The Honeymooners

The Honeymooners is a 1950s situation comedy and one of the most-loved (and most-imitated) television comedies of all time. In the early 1950s, Jackie Gleason hosted a variety show, originally titled Cavalcade of Stars and airing on the DuMont Television Network. On the show (which moved to CBS in 1952 as The Jackie Gleason Show), Gleason enacted a number of recurring characters in comedic skits; the most popular of these involved featured Gleason as a Brooklyn bus driver named Ralph Kramden; Pert Kelton (and later Audrey Meadows) as his long-suffering wife, Alice; and Art Carney as Ralph's sewer-worker pal, Ed Norton. The skits became so popular that CBS offered Gleason an opportunity to produce and star in a half-hour sitcom with the characters, titled The Honeymooners. Meadows and Carney (along with Joyce Randolph as Norton's wife Trixie) followed Gleason to the new show, and the first episode aired on October 1, 1955. In all 39 episodes were created by the time the series ended in 1956. Gleason retained the rights to the reruns, which became extremely popular with an almost cult-like following. He later sold the series to CBS for a reported sum of $1 million.

External links

• History and Photos from "The Honeymooners"
• IMDB Entry on The Honeymooners (TV Show)
• IMDB Entry on The Honeymooners (Film)
• The official fanlisting of The Honeymooners