The Honeymooners
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| The Honeymooners | |
|---|---|
| Image:The Honeymooners title screen.png The Honeymooners Title Screen </small> | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Running time | 30 minutes (including commercials) |
| Creator(s) | Jackie Gleason |
| Starring | Jackie Gleason Art Carney Audrey Meadows Joyce Randolph |
| Country of origin | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | October 1, 1955–September 22, 1956 |
| No. of episodes | 39 |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
- For the film, see The Honeymooners (2005 film).
The Honeymooners was an American situation comedy produced by Jackie Gleason Enterprises Inc. Productions for CBS from 1955–56. It was based on characters developed by Jackie Gleason in 1951 and popularized in a series of sketches first performed on the successful variety show Cavalcade of Stars. The show was set in the Bensonhurst, Brooklyn apartment of Ralph Kramden (Gleason) and his wife Alice (Audrey Meadows), a struggling working class couple. The show also featured upstairs neighbors Ed Norton (Art Carney) and his wife Trixie (Joyce Randolph).
The Honeymooners debuted on October 1, 1955. Although initially a ratings success (it was the #2 show in the United States), it faced stiff competition from the popular Perry Como Show. It dropped to #19, and was canceled after just 39 episodes (now referred to as the "Classic 39").<ref name="review">Boudreaux, Jonathan (November 12, 2003). The Honeymooners "Classic 39" Episodes DVD Review. tvdvdreviews.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-25.</ref> The final show aired on September 22, 1956. Gleason revived The Honeymooners as a sketch in his variety shows, most notably as part of a 1966–70 version of The Jackie Gleason Show.
Despite its relatively brief run, The Honeymooners is considered one of the premier examples of American television comedy. It has been referenced in numerous homages and parodies, and has inspired successful television comedies such as The Flintstones and The King of Queens.<ref name="flintstones1">The Flintstones Frequently Asked Questions List. Retrieved on 2006-11-25.</ref><ref name="king">The King of Queens - About the Show. Retrieved on 2006-11-25.</ref> A film remake starring Cedric the Entertainer was released in 2005. In 2002, The Honeymooners was listed at #3 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
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[edit] Cast
The majority of The Honeymooners focused on its four principal characters, although various secondary characters made multiple appearances.
- Ralph Kramden, played by Jackie Gleason, is a bus driver for the fictional Gotham Bus Company. He is never seen driving a bus (except in publicity photos), but is shown multiple times at the bus depot. Ralph is frustrated by his lack of success, and often develops schemes designed to earn him and his wife a quick fortune. Ralph frequently resorts to insults and hollow threats of physical violence.
- Alice Kramden, played by Audrey Meadows, is Ralph's patient and quick-witted wife of approximately fourteen years. Alice often finds herself bearing the brunt of Ralph's insults, but she usually returns them in equal measure.
- Edward "Ed" Norton, played by Art Carney, is a New York City sewer worker and Ralph's best friend. He is considerably more good-natured than Ralph, but nonetheless finds himself trading insults with him on a regular basis. Ed (typically called "Norton" by Ralph) often gets mixed up in Ralph's schemes, and his carefree nature usually results in raising Ralph's ire. Ed and Ralph are both members of the fictional Raccoon Lodge.
- Thelma "Trixie" Norton, played by Joyce Randolph, is Ed's caring wife and Alice's best friend. Like Ed and Alice, Trixie trades insults with Ralph on a regular basis.
