![]() RWT's plot is hard to pin down but such as it is it's about a very small television station. I've been able to view all but that Christmas special. On with the guide.Īs far as I know six episodes, plus a Christmas special, were produced for RWT's first season. If you can provide any further information, corrections, or even new episodes please don't hesitate to email me at chat. I have gotten hold of seven episodes of RWT as well as the clipshow and selections from the Rutland Times album and the Rutland Dirty Weekend Book, and base this guide on that sketchy information. With this guide I hope to help end a bit of that. But this Rutlemania did not help Rutland Weekend Television, and in this age of endless reruns of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers - even Michael Palin and Terry Jones' "Ripping Yarns" - Eric's most memorable solo flight has crashed and been forgotten. hope you already have this.) The Rutles were a hit, and much has been said and written about them. This is available on the Saturday Night Live video "Eric Idle - Volume One." No credit was given to Neil, David Battley or John Halsey (who all appeared in the sketch), nor was Rutland Weekend Television mentioned, but viewers everywhere loved the Rutles! Response was so great that the Rutles story was financed by Lorne Michaels to become the tv movie "All You Need is Cash." (available on video, of course. Neil, as Nasty, sings "I Must Be in Love," and Eric, as a reporter, introduces the Rutles story, until the camera runs away. When Eric Idle first hosted Saturday Night Live, he brought along a short clip from the second season featuring Rutland's own Fab Four, the Rutles. The only bit of RWT you can buy at a store today wound up there by accident. ![]() More than one reliable source has cited legal problems. The episodes of RWT (fourteen of them plus one clipshow, according to some sources, more than Fawlty Towers) are not available on commercial video. ![]() And a talented supporting cast including David Battley and Henry Woolf brought this delightful, silly little show to life. Innes' musical numbers did not stop the show (as on, say, Saturday Night Live) but instead fit with its character and enhanced it, providing laughs as well as beginnings and ends to countless sketches. Idle's rambling, nonsensical writing style had served Python well and proved a good, funny way to fill up the shows of RWT. This is sad, as the show (despite miniscule budgets and little rehearsal time) brought out the best in both Idle and Innes. Despite Idle's smash-hit success with Monty Python and Innes' cult status with the Bonzo Dog (Doo-Dah) Band, and despite the quality of the low-budget show, it got very little notice and after two seasons in Britain, a soundtrack album and a tie-in book (neither of which sold well), RWT disappeared into obscurity, to appear only as a footnote in books about Monty Python. It had pretty much no effect on the comedy world in any way. When "Rutland Weekend Television," a comedy program written by Eric Idle and featuring the music of Neil Innes, first premiered in 1975, no one could possibly have expected the massive, amazing effect it would have on the comedy world for years to come. ![]() Special thanks to Tom Strickland, Robert Ross, Alley Ernst, Barb Shapiro,, Kim "Howard" Johnson, Dave Haber and all the rest, and to Eric, Neil and all the RWT cast (for making our weekends just that much more special) THE FABULOUS RUTLAND WEEKEND TELEVISION EPISODE GUIDEīy Garrett Gilchrist contributions from Bonnie Rose, Laurie Stevens, Greg Duffell, and Yoichi Yamazaki
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