The Honeymooners Classic 39 Episodes
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: B- Episodes: A
Rivaled only by I Love Lucy, no television series
of the 1950s was greater than The Honeymooners. While Lucille Ball’s show began on radio,
Jackie Gleason’s classic began as a series of skits on his own TV variety
show. DuMont, a television network that
did not survive NBC and CBS, reached their peak by default with the show. Live TV was being succeeded by shows recorded
on film, kinescopes, and the new technology of videotape. The only 39 shows that were shot on film were
the same ones that circulated for decades before the older skits were
syndicated in a then-new concept that has been played out in recent years: the Lost
Episodes.
You have The Kramdens and The Nortons. Ralph Kramden (Gleason) is a bus driver,
while Ed Norton (Art Carney) works the city’s sewers. That leaves Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows)
and Trixie Norton (Joyce Randolph) as the housewives who have to pick up the
pieces in all the nuttiness they have to face.
However, these 39 half-hours are what made the show a
legend and kept it alive for generations of fans. This nicely designed boxed set from Paramount
contains all the shows (and a few extras) on 5 DVDs in the new half-centimeter
type cases that are catching on in the DVD market. The artwork is fun, something we do not
always see on DVD. The episodes (with
highlights) are as follows:
TV or Not TV – Can Ralph survive Norton and
Captain Video?
Funny Money – Should Ralph really spend
money in a suitcase he found?
The Golfer – Can Ralph learn a game he
never played in a day?
A Woman’s Work is Never Done – Can
the Kramden’s afford a maid?
A Matter Of Life & Death – Ralph
tries cashing in on a disease he might NOT have.
The Sleepwalker – Ed becomes the title
subject. Can the spell be broken?
Better Living Through TV – Ralph & Ed do an
early infomercial!
Pal O’ Mine – The original
ring-stuck-on-the-finger show.
Brother Ralph – Alice goes to work and tries
to not make Ralph feel bad about it.
Hello, Mom – Ralph despises his
mother-in-law enough to stay with the Nortons.
The Deciding Vote – Ralph & Ed battle over a
lodge vote!
Something Frisky – Will the girls still go on a
Lodge trip that excludes all wives?
‘Twas The Night Before Christmas – The
Gift of Magi as a great Holiday episode.
The Man From Space – A costume contest is a riot
in this brilliant show.
A Matter of Record – Ralph cuts a speech on vinyl
when he over-bashes Alice’s mom.
Oh My Aching Back - Bowling throws Ralph’s back
out, but other’s feel his pain.
The Baby Sitter – Alice secretly works the
title job, but Ralph suspects cheating!
The $99,000 Answer – Ralph becomes a musicologist
for a game show at any cost.
Ralph Kramden, Inc. – The guys go into business,
with unexpected twists.
Young At Heart – Alice feels too old, until
Ralph gets inspired to turn back the clock.
A Dog’s Life – Will The Kramden’s get a pet
dog?
Here Comes The Bride – Has Ralph ruined a
wedding with his big mouth?
Mama Loves Mambo – One dancing Latin resident in
the building causes waves.
Please Leave The Premises –
Ralph’s protest over a rent raise goes to extremes.
Pardon My Glove – Has Alice gotten bored enough
with Ralph to get a male hooker?
Young Man With A Horn – An old instrument
jolts Ralph into changing g his life.
Head Of The House – Ralph’s newspaper quotable
might destroy his marriage.
The Worry Wart – Is Ralph in trouble with the
IRS?
Trapped – Ralph witnesses a bank
robbery and it may cost him his life!
The Loudspeaker – Will Ralph advance in rank in
his Lodge?
On Stage – Ralph and Ed battle for roles
in a Lodge stage production.
Opportunity Knocks But – Can Ralph become a bus
company supervisor?
Unconventional Behavior – Can Ralph & Ed
“train-it” to a Lodge convention in time?
The Safety Award – Ralph gets so excited about a
driver’s safety award, he wrecks!
Mind Your Own Business – Ralph’s perpetually
bad advice gets Ed fired.
Alice & The Blonde – The guys get a bit too
friendly with a friend’s sexy wife.
The Bensonhurst Bomber – Will Ralph land up
knocked-out on a boxing ring mat?
Dial J For Janitor – Can Ralph handle a 2nd job
with great benefits in his building?