Some of the actors that appeared multiple times on the show include Frank Marth, Eddie Hanley, Les Damon, John Gibson, Cliff Hall, and George Petrie.<ref name="characters">Full Cast and Crew for "The Honeymooners". Retrieved on 2006-11-27.</ref>
[edit] History
[edit] Origins
In July 1950, Jackie Gleason took over as the host of Cavalcade of Stars, a variety show that aired on the DuMont Television Network. The show became a huge success under Gleason, due in part to the colorful array of characters that he invented. The most popular of these was Ralph Kramden, a blustery bus driver from Brooklyn. Kramden made his debut on October 5, 1951, as part of a six-minute sketch called "The Honeymooners."<ref name="museum">Simon, Ron. The Honeymooners. The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved on 2006-11-25.</ref>
"The Honeymooners" portrayed the marital combat between Ralph and his acerbic wife, Alice (played by veteran comedy movie actress Pert Kelton). Gleason insisted that the sketches show realistic arguments, otherwise the audience would not find them credible.<ref name="companion">The Honeymooners' Companion – The Kramdens and the Nortons Revisited. McCrohan, Donna 1978, Workman Publishing, New York.</ref> The tone of these early sketches was much darker than the later series, with Ralph exhibiting extreme bitterness and frustration with his marriage to an equally bitter and argumentative middle-aged woman (Kelton was nine years older than Gleason). The Kramdens' financial struggles mirrored those of Gleason's early life in Brooklyn, and he took pains to duplicate on set the interior of the apartment where he grew up (right down to his boyhood address of 358 Chauncey Street).<ref name="museum" />
Early additions to the cast of later Cavalcade sketches were upstairs neighbors Ed and Trixie Norton. Ed (played by Art Carney, who had a cameo as a policeman in the first sketch) was Ralph's best friend, although his innocent and clueless nature was the source of many arguments between the two. Trixie was portrayed by Elaine Stritch, but was replaced by Joyce Randolph after just one appearance. Just as Alice acted as a foil for Ralph, so did Trixie for Ed.<ref name="museum" /><ref name="bbc">Lewisohn, Mark. "BBC Guide to Comedy - The Honeymooners". BBC. Retrieved on 2006-11-25.</ref>
[edit] Move to CBS
In 1952, CBS president William S. Paley convinced Gleason to leave the struggling DuMont Network and bring his show to CBS. The cast of the newly retitled Jackie Gleason Show embarked on a highly successful promotional tour across the United States, performing a variety of musical numbers and sketches (including the popular "Honeymooners" series). Kelton, suffering from heart problems and the stress of being placed on the Red Channels blacklist, was replaced on the tour by Gingr Jones (sic).<ref name="bbc" />
By the time the show debuted, Audrey Meadows had permanently replaced the blacklisted Kelton as Alice Kramden. Before receiving the role, Meadows had to overcome Gleason's reservations about her being too attractive to make a credible Alice. According to legend, she hired a photographer to come to her apartment early in the morning and take pictures of her with no make-up on, wearing a torn housecoat, and with her hair undone.<ref name="review" /> When the pictures were delivered to Gleason, he looked at them and said, "THIS is the woman, THIS is Alice." When it was explained to him who it was, he was reported to have said, "Any dame who has a sense of humor like that deserves the part." With Meadows on board, the classic lineup of Gleason, Carney, Meadows, and Randolph was in place.
By 1955, the "Honeymooners" sketches were so popular that CBS offered Gleason one of the largest contracts in show business history to produce a separate half-hour show around the characters, also to be called The Honeymooners.<ref name="museum" /> The first episode of the new half-hour series aired Saturday, October 1, 1955, at 8:30 pm (during prime time). It aired opposite Ozark Jubilee on ABC and The Perry Como Show on NBC. The show, as with many others of the era, was sponsored by a single company: Buick (having dropped their sponsorship of The Milton Berle Show earlier in the year). The opening credits ended with a Buick advertisement ("Brought to you by your Buick dealer. And away we go!"), and the show concluded with a brief Gleason sales pitch for Buick. All references to the car-maker were removed when the show entered syndication.<ref name="review" />
In February 1956, the show was moved to the 8 pm time slot, but had already started to lose viewers to the hugely popular Perry Como Show. Gleason's writers had also begun to feel confined by the restrictive half-hour format, and Gleason felt that they were starting to run out of original ideas. Gleason and CBS agreed to cancel The Honeymooners, which aired its 39th and last original episode on September 22, 1956. Gleason subsequently sold the films of the "Classic 39" episodes of the show to CBS for $USD 1.5 million.<ref name="museum" />
[edit] Revivals
When Gleason revived The Jackie Gleason Show for the 1956–57 season, the "Honeymooners" sketches were brought back as well. When Art Carney left the show in 1957, the sketches ceased production. In 1962, Gleason's variety show returned as Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine. The "Honeymooners" sketches returned as well, whenever Carney was available. Audrey Meadows and Joyce Randolph were replaced as Alice and Trixie by Sue Ane Langdon and Patricia Wilson, respectively.<ref name="museum" /><ref name="bbc" />
In January 1966, Meadows returned as Alice for a musical special entitled The Honeymooners: The Adoption, a re-enactment of a 1955 sketch of the same name. When The Jackie Gleason Show returned in 1966, the "Honeymooners" sketches (now in color for the first time) returned as a series of elaborate musicals. The sketches, some of which took the entire hour, followed a story arc that had the Kramdens and Nortons traveling across Europe after Ralph won a contest. The Color Honeymooners, as it has since become known, featured Sheila MacRae and Jane Kean in the roles of Alice and Trixie, respectively. One notable 1967 segment featured the return of Pert Kelton, this time playing Alice's mother, Mrs. Gibson.<ref name="museum" /><ref name="bbc" />
