THE SHOW
| The Honeymooners is now considered one of the greatest television shows ever to go on the air. The Honeymooners was originally created as a sketch idea to be included on the Cavalcade of Stars, a popular variety show on the small, now defunct DuMont television station. In late 1950 nightclub and Broadway comedian Jackie Gleason became the regular host of the Cavalcade of Stars. After a few shows, Gleason created a new sketch idea and a new character for himself. His idea, which was augmented by the Cavalcade writers and better developed over time, revolved around a working class couple in Brooklyn. The first Honeymooners sketch lasted less than five minutes, and many of the subsequent ones were not much longer, but the down-to-earth situations and everyman characters touched a chord in the American people, and The Honeymooners became popular. People understood and empathized with the big-mouthed bus driver Ralph Kramden, his level-headed wife Alice, and their friends and neighbors, the Nortons. Gleason left the Cavalcade of Stars in 1952 and moved with the Honeymooners to his own show, The Jackie Gleason Show, on CBS. Art Carney and Joyce Randolph, who played Ed and Trixie Norton, moved with Gleason to the new show. Pert Kelton, the original Alice, did not and was replaced by New York actress Audrey Meadows. The Honeymooners continued to grow in popularity, and the sketches became longer. The Honeymooners became so popular that after four years as a sketch within a show, CBS decided to make it a show of its own. Thirty-nine classic episodes were made of The Honeymooners during the 1955-56 season. The Honeymooners used the same principal cast, but the filming was not shown live as it was on The Jackie Gleason Show (though it was still filmed in front of an audience). The characters, too, were always the same except for slight variations over the years. Even with this, though, The Honeymooners suffered in the ratings, which was due in a large part to its scheduling, and Gleason broke his contract for another season of the Honeymooners. Instead he opted to return to his highly popular variety format of The Jackie Gleason Show. The Honeymooners show was off the air, but regular Honeymooners sketches continued on The Jackie Gleason Show off and on until 1970, with the cast occasionally changing. Throughout the seventies infrequent Honeymooners specials were broadcast. Soon after the finish of the classic thirty-nine episodes in 1956, Gleason, who owned the rights to the thirty-nine episodes, sold them to CBS, who before long had them syndicated. Honeymooners' re-runs have remained popular since then. In 1985 Gleason released the so-called "lost episodes", the Honeymooners sketches originally performed on The Jackie Gleason Show. These newly syndicated episodes, added to the classic thirty-nine, only served to heighten the popularity of this great show and to ensure the legacy of The Honeymooners, which is continuing strong to this day. |
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THE CAST
| Jackie Gleason, the crux of the show, was superb in his portrayal of working man Ralph Kramden, the poor bus driver always scheming to better himself and inevitably failing. Gleason was born on February 16, 1916 into an Irish-Catholic family living in Brooklyn surroundings not much different from those portrayed in the Honeymooners. After a substantial, but not extremely rewarding career as a comedian, he hit it big on television in the early fifties. He soon became famous for all the characters created on his show, like Reginald Van Gleason III and the Poor Soul, but his most popular character was and was to remain Ralph Kramden. The cast and crew of his show knew him to be quick on his feet, agile (especially for his size), and possessing a distinct dislike of rehearsals, which he firmly believed killed spontaneity. Besides having an extremely successful television career, Gleason was also in several well-known films, such as The Hustler, Gigot, Requiem for a Heavyweight, and Smokey and the Bandit. He died in 1987 at his home in Lauderhill, Florida. |
| William Matthew Carney, better known as Art Carney, was born on November 4, 1918 in Mount Vernon, New York. Carney, who was perfectly cast as Ralph's friend Norton on the Honeymooners, started his career in the thirties as a comedian and dancer, best known for his creative characters, impersonations, and different dialects. He worked with moderate success in nightclubs and on the stage and radio. He made his first break into television on The Morey Amsterdam Show, where he was best known for his character Newton the Waitor. While a regular on the Morey Amsterdam Show, Carney was given the part of a reporter on the Cavalcade of Stars' first Reggie Van Gleason III sketch. He worked well with Cavalcade star Jackie Gleason, and new parts were written for him in subsequent shows. Soon he was a regular face on the Cavalcade of Stars playing such characters as Reggie Van Gleason's father and Ed Norton. He continued his popular character of Norton on The Jackie Gleason Show and on The Honeymooners for CBS, eventually winning five Emmys for his portrayal of the goofy subterranean sanitation worker. Besides the role of Norton, Carney had several successful roles, many of them dramatic, on other television shows, in movies, and on the stage. In 1965 he was very successful in originating the part of Felix Unger in the Broadway play, The Odd Couple. In 1974 he won an Academy Award for Best Actor in the movie Harry and Tonto. More recently, he appeared in the 1994 movie, Last Action Hero. He died in November 2003 at the age of 85 after a long illness. |
| Audrey Meadows, the most popular of The Honeymooners' Alices, was born in Wuchang, China on February 8, 1926 into a family of Episcolpalian missionaries. She started her show business career as an opera soprano, but soon realized that was not for her. She moved on to musical comedies and nightclub acts. She was in several Broadway plays as well as some touring ones. In the early fifties she landed the part as a regular on Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding's fifteen minute nightly television show on NBC. In 1952, while on Broadway in Top Banana with Phil Silvers, Meadows got the part of Alice Kramden on The Jackie Gleason Show. At first Gleason rejected her for the part because she was too young and pretty. But Meadows was very determined, and she hired a photographer to take shots of her dressed up as a dowdy housewife. This convinced Gleason, and the part was hers. She continued as Alice for many years, but was replaced in the mid-sixties by Sheila MacRae because Meadows had gotten married and retired from regular television. She did, however, appear as Alice on the Honeymooners' reunion specials in the seventies. Besides her television work, she had worked in several movies such as That Touch of Mink and Take Her, She's Mine. She died in 1996 from lung cancer. |
| Joyce Randolph, born Joyce Sirola on October 21, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan, is best known for her role as Norton's wife and Alice's best friend Trixie on The Honeymooners. Early in her acting career she worked on Broadway and in plays touring the country. Most of these plays were musicals. In the beginning of the fifties, she was cast in several different television shows such as the Colgate Comedy Hour, where she worked with many of the acting world's elite of the time. In 1951 she got a part in a dramatic sketch on the Cavalcade of Stars. She had gotten the part because her roommate was the girlfriend of one of the producers of the show. Gleason liked her well enough in the skit that he had her hired to play Trixie in the Honeymooners. Gleason had tried Elaine Stritch in the role, but did not like her. He was more satisfied with Randolph. She remained as Trixie until being replaced in the sixties by Jane Kean. |
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THE EPISODES
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| Search for The Honeymooners at eBay. Among the things that can often be found there are: Honeymooners books, memorabilia, videos, and even comic books, as well as autographs, photographs, books, movies and various other things, all on or with members of the Honeymooners cast (especially Jackie Gleason). |
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