Whether it's one of the classic 39 or one of the lost episodes, I always have a blast when I watch this show. It is one of the best shows ever to grace television. Everyone on the show was hilarious whether it was Ralph as the big mouthed, short tempered husband, Ed as the goofy upstairs neighbor or Alice and Trixie as the wives who always tried to keep them in line. It never fails to make me laugh out loud when I watch this show and I'd recommend it to anyone who needs a good laugh.
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jrm23july@aol.com3 January 2006Money! Money! Money! The accumulation of financial and social resources was the driving force behind this short lived but great comedy series.
The Honeymooners was the greatest program of television's golden age, better than "I Love Lucy", "Texaco Star Theater", and "Your Show of Shows" . I've seen "I Love Lucy" reruns many times and clips of the other two great programs, and "Jackie Gleason's "Honeymooners" a spin off from his classic variety series is still my favorite.
Gleason's ever popular character Ralph Kramden is one of life's lovable and colorful losers. He's always looking for that get- rich- quick scheme that will pull him as his loving wife Alice (Audrey Meadows) out of the doldrums of East Chauncey Street in Brooklyn, to the Penthouses on Park Avenue. He always means well for himself and his wife Alice, but does foolish things to make a bad situation for him and Alice worse.
During all of his foolish endeavors he recruits his 'ol Pal Norton, as kind of like an insurance policy to subliminally tell Alice, "Hey I wasn't the only fool who thought he could invent No-Cal pizza." Norton (Art Carney) is one goofy dude. He has like a sixth sense when it comes to A) Keeping friendships, B)Doing inappropriate things only to remind Ralph of some of these foolish get rich quick schemes,C)Creating problems for Ralph without knowing what he's doing and D) not saying inappropriate things when the friendship itself is at stake.
Among my favorite episodes when Ralph's get-rich-quick schemes nearly send him and Alice to the moon are "Funny Money", "Better Living Through TV", "Opportunity Knocks, But", "Dial J For Janitor", and the all time classic, "The $99,000 Answer" when Ralph things he's going to win a fortune on a game show. He practices learning music like a madman then falls flat on his face on National TV because he forgot to ask Norton a simple but important question relating to a music writer.
There are also other classic episodes like "TV or Not TV" where Ralph is too frugal to buy Alice a television set, then goes halves with Norton, and eventually becomes obsessed with television. Norton is hilarious during his "Captain Video" monologue.
In "Oh, My Aching Back", Ralph throws his back out bowling, and has to hide the sad fact from Alice that he might fail his employment physical because of it. Hiding Ralph's painful condition from Alice, Norton plays doctor and takes Ralph's temperature. "What's my temperature NORTON!!" exclaims Ralph. "A Hundred and Eleven!!" cries out Norton, not aware that if you put a cigarette lighter to the thermometer it raises the temperature.
In "Please Leave the Premisis", Ralph decides to play hardball with a greedy landlord, and winds up out in the cold. Ralph says he's being brave and defiant like General George Washington, and that there "will be no deserters is his army",meaning he, Alice and Norton have to remain in the cold without utilities. Unfortunately General Cornwallis wins this round over George Washington, and Martha convinces George to pay the rent increase.
Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney, and Joyce Randolph (as Norton's wife) had great chemistry together, as Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden really took us to the moon. -
policy13426 February 2012You can't argue with the majority here, who seems to love and revere this show.
Not only a precursor to the phenomenally popular animated series, the Flintstones, but also a major influence on later shows such as Married with Children and the Simpsons. I can't think of any other show at that time who had such a crass and antagonistic character, and yet he was the hero.
Say what you will about Jackie Gleason's later career but all comedy shows are indebted to him. If he hadn't been successful with this show, perhaps all shows on television would have been like Father Knows Best or even worse, like Full House.
The show itself can be a little tired and predictable for those who grew up after the 50s but at that time it must have been a totally mind-blowing experience.
I was introduced to Gleason as the Smokey in that particular film trilogy and I was somewhat surprised that he was actually from New York. He is just that good in that movie. But in this show he is sensational and it must have been a very stressful experience for his co-stars trying to keep up with him. From what I understand, the majority of the show was unrehearsed. You would never know. All the actors make it look so easy and of course the show could never have been what it is, if not for Art Carney. Although, he is extremely annoying at most times, Gleason was dependent on him to get laughs.
