John Cleese waiting to begin when Cleese's offer arrived. Palin agreed to work with Cleese and Chapman in the meantime, bringing with him Gilliam, Jones, and Idle. "Monty Python's Flying Circus" ran for four seasons from October 1969 to December 1974 on BBC Television, though Cleese quit the show after the third. Cleese's two primary characterisations were as a sophisticated and a stressed-out loony. He portrayed the former as a series of announcers, TV show hosts, and government officials (for example, "The Ministry of Silly Walks"). The latter is perhaps best represented in the "Cheese Shop" and by Cleese's Mr Praline character,
Monty Python's Flying Circus Time-Life, and Spam, and 8 sports references. Some references do double count in various categories. It is also notable that American music is regularly heard in the show, such as the theme to the television series "Dr. Kildare", but most prominently the show's theme tune ("The Liberty Bell" by John Philip Sousa). While American entertainment was a pervasive cultural influence in Britain at the time of the production of the series, not all references to American culture can be seen as conscious decisions. For example, Terry Jones did not know that Spam was an American product at the time he