Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:
As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.
May 9,
1971
Last Honeymooners
episode airs. The last original
episode of the sitcom The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason as
Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden, airs.
Although a perennial rerun favorite in syndication, The Honeymooners
actually aired only 39 episodes in its familiar sitcom format, running for just
one season in 1955-56. The show debuted on October 5, 1951, as a six-minute
sketch on the variety show Cavalcade of Stars, hosted by Jackie Gleason.
Cavalcade of Stars evolved into The Jackie Gleason Show in 1952,
and Gleason continued the sketches, playing the blustery Ralph Kramden. Regular
cast member Audrey Meadows soon replaced the original casting choice, Pert
Kelton, as Ralph’s long-suffering wife, Alice, who deflated his get-rich-quick
schemes but often saved the day. Art Carney played Gleason’s friend and
sidekick, Ed Norton, from the beginning, and Joyce Randolph was the most
memorable incarnation of Ed’s wife, Trixie.
In 1955, Gleason had tired of the hour-long variety-show format and wanted
to try something new. He suggested creating two half-hour programs: The Honeymooners
and Stage Show, a musical-variety show, which Gleason would produce.
Among Stage Show’s many musical guests was the first-time TV performer
Elvis Presley, who visited the show in January 1956.
In a departure from most TV shows of the time, The Honeymooners was
filmed in front of a live audience and broadcast at a later date. To allow
Gleason more time to pursue other producing projects, he taped two episodes a
week, leaving him free for several months at the end of the season. Shows were
taped at New York’s Adelphi Theatre in front of around 1,000 people.
Unfortunately, the two shows did not appeal to audiences as much as Gleason
had hoped. He soon returned to his hour-long variety format, occasionally
including Honeymooners skits. He sold the full Honeymooners episodes
to CBS for $1.5 million, and they would go on to earn the network a windfall in
syndication. In 1966, Gleason began creating hour-long Honeymooners
episodes, which he aired in lieu of his usual variety format. From 1966 to
1970, about half of Gleason’s shows were these hour-long episodes. In 1971, the
episodes were rebroadcast as their own series, until May 9, 1971, when the
final episode aired.
Despite its brief life as a traditional sitcom, The Honeymooners remains
one of the most memorable TV comedies of all time, rivaled only by I Love
Lucy in its pioneering role in television history. Its influence has
stretched into modern-day sitcom classics such as Roseanne (also a show
focused on a working-class American family) and Seinfeld (another sitcom
about wacky New York neighbors). The devotion of Honeymooners fans
throughout the years has bordered on cultish worship, including the formation
of a club known as RALPH: Royal Association for the Longevity and Preservation
of the Honeymooners.
May 9,
1991
Michael Landon appeared on the Tonight Show and talked about condition with cancer.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
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