Do Not Adjust Your Set
 At
Last The 1948 Show led directly to Monty Python's Flying
Circus and so, in equal measure, did Do Not Adjust Your Set
- a zany TV sketch show aimed at children.
The show was a combination of fast sketches and visual gags
served up by Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, David Jason
and Denise Coffey. Music was by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (who
had a hit with I'm The Urban Spaceman in November 1968,
reaching number 5 in the UK charts).
The show also featured a mini-series about Captain Fantastic
(David Jason), in which the bowler-hatted, old-raincoated and
moustachioed hero was pitted against Mrs. Black (Denise Coffey),
"the most evil woman in the world".
Such was its popularity, Captain Fantastic enjoyed a life of
its own, new episodes being incorporated into Thames' children's
magazine show Magpie from its premiere on 30 July 1968.
The content was rather adult for kids, primarily because the
brief was to create a show that the writers found funny, rather
than "writing down" for children. Terry Jones claims
that "we were just doing what we would have done anyway
really, so the fact that it was a kids show was just an
excuse".
Subtitled 'The Fairly Pointless Show', Do Not Adjust Your
Set was strong in every department.
Every edition featured a musical interlude by the Bonzo Dog
Doo-Dah Band. Likened by Denise Coffey to "Spike Jones and
his City Slickers on speed", the Bonzos were terrific value,
their lead singer Viv Stanshall, one of the great British
eccentrics, never failing to create an impression. The band also
helped out in some of the sketches.
The final few editions treated viewers to the work of a young
American artist new to British TV, Terry Gilliam, who provided
drawings.
Adults would rush home from work on Friday nights to watch this
'kids show', so the second series was repeated at a later timeslot
for the adult audience. If truth be told, it was really a show for
grown-ups, with lip service paid to it being for kids, by virtue
of a silly child's song at the end:
Oh the Elephant goes meow
and the pussycat moos like a cow
And the tiny little dog goes oink like a frog
And the lion goes bow wow wow
The title Do Not Adjust Your Set came from the standard
fault card screened during TV breakdowns - still a common sight in
the late 1960's. There was also a Christmas special Do Not
Adjust Your Stocking shown on Christmas Day 1968.
TRIVIA NOTE
Do Not Adjust Your Set won first prize in the 12-15
years category at the Prix Jeunesse International Television Festival
at Munich in June 1968.
|
