In many of the sketches you can see the budding of what was to become just a short time later.

Though the show is interesting in showing what was to become, as entertainment, it has not aged very well. Oh, the show is not without its bright spots. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band contribute some amusing and tuneful songs. And every so often there's something that will make you smile a little or chuckle a little. But for the most part, the humor comes across as very lame. You'll be able to figure out the punchlines for many of the sketches, for one thing. Much of the attempted humor is also not as aggressive or biting as on Monty Python. The worst part of the show has to be the Captain Fantastic sketches. They go on forever, and you'll be in agony waiting for them to end.

I will entertain the possibility that when the show was first aired, it was fresh and funny, with nothing like it before. But in the decades that have passed, with more jabbing comedy teams and shows that have come up, today the show seems like feeble stuff. If you have fond memories of the show when it first aired, I would suggest let them remain memories and not revisit the show.

Finally seeing the light of day again thanks to the release of nine episodes of the series on DVD, "Do Not Adjust Your Set" is -- along with "At Last the 1948 Show" -- the clearest forerunner of "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Written by and starring Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, with David Jason, Denise Coffey and the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (as well as some animations by Terry Gilliam in the second series), "Do Not Adjust Your Set" aspires to be the same kind of anarchic free-form comedy series, albeit one suitable for children. (It was, after all, originally meant to be a children's show, but it quickly developed a cult audience among the grown-up set.)

The DVD only covers the first series, though, so none of Terry Gilliam's animations are present (don't let the packaging fool you). Even so, it's definitely worth checking out.

Another sketch comedy from the same production studio as At Last the 1948 Show (and produced the same year), and featuring the "other half" of Monty Python 2 years before they would go on to form the troupe for Flying Circus, we see various mostly lighthearted sketched aimed at family viewing. As a show primarily with kids in mind many of the sketches are quite silly, however perhaps as a glimpse into the comedians later days there are a number of particularly dark, almost surreal sketches, even if just for a moment. Starring Denise Coffey, Eric Idle, Jerry Jones, Michael Palin, and David Jason, the format is fairly standard sketches back to back with laughter backing from a live audience. Also featuring the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band each episode, we get some music too, with the groups hit "Death Cab for Cutie" (another morbid bit, being a song about a car accident), which would of course go on to inspire the later band of the same name. Sadly like other series of this era, many of the episodes from its two season run are now considered lost, however those that have been persevered are still available in a decent format. As for the jokes, most have aged fine, again being a show primarily for kids its mostly tame goofy humour, however I'd be amiss not to content warning mention one quite racist minstrel sketch / song in the middle, so I would not recommend the show for a modern kid audience. However if you're a fan of Monty Python and want to check out their early stuff, its around and available preserved on YouTube and the like.

My mini review is to say how it should be judged.When it was originally aired in the UK.The show was shown in the children's slot around 5 pm .Bear in mind at the time the UK had at the most 3 TV channels.At the time those in the show also appeared with Spike Milligan.The Goodies followed later all though the audience for them was of an adult and family nature.