Jackie Gleason Color 1960s shows from Time-Life

One other note: Reginald Van Gleason appears in the "One Man Show" episode (1/28/1967). He recites "Casey At The Bat" dressed in a baseball uniform. Art Carney also makes a brief appearance as Ed Norton in the "Birthday Show" (3/25/1967).

 

It'd be kinescope all right. All of Gleason's 1966-70 shows were preserved on color videotape. But as they say . . . rights . . .

 

I seem to remember too, the final 1969-70 season after Gleason went on a massive diet and lost at least 61 pounds (though it seems more likely he shed 80-100 pounds) and the "fat jokes" directed at Ralph didn't carry the weight (ha-ha) they had in earlier seasons. Worse, Art Carney by this point had gained a significant amount of weight to the point that, in that season, he was very likely slightly heavier than Gleason (who, in that final season, looked like he aged significantly)!

The issues of timing and age were among many that adversely affected British comedian Benny Hill in the last decade (1980-89) of his own comedy/variety specials, besides the added baggage which Gleason did not have that I won't get to here as it is irrelevant to this topic. As well, many of Hill's shows of the '80's, like what Gleason admitted about the final season of his own American Scene Magazine (which I'm convinced Hill stole the format of his own post-1964 shows from, given that an edition of the final [1963-64] New York season that was entered into the Montreux festival aired on the BBC and Hill therefore could have seen it) looking "like they were made on the way to the men's room," had that same dubious quality to them.

B.T.W., while your area may not have had "Classic 39" reruns, in NYC WPIX (Channel 11) continued to show those evergreens while Gleason was playing out the rest of his run as a weekly variety show fixture from Miami Beach.

 

There was A/C in Florida at the Miami Beach Auditorium, as he put it, "to handle the heat from all the lights," but it was mostly directed at the audience to prevent them from dozing off while the show was taping. A/C or not, Gleason did sweat profusely, no doubt due to his weight.

 

During the 1966-70 shows, one of the guests was Boots Randolph who performed "Yakety Sax." I considered that a tad ironic, given that piece's later use on Benny Hill's shows - and how Hill, on paper, seemed the UK's equivalent of Gleason in terms of his mixture of knockabout comedy and beautiful girls. (In actuality, the differences were legion.)

 

We started getting the "Classic 39 Honeymooners" in syndication around 1972 or so, right after Gleason's variety show had left the air, and it got huge ratings throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I agree with you that the show was not the same towards the end, particularly as Gleason lost weight.

 

I'm looking for a more reasonable price on Amazon. As you can see, I am interested in getting the set down the road . . . I counted at four, maybe five color vests he wore at different times as part of his attire (red, beige yellow, green, grape, probably blue as well; the second was either plain or with a Tattersall pattern).

 

To me, moments like what you cited in the 1967 version vs. 1955 are similar to the 1980's remakes Benny Hill did of sketches that he'd done in the three B&W shows he made in 1970-71 during the ITV colour strike. The earlier versions flowed more naturally in their timing and relative spontaneity. The later versions are robotic, calculated, contrived and on top of it all, rote, with the energy level likewise down from the earlier renditions. And that's not counting the girls' garb which is a whole 'nother issue entirely.

 

One problem I had with William Henry III's bio of Gleason was his insinuation that he was casual in casting of both Alice and Trixie. In truth, his castings of Alice (Ms. Langdon in 1962, Sheila MacRae in 1966) were all contingent on whether or not Ms. Meadows was available. When he picked Ms. Langdon as his next Alice, Ms. Meadows was about to finish or had already finished filming her role in That Touch of Mink and was about to start on Take Her, She's Mine. While Audrey may have been available for that musical "Adoption," she wouldn't for the regular color episodes, hence Gleason picking Ms. MacRae. (It was ironic when Sheila joined, as that same year her daughter Meredith MacRae became the third and final Billie Jo Bradley on Petticoat Junction; both it and the Gleason show would be cancelled in 1970.) However, Gleason may have been more casual in his practices of casting Trixie in relation.

 

Amazing he never did that Honeymooners Christmas sketch in the late 1960's. Would Joe the Bartender have had Crazy Guggenheim (Frank Fontaine) sing a number to Alice and the Nortons? Would Rum Dum have stumbled in? We'll never know . . . (I don't think he did Rudy the Repairman in the '60's.)

 

It was from the 1963-64 season which was his last in New York. The format that season had a mixture of live "audience" moments and pre-taped blackout bits, introduced by Glea Girls. That's why I wonder if Benny Hill stole this format, as some of his 1965-66 BBC shows had some sketches introduced by whichever actresses were on that particular show. (The one thing Gleason did not do was outdoor location filming for sketches, nor split-screen moments where two Gleasons would have been on the screen at once, unlike what Hill repeatedly did.)

Some of the women who appeared on Hill's show as "Hill's Angels," I.M.H.O., would have been the equivalent of both June Taylor Dancers and Glea Girls in Gleason's setup.

 

The recasting of Trixie is interesting. I consider Joyce Randolph to be the "real" Trixie, but apparently Gleason didn't feel that way. It seems odd to see Audrey Meadows and Jane Kean paired together, but I've read that Jane Kean (who played Trixie in the Miami shows) was asked back for the final Honeymooners specials in the 1970s essentially because she remained close with Gleason. I remember Joyce Randolph being quoted as saying she had never been asked back for those. Of course, she played the role for five years, but probably seems like the "real" Trixie because of that one season of "Classic 39" Honeymooners which have been in constant reruns for 60 years.

 

I think the first couple of seasons of "Color Honeymooners" hold up better than the last ones. I especially liked Alice being able to predict exactly what Ralph's "sympathy" noises were going to be.

 

I detest musicals so I never enjoyed the color musical episodes at all. I don't know why they saw the need to produce them that way.

 

I presume to fill the length of the episodes to the proverbial "union standards." That, and to keep songwriters Lyn Duddy and Jerry Bresler in work.