The "Honeymooners" series ended again when The Jackie Gleason Show was canceled in 1970. It was brought back for four one-hour specials (including one Valentine's Day and two Christmas shows) on ABC, which aired from 1976–78. Alongside Gleason and Carney, Meadows returned as Alice, while Jane Kean continued to play Trixie. These four specials are the final original "Honeymooners" productions.<ref name="bbc" />
[edit] Production
All 39 episodes of The Honeymooners were filmed at the Adelphi Theater in New York City, in front of a live audience of 1,000. Episodes were never fully rehearsed, as Gleason felt that rehearsals would rob the show of its spontaneity. The result was that while the cast was able to bring a fresh approach to the material, mistakes were often made. Lines were either recited incorrectly or forgotten altogether. To compensate, the cast developed visual cues for each other: Gleason patted his stomach when he forgot a line, while Meadows would glance at the refrigerator when someone else was supposed to retrieve something from it.<ref name="review" /><ref name="classic">"Classic TV At Its Best". Retrieved on 2006-11-26.</ref>
In contrast to other popular comedies of the era (such as Father Knows Best, I Love Lucy, Leave It to Beaver, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet), which depicted their characters in comfortable, middle class suburban environments, the set design for The Honeymooners reflected the blue collar existence of its characters. The Kramdens' apartment, in particular, was sparsely furnished: the main set was a kitchen, which consisted of a functional table and chairs, a curtain-less window (with a view of a fire escape) and an outdated icebox.<ref name="museum" /><ref name="bbc" />
In 1955, most television shows were performed live and recorded using kinescope technology. One notable exception was I Love Lucy, which was recorded directly onto 35 mm film. For The Honeymooners, Gleason utilized the Electronicam TV-film system, devised by DuMont in the early 1950s. As a result of the superior picture and sound quality afforded by the Electronicam system, episodes of The Honeymooners were much more suitable for rebroadcast than were other shows of the era.<ref name="museum" /><ref name="bbc" />
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.<ref name="music">"Jackie Gleason". Retrieved on 2006-11-30.</ref>
[edit] Syndication and home video
The Honeymooners gained its greatest fame in syndication, where it has aired almost continually since its cancellation. New York's WPIX-TV has aired The Honeymooners nightly for more than two decades, with occasional breaks.<ref name="museum" /> BBC2 aired 38 of the original 39 episodes beginning in 1989 and ending in 1991.<ref name="bbc" /> All 39 episodes were released on DVD in 2003 as part of a set entitled The Honeymooners – "Classic 39" Episodes.
In 1984, the Museum of Broadcast Communications announced the discovery of four original Honeymooners sketches from the original The Jackie Gleason Show. When they later held a public viewing for three of them, the response was overwhelmingly positive. In January 1985, Gleason announced the release of an additional group of lost episodes from his private vault. As with the previously released sketches, these "lost episodes" were actually kinescopes of sketches from the 1952–55 run of The Jackie Gleason Show.<ref name="times">Kaplan, Peter W. (26 January, 1985). "75 'Honeymooners' Episodes Found". The New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-11-26.</ref>
Gleason sold the rights to the lost episodes to Viacom, and they were first aired from 1985–86 as a series of 68 22-minute episodes on the Showtime cable network. They have since joined the original 39 episodes in syndication, and have also been released on VHS and DVD.<ref name="times" /> In September 2004, another "lost" episode was reported discovered at the Peabody Award archives in Georgia. This episode, "Love Letter," originally aired on The Jackie Gleason Show on October 16, 1954.<ref name="letter">"'Lost' episode of 'Honeymooners' uncovered. Retrieved on 2006-11-26.</ref> It aired for the first time since then on October 16, 2004, on TV Land.
[edit] Impact and legacy
Due to its enduring popularity, The Honeymooners has been referenced numerous times in American pop culture, and has also served as the inspiration behind other television shows. The show also introduced memorable catchphrases into American culture, such as "Bang, zoom, straight to the moon!", "One of these days...one of these days...POW, right in the kisser!" and "Baby, you're the greatest."
- 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. Co-creator William Hanna has stated that The Honeymooners was used as a basis for the concept of The Flintstones. Mel Blanc, the voice of Barney Rubble, was asked to model Barney's voice after Ed Norton, but reportedly refused. Jackie Gleason later said that he had thought about suing, but decided not to as he did not want to be the person responsible for having the show pulled off the air.<ref name="flintstones1" /><ref name="flintstones2">The Flintstones Frequently Asked Questions List. Retrieved on 2006-11-25.</ref>
- The sitcom King of Queens was inspired partly by The Honeymooners.<ref name="king" /> In a 2001 episode of the show ("Inner Tube"), Doug Heffernan (played by Kevin James) dreams that he is Ralph Kramden and his friend Deacon Palmer (played by Victor Williams) is Ed Norton. The sequence was filmed in black-and-white and the audio quality (including the audience) matches a '50s style.
- The show was parodied in a series of animated Warner Bros. shorts, in which the principal characters are depicted as mice and Ralph's "big dream" is to get enough cheese to impress Alice. 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". In one 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 — Granny (June Foray) hollered, "One of these days...one of these days...Pow! Right in the kisser!"
