Interestingly, Jackie had been given a three-year contract from CBS for 78 episodes of The Honeymooners to be produced in the first two seasons, with an option for a third season of 39 more. The first episode of the new half-hour series aired on Saturday, October 1, 1955, at 8.30 pm Eastern Time (during prime time), opposite Ozark Jubilee on ABC and The Perry Como Show on NBC. They thought I had another job someplace, but I didn’t. The "Classic 39" episodes of The Honeymooners are the ones that originally aired as a weekly half-hour sitcom on CBS from October 1955 to September 1956. While The Flintstones simply hinted at The Honeymooners, Warner Bros. was more blatant with their cartoon tribute. Although lyrics were composed, they were never sung. By September 1956, the show had dropped down to number 19 in the Nielsen ratings, and CBS was considering cancellation. 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. An Executive Meeting, that's a poker game.") No infringement of previously copyrighted material is intended on this site. "—to which she usually replies, "Ahhh, shaddap!" Later, when they held a public viewing for three of them the response was overwhelmingly positive. In 1994, the Swedish network TV4 produced a version of The Honeymooners titled Rena Rama Rolf, but changing its setting to modern-day Gothenburg, where Rolf (Ralph) is working as a streetcar driver. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. The musicals pushed Gleason back into the top five in ratings, but audiences soon began to decline. The New York Times and Broadcasting & Telecasting Magazine wrote that it was "labored" and lacked the spontaneity of the live sketches. But then there was The Honeymooners, with a mere 39 episodes to offer up, yet it worked. Cary Grant, the very definition of a dashing and debonair Hollywood leading man, made a point of approaching Meadows on the Paramount lot one afternoon during The Honeymooners’s summer hiatus. Status of Cable & Streaming TV Shows (E-L), Cancelled or Renewed? gleason called it quits after just one season. Ralph gets jealous when he realizes that Alice's boss is interested in her. Ralph finds a suitcase full of money and goes on a spending spree. The impeachment was the result of the scandal involving the bungled burglary of the offices of the Democratic National ...read more, On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issues a presidential proclamation that officially establishes the first national Mother’s Day holiday to celebrate America’s mothers. It’s like saying, ‘Go out there and find me Jackie Gleason and Art Carney.’ Well, there is no Jackie Gleason out there. Alongside Gleason and Carney, Audrey Meadows returned as Alice. Reba Mcentire Is All Smiles During Beach Vacation in Barbados! All of this led to criticism, more than 40 years later, that the show displayed an acceptance of domestic violence. Each episode is self-contained. It was initially a ratings success as the No. [22] The Kramdens—and later the Nortons when those characters were added—are childless, an issue only occasionally explored, but a condition on which Gleason insisted. She has grown accustomed to his empty threats—such as "One of these days, POW!!! The Honeymooners is a classic American television sitcom created by and starring Jackie Gleason, based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of his variety show. As Jackie himself said at the time, “Everything we did could have happened. Seasons: One, TV show dates: October 1, 1955 — September 22, 1956 Ed and Ralph both are members of the fictional Raccoon Lodge. Anyone who never saw this show should order the classic 39 episode set now! In 1955, Gleason had tired of the hour-long variety-show format and wanted to try something new. As a result of the superior picture and sound quality afforded by the system, episodes of The Honeymooners were much more suitable for rebroadcast than were most other "live" shows of the era. Ralph and Alice lived with her mother for six years after getting married before they got their own apartment. Mrs. Stevens: She gave Alice a box for hairpins that was made of matchsticks for Christmas which was the same exact gift Ralph was about to give her but he vastly overpaid for it and thought he had a great gift rather than an insignificant trinket for Alice.