So, I will definitely say that this is not just a comedy show. This is a comedy show that all other comedy shows come from. -
schappe15 December 2003Jackie Gleason is one of the greatest talents in the history of American show business. His comic takes and blowhard act has produced so many professional and amateur imitators that none even has to question who or what you are imitating. Art Carney is one of America's greatest character actors. He created the greatest side-kick anyone ever had, a character with so many quirks you could probably build a show around him. Together they make one of the greatest comedy teams ever.
But what makes this work is Audrey Meadows as Alice. When the Honeymooners first began, Ralph's wife was played by Pert Kelton, a battle ax of an actress who is just the kind of wife Ralph Cramden would wind up with in real life. The original skits were really comic 'fly on the wall' looks at the arguments the loudest neighbors in the neighborhood keep having. They were amusing enough to keep the skits going but there wasn't enough of a counterpoint to Ralph. His battles with Alice resembled Ralph's later battles with Alice's mother, (which Kelton came back, more appropriately, to play in the 60's series).
When Gleason moved to CBS in 1952, Kelton was unavailable for health reasons and Gleason had to find a new Alice. Audrey Meadows, a glamour girl who worked with all the top comedians of television's golden era, decided she wanted the job. The now-famous story is that Jackie turned her down because he couldn't picture Meadows as Ralph Kramden's proletarian wife. Audrey had a friend photograph her in her kitchen just after she woke up and had the photo sent to Jackie, who immediately declared the woman in the picture to be 'his Alice' and demanded to know who the actress was. When he found out, Audrey had the job and 'The Honeymooners' became a TV classic.
Meadows offered something Kelton didn't: a CONTRAST to Ralph, rather than a fellow gladiator. She was not only attractive, (if not allowed to be glamorous), but she was intelligent and non-abrasive, even if she had the strength to stand up to Ralph and give as good as she got in the battles. More than that, it became obvious why Ralph was such a dreamer and a blowhard. How did a guy like him ever get a woman like Alice to love him and marry him?
He spends all his time either promoting himself and trying to be 'The King of the Castle' or scheming to become rich and important. It's the only way he knew to be big enough to deserve Alice. What he didn't know is that Alice offered him that rarity, unconditional love. Ralph didn't have to be a 'big man' to please her. He just had to be Ralph. He finds that out at the end of every episode but forgets it again in time for the next show, because if he didn't, they'd have no plot.
Strengthened by this theme, the writes got more and more ambitious and The Honeymooners did stories of increasingly greater length, eventually taking up the whole show. Ralph Cramden became Gleason's most popular character because he was so human. He had much more dimension that Reggie Van Gleason, The Poor Soul, Charley Bratton or Joe the Bartender, as entertaining as they were. This in turn, led to the Classic 39, which became the flagship for the series and kept 'The Honeymooners' alive for decades after most of the Golden Age of Television had faded from memory. -
classicsoncall13 February 2018I'll have to admit to something that's somewhat embarrassing as I recall watching 'The Honeymooners' when it first aired in 1955. It's rather amazing that I actually remember this, because I was only four years old at the time. Saturday night was bath night, and my Mom would place me in a large wash basin on the kitchen table so I could see the television in the living room. If memory serves correctly, the lead in to 'The Honeymooners' was a game show called 'Beat the Clock', but I could be all wet on that, as I would have been taking that bath.
Well if you're of a younger generation reading this and have never seen 'The Honeymooners', you owe it to yourself to sample some of those classic episodes. Jackie Gleason himself would be the first to admit that 'they're a riot Alice'. Gleason portrayed the show's lead character, Ralph Kramden, a driver for the Gotham Bus Company, and Alice was his wife, played by Audrey Meadows. Rounding out the principal cast were Art Carney as upstairs neighbor Ed Norton, and his wife Trixie, portrayed by Joyce Randolph. Besides the sheer humor of the show, it's also a great time capsule reminder of how life used to be in the mid-Fifties. The Kramdens and the Nortons lived in an apartment building in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn at 328 Chauncey Street. Ralph made sixty two dollars a week driving that city bus, while Alice took on a part time job baby sitting in one story for fifty cents an hour! The janitor of the apartment building made a hundred fifty dollars a month and got his rent thrown in for free, which was a big enough deal for Ralph to take on the job for a short while with hilarious results.
A lot of, if not most of the stories dealt with some big idea or get-rich-quick scheme Ralph came up with that always ended in disaster. He would compound his problems with an attitude of superiority and chauvinism that would generally lead to an embarrassing let down. His pal Norton would often supply the voice of reason, but even some of his ideas would backfire and the pair would have to come back the following week with an entirely new scheme. Through it all, the wives stood by their men through thick and thin, but not before getting in their own hilarious two cents worth.
