Something Completely Different

Monty Python's outrageous comedy got viewers' attention, reports CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen. But Terry Gilliam's signature animations gave the program its unique look.

"What I liked about it was... the rest was very verbal. This was very visual," he says. "That is one of the great things about Python. It was the combination of those two aspects of the brain, and they are there."

Gilliam's career is the subject of a new book, Dark Knights and Holy Fools: The Art and Films of Terry Gilliam.

"Every intimate and ugly detail of my life -- it is just like that," he quips. "It is worth every penny. All the smut, the filth, the ugly stories. They are all there."

Joking aside, through a series of interviews and using Gilliam's own archives, the book chronicles his career as an animator, actor, writer, and director.

As Monty Python celebrates it's 30th anniversary, Gilliam, the only American in the all-British comedy team, is both irritated and delighted that it is still popular today.

"I just love the fact that people are constantly surprised by it, even all these years after the event," he says. "The material is constantly finding new audiences. Kids are coming up and discovering this madness, silliness. The surprising thing is it is constantly applicable. It seems to be all the time. It does not seem to be old and tired."