"One of these days.one of these days.Pow! Right in the kisser!" - Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden
The Honeymooners "Classic 39" Episodes DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
The Honeymooners is one of the most influential television series of all time. Since its premiere in 1955, it has inspired shows as diverse as The Flintstones, The King of Queens, and even a series of Looney Tunes shorts. It may come as a surprise, then, to learn that the series we now consider a classic was actually a flop in its time, and that it ran for only one season.
It all started in 1951 when the struggling Dumont network hired plump comedian Jackie Gleason to host its variety show Cavalcade of Stars, the show's third new host in less than one year. Cavalcade was conceived in response to the success of Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theatre, and while its original host was a popular success, he was stolen by competitor NBC. His first replacement did not pan out, but Dumont struck gold with Gleason. The stock characters he helped to create, including playboy Reggie Van Gleason III, sadsack The Poor Soul, and Joe the Bartender, were extraordinarily accessible, and helped the show to attract an audience. One of the show's most popular recurring sketches was called "The Honeymooners."
Ratings on the show grew and grew, but Dumont's string of bad luck continued - in the fall of 1952, CBS lured Gleason away with a huge pay increase. Cash-poor Dumont could not make a comparable counter-offer, so they lost one of their biggest stars. (The network would fold altogether four years later). The Jackie Gleason Show premiered on CBS in September of 1952. This series featured the same characters and sensibilities as the Dumont series, but Gleason now had a much larger budget to work with. By the show's second season on CBS, it had cracked the top ten. In its third season, it was number two in the ratings. The rotund comic who had been hired to fight Mr. Television now delivered his deathblow when Berle's sponsor, Buick, dumped him in favor of Gleason in the fall of 1955.
By this time, sitcoms were wildly popular. I Love Lucy, for example, was heading into its fifth season. Since "The Honeymooners" sketches were audience favorites - many people tuned in simply to see them - Gleason decided to take advantage of the new sponsorship deal by abandoning the variety format and creating a "Honeymooners" sitcom instead. Like Lucy, his sitcom would be filmed (rather than performed live on television) so as to allow for reruns. The network and sponsor agreed, and The Honeymooners premiered on CBS on October 1, 1955.
Gleason plays Ralph Kramden, a blowhard bus driver who lives in a Brooklyn dive apartment with his long-suffering but snappy wife, Alice (Audrey Meadows). The Kramdens' upstairs neighbors are also their best friends. Ed Norton (Art Carney) is an oddball sewer worker and his wife Trixie (Joyce Randolph) is a former dancer. Together, the couples weather Ralph's inane get-rich-quick schemes, Norton's goofiness, and Ralph and Norton's sometimes archaic notions of male/female relationships.
The finely honed characters created by the cast and their writers are what make The Honeymooners such a classic series. Ralph is often a blustery bully, but just beneath the surface he is an insecure sentimentalist. Gleason perfectly captures the character's hot air-balloon-sized gruff personality, and is just as deft in portraying the simpering aftermath when one of the other characters inevitably wields a giant stickpin.
Ralph often says remarkably hateful things to Alice, but, oddly enough, it does not feel as sad or as hurtful as it does when Archie berates Edith on All in the Family. Several factors contribute to this. Ralph obviously loves Alice, and is not afraid to express it. He usually feels remorse after his tirades, unlike unrepentant Archie. More importantly, though, is that Alice is more than able to defend herself - and usually brings Ralph down a notch or two in the process.
One terrific episode that illustrates the nature of their relationship is "Young at Heart." After speaking to a lovelorn young girl who lives in the building, Alice yearns to recapture the early days of her courtship with Ralph by going to an amusement park where they will dance and roller skate. Ralph belittles her idea savagely, saying that they are too old and do not have the extra money - that part of their life is over now. Alice is hurt, but unbowed. A repentant Ralph enlists Norton's help to become the young guy Alice is longing for. Soon he is dressed in a ridiculous varsity sweater topped with a candy cane striped jacket and a boater hat, trying in vain to dance "The Hucklebuck." The contrast in Norton and Ralph's physical styles is played to great effect in the "Hucklebuck" sequence, with Norton shimmying like a noodle in boiling water and Ralph galumphing like a beached whale trying to get back to the ocean. Alice is delighted to learn that Ralph is willing to go roller skating. In another brilliant bit of physical comedy, an unsteady Ralph is forced to get coffee for the girls at the roller rink. Needless to say, Ralph's ample rump touches the floor more often than the wheels on his skates, and in the end they all agree that maybe they ARE too old for that kind of thing, but that they can still have fun as long as they are together.
