Beyond the Fringe of musical items in the show, using Dudley Moore's music, most famously an arrangement of the Colonel Bogey March which resists Moore's repeated attempts to bring it to an end. The show prefigured the Satire Boom of the 1960s. Without it, there might not have been either "That Was the Week That Was" or "Private Eye", the satirical magazine which originated at the same time, that partially survived due to financial support from Peter Cook, and that served as the model for the later American "Spy Magazine". Cook and Moore formed a comedy team and appeared in the popular television
Beyond the Fringe opened on 27 October 1962, then it was performed by the National Company in 1963. Subsequently, opening on 8 October 1964, the National Touring Company took it on a nationwide tour for six months as "Beyond the Fringe '65" under the auspices of Alexander H. Cohen, with the cast consisting of Robert Cessna, Donald Cullen, Joel Fabiani, and James Valentine. Slight changes were made to adapt the show for American audiences, for instance the opening number (discussing America) was retitled "Home Thoughts from Abroad". The show was revived in slightly altered form in Los Angeles in 2000 and 2001 by