Other than the proverbial "Death and Taxes". the only other thing in Life that is inevitable is that everyone has seen THE HONEYMOONERS half hour black and white episodes, not just somewhere and occasionally, but everywhere and constantly. The animated opening that starts with a real burst of sky rockets against a dark sky, giving away to a rising Full Moon; which quickly morphs into a "moon-faced"Gleason caricature. Then, as the credits roll, an off camera voice-over (and that's the best kind!) announces, "Jackie Gleason, The Honeymooners! With the Stars
.!" Yeah, we all know Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph.
So an unforgettable opening, re-enforced umpteen times in our own collective memory, represents this greatest of all TV Comedies. Though no one compels these repetitive viewings, we continue to watch over and over; until we feel that we intimately know both the Kramdens and their upstairs neighbors, the Nortons. The one element that, once again, deems our attendance is this out and out shameless love of the character and the stories.
But being one of those Boomer Generation baby boys now rapidly approaching the world of Rocking Chairs, Senior Discounts and the large print edition of The Readers' Digest; there remains one for my dealing with. That is that THE HONEYMOONERS was not originally a series, and certainly was not truly one of those laugh track shackled Sitcoms. Believe me, Schultz, it's the truth. Just be patient, trust Red (me!) and read on.
Following an unsuccessful season replacing William Bendix as Chester A. Riley in the first attempt to bring THE LIFE OF RILEY (1949) to NBC for that one season, Mr. Herbert John "Jackie" Gleason signed on to appear on The Dumont Television Network's CAVALCADE OF STARS (1949-52). The format was much like NBC's THE COLGATE COMEDY HOUR (1950-55), having a rotating host and his supporting players on approximately 2 times in a month.
It was here that Jackie developed most of his characters for which he would be remembered. The characters were pretty well evenly rotated and got just about equivalent "face time" on the tubes. The characters were varied and provided a hint of Mr. Gleason's budding versatility. They were: "THE LOUD MOUTH": Charlie Bratton in which Jackie would always irritate poor, sickly and nervous "Clem"; and always in the same Diner. RUDY THE REPAIRMAN, who with help of assistant, the gibberish speaking Dwarf, "Whitey", would tackle just about any job and usually "fixing" things by pound it with his trusty hammer. REGINALD VAN GLEASON III, who was the ultra rich and spoiled wealthy playboy & boozer. THE POOR SOUL, his most pathetically funny and even 'Chaplinesque' character with all being done in pantomime. STANLEY BABBITT, who was a sort of perennial nebbish of a character. JOE THE BARTENDER, was done as a one man conversation with "Mr. Dennehy"; being the subjective lense.* Then there was this domestic thing with a tentative and working title of "The Couple Next Door", which became the big hit of the show as "The Honeymooners." At first, we had Jackie as Ralph, Pert Kelton as Alice, Art Carney as Ed Norton and Joyce Randolph as Trixie. It was the unqualified runaway hit of the series and when Jackie took his show lock, stock and barrel to CBS, the elfin Miss Kelton couldn't continue due to health problems, in favor of the all-time favourite Alice, Audrey Meadows.
But the public continued to demand more and more Honeymooners, showing a sharp preference for the Kramdens and Nortons over the others. That's when somebody got a real super brainstorm. The sketches had run about 10-15 minutes long. So, if they were given an extra Act, the time could be increased to about ½ hour. This not only left the remaining 30 minutes of the Gleason Show for monologues, musical numbers, guest stars and other Gleason characters; but it made the Honeymooners sketch a prime candidate for rebroadcasting as a syndicated situation comedy! Making use of an ingenious invention from his former network's boss, The Dumont Electronicam. In those days before the emergence of video tape in 1958, this TV Camera enabled the filming of the same image that would be sent out live over the airwaves. So, with the filming of the new opening and closing**, there was very little need for any editing, for the commercial breaks were already there.
In the end we were able to view all those "one's better than the next" episodes in virtual perpetuity. This insured our absolute familiarity with those truly classic episodes dealing with: Chef of the Future, my friend Harvey, the string of poloponies, the Raccoon of the Year, 'Kran-Mar's Delicious Mystery Appetizer (the dog food) and 'The Adoption (tear jerker).
NOTE * Before you get all hot bothered with me, this was a one man act in its inception, and remained so until Mr. Gleason came back after a layoff in 1962 with his JACKIE GLEASON AND HIS American SCENE MAGAZINE show, when he turned over the bit to new regular 2nd Banana, Frank Fontaine as 'Crazy' Googenheim.