If you're a long time fan of The Honeymooners, no doubt you'll recall such classic phrases as Ed Norton's 'Hello, ball', Ralph's 'Bang, Zoom' when confronting Alice, and his classic 'Homina, homina, homina' when words failed to come to mind in yet another, classic, embarrassing situation. It's that kind of stuff I remember that stayed with me all these years catching the show in re-runs and on disc. And every time Ralph had to put his tail between his legs, Alice would be there to lend support in such a way that Ralph would have to admit, "Baby, you're the greatest". -
dataconflossmoor11 July 2007What is wrong with Ralph Kramden? Objectively speaking, everything!! He is so faulted, why would anyone want to be his friend? Why would any woman want to be his wife? Originally starting off as a variety show skit, one of three on Jackie Gleason's comedy hour, it (the Honeymooners) undeniably became the favorite! The totally Brooklyn venue sort of explained everything! "One of these days Alice!! bang!!! zoom!!" this was a dubious form of humor!! The distinction that Jackie Gleason made was that without having a kid, and thus, there would not be an innocent child who was witnessing abuse, and also, Ralph never actually hitting Alice, the punchline (No pun intended) was fanny!! Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) was the culprit for the lion's share of calamity on this program!! The conclusion to every episode had Ralph seeking some sort of forgiveness from his beyond tolerant and loving wife, Alice!! At first, Audrey Meadows was not considered a suitable fit for the role of Alice Kramden, she was too glamorous and intelligent! Next day for rehearsal, she dressed herself down and got a little boisterous.. The cast and directors loved it, and more importantly, so did the television audience!! Art Carney, was the extremely likable buffoon, Ed Norton, who garnered a charismatic following with the live studio audience he was performing for, as well as anyone who watched "The Honeymooners"!! Carney was a favorite on "The Honeymooners" and contributed to the success of the series tremendously!! Joyce Randolph (Ed Norton's wife, Trixie) had more of a cameo appearance on the show, yet her typically New York disposition spiced the show up, and most episodes which she stared in were considered the better ones!! What was the most significant aspect to "The Honeymooners" was that it evoked a bittersweet end result of human error!! An avalanche of character discrepancies besieged Ralph Kramden's emotional resolve in almost every segment of "The Honeymooners" The most critical aspect to a humorous situation is when the resonating complications to a given situation are completely avoidable!! The peccant plight of Ralph Kramden was always neon accented on this program!! Mistakes are made because people are only human and they make them... Once mistakes are made, all there is really left to do is to laugh!! This is the definition of situation comedy and "The Honeymooners" perpetually depicted such inexcusably inevitable flaws with the Kramdens and the Nortons with a flippant reality!! Such outrageous human atrocities were portrayed far more astutely than perhaps any other of television's attempt at a situation comedy show made before or after "The Honeymooners" aired!! I loved "The Honeymooners", it has an identifiability which puts people's inadequacies in their proper perspectives. Living in a tenement, constantly bickering, making the wrong decisions about money, what little of it that you have, and basically, reducing your life to one big mess are ingredients for total catastrophe!! However, what this show points out time and time again is that all of the characters in this television show have the ability to laugh everything off!! All four of them are not phased by adversity, because they know that all of them love and care for one another!! This was the summon substance of what "The Honeymooners" was all about!! Perhaps the most effective comedy ever to be made... in a denotative sense, relating to situation comedies and their initial purpose for amusing people...without question!! "The Honeymooners" was the best comedy ever made!! The mercurial element to this show made it extremely plausible!! In terms of poignancy issues, and sharp and witty one liners, there are other shows that are better, by and large though, in all aspects of situation comedy, "The Honeymooners" is one of the top ten sitcoms in the history of television!!
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jc7442 September 2006I love the Honeymooners. I remember watching it on channel 11 with my mother long after I was supposed to be in bed. Some of the lines Ralph and Norton have are just hysterical. They know how to deliver them in a way to seem natural and funny. I know that some of it was ad lib and that is what makes it even better. These 2 actors could just come up with these lines and go back and forth with each other without any hesitation. The episodes with Alices mother are the best. I love it when Ralph starts yelling at her that she's a blabbermouth. My favorite episode of all is the Christmas episode. I love Ed's reaction to the pan under the icebox. I wish they would put this show back on but until then I will just have to watch them at my brothers house on DVD.
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DKosty12331 January 2007This is the series which established Gleason as the Greatest. It made Art Carney the best co-star. Audrey Meadows & Joyce Randolph were each good though Randolph got her job through connections to Gleason.
