"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. shunell

    shunell Member

    Location:
    nyc
    they were buddies
     
  2. Howard Bleach

    Howard Bleach Imperial Aerosol Kid

    Location:
    green bay, wi
    Found this thread too late to participate but have really enjoyed reading the entire thing. Great job, everyone. Count me in for a Lost Episodes thread should one ever materialize!
     
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  3. ROFLnaked

    ROFLnaked Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Sometime @1998-2000, someone gave me Art Carney's address and advised he loves getting fan mail; that if I were to write him and ask for an autographed photo, he would mail one to me. His address was somewhere in Westchester County, NY, if I am recalling correctly. I included a crisp $10 bill along with my note. Shortly after, a large manila envelope arrived in the mail, and sure enough, it was an 8 1/2 x 11 black & white photo of a melancholy Norton popping out from the manhole, and it was signed by him to me. Paper-clipped to it was my $10 bill that I'd offered to cover postage.

    Sadly, I haven't been able to locate the photo since I took everything out of storage for the better part of 4 years when I was working overseas, and then moved to the other coast. No way I would have thrown it out, and I keep hoping that someday I will open one of my big books and be greeted by the Norton promo photo falling out of it.
     
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  4. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I love visiting the 39...just puts me in a great mood...The Lost Episodes box set is worth every penny...
     
  5. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Nothing was better than this episode... Ralph Kramden on Jeopardy!

    [​IMG]
     
  6. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    He's "the biggest thing on television". :)
     
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  7. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Homina-homina-homina-homina!
     
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  8. Howard Bleach

    Howard Bleach Imperial Aerosol Kid

    Location:
    green bay, wi
    I like that Ralph wagered $62: his weekly salary according to the episode "Brother Ralph." Whoever made that meme is as big a nerd as I am. :laugh:
     
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  9. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I don't know. Ralph wouldn't want his salary to leak out! (Even though it couldn't drip out!)
     
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  10. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Sounds like a gag Benny Hill might have used . . .
     
  11. Beaglemaster

    Beaglemaster Forum Resident

    What book on Art Carney is the most detailed concerning his work on the Honeymooners?
     
  12. Howard Bleach

    Howard Bleach Imperial Aerosol Kid

    Location:
    green bay, wi
    I'm not sure there is one. As far as I know, the only authorized Carney bio is by Michael Seth Starr. I didn't care for it. It's probably worth reading, but it really skimps on details of the Honeymooners era. Here's my Amazon review, if you're interested:

    Author Michael Seth Starr never misses an opportunity to insult Jackie Gleason. Starr variously refers to Gleason as being “a braggart,” “insecure and bullying,” “aloof, arrogant and nasty,” “lazy,” and “egomaniacal”; a man prone to “arrogant bluster” with “a gargantuan appetite for recognition.” Starr even lowers himself to making petty potshots: he can’t resist mentioning how Gleason always had to have a “meaty” hand in casting his shows.

    The trouble is that the same book’s testimonies of Gleason’s various co-workers—including the subject of the book—refute most or all of these claims.

    For example: on page 75, the author discusses “rumors circulating” that Gleason “had forbidden Art to make solo entrances during the show because he was too raucously welcomed by the studio audience.” In the very next paragraph, Carney himself is quoted as saying “Nothing to these rumors…Gleason has been good to me.” This pattern is repeated several times over the course of the book: author infers that Gleason is cruel, insufferable, and / or jealous, only to have these accusations immediately contradicted with a quote by someone refuting said accusations, whether that person is Gleason writer A.J Russell, George Petrie, or--as in most cases--Carney himself.

    Later in the book, Carney is quoted as saying “We [he and Gleason] never once had a fight or a cross word.” Why is the author so determined to lead this baseless personal crusade against Gleason? The fact is, any time Carney needed him (which was often), Gleason was a loyal and trusted friend (see also: the lifelong Republican’s unwavering support of the blacklisted Pert Kelton).

    The author also denigrates Gleason’s music, calling his “composing” and “conducting” (the quotation marks are the author’s) an “elaborate sham.” Does Starr realize that the history of popular music is filled with great composers who couldn’t find middle C on a piano, or that many of the musicians who worked with Gleason and performed his wildly popular work spoke of The Great One's gift for composition and keen musical ear?

    As other reviewers have pointed out, the book is also conspicuously light on Honeymooners arcana. The show that made Carney famous is given the same attention (and manuscript space) as any of Carney’s various roles; this is a bit like writing a book about Orson Welles and spending merely a chapter discussing Citizen Kane. While The Honeymooners is not exactly glossed over per se, it isn’t given nearly the respect it richly deserves. No specific Honeymooners episodes are mentioned or explored, and there are no insights or behind-the-scenes tidbits.

    On the plus side, the book is very well-written, especially when compared to other celebrity biographies, most of which seem to have been written by and for people with a 4th grade education. Starr is an admittedly talented (if workmanlike) author who never insults the reader's intelligence.

    The book also did an excellent job of telling the story of Carney the man—which was my reason for reading the book in the first place—hence the three stars. But I found the constant swipes at Gleason obnoxious and unnecessary; it is almost as if the author has a personal grudge against The Great One (who, by the time the book was published, wasn’t around to defend himself).
     
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  13. davenav

    davenav High Plains Grifter

    Location:
    Louisville, KY USA
    I’d love to see a lost episodes thread! Seems like a good time for scouting through over a hundred episode/sketches!

    They’re on Amazon Prime so it would be pretty easy to keep up!
     
  14. BILLONEEG

    BILLONEEG Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I have the box set of lost episodes and they are great! I never got around to reading The information that comes with it so I wonder if they are in chronological order.
     
  15. davenav

    davenav High Plains Grifter

    Location:
    Louisville, KY USA
    I don’t have it, but they are in the correct order on Amazon Prime. Pretty sure the box is the same. It’s fun to follow the evolution of things like catch-phrases and mannerisms as the seasons go along.

    If that box has a good amount of extras, I may be tempted to get it. The Jack Benny send up is essentially another episode, complete with Audrey Meadows and a very good copy of the set. If things like that are in it, I may have to pull the trigger.
     
  16. BILLONEEG

    BILLONEEG Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Pull the trigger & OWN IT!!! If you don’t have it already, get the Blu-ray of the classics 39 episode too. It has a bonus episode which is a musical. IT’S AWESOME!!!
     
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  17. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    The original releases of the Lost Episodes were willy nilly, but the more recent "complete" boxed set runs in order.
     
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  18. BILLONEEG

    BILLONEEG Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Thank you so much for the info!
     
  19. RayS

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

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Howard Bleach and EddieMann like this.
  20. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    nice story, thanks...hope you find the picture!
     
  21. ROFLnaked

    ROFLnaked Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Looking for 2-3 things a few weekends ago, I did get up the courage to dig through the musty boxes of "stuff" that I haven't found practical use for but yet cannot bring myself to trashing, and so they take up (too much) space on shelves in our garage amongst the silverfish bugs. As these things seem to go, I had no luck finding the Art Carney autograph nor the other things I was hoping to locate in the hour or so I spent. If & when I find it in the future, I will dig up this thread and post a photo.

    My dad was a big Jackie Gleason fan and I can remember watching those Honeymooners reruns on the little black & white TV in my bedroom as a kid in the 1970s. At the time those reruns seemed like ancient Greek scrolls, but they would only have been @20 years old at that point. The one thing that's truly profound is the passing of time.

    Nice to know Joyce Randolph is still with us at age 95.
     
    Howard Bleach and Michael like this.
  22. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    cool, love to see it! wow Joyce; 95, bless her. : )
     
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