THE HONEYMOONERS (CBS-TV, 1955-56) is a perfect example of how a comedy skit from a variety show has grown into a half-hour sit-com that continues to be shown in television reruns decades after it's original run. And yet, there're only 39 black and white episodes that are the ones in circulation and possibly for many more years to come. What makes this show even more entertaining are not so much the one-liners, especially those pertaining to Ralph's fatness, plus the fact that the episodes were filmed live in front of a studio audience, and whatever goofs and blunders occur remains in the finished product. Legend has it that there were no second chances. As professional as these actors are, they don't always succeed in covering up their for their mistakes, but continue to go on with the show, hoping these mistakes have gone unnoticed. After repeated viewings, however, one can point out these mistakes in both dialog and action, making it even more fun to watch.
Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), is a Brooklyn-born dreamer working as a bus driver. He is married 15 years to Alice (Audrey Meadows), a wife he really loves but has strange ways of showing it. They live in an apartment in Bensonhurst with little or no luxuries. Not only do they not have any children, but no telephone, no television, only second- hand furniture and an out-of-date icebox from the Depression era. Ralph's best friend is also his upstairs neighbor, Ed Norton (Art Carney), who works in the sewer. Norton isn't that well off either, but aside from having a stay-at-home wife, Trixie (Joyce Randolph), he supplies her the luxuries of telephone or television that Ralph is too cheap to buy. While the wives do their household chores, the husbands are members of the Raccoon Club, and get together weekly for a game of bowling or pool. In most of these 39 episodes, something always occurs that would get Ralph and Alice into heated arguments, but no matter what, Alice being the most sensible with the right answers. Ralph believes himself to be the know-it-all until he realizes his faults, concluding the episode telling Alice, "Baby, you're the greatest," before kissing and making up.
Although THE HONEYMOONERS is basically a stage-bound show focusing mostly on the Kramden apartment with kitchen/ dining room, window and front door only in full view. The Kramden bedroom is never shown. The show does give its viewers a chance to break away from the monotony of the Kramden kitchen by presenting the Norton's apartment, with both kitchen and bedroom in a more decorative appearance, along with outdoor activity such as the pool hall, the bus company and its supervisor's office, the Raccoon Lodge, a restaurant where the Kramdens get to dine with a visiting guest, or an apartment of another character making his or her sole appearance on the show. Besides the Nortons and Kramdens, there's others in support, usually the same actors assuming different parts, namely George Petrie's many characters ranging from Fred, a fellow bus driver, a janitor and scarfaced bank robber.
Of its 39 episodes, not all of them are 100 percent, the least satisfactory being, "Better Living Through TV" which finds Ralph and Ed wearing chef's outfits doing a live TV commercial, and the nervous Ralph bumbling everything due to his stage fright. On the other hand, there're many funny ones to satisfy even non-Honeymooners, including three featuring Ralph's mother-in-law, "Funny Money," "A Matter of Record," and "The 99,000 Answer"; "A Woman's Work is Never Done" where Ralph matches wits with a tough maid, Thelma (Betty Garde) filling in for the working Alice. For Ralph depicted as a loud-mouth, dumb-founded husband, he does have a sentimental side to his character. Look at "T'was the Night Before Christmas" episode. Not only is it funny and heartwarming at the same time, it has character. And speaking of character, Gleason even gets to step out of character in that particular episode in its conclusion, where he, Mrs. Kramden and the Nortons gather together wishing everybody a very Merry Christmas.
THE HONEYMOONERS may lack in originality at times with the same old premise of the overly jealous Ralph believing wife, Alice, seeing another guy, which, naturally he's wrong; or "The Safety Award" that borrows from portions of I LOVE LUCY where Alice and Trixie arguing for buying the same exact dresses for Ralph's safety award ceremony; or another replica from I LOVE LUCY where Ralph and Norton spend almost an entire night handcuffed together. Even Alice's 1956 headdress resembles that of Lucille Ball's Lucy Ricardo. Other than Ralph's disagreements with Alice, he has his share of heated arguments with Norton as well, learning later what a true friend he has in Norton.
Although Jackie Gleason would revive THE HONEYMOONERS as part of his JACKIE GLEASON SHOW in the late 1960s, produced in color with occasional singing, the new edition continued to star Gleason and Carney, with Sheila Macrae and Jane Kean as the new Alice and Trixie. Regardless, no one, not even Gleason, was able to top, or even duplicate the success of the "classic 39." Warner Brothers parodied the Kramdens and Nortons in some Looney Toons cartoons in the persona of mice; while Hanna-Barbera succeeded in having THE FLINTSTONES with Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty being Ralph, Trixie, Norton and Trixie set back in the Stone Age.