Many of the best moments of this show were the chemistry between Meadows & Gleason. Somehow, each brings out the best in the other. Every member of the cast except Gleason got an Emmy. TV Academy, if your listening, it is years too late but an Emmy for Gleason for this show would make for good awards ceremony viewing. It is very easy to come up with great moments Gleason did on this series.
Ralph Kramden, the bus driver, is always looking & scheming to get ahead & be somebody. Ed Norton, the sewer worker, is always a lame brained but willing helper. Alice Kramden is always struggling to understand Ralph & sometimes to try & fix his latest scheme which backfired again. Trixie Norton is Alice's true friend who always tries to console Alice, especially when Ed is involved in Ralph's latest problem.
When a viewer gets into this series enough, the cast not only delivers great comedy. but the comedy has a heart as well. With all the sketches that were done of this in the early 50's & the skits & special done by Gleason on his Saturday night TV show for CBS, it seemed like this show ran longer than it did.
These Dumont classic shows are the ones which are the classic's though the pilot from the early 50's with Pert Kelton instead of Audrey is interesting too. This show just makes you want to say Ralphie Boy!!! -
The Honeymooners was more than a good show, they were the reason TV was invented. All the other 50's (and some 60's shows) could not surpass the greatness of this sitcom about a couple (Ralph and Alice Kramden played by Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows) living in New York and they're weekley escapades, also including Ralph's friend Norton (Art Carney has never been better) and others. Though it only lasted 39 episodes (plus some lost ones), it is as legendary as the line "Bang zoom, straight to the moon". Entertaining and funny. A++
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Sylviastel1 January 2008Let's face it, there will never be a show like The Honeymooners with the great, Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph again. Gleason plays bus driver, Ralph Kramden, and Meadows plays his long-suffering, loving, and supportive wife, Alice. Carney is the dim-witted sewer neighbor and best friend with Randolph as his loving wife, Trixie. The episodes were always excellent and it is shown annually in a marathon on New Year's Day in the New York City area. I still think the writing, the acting, the comic genius timing of the cast, and the chemistry is what made it unforgettable. While it only lasted a season or two, even then network executives did not know the brilliance and canceled it after forty episodes maybe because of Gleason or whatever. The show is a brilliant legacy of New York City television in the golden age where shows were filmed in New York City. The Honeymooners will be forever immortal with DVD collections. For those of us, my father was one of the show's biggest fans and would watch it religiously at 11:30 every night. The channel stopped showing it at that time. It was replaced repeatedly with more colorized shows but the magic was gone. The Honeymooners will live forever in the hearts and minds of us who have grown up with it and were thrilled to find the lost episodes. This show is a classic because it has transcend time. It relates to the same problems as the working class of the 1950s for the 21st century. Even in Black and White, it's still gorgeous, unforgettable, timely, classic, and just brilliant comedy.
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wkozak2213 October 2021I used to like this series. Then I got tired. I tired of Ralph's screaming, jealousy, far fetched schemes, cheapness, etc. He never helped with upgrading his apartment. He constantly yelled at Alice and everyone else. I just got tired of it all.
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Mvpkinger12 June 2014The classic show "The Honeymooners" has influenced TV series from "The Flintstones," to "The King Of Queens." Jackie Gleason's larger-than-life size, larger-than-life personality, and loud expressions ("Bang! Zoom!"), carried the show, as lead character Ralph Kramden. Given the nickname "The Great One" by none other than Orson Welles, Jackie certainly deserved that title. His best friend Ed Norton, played by Art Carney, was the perfect best friend to suffer Ralph's temper tantrums, and come back for more. Speaking of suffering, his long-suffering wife Alice was played to perfection by Audrey Meadows. Nicely rounding out the quartet was Trixie Norton, Ed's understanding wife, played by Joyce Randolph. One of my favorite episodes was "Better Living Through TV," originally broadcast on November 12, 1955. That's the episode where Ralph does a live commercial as the Chef of the Future, with Ed as the Chef of the Past. Another favorite episode is "Alice and the Blonde," which was originally broadcast on June 2, 1956. Ralph comes home from work to find no dinner on the table, and Alice all dolled up. Alice: "I'll go fix my lipstick. I won't be gone long, Killer. I call you Killer, 'cause you slay me." Ralph: "And I'm calling Bellevue, 'cause you're nuts!" The timeless humor of all the episodes remain as fresh today, as when they were originally broadcast.
