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Python (Monty) Pictures Limited is composed of the four surviving members of the mainMonty Python team, who now serve as thedirectors. Python (Monty) Pictures wasincorporated in 1973 and now manages ongoing activities resulting from their previous work together. In the accounts return, the company describes its activities as the 'exploitation of television andcinematographic productions'. In the lastfinancial year for which accounts are available (to March 2004), the company's turnover was £4.9 million.[1]
WhenMonty Python's Flying Circus was shown in the U.S. byABC in theirWide World of Entertainment slot in 1975, the episodes were re-edited to allow time for commercials, thus losing the continuity and flow intended in the originals. When ABC refused to stop screening the series in this form, the Pythons took them to court. Initially the court ruled that their artistic rights had indeed been violated, but refused to stop the ABC broadcasts as this would cause "financial damage" to ABC. However, on appeal the team gained control over all subsequent U.S. broadcasts of its programmes. The case also led to them gaining the foreign rights to all Python shows from theBBC, once their original contracts ended at the end of 1980 (a unique arrangement at the time).[2]
As revealed inThe Madness and Misadventures of Munchausen (included on the bonus DVD of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Python memberTerry Gilliam's 1988 filmThe Adventures of Baron Munchausen), Python Pictures was to originally bring in part of the funding forMunchausen but eventually the deal didn't come to fruition.