NOTE ** It is interesting that the musically untrained Gleason wrote both his opening theme for THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW with "Melancholy Serenade" and THE HONEYMOONERS Series with the title which escapes me. (I promise to revise this when the info comes my way.
So an unforgettable opening, re-enforced umpteen times in our own collective memory, represents this greatest of all TV Comedies. Though no one compels these repetitive viewings, we continue to watch over and over; until we feel that we intimately know both the Kramdens and their upstairs neighbors, the Nortons. The one element that, once again, deems our attendance is this out and out shameless love of the character and the stories.
But being one of those Boomer Generation baby boys now rapidly approaching the world of Rocking Chairs, Senior Discounts and the large print edition of The Readers' Digest; there remains one for my dealing with. That is that THE HONEYMOONERS was not originally a series, and certainly was not truly one of those laugh track shackled Sitcoms. Believe me, Schultz, it's the truth. Just be patient, trust Red (me!) and read on.
Following an unsuccessful season replacing William Bendix as Chester A. Riley in the first attempt to bring THE LIFE OF RILEY (1949) to NBC for that one season, Mr. Herbert John "Jackie" Gleason signed on to appear on The Dumont Television Network's CAVALCADE OF STARS (1949-52). The format was much like NBC's THE COLGATE COMEDY HOUR (1950-55), having a rotating host and his supporting players on approximately 2 times in a month.
It was here that Jackie developed most of his characters for which he would be remembered. The characters were pretty well evenly rotated and got just about equivalent "face time" on the tubes. The characters were varied and provided a hint of Mr. Gleason's budding versatility. They were: "THE LOUD MOUTH": Charlie Bratton in which Jackie would always irritate poor, sickly and nervous "Clem"; and always in the same Diner. RUDY THE REPAIRMAN, who with help of assistant, the gibberish speaking Dwarf, "Whitey", would tackle just about any job and usually "fixing" things by pound it with his trusty hammer. REGINALD VAN GLEASON III, who was the ultra rich and spoiled wealthy playboy & boozer. THE POOR SOUL, his most pathetically funny and even 'Chaplinesque' character with all being done in pantomime. STANLEY BABBITT, who was a sort of perennial nebbish of a character. JOE THE BARTENDER, was done as a one man conversation with "Mr. Dennehy"; being the subjective lense.* Then there was this domestic thing with a tentative and working title of "The Couple Next Door", which became the big hit of the show as "The Honeymooners." At first, we had Jackie as Ralph, Pert Kelton as Alice, Art Carney as Ed Norton and Joyce Randolph as Trixie. It was the unqualified runaway hit of the series and when Jackie took his show lock, stock and barrel to CBS, the elfin Miss Kelton couldn't continue due to health problems, in favor of the all-time favourite Alice, Audrey Meadows.
But the public continued to demand more and more Honeymooners, showing a sharp preference for the Kramdens and Nortons over the others. That's when somebody got a real super brainstorm. The sketches had run about 10-15 minutes long. So, if they were given an extra Act, the time could be increased to about ½ hour. This not only left the remaining 30 minutes of the Gleason Show for monologues, musical numbers, guest stars and other Gleason characters; but it made the Honeymooners sketch a prime candidate for rebroadcasting as a syndicated situation comedy! Making use of an ingenious invention from his former network's boss, The Dumont Electronicam. In those days before the emergence of video tape in 1958, this TV Camera enabled the filming of the same image that would be sent out live over the airwaves. So, with the filming of the new opening and closing**, there was very little need for any editing, for the commercial breaks were already there.
In the end we were able to view all those "one's better than the next" episodes in virtual perpetuity. This insured our absolute familiarity with those truly classic episodes dealing with: Chef of the Future, my friend Harvey, the string of poloponies, the Raccoon of the Year, 'Kran-Mar's Delicious Mystery Appetizer (the dog food) and 'The Adoption (tear jerker).
NOTE * Before you get all hot bothered with me, this was a one man act in its inception, and remained so until Mr. Gleason came back after a layoff in 1962 with his JACKIE GLEASON AND HIS American SCENE MAGAZINE show, when he turned over the bit to new regular 2nd Banana, Frank Fontaine as 'Crazy' Googenheim.
NOTE ** It is interesting that the musically untrained Gleason wrote both his opening theme for THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW with "Melancholy Serenade" and THE HONEYMOONERS Series with the title which escapes me. (I promise to revise this when the info comes my way.