"The Honeymooners" Classic 39 One at a Time (Episode-by-Episode Thread)

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by RayS, Mar 7, 2017.

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  1. Luke The Drifter

    Luke The Drifter Forum Resident

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    Unconventional Behavior

    One of my favorite scenes of the series is on the train. I could watch Gleason and Carney all day long.
     
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  2. BILLONEEG

    BILLONEEG Senior Member

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    Jack Norton looks like Jonathan Harris (of "Lost In Space") to me.
     
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  3. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

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    Here's a really brief clip of Jack Norton from "The Bank Dick".



    In other circumstances when Gleason decided at rehearsal that an actor or actress wasn't quite right, he'd call in George Petrie or Frank Marth at the last second (that's how Marth got the role as the man who runs the domestic help agency in "A Woman's Work is Never Done"). In this case, I think the role(s) called for someone with an accomplished "drunk act", which the clip shows to be Norton's specialty.
     
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  4. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
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    Episode #34 - "The Safety Award"

    Aired: 5-19-56



    A relatively pedestrian episode, IMO, but, as always, a number of good lines are sprinkled throughout. My favorites come from Norton - "I am as close as anyone CAN be to Ralph Kramden" and "Don't forget the 50 minute lecture".

    I also like how Gleason plays Ralph as tongue-tied when he gets to make his little speech at the end ("the safe-a-tee of the public").

    Calvin Thomas, who plays Judge Hurdle, also played Alice's Uncle Leo in two other Classic 39 episodes. The character's name ("Hollerin' Hurdle") is likely an in-joke reference to producer Jack Hurdle.

    Alice and Trixie's dresses can't help but make me think of:

    [​IMG]

    There were two sets of Bobbsey Twins, stars of juvenile literature. Both sets were fraternal twins (one male, one female), so Norton's comment is a bit off target. (Not a lot of light for reading down in the sewer, after all.)
     
  5. guppy270

    guppy270 Forum Resident

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    Levittown, NY
    If I ever get in front of a piano, I have to do the "Norton warmup"!
     
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  6. Splungeworthy

    Splungeworthy Forum Rezidentura

    Re:The Safety Award:
    Ralph and Norton's jackets are not identical. Ralph's has three buttons. Ralph's growl to Norton's "little ode": I wonder how that's written in the script ("Ralph is disgusted with Norton and walks off" and then Gleason just wings it?).
     
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  7. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

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    The "Treasury" has only a small piece of the script relating to the jackets. It looks like Ralph tears the sleeve on Norton's jacket in a fit of rage, causing him to be the one to change. Obviously the script got changed at the last minute.

    There were three sets of writing teams for "The Honeymooners", and some were much more specific with lines and even stage direction, while others left a lot of room for Gleason and Carney to fill it (like saying "Ralph enters room big-shot style", or simply "Pain bit").
     
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  8. Luke The Drifter

    Luke The Drifter Forum Resident

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    I actually like this episode quite a bit. It is light on laughs, but it is nice to see it have a happy ending for Ralph, since we are so use to things going against him and Alice. It is always nice to see the little guy (hah) come out on top.

    The audience gave a big reaction to Ralph's joke about the shoe man paying too much attention to the Grand Opera. I don't get that joke, any insight?
     
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  9. Luke The Drifter

    Luke The Drifter Forum Resident

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    At some point I would like you to recommend some of the lost episodes Ray, that you feel approach the Classic 39. I have never seen any of them. I am only interested in the ones with Meadows.
     
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  10. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

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    My best guess on this one is that it a joke that benignly treads on stereotype. I think shoemakers in New York in the 1950s were (at least according to stereotype) first-generation Italian immigrants. So the shoemaker listens to the radio broadcasts of operas from The Met (because who but an Italian immigrant or a high-brow muckety-muck would listen to opera, according to Ralph Kramden?) Why the audience finds this so funny (it gets a rather large reaction for a throwaway line, IMO) I honestly don't know.
     
  11. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

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    What avenues are there for seeing the lost episodes these days apart from the DVD set? They all seem to be gone from YouTube. Are they still part of syndication package with the Classic 39, or broadcast along with them on whatever "oldies" channel they're on these days?

