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12 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
pre-Python by a whisker ..., 1 February 2005
Author: didi-5 from United Kingdom

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.

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11 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Monty Python began here, 2 October 2002
Author: F Gwynplaine MacIntyre (Borroloola@earthlink.net) from Minffordd, North Wales

'Do Not Adjust Your Set' (subtitled 'The Fairly Pointless Show') is a vitally important series in the evolution of British comedy. Very funny in its own right, 'DNAYS' directly led to the teaming of the writer/performers who would go on to create 'Monty Python'. There were 28 half-hour editions of 'Do Not Adjust Your Set', plus a 50-minute special airing on Christmas Day 1968, titled 'Do Not Adjust Your Stocking'.

Produced by Humphrey Barclay and Ian Davidson for Rediffusion TV, 'DNAYS' teamed future Pythons Palin, Idle and Jones ... plus Idle's musical discovery the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who performed bizarre comedy songs and surrealistic cover versions of old standards.

The running feature on 'DNAYS' was a mock adventure serial starring David Jason as Captain Fantastic, in pursuit of his archnemesis the evil Mrs Black (played by the attractive Denise Coffey). These segments were splendidly directed by Daphne Shadwell, in a separate production unit from the rest of the series. The weekly Captain Fantastic segment became so popular, it was eventually spun off into a regular segment on the Thames TV series 'Magpie'. Although David Jason is unknown in the USA, he has starred in several long-running and extremely popular comedy series in England. More than any of the Pythons-to-be, David Jason was the most popular cast member in 'DNAYS'.

The last four programmes in this series featured the distinctive cut-out animation of Terry Gilliam. Five months after 'DNAYS' aired its last episode, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" premiered ... and the rest is history.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Proto-Python, Part 2, 5 August 2005
Author: craigjclark from Haddonfield, NJ

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.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
'Monty Python' Junior, 9 September 2006
10/10
Author: AdamFontaine from Ambrosia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

If it were possible to go through the whole of 'Monty Python' and take out the adult material, what you'd be left with is 'Do Not Adjust Your Set'. This delightfully anarchic show was loved by British children in the late '60's ( I was one ) and gave Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Eric Idle useful television exposure. Like the much later 'Tiswas', it revelled in its own silliness.

David Jason and sexy Denise Coffey provided support, as well as writing and appearing in a 'Batman' spoof, made on film, entitled 'The Life & Times Of Captain Fantastic' ( such was its popularity that it went on to be a regular item in the magazine programme 'Magpie' ). It is to their credit that they managed to hold their own in such esteemed company. When Michael Palin fell ill one week, Tim Brooke-Taylor ( dressed as a frogman ) from 'At Last The 1948 Show' took his place.

But the real stars for me were 'The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band'. Their witty, tuneful songs ( such as 'By A Waterfall' and 'I'm The Urban Spaceman' ) made the show. Their lead singer, the late Vivian Stanshall, looked like a hippie version of Leslie Phillips; he really should have done more in the field of comedy writing and performing. Terry Gilliam came aboard for the second season, providing animations ( including a superb one about Christmas cards ) similar to the ones he later did in 'Python'.

When Channel 4 repeated the Christmas Special ( 'Do Not Adjust Your Stocking' ) in the '80's, David Jason, for reasons best known to himself, refused to allow his footage to be included.

If you love 'Python', you should love this too. And remember: the evil Mrs.Black and her Blit Men are still lurking out there somewhere...

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Do Not Adjust Your Memory, 2 February 2008
9/10
Author: screenman from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This program was the first comedy show for kids that wasn't childish. Instead, it was silly but in an adult way. A way that we would eventually come to describe as 'Pythonesque', the style its contributors went on to develop with their Flying Circus.

Originally screened before the 6 o-clock news, during what used to be called rather patronisingly 'Children's Hour', the show had sufficient comedy appeal to be re-scheduled after the news for the benefit of adults.

Amongst the Python crew, David Jason cut his television milk teeth, anda very young Kenny Everett also featured from time to time, though he is not credited. David Jason played 'Captain Fantastic', a super-hero spoof based upon an earlier show called 'Captain Moonlight'. His nemesis was a prematurely-emancipated 'Mrs Black' (her absent spouse was never explained). With her lethal handbag - which contained only knobs and dials - but which could effect all manner of chaos, and her 3 cybernetic stooges called 'Blit-Men', she roamed free to wreak disaster, always one step ahead of the Captain.

The excellent Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band with their bizarre musical mix of rag-time and surrealism suited the show perfectly. Who can forget 'I'm The Urban Spaceman', 'The Intro And The Outro', or the classic 'Love Is A Cylindrical Piano'? Most of their stuff is available through I-Tunes.

Today it would probably seem ludicrously dated, like so much earlier stuff, so I'll just keep my memories unsullied, even if it appears on DVD.

They don't make the 60's like they used to.  

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Why did we enjoy it in the 1960's?, 30 August 2007
Author: kittyflit from Germany

I was a kid in the 1960's and this was my favorite show on TV. I suppose I was about 9 or 10 when I was watching it. When I watch clips of it now on youtube I can't understand why I thought it was funny back then. This was the pre-humor established by the Pythons which people didn't find funny until the mid-1970's (and even then not everyone found it funny). This humor was way beyond it's time, so back then it shouldn't have been funny, especially not for a child, but I really did enjoy it. It was probably one of the first shows (if not the first show) to establish that link between the staid soaps, sitcoms and standup comedy humor of the 1950's and the 1960's and what came later, starting with Python. Strangely enough, when I was old enough to stay up late and start watching Python (around 1972) I didn't find it funny at all. However, it was "in" to watch Python and talk about it at school the next day, so I pretended back then to like it. But DNAYS was a show that I actually watched because I really enjoyed it, and nobody talked about it at school the next day (as I said, we were only about 9 years old). Before I started watching clips on youtube, the only people I remembered from the show were David Jason, Denise Coffey and Eric Idle. I didn't remember the other Pythons being in it at all. And of course I remembered the Bonzos. By the time I was 16 I had all their LPs. Now there was a band who should have had a much bigger cult following!

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