A Man’s Pride – An old rival for Alice has made
it big, but Ralph will show him!
These shows were produced for the 1955-1956 TV season and
it remains one of the greatest single seasons in TV history. It is incredible how rich, consistent, an
original these shows are. Nothing quite
like this had ever been seen before and it is also the most imitated show in TV
history, from The Flintstones to groundbreaking series like All In
The Family, The Simpsons, The Sopranos and an endless string
of imitators. When Warner Bros. was
doing animated shorts (Merrie Melodies, Looney Tunes) for theaters at the time,
they even created a brief series called The Honeymousers!
The most amazing thing in watching these again is how DVD
reveals nuances in the timing and performances that make all the funny points
funny all over again. The Sitcom has
been a popular, but sickly watered-down and highly childish form on TV since
the 1980s. These earlier shows were
based in a certain sense of reality that really shows how regressive current TV
is. Even when the show came back in
color, and on videotape in a series of hour-long musical shows, it never got as
bad as what we get now. It would also be
fair to argue that The Honeymooners was a cut in realism above many such
shows until the 1970s.
Part of the reason is that the brilliant writers never
moved away from the basics of good storytelling and great gags. It is also important to point out that,
especially with all the other women who played the wives before and after these
shows, the chemistry between these four is unbelievable! You cannot cast a television show any better
than this one. A few have equaled it,
like The Avengers, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler
Moore Show, but this is very, very rare.
These all add up to many superlatives about the show, but they only
scratch the surface. The Honeymooners
is a classic you need to see every episode of to believe, especially in this
DVD set.
The full screen, black and white image is often very
clear, but DVNR (digital video noise reduction) is mistakenly used, which
causes unnecessary image shimmering and freezes parts of images too long,
making the set look cheaper than it really was.
This remains one of the best-filmed monochrome series in TV history and
the film elements have survived extremely well.
There is some second generation material in early shows and more work
needs to be done on cleaning scratches and artifacts here and there, but the
results here will surprise you.
Hopefully, the remaining restoration will be taken care of when High
Definition versions of the shows are commissioned, which will be unbelievable
if done right. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono is good, but not at the higher kbps (kilobits-per-second) rate we are
spoiled with on A&E DVDs, but they are often on the clean side just the
same. There is so much sound in some
shows, a simple stereo upgrade would be an interesting idea, but a thicker mono
would even be better. You will have to
turn up your volume a bit more than usual.
Extras include “the DVD version” of The Honeymooners
Anniversary Special, which offers the thoughts of the cast and crew on the
show’s 35th anniversary. This
version runs under 22 minutes and does not replace the older, poorer-quality
clips with new ones, but Audrey Meadows hosts and the thoughts shared are
great. There are no commentaries, or
stills sections featuring the endless book and memorabilia, but there are
promos that were worked into the beginning and end credits of the show that
promoted sponsor Buick. Part of this may
have been in response to the huge hit sponsorship DeSoto and Plymouth had with
Groucho Marx original You Bet Your Life, which you can compare to the
extras on that DVD boxed set (reviewed elsewhere on this site), but this
material has not been seen since 1956.
An amusing highlight of these credits, beyond a different
announcer for the opening credits, and Gleason plugging Buick in person before
the end credits role has to do with the art those credits roll over. There is a terrific stickman interpretation
of Gleason, instead of a black background, as those credits role. Stickmen are now commonplace, but the
original stickman was the creation of Leslie Charteris for his novel series The
Saint. It was not a hit TV show at this
point, though the RKO studios did use the stickman on their B-movie series of
the character. It is amazing how close
to that stickman this Gleason stickman is.
It is something to see.
Gleason, who was a motion picture veteran at this point,
was also responsible for a series of hit albums of which he wrote a surprising
majority of. This even included Top Ten,
#1 and million-sellers for Capitol Records.
In a great in joke, there are gags about Ralph and music throughout and
this particular season caused a peak of album sales (seven in all, believe it
or not, including a Christmas album), and the theme of this series remains one
of the most well know ever made. The
Honeymooners is a priceless addition to all serious DVD collections and
after getting them so good like this, you will never be able to watch them on
regular, cable, or satellite TV again.
We look forward to the Blu-ray and also recommend the later videotaped
color series, which you can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7025/The+Color+Honeymooners+Collections
- Nicholas Sheffo