    Just my own opinion, but while the DuMont episodes with Pert Kelton tend to be very rough, they are funny in their own right and provide a lot of insight into how the characters developed. The fully-developed Norton may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but the DuMont Norton was nearly a Neanderthal man.

    Many of the '54-'55 lost episodes are gems, IMO, right up there with the Classic 39.
     
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  12. Luke The Drifter

    Luke The Drifter Forum Resident

    Location:
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    I may have to get the lost episodes on DVD then. Sounds like a worthwhile purchase.

    Thanks
     
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  13. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

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    $50 on Amazon for a 15 disc set. Ralph could buy a set with his weekly salary and have enough left over for dinner for 4 at the Hong Kong Gardens.
     
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  14. Benno123

    Benno123 Forum Resident

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    I think once we finish the Classic 39 we discuss the Lost Episodes ... or select ones, anyway ...

    Meanwhile, I am on vacation next week, not doing much but staying away from work and planning to watch a lot of The Honeymooners!
     
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  15. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Sorry for the delay in my analyses . . . but the original airdate of this came right after the debut appearance of a certain hillbilly cat named Elvis Presley on the preceding Stage Show.
     
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  16. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    A few lines were priceless - "But the difference is that that this is something new and different . . . " (I've usually heard others say "the difference is is that"); "Her mother can't cook like my wife - her mother-in-law's a nice lady and everything . . . " (sounds like another Gleason flub) . . .
     
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  17. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Only the reference wasn't to Dorothea Dix, but Dorothy Dix - an early newspaper advice columnist (hence, the "fixer of marriage problems" crack - but also, notice Ralph flubbed the next line as "fix my sleeping plobrem").
     
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  18. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Until that YouTube link came up, how many questioned whether there actually was a "Claves for Mambo" recorded by Tito Rodriguez (given such phony references in prior episodes as Rhythm On Ice and The Galloping Ghost of Mystery Gulch). It was a rare case of an actual number referred to and a sample of it played on the show. It is now referred to in the "soundtracks" section of the episode entry on IMDb.
     
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  19. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
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    That would be "the mamba" - a poisonous snake. Which may be why a few people, when Starship's "We Built This City" first came out, thought one line in the song was "Marconi plays the mambo."
     
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  20. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
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    It was also said, especially on his early albums, that the true "hand" behind the records - in terms of arranging and conducting, as well as playing the trumpet - was Bobby Hackett. In that sense, Gleason was comparatively speaking, more of a figurehead on his own records. Never mind that in concept (but not by any means in approach or execution), his music formula bore similiarities to that of another fat man who - again, comparatively - was more musically proficient, despite he, like Gleason, unable to read or write a note of music: Barry White.
     
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  21. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    It is because of one aspect of this episode that, for the last three decades, in the front of the window of where I live, hangs a rubber chicken. The first one I'd won as a consolation prize in my days of being in the RALPH fan club, decked out in Norton garb. I presume the "skinny chicken" reference was to the rubber chickens that one could find in novelty stores.
     
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  22. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

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    New York, NY, USA
    From what I've read, the Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler, Morris Fink, was played by Jock MacGregor.
     
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  23. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
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    Another individual fits that "Ernest T. Bass" rule - Steve Lawrence, a recurring guest on The Carol Burnett Show, who made so many appearances he seemed to be a regular a la Tim Conway (who, in the ninth [1975-76] season, actually did graduate to series regular status). And then there's the little matter of Steve Martin on Saturday Night Live . . .

    Boris Aplon was 'Boss' here. And I seem to recall at least one color episode where he wore an outlandish costume from the Classic 39.
     
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  24. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    With the late John Griggs as Mr. Harper (he later played boss Mr. Marshall in two subsequent Classic 39's).

    The golf costume Gleason wore in this, he would wear again in a color episode that aired in 1968, "The Boy Next Door" (a remake of the 1956-57 'lost' episode "Love Letter"). If you want to imagine how that costume looked to the audience assembled at the Adelphi that night "The Golfer" was filmed, see that '68 episode on one of MPI's Color Honeymooners compilations.
     
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  25. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    That would have been reference to Prince Aly Khan - to whom the late Rita Hayworth was once married.
     
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