- As Ralph Kramden was a New York City bus driver, one of the service depots in Brooklyn was renamed the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot in 1988. All buses that originate from the bus depot bear a sticker on the front that has a logo derived from the 'face on the moon' opening credits of The Honeymooners. The MTA also took 1948 GM-TDH5101 bus number 4789, renumbered it to 2969 and made it the 'official Jackie Gleason bus'.
- A statue of Gleason as Ralph Kramden stands at the Eighth Avenue entrance to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. The plaque on the base of the statue reads, "Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden - Bus Driver - Raccoon Lodge Treasurer - Dreamer - Presented by the People of TV Land"<ref name="statue">"Ralph Kramden Statue". Retrieved on 2006-11-30.</ref>
- Comedian Eddie Murphy impersonated Ralph in an infamous stand-up routine depicting Kramden and Norton as gay lovers as part of his 1983 concert film Eddie Murphy Delirious.
- An episode ("A Trip To The Moon") of the 1980s detective spoof Moonlighting, features lead characters David Addison, Maddie Hayes, Agnes Dipesto, and Richard Addison performing a Honeymooners re-creation.
- Comedian Joe Piscopo released a song entitled "Honeymooners Rap" in 1985, in which he impersonated Ralph Kramden while Eddie Murphy supplied the voice for Ed Norton.
- The Honeymooners was spoofed in an episode of Perfect Strangers as a result of the character Balki Bartoukomos (Bronson Pinchot) spinning an extended metaphor about the characters' situation to an episode of The Honeymooners he had once seen; Balki's description of the episode is shown in a black-and-white flashback. Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) portrayed Ralph Kramden and Balki portrayed Ed Norton (retaining his foreign accent in the role).
- The animated television show Futurama features an episode ("The Series Has Landed") where the main character Fry (Billy West) witnesses the future's interpretation of The Honeymooners. "Bang, zoom, straight to the moon!" was thought of as an early occurrence of man's desire to travel to space. Fry correctly notes that the quote was actually an allegory for domestic violence. In the episode "Spanish Fry", one of the aliens also refers to the catchphrase: "One of these days... Bang, zoom, straight to the third moon of Omicron Persei 8!".
- The 1985 film Back to the Future features a scene, set in 1955, where the family of Lorraine Baines is watching an episode of The Honeymooners entitled "The Man from Space". This is technically an anachronism, however, as the scene takes place in November, while that episode did not air until December 31.
- Louis CK has stated in an interview that he based the layout of Louie's apartment in Lucky Louie on the Kramdens' apartment, in contrast to other shows like The King of Queens that have very nicely decorated apartments on low incomes.<ref name="ck">Hagan, Joe (January 21, 2006). "HBO tries to revive the sitcom. But can foul-mouthed Louis C.K. thrive in a feel-good genre?". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2006-11-26.</ref>
The success of The Honeymooners in countries outside the United States has led to the production of new shows based entirely on it. In 1994, the Dutch broadcasting network KRO produced a version of The Honeymooners entitled Toen Was Geluk Heel Gewoon ([Back] then was happiness very ordinary), using translated scripts of the original series but changing its setting to 1950s Rotterdam. After the original 39 scripts were exhausted, 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.<ref name="dutch">"KRO Produces A Dutch Version of The Honeymooners". Retrieved on 2006-11-26.</ref> In 1998, the Polish network Polsat produced a version of The Honeymooners entitled Miodowe lata, using both translated scripts of the original series and new ones, but changing its setting to modern-day Warsaw. The original series ran until 2003 and was continued in 2004 as Całkiem nowe lata miodowe.<ref name="polish">Meils, Cathy (October 26, 1998). "'Honeymooners' intro'd by Polsat". Variety.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-26.</ref>
On June 10, 2005, a feature film remake of The Honeymooners was released, featuring a predominantly African American cast. The roles of Ralph, Alice, Ed, and Trixie were played by Cedric the Entertainer, Gabrielle Union, Mike Epps, and Regina Hall, respectively. The movie was a critical and commercial failure, earning slightly more than USD$ 13 million worldwide.<ref name="movie">The Honeymooners at boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-26.</ref>
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Additional reading
- Katsigeorgis, John (2002). To The Moon: The Honeymooners Book of Trivia - Official Authorized Edition. Metrobooks. ISBN 1-5866-3694-4.
- McCrohan, Donna (1978). The Honeymooners' Companion – The Kramdens and the Nortons Revisited. Workman Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8948-0022-1.
- McCrohan, Donna and Peter Crescenti (1986). The Honeymooners Lost Episodes. Workman Publishing. ISBN 0-8948-0157-0.
- Meadows, Audrey (1994). Love, Alice: My Life as a Honeymooner. Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-5175-9881-7.
[edit] References
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