OUT OF THE TREES (1975) rare Graham Chapman pilot

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OUT OF THE TREES (1975) rare Graham Chapman pilot

Postby Richard M Roberts » Fri Oct 25, 2013 11:38 pm

Post-Python, here's a pilot Graham Chapman and Douglas Adams did at the Beeb that apparently was not known to exist until recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vf-ctYnBPo



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Re: OUT OF THE TREES (1975) rare Graham Chapman pilot

Postby Joe Migliore » Sat Oct 26, 2013 3:27 am

Well this is a major find. For years all anyone could see from OUT OF THE TREES was the "Severance Of A Peony" sketch, because it was a filmed exterior. It's also good to see Simon Jones and Mark Wing-Davey from THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, and Tim Preece from THE FALL & RISE OF REGINALD PERRIN. It brought back how it felt in the Seventies to be anticipating a new episode of Python, which I did frequently.

Thank you for posting this portion of the post-Python puzzle.

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Re: OUT OF THE TREES (1975) rare Graham Chapman pilot

Postby Gary Johnson » Sun Oct 27, 2013 1:18 pm

I read that the only reason we now have this complete episode is because Chapman himself squirreled away a video copy of it and hid it among his knick-knacks. It's a good thing too. I was completely entranced by this pilot. Like Joe, I felt like I was watching a new episode of Python that had never aired. And that sent me off on one of those UTube Movie Nights last night where everything was Python-centric. It was mostly BBC interviews and magazine shows featuring the lads. There was the complete episode of "Omnibus" in '89 centering around Chapman's wake but using it as a springboard to celebrate 20 years of the team (Is that the main program where we got most of the footage of the Python's eulogy to Graham?). Early on location interviews in '73 and '74 and '79 of various members cutting up while promoting the series or their features. I first watched many of these during local PBS pledge breaks in the late 70's (back when pledge breaks were only held once a year.....not all year round like now up here in Sonoma) when my Mpls station would schedule Monty Python marathon weekends and throw in every extra they could get their hands on to supplement the TV series. Now, most of these extras can be found on various DVD releases.

One tends to notice that Palin is always available for these interviews and it's fun to watch the interaction between him and his various mates. When he is paired with Cleese or Chapman Michael is constantly cutting up, entertaining us, while the two Oxford men always act more reserved but have a steady bemused smile on their face as if they had never witnessed Palin this close before. It's just the opposite when he is paired with his main writing partner Jones. Those two casually chat away as if no camera is even running. I especially enjoyed their reminiscence together on the DVD reissue of their "Ripping Yarns" when they travel by train to revisit many locations used in the filming of the series. It has the same feel as Palin's BBC travel series, only this time he has someone to bounce off of -- someone who knows him like a book.

Cleese, of course, is all over the UTube pages. The one oddity for me is something he appeared in over a decade ago called, "John Cleese's Comedy Heroes" It's one of those awful fast moving pastiches that air on cable TV constantly -- "The One Thousand Greatest Commercials About Bowel Movements" and then they fly through the material at a Road Runner pace. Anyway, this program had all of the same annoyances, the obnoxious bumpers and eternal teases of what comes next. But cutting through all of that Cleese gives some genuine and sincere reflections on comics who influenced him when he was young. On Laurel & Hardy he says it is appropriate that they be first on his list because they were the first who made him laugh as a lad. Plus he always had an affinity for both British and American comics. He says Oliver Hardy is 'one of the great comic performers with a strange elegance and precision that very fat people sometimes have...' And coming out of Cleese's mouth it does not sound insulting in the very least.

But getting back to Graham, I found this pilot of his a very interesting window into his writing ability. Chapman is always the odd man out in this regard, being overshadowed by his famous writing partner. Here he teams with Douglas Adams and Bernard McKenna, and yet the entire program has a definite Python feel to it (Of course, when I first heard and then saw "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" I was convinced that it too had a definite Python feel to it. Does every modern comedy writer in Briton write like Python?). And the fact that Chapman lifted the 'incredibly boring cyclist' performed by Palin in THE CYCLING TOUR (season 3) makes one wonder if he had a hand in writing any of that episode, even though it has always been credited to Palin and Jones. Actually, the entire episode has interesting casting choices that brings to mind his more famous mates. In the 'Peony' sketch Chapman appears as one of his London Bobby's about to pinch the young lass who picked someone else's flower. His fellow police office is a rather tall fellow with a square jaw who looks the spitting image of Mr. Cleese.
I guess it was hard for Graham to entirely cut ties with his fellow Pythonites.

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Re: OUT OF THE TREES (1975) rare Graham Chapman pilot

Postby Joe Migliore » Sun Oct 27, 2013 2:38 pm

Gary Johnson wrote:
One tends to notice that Palin is always available for these interviews and it's fun to watch the interaction between him and his various mates. When he is paired with Cleese or Chapman Michael is constantly cutting up, entertaining us, while the two Oxford men always act more reserved but have a steady bemused smile on their face as if they had never witnessed Palin this close before. It's just the opposite when he is paired with his main writing partner Jones. Those two casually chat away as if no camera is even running. I especially enjoyed their reminiscence together on the DVD reissue of their "Ripping Yarns" when they travel by train to revisit many locations used in the filming of the series. It has the same feel as Palin's BBC travel series, only this time he has someone to bounce off of -- someone who knows him like a book.

