Terry's first major television work was on The Frost Report. Although he didn't perform on the show, he wrote many sketches and jokes along with Michael Palin. In fact, all of the British Pythons wrote for this show at some point or another and it played a large part in bringing the group together. His first performing success, however, was on the ITV program Do Not Adjust Your Set from 1968-69, a comedy show originally intended for children but which soon obtained a cult adult following. Along with Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam, he wrote and performed material which bore many of the signs and elements that would later go into the ground-breaking Python work. Although not as well remembered as Python, this show still went some way to developing Jones, Palin, Idle and Gilliam's comic skills and, perhaps more importantly, created the starting point for a union between them, Cleese and Chapman. The show lasted two series, the first running from 4 January - 28 March 1968, and the second from 19 February - 14 May 1969 with a Christmas special, Do Not Adjust Your Stocking, on 26 December 1968.
Between the two series of Do Not Adjust Your Set, Terry Jones and Michael Palin were called upon to write and perform a comedy history program. The Complete and Utter History of Britain, as it became known, allowed the two history graduates to examine history through the eyes of modern broadcasting. It contained many Pythonesque ideas, including the Battle of Hastings victors interviewed in the communal baths, an estate agent trying to sell Stonehenge, and famous people of British history interviewed in a chat show format. The show lasted six episodes and ran from 12 January - 16 February 1969, broadcast on London Weekend Television.
