Goodbye Again was a series of four hour-long television programmes made by the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 TV network ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 to re-unite Peter Cook

Peter Cook

Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...

 and Dudley Moore

Dudley Moore

Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television...

 and recreate their very successful BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 comedy series Not Only... But Also

Not Only... But Also

Not Only... But Also was a popular 1960s BBC British television series starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.-History:The show was originally intended as a solo project for Moore, called Not Only Dudley Moore, But Also His Guests...

.

The head of the network, Lew Grade

Lew Grade

Lew Grade, Baron Grade , born Lev Winogradsky, was an influential Russian-born English impresario and media mogul.-Early years:...

, offered Cook and Moore a lucrative contract and the opportunity for network exposure in the USA. Whilst earlier attempts by the BBC to make another show with the duo had been turned down, they accepted Grade's offer with its promise of a larger production budget. Four shows were recorded, three in April/May 1968 and the fourth a year later. They were aired in the USA under the Kraft Music Hall Presents banner in 1969.

One innovation of the show was the total abandonment of all punchlines, with the sketches flowing into one another in a stream-of-consciousness, surreal method, which predated Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...

by 18 months. Also of note to Python fans should be the Senile Delinquency sketch and the recurring high-voiced old woman. John Cleese

John Cleese

John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...

, prior to Python was a guest star on the show.

A 90-minute compilation of material from the four shows was released on DVD in 2005 under the title The Very Best of Goodbye Again.