Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967–1969)
Interesting as a look at what was to come... but as entertainment...
26 July 2014
I just finished watching the first season of "Do Not Adjust Your Set". I was interested in this show because it was a pre-"Monty Python" show starring and written by several people who were to become part of Monty Python. Seen in that context, the show can be interesting. In many of the sketches you can see the budding of what was to become just a short time later.

Though the show is interesting in showing what was to become, as entertainment, it has not aged very well. Oh, the show is not without its bright spots. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band contribute some amusing and tuneful songs. And every so often there's something that will make you smile a little or chuckle a little. But for the most part, the humor comes across as very lame. You'll be able to figure out the punchlines for many of the sketches, for one thing. Much of the attempted humor is also not as aggressive or biting as on Monty Python. The worst part of the show has to be the Captain Fantastic sketches. They go on forever, and you'll be in agony waiting for them to end.

I will entertain the possibility that when the show was first aired, it was fresh and funny, with nothing like it before. But in the decades that have passed, with more jabbing comedy teams and shows that have come up, today the show seems like feeble stuff. If you have fond memories of the show when it first aired, I would suggest let them remain memories and not revisit the show.
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