The Honeymooners and Jackie Gleason remembered…
The honeymoon ain’t over.
It’s been 70 years since the debut of “The Honeymooners” but followers of the enduring sitcom say it’s still ingrained in popular culture – and in the material of the Big Apple.
Catchphrases like “to the moon, Alice,” “baby, you’re the greatest” and “hey Ralphie boy” are immediately recognizable as the Brooklyn-based black-and-white comedy retains people watching over and over again a long time after its Oct. 1, 1955, premiere.
The statue of Jackie Gleason’s character Ralph Kramden from “The Honeymooners” outdoors of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Christopher Sadowski
The iconic New York City comedy turned 70 years outdated on Oct. 1. AP
The cause why the episodes are so sturdy was best explained by the show’s late star and mastermind Jackie Gleason, his stepson said in a latest interview.
“Well, Jackie answered that quite simply: Because they’re funny,” said Craig Horwich, the son of Gleason’s widow Marilyn Taylor. “And that really is the perennial answer.”
“The Honeymooners” lasted only one season stretching over 39 episodes – but the exploits of bus driver Ralph Kramden (Gleason), his always annoyed but ever-forgiving spouse Alice (Audrey Meadows) and their neighbors the Nortons lived on for years in prime time syndication and even now is rerun in annual New Year’s Eve marathons on local TV.
Much of the success of the show hinged on the comedic expertise of Gleason and co-star Art Carney, who performed Ralph’s goofy sewer-worker best buddy Ed Norton – TV’s first and arguably best wacky neighbor, consultants said. Rounding out the main solid was Ed’s spouse, Trixie (Joyce Randolph).
Virginia vacationers Rick and Deb Witkowsky posing with the Kramden statue. Kevin Sheehan / NY Post
“They knew how to react to other performers. They knew how to listen,” said Horwich, who now co-runs Jackie Gleason Enterprises with Gleason’s two daughters. “They were very present and familiar and comfortable in front of an audience. And I think you could put Art Carney and most anyone on a stage and they would be able to hold your attention.”
The actors had already been mastering the characters for years, with “The Honeymooners” starting as a sketch in October 1951 on the variability show “Cavalcade of Stars” with a different Alice (Pert Kelton) and Trixie (Elaine Stritch).
It continued when Gleason jumped a 12 months later to the hour-long “Jackie Gleason Show,” where the core 4 of the collection was in place and the show’s essence was firmly set – with a premise so simple and repeatable it’s been said they may very well be watched in any order.
Gleason and Audrey Meadows in an episode of “The Honeymooners.” CBS /Landov
Author and scholar David Sterritt, who wrote a ebook on “The Honeymooners” as half of a collection called TV Milestones, said the “Classic 39” have a acquainted construction like a good rock track or sonnet. Its catchphrases and “riffs” recur like a good refrain, he famous.
“A show like ‘The Honeymooners,’ which is so musical in its use of language, which is musical in its rhythms, has some of the appeal of music – and therefore it can be taken in over and over again,” Sterritt, who grew up watching the show on Long Island in the Fifties, told The Post.
Although the show is remembered for its laughs, there’s deep pathos in the premise and characters. Ralph and his buddy Ed always have grand plans but their get-rich-quick schemes always end up falling aside. Ralph’s alpha character normally places him at odds with his spouse or his best pal, before invariably they end up with an apology and back at Square 1.
Plumber CJ Matos and Davide Esposito use the “Honeymooners” statue as a assembly spot at the station. Kevin Sheehan / NY Post
It largely takes place in a small sparsely embellished one-room bed room in Bensonhurst, based on the home Gleason grew up in where he’d later say he knew many “Kramdens” and “Nortons,” according to his stepson. Lots of the show’s endurance is that the characters had been relatable – they argued loudly, they struggled with money choices and labored blue-collar jobs.
“It’s a dark undercurrent for the show, but it’s an undercurrent and the thing is still a comedy, so we can enjoy it,” Sterritt said. “We can enjoy the darkness of it because we know that it’s not threatening darkness.”
Gleason died in 1987, but he’s immortalized in character as Kramden in a statue at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. It even attracts followers and passersby today, like Rick Witkowsky, who stopped for a pic with the statue during a go to from Virginia with his spouse, Deb.
“When we left the hotel to go to Central Park this morning my wife saw the statue and I was like, ‘Oh man! We got to catch that on the way back cause I just love Ralph,” Witkowsky, 72, said, calling the show “so New York.”
Bryan Farrell told The Post the enduring sitcom is “timeless.” Kevin Sheehan / NY Post
Plumber CJ Matos, 32, said he makes use of the statue as a daily meetup spot to wait for his associates to experience the practice home to New Jersey.
“I always tell my friends when they’re coming to meet me, I’m standing here next to my buddy Ralph. Ralphie boy,” he said. “I figure it’s fitting, we’re plumbers. Norton was a plumber, right. I mean, he worked in the sewers.”
Bryan Farrell, 52, an exterminator from Levittown, called it a “fantastic timeless show” as he rattled through a number of plots of the episodes.
“There never was another show that was that funny. Universally funny,” he said.
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