The Honeymooners

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The Honeymooners, a 1950s half-hour television situation comedy spun from a series of working-class skits that featured on Jackie Gleason's hit CBS variety series, became one of America's most beloved, enduring, and imitated television comedies—after its single season of life as a separately-produced series. Possibly the most easily-forgotten fact about the show is that it wasn't a big ratings hit in its only in-production season (1955–1956), and that only when it began to appear in syndicated reruns almost a decade later—concurrent to Gleason reviving the skits on the 1960s version of his variety show—did The Honeymooners begin to earn their due and immortality.

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History

In the early 1950s, Jackie Gleason hosted a variety show, originally titled Cavalcade of Stars on the DuMont Television Network, before moving to CBS in 1952 as The Jackie Gleason Show. The versatile, rotund comedian was already renowned for his clever recurring characters, but the most popular proved to be himself as a blustery Brooklyn bus driver named Ralph Kramden, who was always devising one or another scheme to get rich quick, aided and abetted by his dim-witted, sewer worker pal Ed Norton, played by Art Carney.

The original skits featured Pert Kelton, a veteran stage and radio actress, as Ralph's acerbic wife, Alice Kramden, but critics have since concluded those sketches darker than the sketches the world has come to know, with Gleason and Kelton resembling a young man married to a middle-aged woman whose looks and disposition faded amid harrowing, realistic arguments.

The image was softened after the show moved to CBS, but the softening was begun by necessity: Kelton had been named in Red Channels, the notorious booklet listing over 100 actual or alleged Communists in radio and television, and she was forced off the show. (Kelton later earned a measure of redemption in the original Broadway cast of Meredith Willson's musical hit, The Music Man.) Replacing Kelton would be Audrey Meadows, who had to frumpify herself to convince Gleason she was right for the part: the comely Meadows first impressed the comedian as being too attractive to make a credible Alice. The second change was replacing Elaine Stritch, who played Trixie as a burlesque queen, with the more wholesome looking Joyce Randolph, as Ed Norton's almost as sharp, and slightly more temperamental wife, Trixie Norton.

By 1955, the "Honeymooners" skits were so popular that CBS offered Gleason a chance to produce a separate half-hour show around the characters, also to be called The Honeymooners. The first episode of the series aired October 1, 1955, and 39 were created and broadcast before the show was cancelled in 1956. The show began with a high rating but fell victim to competiton from Perry Como's popular NBC variety show, with one source saying The Honeymooners dropped from number two to number nineteen.

Gleason, however, retained the rights to the show, including eventual re-runs, though he sold the series to CBS for a reported $1 million. When Gleason revived his regular variety show, the "Honeymooners" skits were revived as well, until Art Carney left the show in 1957. Then, when Gleason revamped his show in 1962 as The Jackie Gleason American Scene Magazine (the title reverted to The Jackie Gleason Show soon enough), the "Honeymooners" skits returned as well, with first Sue Ane Langdon and then Sheila MacRae as Alice and Jane Kean as Trixie.

By 1967 – 1968, the "Honeymooners" skits had become the show: Gleason and company performed hourlong musical versions of the shows, often borrowing from older "Honeymooners" skit or show scripts, with Gleason likening the new versions to "doing half a Broadway musical every week."

But in 1970, Gleason and company were gone: CBS historiographer Robert Metz wrote that Gleason and CBS disagreed over what he should be doing. The network wanted another season or two of "Honeymooners" musicals; Gleason wanted to revive his former variety format including shorter "Honeymooners" skits. Except for scattered "Honeymooners" specials in the 1970s and early 1980s — reuniting Gleason, Meadows, and Carney but with Jane Kean instead of Joyce Randolph — the skits' cast never worked together again in that setting.

Gleason surprised and pleased Honeymooners devotees when, a few years before his death in 1987, he released a number of so-called "lost episodes" (never lost, in reality—just sitting in Gleason's vault for decades), which were kinescopes of Gleason's live shows for CBS during the 1950s.

These episodes were released on home video and sometimes show up in syndication alongside what are known as "The Classic 39". In September 2004 another "lost" episode (this time one that had indeed been misplaced years ago) was reported discovered, with plans for video release pending.

This episode, "Love Letter", aired on cable television in October 2004. And, in 2005, The Honeymooners was remade as a poorly-received full-length feature film.

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Impact and legacy

As it debuted on Cavalcade of Stars, The Honeymooners could be considered television's first spin-off. But that may be the least significant portion of its legacy. The Honeymooners has proved to be an enduring cultural touchstone, engendering an entire subculture of television comedy that still persists today.

For some, the show has never really been topped for portraying a strikingly realistic side of urban working class life, even though contemporary critics assail the blustery chauvinism of its lead character. Jackie Gleason himself often said he sketched the characters based on people he had actually remembered from his hardscrabble Brooklyn tenement boyhood, and it is a credit to his memory and his ability that he had created such an enduring and humane sketch.

It is also currently the longest running program to continue airing in New York City, having been aired on WPIX-TV, off and on, decades after it ceased production.

