classicsoncall
I'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 ides 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".
Fred
Dear Honeymooners fans: I am a student of the Classic 39, and I have researched the names of the actors and actresses who played in all episodes, but I cannot find the name of the actress who played Rita Wedemeyer, Bert's lovely and vivacious wife. Frank Behrens played Bert, and he is the only one listed on IMDb's episode-by-episode breakdown of the Classic 39 for that particular episode, which is called Ralph and the Blonde.I am guessing that the actress who played Rita was about 25 at the time that episode was filmed in 1955, which would make her about 75 today.Can anybody find out? Thanks.
Mike_Tee_Vee
The Honeymooners (1955-1956) was a short television series that aired fortwo seasons during the mid-fifties (but the show cranked out a lot ofepisodes). Jackie Gleason shot this episodes on the fly with very little orno rehearsal time for the actors involved. Jackie Gleason was the star. Heplayed a big blowhard bus driver named Ralph Cramden. AudreyMeadows co-starred as his wife. She was a head strong housewife andcould easily see through Ralph's "tough guy" act and ignored his verbalthreats and brutish mannerisms. They made the perfect married couple. Art Carney also starred as Norton, a lanky goof who usual irk Ralphcausing him to usually blow his top. Joyce Randolph played Norton'sbetter half.The show was very innovative. Many sit-coms that debuted after thisshow used a lot of techniques that Jackie Gleason used when he made thisshow. Basically it was a cookie cutter show. Gleason made it whilst manyother television producers used it to crank out different variations of theHoneymooners. The Flintstones was loosely adapted from this show. Years later Gleason revived the Honeymooners but it was never the same. Gleason could never recapture the magic he once had when he first launchedThe Honeymooners!I'm Mike Tee Vee, talk to you next time!
