I buy whole birds to cut up for separate meals since I only cook for myself. Spatchcocking makes it easy to use different seasoning for different parts.
I butterflied (spatchcocked to you weirdos out there) my chicken today, then I fried the skin with lots of seasonings and a light dusting of flour. Then I roasted it for about 35 minutes. Better than turkey, no doubt about it.
The Bayeux Tapestry, the massive art needlework document of the Norman Invasion of 1066, shows spatchcocked birds being cooked and served after the landing:
http://hastings1066.com/bayeux22.shtml
http://hastings1066.com/bayeux23.shtml
(not all that clear in those images; couldn’t find larger ones easily, but the description is well-documented)
Wouldn’t be surprised if someone comes along to document even further back.
The spatchcocked turkey was perfection. We did wet brine it first.
So much delicious turkey skin. I think I ate more skin than meat. My gallbladder isn’t entirely happy with me today. Totally worth it. 
The only drawback was almost no juice for gravy. The aromatics (carrots, celery, onion) that we placed in the pan underneath the rack the bird cooked on did have a lovely roasted turkey glaze; we actually ended up serving them instead of tossing as planned, because they weren’t “spent” like pot roast veggies, and they were delicious. There was only a small amount of drippings in that pan that didn’t go out with the veg. I’d planned for that, however, and pre-made turkey stock. Added that to the tiny amount of drippings in the pan for flavor, and it made a decent gravy. Not the *best *gravy ever, but a decent gravy. All things considered, I’d rather have the juice stay in the bird and make gravy this way with stock.
The verdict is in with a unanimous decision. It was awesome off the smoker. Cut it with a fork tender.
Ended up using Alton Brown’s standard quick roasted turkey. Came out great and I introduced 5 Chinese families newly moved to the US to their first ever whole turkey. Was a hit.
I do this with chicken in the summer on the grill. It’s a great way to get a whole bird on the BBQ so it doesn’t heat up my house. I find with the meat all in one layer, the different parts cook pretty evenly.
Last year when I was asked to make a turkey for the in laws (just one of the two) I decided to butterfly it. It didn’t cook as quickly as the recipe said it would, but it was still pretty fast and it was done evenly with the white meat cooking at about the same pace as the dark. I did an under the skin wet rub with garlic, lemon, and kosher salt.
Oh. Oh dear. You weren’t talking about this trick, were you?
I’ll just show myself out. (But no, I haven’t tried it yet, no way my hypersplit is that good – it’s a hella hard trick. Maybe someday. I call it my Moby Dick trick: always chasing it, never quite get it.)
How did you keep it lit? 
This is how I bake a chicken, but first I preheat a cast iron skillet that I bake the bird on.
I used this variation on the technique and it was the best damned turkey I’ve ever had.
Dry-brined for a couple of days and cooked it on the grill.
That looks like an awesome recipe! Takes care of the challenge of how to debone a turkey as well.