The Rutles First-Ever Appearance

The Rutles themselves were introduced in the first episode of the second series, which aired on November 12, 1976. Ian Keill, producer of Rutland Weekend Television, describes the genesis of The Rutles:

The Rutles were born out of something we did for the TV series. We were making a sketch about people suffering from lovesickness and Neil had written a song to go with it, "I Must Be In Love".

It was a miserable day, November 24, 1975, and we took a crew down to Denham Memorial Hall in Buckinghamshire, which we'd hired for £6.75, to film what turned out to be the first Rutles song.

--Q Magazine February 1996