The Honeymoon's Not Over

   As the youngest in my house, I headed to bed long before my parents and older brother.  Each night I fell asleep to the familiar sounds of the shower water running and my parent’s casual conversations and the song “You’re My Greatest Love” rising up the stairs from the living room television.

  You may know the song by its more common name as “The Honeymooners Theme Song” but either way, it was a late night lullaby for me.

   The popular 1950’s show had been in reruns for years on New York City’s WPIX television and my parents watched it almost every night after the early news.  Because it came on late, I almost never saw the show but I heard it from my bedroom at the top of the stairs.  When I was older I learned that my parents rarely saw it either – they usually fell asleep on the coach and recliner – then went to bed when the closing music credits came on.

   Over the years I have seen many of the Honeymooner episodes and have enjoyed clips on various TV specials but I never seriously watched them – until recently.

   Last December I received a box set of the “Classic 39 Episodes” of The Honeymooners as a gift and recently finished watching them in order with my wife Ann.  We were surprised at what we saw.

   First, let’s start with a history lesson.  The first Honeymooner’s sketch aired in 1951 on a show called Cavalcade of Stars that was hosted by Jackie Gleason.  Gleason got his own show a year later and the Honeymooners bits were regularly featured as part of the show through 1954. Jackie Gleason and CBS debuted the standalone sitcom on October 1, 1955 and the series ran for 39 episodes.  Gleason supposedly pulled the show when he felt the storylines had run their course but competition from the top rated Perry Como Show probably helped.

   Honeymooner sketches were part of later Jackie Gleason television shows into the 1970’s although the Classic 39 are considered the best and most original.

    What surprised us most was how well the shows hold up.  The writing is tight, the production quality is good and the comic timing of all four main characters makes each episode a pleasure to watch.

   I admit the plots are predictable but most 1950s television was. Each episode features bus driver Ralph Cramden inserting a foot in his “Big Mouth” but the supporting characters of his wife Alice and upstairs neighbors Ed and Trixie Norton always help him pull it out.

   An interesting footnote on watching the shows was the cast of actors who appeared in episodes as different people to move the story along.  One actor, Frank Marth, was a member of Ralph’s Raccoon Lodge, a bank robber, a news photographer, a bus driver and an employee at the animal shelter. 

   Watching The Honeymooners made us realize that all of the sitcoms and cartoons (Flintstones, for example) that imitated them may have been slicker but it all started in that apartment at 328 Chauncey Street in Brooklyn.

   Back at the Carroll household, we may go back and revisit episodes 18 and 26. It seems that, like my parents, the two of us dozed through a few shows only to be awakened by the sounds of “You’re My Greatest Love.”  Some things never change.