Of everything Gleason, Carney, Meadows and Randolph have done on television, these four people leave a lasting legacy in the Golden Age of Television. And an added bonus: All the 39 episodes, along with many of the newly rediscovered "lost" episodes produced on Kinescope in the early 1950s, did take place on cable's TV LAND before coming to home video. The Honeymooners, they're the greatest.
Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), is a Brooklyn-born dreamer working as a bus driver. He is married 15 years to Alice (Audrey Meadows), a wife he really loves but has strange ways of showing it. They live in an apartment in Bensonhurst with little or no luxuries. Not only do they not have any children, but no telephone, no television, only second- hand furniture and an out-of-date icebox from the Depression era. Ralph's best friend is also his upstairs neighbor, Ed Norton (Art Carney), who works in the sewer. Norton isn't that well off either, but aside from having a stay-at-home wife, Trixie (Joyce Randolph), he supplies her the luxuries of telephone or television that Ralph is too cheap to buy. While the wives do their household chores, the husbands are members of the Raccoon Club, and get together weekly for a game of bowling or pool. In most of these 39 episodes, something always occurs that would get Ralph and Alice into heated arguments, but no matter what, Alice being the most sensible with the right answers. Ralph believes himself to be the know-it-all until he realizes his faults, concluding the episode telling Alice, "Baby, you're the greatest," before kissing and making up.
Although THE HONEYMOONERS is basically a stage-bound show focusing mostly on the Kramden apartment with kitchen/ dining room, window and front door only in full view. The Kramden bedroom is never shown. The show does give its viewers a chance to break away from the monotony of the Kramden kitchen by presenting the Norton's apartment, with both kitchen and bedroom in a more decorative appearance, along with outdoor activity such as the pool hall, the bus company and its supervisor's office, the Raccoon Lodge, a restaurant where the Kramdens get to dine with a visiting guest, or an apartment of another character making his or her sole appearance on the show. Besides the Nortons and Kramdens, there's others in support, usually the same actors assuming different parts, namely George Petrie's many characters ranging from Fred, a fellow bus driver, a janitor and scarfaced bank robber.
Of its 39 episodes, not all of them are 100 percent, the least satisfactory being, "Better Living Through TV" which finds Ralph and Ed wearing chef's outfits doing a live TV commercial, and the nervous Ralph bumbling everything due to his stage fright. On the other hand, there're many funny ones to satisfy even non-Honeymooners, including three featuring Ralph's mother-in-law, "Funny Money," "A Matter of Record," and "The 99,000 Answer"; "A Woman's Work is Never Done" where Ralph matches wits with a tough maid, Thelma (Betty Garde) filling in for the working Alice. For Ralph depicted as a loud-mouth, dumb-founded husband, he does have a sentimental side to his character. Look at "T'was the Night Before Christmas" episode. Not only is it funny and heartwarming at the same time, it has character. And speaking of character, Gleason even gets to step out of character in that particular episode in its conclusion, where he, Mrs. Kramden and the Nortons gather together wishing everybody a very Merry Christmas.
THE HONEYMOONERS may lack in originality at times with the same old premise of the overly jealous Ralph believing wife, Alice, seeing another guy, which, naturally he's wrong; or "The Safety Award" that borrows from portions of I LOVE LUCY where Alice and Trixie arguing for buying the same exact dresses for Ralph's safety award ceremony; or another replica from I LOVE LUCY where Ralph and Norton spend almost an entire night handcuffed together. Even Alice's 1956 headdress resembles that of Lucille Ball's Lucy Ricardo. Other than Ralph's disagreements with Alice, he has his share of heated arguments with Norton as well, learning later what a true friend he has in Norton.
Although Jackie Gleason would revive THE HONEYMOONERS as part of his JACKIE GLEASON SHOW in the late 1960s, produced in color with occasional singing, the new edition continued to star Gleason and Carney, with Sheila Macrae and Jane Kean as the new Alice and Trixie. Regardless, no one, not even Gleason, was able to top, or even duplicate the success of the "classic 39." Warner Brothers parodied the Kramdens and Nortons in some Looney Toons cartoons in the persona of mice; while Hanna-Barbera succeeded in having THE FLINTSTONES with Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty being Ralph, Trixie, Norton and Trixie set back in the Stone Age.
Of everything Gleason, Carney, Meadows and Randolph have done on television, these four people leave a lasting legacy in the Golden Age of Television. And an added bonus: All the 39 episodes, along with many of the newly rediscovered "lost" episodes produced on Kinescope in the early 1950s, did take place on cable's TV LAND before coming to home video. The Honeymooners, they're the greatest.