I think that article overestimates the number of people that saw "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" in the USA when it came out.

I don't know, it was a pretty big deal. A major film.

Not in the USA[1] in 1975[2]

1) https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Monty-Python-and-the-Holy-...

2) https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/domestic/all-...

But it was the CBS late night movie in 1977. Also, the wikipedia page just says "some people" -- not sure that "overestimates" the number of people who would have been aware of killer bunnies.

Yeah, I'm thinking a movie that aired on CBS starting at 11:30 p.m (ET/PT) in 1977 probably wasn't well watched even in the 3 (or 4) channel era.

The Wikipedia writer wanted to put Monty Python in the article and ignored the actual history and provided no actual link or cited source of the link.

Where did you live in 1977 that only had 3 channels? I was in the greater LA media market and I think we received about 20 terrestrial channels counting all the UHF. About every other VHF channel picked something up.

Also, my recollection is that TV airing of movies that were a couple of years old was a bfd back then. My father worked 2pm to 10pm in 1977 and he and my mom were huge monty python fans, so I bet they watched it.

It also aired on PBS, the dates are not in the wikipedia article, but by the time the Carter incident became public it might have aired a few times.

And 1975 is when Monty Python started to show on public television in the US (vs 1969 on BBC). I was only 7 in 1979, but I know we as a family watched flying circus when it aired (I didn't control the TV during prime time, but flying circus, dr who, nova, macneil lehrer newshour, some business news show, and yoga are all shows I remember watching with my parents on PBS) https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/26/archives/monty-pythons-fl...

A 1979 NYT article called it a "killer rabbit" https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/30/archives/a-tale-of-carter...

I find it hard to believe there were not any people who made some humorous connections between the killer rabbit of caerbannog and the killer rabbit of a Plains, Georgia pond.

Cable wasn't much of a thing outside the big metros until the 80's. Most of the rural area in 75 had over the air. LA and NYC were there own world, and it showed from some of the writings of the time.

Someone might have, but it sure wasn't enough to justify the entry, and given the author didn't cite a source, I'm pretty sure it was just the author.

I didn't say anything about cable. From what I know of the history of cable, it started for places that were geographically isolated from receiving terrestrial broadcast (because of a valley of whatever). Terrestrial == over-the-air. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_television

Not sure why they NYT would have called it a "killer rabbit" if it was not a monty python reference.