Do Not Adjust Your Set

1967

Seasons & Episodes

  • 2
  • 1

Season 2 : 1969 13 Episodes

7.3| 0h30m| en| More Info
Released: 26 December 1967 Ended
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Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Do not adjust your set! is a television series produced originally by Rediffusion, London, then, by the fledgling Thames Television for British commercial television channel ITV from 26 December 1967 to 14 May 1969. The show took its name from the message which was displayed when there was a problem with transmission. It included early appearances of many actors and comedians who later became famous, such as Denise Coffey and David Jason. Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin later became members of the hugely successful Monty Python comedy troupe. Although, originally conceived as a children's programme, it quickly acquired a cult crossover following amongst many adults, including future Pythons John Cleese and Graham Chapman. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band performed a song in each programme and Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band also appeared. The musicians frequently appeared as extras in sketches. The programme comprised a series of sketches, often bizarre and surreal, frequently satirical with a disjointed style which was to become more famous in the more daring Monty Python's Flying Circus, which followed five months later. At least one DNAYS sketch was re-used in Monty Python. Strange animations between sketches were crafted in the final episodes by the then-unknown Terry Gilliam, who also graduated to Python – part of his "Christmas cards" animation reappeared there in the "Joy to the World" segment.

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Reviews

Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!
Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
Bereamic Awesome Movie
BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
dryden-cooper 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.
joliet_jane Just gotta shout it: This show is AWESOME! I've just watched my DVD of "Do Not Adjust Your Set" and it's really, really good! I read about it in a book about Monty Python, and at that time, no copies were know to exist. I thought it was dead forever. Then one day I found out that some had been found and it was on DVD. I was expecting it to be pretty good, but no-- it's REALLY good! So much fun. This show is much more "Pythonic" and slightly less dated than John Cleese and Graham Chapman's show "At Last the 1948 Show." Since it was supposedly a kid's show (but not really), it gets wonderfully silly. The way Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin appear in this series, they sound just like they do in Flying Circus. Yet D.N.A.Y.S. is its own scene, and it's groovy, man! And it's got the Bonzo Dog Dooh Dah Band from The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour playing weird, cool songs each episode. As if things couldn't get any better. And then they do-- Eric Idle occasionally plays and sings with them. Lovely! Whoever thought is was a good idea to erase this series deserves to be tarred and feathered. But he's probably dead by now anyway.
screenman 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.
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre '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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