  • In 1960, the animated sitcom The Flintstones debuted; many critics and viewers noted the close resemblance of that show's premise and characters to that of The Honeymooners. Gleason later said that he had thought about suing, but decided not to bother. The Flintstones would in turn influence The Simpsons.
  • The show was also parodied in a series of Warner Bros. animated cartoons, in which the principal characters are depicted as mice and Ralph's "big dream" is to get enough cheese to impress Alice with. These cartoons are The Honey-Mousers (1956), Cheese It, the Cat! (1957), and Mice Follies (1960). Human caricatures of Ralph and Ed are pitted against Bugs Bunny in the 1956 Warner cartoon Half-Fare Hare. And, nodding to one of the many catchphrases The Honeymooners sent into the American vernacular, a Sylvester and Tweety cartoon — in which Granny gets rousted out of her house by the big bad wolf, only to get the wolf in the end — included Granny (June Foray)hollering, "One of these days...one of these days...Pow! Right in the kisser!"
  • Comedian Eddie Murphy impersonated Ralph in an infamous stand-up routine depicting Kramden and Norton as gay lovers. The bit can be seen in Murphy's 1983 concert film Delirious. And an episode of the 1980s detective spoof, Moonlighting, set lead characters David Addison, Maddie Hayes, Agnes Dipesto, and Herbert Viola into a Honeymooners re-creation.
  • In 1994, the Dutch broadcasting network KRO produced a version of The Honeymooners entitled Toen was geluk heel gewoon, using translated scripts of the original series but changing its setting to 1950s Rotterdam. After the original scripts were all used up the series' lead actors, Gerard Cox and Sjoerd Pleijsier, took over writing, adding many new characters and references to Dutch history and popular culture. The series was a hit in the Netherlands and continues to run.
  • The short-lived HBO comedy series The High Life was a sort of twisted version of The Honeymooners. (For example, in one episode, the Kramden-esque protagonist and his friend join a fraternal organization only to discover that it's the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.)
  • The Honeymooners influenced the American sitcom Roc in its character dynamics and story structures. Roc acknowledged its roots by presenting its entire second season live, and by using the signature closing line "Baby, you're the greastest!" on at least one occasion.
  • The Honeymooners was spoofed in a 2000 episode of the sitcom The King of Queens. It figures into a series of dreams that Doug Heffernan (Kevin James) has while he is sick. After Doug sees The Honeymooners on TV at a bar, he daydreams himself in Ralph Kramden's role, and his wife Carrie (Leah Remini) steps in for Alice. Additionally, Ed Norton's role is filled by Deacon Palmer (Victor Williams). True to the original Honeymooners, the sequence was filmed in black-and-white and the audio quality (including the audience) matches a 50's style. Kevin James is a big fan of Jackie Gleason.
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Episodes

The "Classic 39" episodes are:

  1. "TV or Not TV"
  2. "Funny Money"
  3. "The Golfer"
  4. "A Woman's Work is Never Done"
  5. "A Matter of Life and Death"
  6. "The Sleepwalker"
  7. "Better Living Through TV"
  8. "Pal O' Mine"
  9. "Brother Ralph"
  10. "Hello, Mom"
  11. "The Deciding Vote"
  12. "Something Fishy"
  13. "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"
  14. "The Man from Space"
  15. "A Matter of Record"
  16. "Oh, My Aching Back"
  17. "The Babysitter"
  18. "The $99,000 Answer"
  19. "Ralph Kramden, Inc."
  20. "Young at Heart"
  21. "A Dog's Life"
  22. "Here Comes The Bride"
  23. "Mama Loves Mambo"
  24. "Please Leave the Premises"
  25. "Pardon My Glove"
  26. "Young Man with a Horn"
  27. "Head of the House"
  28. "The Worry Wart"
  29. "Trapped"
  30. "The Loudspeaker"
  31. "On Stage"
  32. "Opportunity Knocks"
  33. "Unconventional Behavior"
  34. "The Safety Award"
  35. "Mind Your Own Business"
  36. "Alice and the Blonde"
  37. "The Bensonhurst Bomber"
  38. "Dial J for Janitor"
  39. "A Man's Pride"
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Trivia

The instrumental theme song for The Honeymooners, "You're My Greatest Love", was composed by Gleason and performed by an orchestra led by Ray Bloch (who had previously served as orchestra leader on Gleason's variety show, as well as The Ed Sullivan Show). Sammy Spear, who later became Gleason's musical director, provided the arrangement.

Because of the popularity of The Honeymooners, and the fact that Ralph Kramden was a New York City bus driver, one of the terminals in Brooklyn was renamed The Jackie Gleason Bus Depot. All buses that originate from the bus depot bear a sticker on the front that has a logo which is derived from the 'face on the moon' opening credits.

A statue of Gleason, as Ralph Kramden, stands at the Eighth Avenue entrance to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.

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Memorable quotes

  • Ralph: Bang, zoom!
  • Ralph: You're going to the moon, Alice!
  • Ralph: Baby, you're the greatest.
  • Ed: Down in the sewer, we have this little saying: "When the tides of life turn against you and the current upsets your boat, don't waste your tears on what might have been; just lay on your back and float."
  • Ralph: One of these days...one of these days...POW, right in the kisser!
  • Ralph: Don't steam me, Alice, don't steam me! 'coz I'm already steamed!
  • Ralph: Hamana-hamana-hamana-hamana.
  • Ed: Sheesh. What a grouch!
  • Ralph: You're a riot, Alice, a regular riot.
  • Ralph: You... are a mental case.
  • Ralph: I wouldn't give you the satisfaction.
  • Ed: A sewer worker is like a brain surgeon—we're both specialists!
  • Ed: The first time I took the test for the sewer, I flunked. I couldn't even float.
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See also

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External links

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