Monty Python's Flying Circus produced 45 episodes across four series. The BBC sketch show premiered on 5 October 1969 and its original run ended on 5 December 1974.
The series was built around Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Its unusual structure mixed sketches, recurring characters, surreal cut-out animation, songs, fake television reports, and abrupt transitions rather than following a conventional variety-show format.
The episode total refers to the four main BBC series. The final, fourth series was shortened to six episodes after John Cleese had left the programme, so the series counts are not evenly distributed. The Pythons also made two German television specials, collectively known as Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus. Those specials are normally counted separately from the 45 English-language Flying Circus episodes.
Another possible source of confusion is the numbering of individual episodes and releases. Home-video collections and compilations may organize sketches differently, but the canonical television-series total remains 45 episodes over four series.