Of course "The Honeymooners" is one of the greatest TV shows of all time, and the skits before and after "the classic 39" on Jackie Gleason's various TV shows are just as good. Many don't even realize that the Honeymooners had versions in the '60s and '70s.
With this, "The Honeymooners Christmas Special" or whatever the proper name is, the era finally ends on a decent note.
The first thing about this Christmas special is that it pretty much has nothing to do with Christmas. You see some gifts and some decorations, but even a Christmas tree that appears at the start disappears quickly. There's really no mention of Christmas again.
The plot is kind of silly even for the Honeymooners, where Ralph buys a lot of lottery tickets (and with money that isn't his) because of something a gypsy woman told him. Now Ralph has always been a bit naive concerning getting into get-rich-quick schemes, but this one seems a little weak.
There are some decent laughs though, even if nothing outstanding. Ralph is still a bus driver (with that lame mustache now) and Norton is still a sewer worker, and still wearing his hat and vest. Audrey Meadows is Alice again, but her hair is seriously dated even for 1977, and there is no Joyce Randolph as Trixie which is a disappointment; Jean Kane instead takes the role. She's very pretty though especially towards the end.
It is curious how everything is the same, because if you go back to the early fifties, Ralph and Norton have been at the same jobs for almost thirty years, and the apartment still has appliances from the 1940s. I know the audience (taped in Atlantic City) wants to see the familiar stuff, but this kind of emphasizes what losers these guys must be, and who wants to think that?
Given that this was the final original show with the cast in action as their characters (anything after this was a clip show or anniversary show), it would have been nice for a few old school Gleason cast members to appear, who have been in seemingly countless Honeymooners shows and sketches like George Petrie and Frank Marth (you may not know the names but you know who they are).
One curious thing is that a few jokes are in there that are definitely of the times. Like, when the gang is making plans to eat at the Hong Kong Gardens, Trixie, mimicking a Chinese person, says "Ah, so!"
Another funny joke is how Ralph is caught by Alice's mother rubbing Norton's back (to get him to fall asleep) and singing to him, and his mother-in-law looks with disapproval and says she's going to call Anita Bryant. Anita of course hooked up with a coalition called "Save Our Children" (against homosexuality) and was a very vocal leader for it.
One thing missing was an abundance of fat jokes, which Gleason was never shy about doing, but seeing how Art Carney was pretty much about Gleason's size at this point, fat jokes wouldn't serve much of a purpose. Carney however, like the old days, gets the biggest laughs and is as pro as ever.
We do get to see the final curtain call after the show, one final introduction to the actors.
So really, this is an ok special although it would have been great for the characters to have actually celebrated Christmas and with a better script. Definitely good for some laughs though.
