Diaries 1969-1979_ The Python Years - Michael Palin [165]
The band went off at such a lick that one could sense the relief. Springsteen leapt into action – twitching and leaping and throwing himself into strange spasms as he urged the band on. The sound system failed to make head or tail of Springsteen’s poetry, but the band kept the evening alive – and he did three encores.
Afterwards, a party given by CBS in the balcony bar. Talked with John Walters, a very funny man. He and Peel, whom he produces, are a formidably intelligent pair – well above the general level of Radio 4.
Final word on Springsteen from Walters – ‘We came expecting the Messiah, and got Billy Graham instead.’
Wednesday, November 19th
William’s five today. He is very neat and tidy with his presents, quite unlike Tom. Having taken them out of their boxes, his chief delight is to put them back in again, and then collect them all together in a cupboard.
Thursday, November 20th
A Python meeting at 22 Park Square East to discuss the New York show in April and to meet A Cantor. John C on the latest form of table-booking at select Mayfair restaurants, ‘Er … excuse me, are you being bombed tonight?’
We have a lot of fun deciding on silly names for our US company, or partnership, or whatever it’s called. ‘Evado-Tax’ is the one we all wanted, but Anne really thought there may be problems, as the company is operating on the fringes of legality! So I suggested Paymortax – and so we now have an American company called Paymortax and McWhirter!
Some time spent on the title for the American show. I’d suggested ‘Monty Python v. Muhammad Ali’ – with ‘Muhammad Ali’ in enormous letters but very obviously crossed out. John C was worried in case Muhammad Ali got more out of it than we did – and also I think he was afraid that the living legend would come along and thump us on the opening night.
Tuesday, November 25th
Terry comes up after lunch and we go over to Studio 99 in Swiss Cottage to look at the cassette recordings of Python’s first ABC compilation.1 A very cool American voice – the kind we would only use as a send-up – announces, quite seriously, that ‘The Wide World of Entertainment presents the Monty Python Show’. It started well, with ‘The World’s Most Awful Family’, which works a treat after the smooth and glossy ABC packaging of the show, but then the cuts begin. The cat-in-the-wall bell push (a big laugh in the studio) is cut, the man pouring blood all over the doctors is cut after the opening lines – before the point of the sketch has even begun. In the ‘Montgolfier Brothers’ the words ‘naughty bits’ are bleeped out!!
In fact any reference to bodily function, any slightly risqué word, anything, as Douglas Adams put it, ‘to do with life’, was single-mindedly expunged.
The cuts which to me seemed the most remarkable were in the ‘Neutron’ sketch, when I played the US Bombing Commander who had personal odour problems. The character was in, but every appearance was topped and tailed to avoid all reference to his bodily hygiene. As that was the only original and Pythonesque twist to the character, he just came out as a below-average imitation of George C Scott.
Our reaction turned from disbelief and amazement to anger and outrage and eventually resolved into a very clear and simple position.
The first step as far as we’re concerned is to let as many people in America as possible know that we disassociate ourselves from the ABC sale and, better still, to let as many people as possible know the reason why. It was suggested that we use our seventeen thousand lawyers to try and put together grounds for an injunction to prevent ABC putting out the second compilation (due in December). However legally unenforceable this may be, at least it’s a fair try for a story – ‘Python Sues ABC’ would be all we’d need.
Monday, December 8th
My wretched