THE "MONTY PYTHON" ACID TRIP

There are times when characters from other TV dimensions, most notably the Tooniverse, can cross over into the main Toobworld... sometimes even to other TV dimensions as well. And yet the majority of characters who live in Earth Prime-Time aren't aware that those "toons" are living beings in their world. They are just considered to be characters in cartoons.

'Monty Python's Flying Circus' was a combination of the Tooniverse and Skitlandia, separate but equal. Terry Gilliam's animations actually exist in that cartoon world, while the live-action segments would be found in the sketch comedy dimension.

But taken as a whole, the British comedy classic is considered just a TV show by Toobworld folk.  ('Farscape', 'Hawaii Five-O', 'Stargate SG-1', 'Studio 60', 'Community', 'Eli Stone', 'The Middleman' etc......)

I bring this up because we found out last week that Dr. Walter Bishop of 'Fringe' used to watch 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'. In the "Black Blotter" episode, we were privy to his thought process as he struggled to remember a password that could save their lives. And that train of thought was acted out as a pastiche of Gilliam's cartoon style.

Walter's avatar was accompanied by animal companions, each of whom had special meaning to Walter. He's seen riding Gene the cow who lived in the lab back in the early part of the new millennium; the frog comes from a Terry Gilliam animation for 'Monty Python'; the seahorse is one of the glyphs in the 'Fringe' code; and the terrier must be Toto from "The Wizard of Oz".

Here are the main references to 'Monty Python' to be found in Walter's mind:

And here are most of the influences from 'Monty Python':

There was a better version of the floating mouth, with the guy chasing after it once it escaped, but I couldn't find it.

At any rate, this was definitely one of the highlights for the year in Toobworld!

BCnU!