I first saw the Pythons on Canadian TV before it ever made it to the states. It was hilarious but, I thought, the humor is too British with too many local references. It would never work in the US. Surprise surprise!
We were lucky to not have received a bastardized makeover as happened to Sanford and Son, Man About the House, Office, and the more recent Shameless.
I admit, I saw magazine at the barber shop and it said jackie kennedy watched it and i thought, what the hell does she find so funny. Then i got hooked. When i ran supervisors training i used two Cleese films one called Meetings bloody meetings, creative and funny examples of what managers do wrong at meetings and comparing them to trials if the attorney wad unprepared. Cleese is a serious man and a comedy genius as are the others.