But getting back to Graham, I found this pilot of his a very interesting window into his writing ability. Chapman is always the odd man out in this regard, being overshadowed by his famous writing partner. Here he teams with Douglas Adams and Bernard McKenna, and yet the entire program has a definite Python feel to it (Of course, when I first heard and then saw "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" I was convinced that it too had a definite Python feel to it. Does every modern comedy writer in Briton write like Python?). And the fact that Chapman lifted the 'incredibly boring cyclist' performed by Palin in THE CYCLING TOUR (season 3) makes one wonder if he had a hand in writing any of that episode, even though it has always been credited to Palin and Jones. Actually, the entire episode has interesting casting choices that brings to mind his more famous mates. In the 'Peony' sketch Chapman appears as one of his London Bobby's about to pinch the young lass who picked someone else's flower. His fellow police office is a rather tall fellow with a square jaw who looks the spitting image of Mr. Cleese.
I guess it was hard for Graham to entirely cut ties with his fellow Pythonites.


Yes; Simon Jones is his "Idle" and Tim Preece is definitely filling the "Palin" role. Eric Idle does a similar thing in his series RUTLAND WEEKEND TELEVISION: Terence Baylor is his "Cleese", David Battley is his "Chapman", Henry Woolf is his "Jones", and of course Neil Innes is his "Palin". (He even gets his own Carol Cleveland in Gwen Taylor.) After four seasons of Python, it must have been difficult to stop writing for it.

I should point out that Michael Palin & Terry Jones are the only Oxford Pythons, both majoring in History. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle are all Cambridge men, majoring in Medicine, Law, and English, respectively. Terry Gilliam, the American, majored in Political Science at Occidental College.

I'd like to see the pilot Chapman did for CBS, JAKE'S JOURNEY. That one has Peter Cook and Rik Mayall!

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Re: OUT OF THE TREES (1975) rare Graham Chapman pilot

Postby Gary Johnson » Sun Oct 27, 2013 5:04 pm

Yeah,,,,,yeah.....Oxford, Cambridge. I knew it was one or the other but I was too disinterested to go look it up.
I was expecting this elitist educational correction to come from from snobbish Brit, such as Glass. But not from some schmoo who is a product of our own damaged Educational System here in the States.

And believe me folks, I met Joe at SLAPSTICON and he is definitely a damaged individual thanks to School Vouchers and At-Home-Schooling.

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Re: OUT OF THE TREES (1975) rare Graham Chapman pilot

Postby Richard M Roberts » Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:34 am

Gary Johnson wrote:
But getting back to Graham, I found this pilot of his a very interesting window into his writing ability. Chapman is always the odd man out in this regard, being overshadowed by his famous writing partner. Here he teams with Douglas Adams and Bernard McKenna, and yet the entire program has a definite Python feel to it (Of course, when I first heard and then saw "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" I was convinced that it too had a definite Python feel to it. Does every modern comedy writer in Briton write like Python?). And the fact that Chapman lifted the 'incredibly boring cyclist' performed by Palin in THE CYCLING TOUR (season 3) makes one wonder if he had a hand in writing any of that episode, even though it has always been credited to Palin and Jones. Actually, the entire episode has interesting casting choices that brings to mind his more famous mates. In the 'Peony' sketch Chapman appears as one of his London Bobby's about to pinch the young lass who picked someone else's flower. His fellow police office is a rather tall fellow with a square jaw who looks the spitting image of Mr. Cleese.
I guess it was hard for Graham to entirely cut ties with his fellow Pythonites.



One thing I find curious and questionable is the way the Pythons paint Chapman now that he’s long gone as a completely alcoholic mess who barely wrote anything at the Python writing sessions. But Chapman was making his living primarily as a writer the whole time before and after Python, where he was cranking out episodes of DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE and the Ronnie Corbett show NO, THAT’S ME OVER HERE/ NOW LOOK HERE, as well as writing for Python, Two Ronnies, Marty Feldman, and I’M SORRY, I’LL READ THAT AGAIN on radio, so he must have been writing SOMETHING to keep having folk at the BBC hiring him to do so.

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Re: OUT OF THE TREES (1975) rare Graham Chapman pilot

Postby Gary Johnson » Mon Oct 28, 2013 5:57 pm

Cleese has been the most vocal through the years of his experiences working with Chapman. I believe we are all familiar with those tales.
Bernard McKenna was Chapman's writing partner on most projects not-Python (including many of the shows Richard just posted). He must have given interviews relating his writing experiences working with Graham? That could possibly even out the picture (Unless every agrees that he was just a sloppy drunk who smoked a pipe).

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Re: OUT OF THE TREES (1975) rare Graham Chapman pilot

Postby Joe Migliore » Mon Oct 28, 2013 9:04 pm

Richard M Roberts wrote:
One thing I find curious and questionable is the way the Pythons paint Chapman now that he’s long gone as a completely alcoholic mess who barely wrote anything at the Python writing sessions. But Chapman was making his living primarily as a writer the whole time before and after Python, where he was cranking out episodes of DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE and the Ronnie Corbett show NO, THAT’S ME OVER HERE/ NOW LOOK HERE, as well as writing for Python, Two Ronnies, Marty Feldman, and I’M SORRY, I’LL READ THAT AGAIN on radio, so he must have been writing SOMETHING to keep having folk at the BBC hiring him to do so.


According to Graham, it was during the shooting of HOLY GRAIL, in the freezing rain, that he had his epiphany to stop drinking. I realize there were lots of bad takes and unremembered lines, but he is brilliant in the finished film. He was at his highest alcohol intake as King Arthur, and his performance rivals that of his BRIAN just a few years later, when he wasn't drinking at all. It may have been annoying to the others.

It reminds me of that story about Peter Cook & Dudley Moore: During one of their later gigs, Pete turned up drunk. Dud was so royally pissed-off, that it threw off his performance, leading one reviewer to suggest that Moore may have been drunk. This is the kind of stuff that makes people say "Screw it; I have enough money not to do this anymore."


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