help! - cmd line interpreter gone "dumb"

[Tim]

Maybe I've been working too long, but has anyon had their python interpreter
stop taking commands.

The IDLE version works fine, but under Windoze:

1) execute "python" in teh command shell
2) ...interpreter comes up fine
3) type in anything and you get "SyntaxError: invalid syntax"

Literally, you could type in "import sys" or anything common and you get the
same results.

Any help greatly appreciated--thanks.

Tim