ILLUSTRATING THE ARTICLE: Screenshots from “Behind The Iron Curtain”, which aired live on CBS February 16,1957.
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In the early 1950’s Jackie Gleason hosted a variety show on the DuMont network, which ain’t here no more. It was called “Cavalcade Of Stars” and Gleason introduced several popular characters during its run including Ralph and Alice Kramden and their neighbors the Nortons. The show became so popular that Gleason was wooed away from the floundering DuMont by CBS. From 1952 thru 1955 Gleason’s CBS variety show was a huge Saturday night hit, and with each season The Honeymooners were seen more frequently and took up more of the hour.
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In Fall of 1955 Gleason began a new contract with Buick as sponsor of two separate half-hour CBS programs: “Stage Show”, a musical variety offering with the Dorsey Brothers; and “The Honeymooners” as a stand-alone sitcom filmed before a live audience. The episodes of “The Honeymooners” filmed and aired in the ’55-’56 season are “The Classic 39”. Your “Hello Ball!” Your “You…….are a BLABBERMOUTH!” Your “Caaaaan it core a apple?” Some of the greatest situation comedy episodes of all time can be found in the 39, which went into syndication and were rerun a jillion times.
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But what happened after that?
Well, Gleason decided that he didn’t want to do a stand-alone “Honeymooners” series anymore. He explained over the years that he felt the quality of the writing could not be maintained. So in the Fall of 1956 “The Jackie Gleason Show” returned. And slowly, but surely, The Honeymooners returned. Some weeks it was a shorter sketch but the longer stories returned as well. At the end of that season Gleason walked away from the weekly grind…for the time being.
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In 1985 Jackie Gleason “found” the kinescopes of “Jackie Gleason Show” episodes (he’d had them all along, the timing must have seemed right to bring them out). A “Honeymooners Lost Episodes” package was released to syndication and has been running, usually in rotation with the Classic 39, ever since. This package did not have every Honeymooners sketch performed on the Gleason show; for one thing, many sketches were performed more than once. And then there’s the Trip To Europe.
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In the second half of that ’56-’57 season “The Jackie Gleason Show” presented a multi-week continuing series of musical comedies depicting the Kramdens and Nortons on their trip to Europe, received after Ralph and Ed submitted a winning slogan to the Flakey Wakey cereal contest. These episodes were not included in the syndication package. And there are two decent reasons why:
One, they are not traditional Honeymooners episodes. We’ll discuss that momentarily.
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Two, by 1985 a remake of the “Trip To Europe” musicals, in color, had been in circulation for nearly two decades. In 1966, Gleason–by now back to the weekly variety show, taping in “the sun and fun capital of the world Miami Beach”–brought Art Carney back as a regular cast member to play Ed Norton. Alice was played by Sheila MacRae, Trixie by Jane Kean. The Honeymooners won another cereal contest and went on another trip to Europe. These color episodes generally re-used scripts and even some songs from the ’57 story arc.
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I have seen the entre run of color “Trip To Europe” episodes; they were released as part of three collections on DVD as “The Color Honeymooners”. I am currently viewing the original 1957 episodes on Amazon Prime Video. My opinion is largely the same for both. Putting Ralph and Alice and Ed and Trixie in the confines of a Broadway musical, where they break into song and choreography at the drop of a hat, is hard to get used to. But the episodes do have a sameness about them. There’s a splashy opening dance number with The June Taylor Dancers, our heroes arrive in a new locale, Ralph and Ed get separated from the wives and shenanigans ensue.
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This to me is the reason there’s not much difference between the two different Europe trips. Shiela MacRae and Jane Kean are fine singers and dancers but…they’re not Alice and Trixie. In some of the other color episodes I’ve seen there’s just a flatness in the Ralph/Alice verbal sparring…so in the black-and-white Europe shows it is nice to see Audrey Meadows (a powerhouse!) and Joyce Randolph (in her final appearances as Trixie). But in every episode, Alice and Trixie are gone by about 15 minutes in, and don’t appear again until the final resolution.
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You can’t argue with Gleason and Carney having a large parcel of real estate…they were as good a comedy team as any that came before or after them. And it wouldn’t seem right for Ralph and Alice to to spend their entire vacation engaging in their usual scraps. Making each Europe episode a Ralph-and-Ed caper seems to be the best possible solution. But in changing the blend, we’re left with something that is almost but not quite “The Honeymooners.”
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If you’re interested, “The Honeymooners Lost Episodes” are on Amazon Prime Video. The Trip to Europe shows are in “season four”, towards the end of the season. It is really remarkable that they put on an original 60-minute musical every week for quite a stretch. New script, new songs (words and music by Lyn Duddy and Jerry Bresler), new dances, and it all had to happen live on coast-to-coast TV every Saturday night. “Homina homina homina”….