Dallas Irony.

One of the more curious things about Monty Python is that of all cities, the first PBS station to show them in America was in Dallas. Hardly a city of cosmopolitan, European humor, mostly known for hard-ass American cowboys and blowing JFK's brains out - as per John Cleese: "We just knew that something extraordinary had happened, and we were so stunned it was Dallas. Because in England, in the old days, we thought the people in Dallas ate their own children. We were just delighted."

And apparently there was one man responsible:

On Sept. 22, 1974, Monty Python’s Flying Circus made its television debut in the United States — in Dallas, on KERA (Channel 13). For this point of civic pride, a footnote deserving a chapter in this city’s history, we must thank Ron Devillier, who at the time was program manager at Dallas’ public television station. Credit often goes solely to Robert Wilson, father of Owen and Luke and Andrew. Wilson was the station’s president and general manager in ’74 and allowed the British Broadcasting Corp.’s series on Dallas’ airwaves.

HOW THE FUCK DO THE WILSON BROTHERS NOT BRAG ABOUT THIS CONSTANTLY???

But without Devillier, Wilson never gets to make that call. 

In the spring of ’74, Devillier took a phone call from a friend who worked for Time Life, which, 45 years ago, provided a significant bulk of KERA’s programming. This rep was upfront with Devillier: He was pitching KERA a show that no one else wanted called Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

The call came on a Wednesday — Devillier recalls the day like someone who has told this story more than once. By Friday, two boxes filled with giant videocassettes arrived. The next afternoon he went to the office — “to give it a shot” — and took about half the tapes into the old video room, expecting to screen a few episodes before meeting his then-fiancée for dinner.

“And I wound up falling in love with them,” Devillier said. “I stayed all day watching those damned things. I was that enamored of the show. I don’t know why. They just hit my funny bone. I called them back and said, ‘We’d like to buy them.’”

Cleese remained so grateful, he insisted on meeting Devillier when he visited the station in 2019.

In 1975, KERA in Dallas, Texas was the first public television station to air Monty Python's Flying Circus.  This is a video of an appearance the troupe made to KERA during that year's membership pledge drive.