I was on the staff of the Harvard Lampoon, where we'd do things like invite JohnCleese to accept an award, and he'd come have dinner with the forty of us.
By 1975, the bizarre antics of the show's stars -- Graham Chapman, JohnCleese, TerryGilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin -- made it one of the best-rated PBS series of itstime.