Do Not Adjust Your Set

'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.

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.

The precursor to Monty Python's Flying Circus, Do Not Adjust Your Set is not nearly as amusing for long periods; it's best taken in show-length bits rather than binged. However, for my money the clever, silly, insightful and surprisingly musical Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band brings DNAYS very close to Python's 10/10. Urban Spaceman remains one of my all-time favorite songs, being (like the show itself) both silly and surprisingly insightful.

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!

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.