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lennybrown5 June 2018I have seen episodes occasionally through the years, at many different stages of my development. Ralph threatening Alice with his fist always made me cringe.
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Axiom-215 April 1999The Honeymooners is a classic comedy from the 1950s. There were only 39 original episodes made. But all 39 were classic gems. Jackie Gleason was hilarious as Ralph Kramden,the hard working, always complaining bus driver & husband of Alice (Audrey Meadows). They both worked very well together. The other couple in the show was Ed Norton (Art Carney) & Trixie Norton(Joyce Randolph). Art Carney was brilliant in this TV show, his personality & mannerisms are some of the funniest ever. A great actor. I don,t have one favorite episode that I can say is the best, they are all great. This is one of the best comedy shows ever made. The laser disc box sets of all 39 episodes are 2 of my best ones in my whole collection. A Must Have!!!
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Sigerson2129 October 2017Without question, the all-time "Rosetta Stone" of comedy and timing, television or otherwise. Every student of acting should immerse him or herself in "The Honeymooners" as should anyone interested in public speaking or performing in any way.Add to that anyone interested in being interesting. It is the essential master class in timing; on learning to hold a pause and on how to be genuinely funny. It has no equal.
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edwagreen9 December 2007Jackie Gleason, as Ralph Kramden, the typical American bus driver, was positively sensational in the part. Ralph was a dreamer. He wanted the American dream and although it eluded him throughout life, his ways of trying to obtain it were memorable.
Alice Kramden, wonderfully realized by Audrey Meadows, was the realistic partner in their marriage. Though Ralph threatened to send her to the moon on many occasions, their love endured.
Art Carney portrayed Ed Norton. With his portrayal, we could look into the average sewer worker in this metropolis.
Those Kramden-Norton schemes to attain the American dream were memorable. Life was so well depicted by these comedic geniuses, whether it be schemes to make money, mother-in-law trouble, landlord trouble, or whatever, The Honeymooners was certainly an American classic. -
redryan6419 January 2008Other 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. -
midnitepantera21 August 2021This show is Fantastic and it was over 10 years before I was born, but my family loved this show and I grew up watching it in re-runs.
Hilarious show, great comedic timing and the friendships (even though Ralphie Boy could be a turdy friend at times) makes it all Worth watching still in 2021. :D I love that Alice didn't take no Flack from Big Mouth Ralph, compared to the other shows I grew up watching where the woman did Everything the husband said. Glad I had Alice as a role model, cause I don't take no Flack from NO MAN EITHER! ;D.
Always loved Ralphs little silly dances, for a Big guy, he was surprisingly light and spry on his feet! ;D Still all relevant topics today. Watch IT! :D. -
MJP12345628 April 2020This is the classic show. Jackie Gleason is the best actor and Art Carney is hilarious! Show is amazing!!
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alexandercl-9957516 October 2021How can anyone not like or even love The Honeymooners? The ultimate classic gold standard sitcom during the golden years of television. Of course I'm one of those dreaded, brain dead clueless boomers who has no idea what comedy is all about. Well I beg to differ. Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows and Joyce Randolph were ground breakers back during the rabbit ears days. And many up and coming comedians could learn a lesson or two by viewing those priceless 39 episodes.. they might just learn something. The Honeymooners was and always will be the sitcom by which all others are judged.
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lugonian4 May 2002THE 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. -
jiffy-29 July 1999This is one of the greatest TV shows of all time. If you have never seen this, you're in for a real treat. Ralph (Jackie Gleason) is a bus driver for the Gotham Bus Company. He lives in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn with his long-suffering wife Alice (Audrey Meadows). His best pal is the sewer worker who lives upstairs, Ed Norton (Art Carney). Ralph is always scheming to make money. His ideas never work. The things I like best about this show is a) the writing -- introduced phrases that are now part of the American language ("To the moon, Alice!" b) the directing -- look what they did with three cameras that never moved! c) the acting, esp. the improvisation when gags failed -- remember, this was live TV! This show was the influence of the cartoon "The Flintstones", plus a couple of generations of every other TV sitcom.
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njpaul-0063319 April 2021Absolutely a 10 out of 10. 2nd greatest show ever produced after All In The Family. Pure hilarity (in Ralph's own words) Magnificent, funny a a joy to watch over 60 years later.
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njpaul-006333 May 2021Absolutely one of the greatest TV shows ever made after All in The Family. Pure classic comedy this show was. Brilliant.
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putahw-4099729 March 2021Not only was the writing superb, the Acting will never be topped. Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney together on the same show unfortunately we will never have that much talent in the same room again.