TWiH (October 5-11): Attention! The crazy train is now boarding...all aboard!

October 5 - And now for something completely different (1969)

On this day in 1969, a 17th century castaway struggles to emerge from the sea, finally throwing himself upon the beach and looking directly at us gasps "It's ... " and the surreal animations of Terry Gilliam flash upon the screen as the announcer intones "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Over the next five years, viewers around the world would be amused, astonished and bewildered by 45 episodes, broadcast by the UK's BBC, of one of the most madcap and maddening television series ever produced.

Its humor ranged from the dry wit of New Yorker cartoons to slapstick, invoked intellectual references unlikely to be known to but a fraction of its audience, and lampooned the politicians and celebrities of the era. Sketches seemingly began at random points and sometimes ended just as abruptly, with no punchline or closure, interleaved with montages of strange illustrations. Some hailed it as genius, others decried it as devoid of taste and meaning. None could adequately define its humor so the world came to describe it by the self-referential term Pythonesque.

The comedy troupe came together almost by accident. Although the six members (John Cleese, Eric Ïdle, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam) had at various times, on various shows, worked together as performers or writers in smaller groupings, it wasn't until the Flying Circus that they all united on one project. Chapman and Cleese had been offered their own show by the BBC and the other four were offered one on ITV (the BBC's younger sibling). ITV didn't have a studio available at the time so ultimately all six combined their talents in a single show for the BBC.

Infused with ideas and wanting to break new ground in television comedy, they developed the concept of stream-of-consciousness as their comedic foundation. By using continuity devices such as recurring characters as announcers and Gilliam's animated transitions, the individual sketches had an integral flow. A Flying Circus episode could be looked at as the chaotic ramblings within one person's mind.

Monty Python was often on the cutting edge of broad transformations in society at the tail end of the 1960s and early 1970s. In the following clip, we see a loud-and-proud cross-dressing lumberjack. The humor isn't directed at the lumberjack, but at those around him, gently mocking their puzzlement as they discover he doesn't fit their expectations of a traditional "manly man."

Monty Python went on to produce insanely clever and biting feature films, such as Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Eventually the individual members went their separate ways, developing their own careers but leaving behind a legacy of innovation that influenced the next generation of comedic writers and performers.

Monty Python's Flying Circus has become so deeply entwined with British culture that prospective citizens are questioned about some of its most famous sketches in the examinations for UK citizenship.

Keep reading below the orange historical marker about more events during the second week of October.