Meadows plays Alice with steely good nature. Gleason famously turned her away after her first audition, saying that she was too pretty to play a housewife. Meadows hired a photographer to come to her apartment the next morning in order to snap photos of her wearing a torn housecoat immediately after she rolled out of bed. The ploy worked, and Gleason gave her the job. The story is a nice one, but there is no hiding her innate beauty and poise, no matter how raggedy Alice's housedresses may be. Still, this actually works in the show's favor. In a way, it is a testament to Alice's love for Ralph - she has obviously chosen Ralph (despite his flaws) because she loves him, rather than merely settling for him because she has no other prospects.
Carney's Ed Norton is the wacky neighbor/best friend against which all others must be judged. He instills the role with a twitchy weirdness that is a joy to behold. He is a gifted physical comedian, giving loose-limbed Norton the appearance of a rag doll come to life. His physical malleability is perfectly matched with Gleason's stiff yet graceful girth. Not many performers can turn signing a piece of paper into a comedic gem. He is also a master of delivery - try not to walk around saying "Hello, ball!" after watching him "address the ball" in episode three, "The Golfer."
Randolph's Trixie is given less to do than her cohorts, but the tremendously appealing performer makes the most of her role. Trixie's grounded personality helps us to accept Norton's flighty one.
The show had a hectic production schedule. Episodes were filmed before a live audience at the unheard of rate of two episodes per week. Amazingly, the quality of the series did not suffer at this breakneck pace. Gleason hated to rehearse - he feared that rehearsing would ruin the show's spontaneity. Of course the lack of rehearsal often meant that he and Carney forgot their lines and were then forced to make them up as they went along. Audrey Meadows said that sometimes when she was in a scene with Gleason and Carney, the two men would forget what came next in the script, so they developed a system in which she would give them visual hints. Ralph is supposed to get something out of the fridge but Gleason cannot remember? Meadows would simply glance at the fridge until he got the hint. In the excruciatingly funny "Something Fishy," Gleason calls Norton "Mr. Kramden" and the head of the boys' social club completely forgets his line. These little glitches add to the fun, and they cause the live audience to roar in appreciation.
It is incredible to hear the raucous responses of the studio audience throughout these episodes. Audiences at home, however, were less responsive to The Honeymooners. Part of the problem was that Gleason insisted that another variety show he produced, Stage Show starring the Dorsey brothers, serve as the lead in for his new sitcom. Stage Show did not attract an audience. Viewers tuned in to The Perry Como Show on NBC instead, and many simply did not change the channel to watch The Honeymooners on the half hour (maybe Como's smooth stylings put them to sleep). Gleason dropped from second in the ratings to number nineteen, and at the end of the season CBS and their star decided to cut their losses. The Honeymooners was cancelled.
The thirty-nine episodes that make up the single season of The Honeymooners are collected on five discs. (The seventy or so shows that make up what are commonly referred to as "The Lost Episodes" are actually compendiums of kinescopes culled from "Honeymooners" sketches performed on Gleason's variety shows. Those episodes have their charms, but these thirty-nine are the real deal). The discs are housed in slim, clear keepcases. Because the cases are clear, the double-sided coversheets show through to the inside of the case and are printed with episode titles, brief synopses, and original air dates. The backs of the cases feature the episode titles, episode numbers, and a still image from each of the episodes. The five keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve. This is an extremely well designed set that exudes classiness and an effortlessly cool, retro style. If only Paramount and CBS had seen fit to do the same with I Love Lucy: The Complete First Season.
The DVD menus are easy to navigate. Viewers simply choose which episode they wish to see. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there is no scene selection menu.
