The Honeymooners

The majority of The Honeymooners episodes focus on four principal characters and generally use fixed sets within their Brooklyn apartment building. Although various secondary characters make multiple appearances, and occasional exterior shots are incorporated during editing, virtually all action and dialogue is "on stage" inside the normal backdrop. Ralph Kramden Played by Jackie Gleason, a bus driver for the fictional Gotham Bus Company based in New York City, he is never seen driving a bus (except in publicity photos), but sometimes is shown at the bus depot. Ralph is frustrated by his lack of success and often develops get-rich-quick schemes. He is short-tempered, frequently resorting to bellowing, insults, and hollow threats. The show's other characters have his weight as an easy target for the insults that they throw back at him. Well-hidden beneath the many layers of bluster, however, is a softhearted man who loves his wife and is devoted to his best friend, Ed Norton. Ralph enjoys bowling and playing pool; he is proficient at both and is an enthusiastic member of the Loyal Order of Raccoons (although in several episodes, a blackboard at the lodge lists his dues as being in arrears). Ralph's mother rarely is mentioned, although she appears in one episode. Ralph's father is mentioned in only one episode ("Young Man with a Horn") as having given Ralph a cornet he learned to play as a boy, and Ralph insists on keeping the cornet when Alice suggests it be thrown away. The Ralph Kramden character was given honorary membership in the real New York City bus drivers' union (Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union) during the run of the show, and a Brooklyn bus depot was named in Gleason's honor after his death. Ralph Kramden was the inspiration for the animated character Fred Flintstone. An eight-foot-tall bronze statue of a jolly Jackie Gleason in a bus driver's uniform was erected in 1999 in front of Manhattan's midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal. TV Land funded the statue in cooperation with Gleason's estate and the Port Authority. Also in 1999, Ralph was ranked #13 on TV Guide's list of the 50 greatest TV characters. by Pert Kelton, by Audrey Meadows until 1956, then by Sheila MacRae, is Ralph's patient but sharp-tongued wife of 14 years. She often finds herself bearing the brunt of Ralph's tantrums and demands, which she returns with biting sarcasm. She is levelheaded, in contrast to Ralph's pattern of inventing various schemes to enhance his wealth or his pride. She sees his schemes' unworkability, but he becomes angry and ignores her advice (and by the end of the episode, her misgivings almost always prove correct). Upon discovering the failures of his schemes and subsequent cover-ups, she demands to Ralph: "Oh, how I wish you had an explanation for that." Alice runs the finances of the Kramden household, and Ralph frequently has to beg her for money to pay for his lodge dues or crazy schemes. Alice studied to be a secretary before her marriage and works briefly in that capacity when Ralph is laid off. Wilma Flintstone is based on Alice Kramden. Ed worked for the New York City sewer department, and described his job as a "Sub-supervisor in the sub-division of the department of subterranean sanitation, I just keep things moving along." He served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, and used his G.I. Bill money to pay for typing school, but felt he was unable to work in an office because he hated working in confined spaces. The relatively few scenes set in the Norton apartment showed it to have the same layout as the Kramdens' but more nicely furnished. Though Norton makes the same weekly $62 salary as Ralph (roughly $ in dollars), their higher standard of living might be explained by Norton's freer use of credit; at one point he admits to having 19 charge accounts. Ed is the inspiration for Barney Rubble in The Flintstones, In 1999, TV Guide ranked him 2nd on its list of the "50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time". According to Entertainment Weekly, Norton is ranked 8th of the "greatest sidekicks ever". Thelma "Trixie" Norton Thelma "Trixie" Norton was Ed's wife and Alice's best friend. She did not appear in every episode and had a less developed character, though she is shown to be somewhat bossy toward her husband. In one episode, she surprisingly is depicted as a pool hustler. Trixie is the inspiration for Betty Rubble in The Flintstones. Elaine Stritch was the first and original Trixie Norton in a Honeymooners sketch ("The New Television") with Gleason, Carney, and Pert Kelton. Trixie's abrasive ex-burlesque-dancer character was rewritten and recast by Gleason after just one episode, with Joyce Randolph playing the character as a wholesome housewife. Joyce Randolph played the role in earlier sketches and on the 1955–1956 sitcom The Honeymooners. Jane Kean played the role in a series of hour-long Honeymooners episodes, in color and with music, on The Jackie Gleason Show from 1966 to 1970, playing the role for many more years than her predecessor. Others Some of the actors who appeared multiple times on the show include George O. Petrie and Frank Marth as various characters, Ethel Owen as Alice's mother, Zamah Cunningham as apartment building neighbor Mrs. Manicotti, and Cliff Hall as the Raccoon Lodge president. Ronnie Burns, son of George Burns and Gracie Allen, made a guest appearance on one episode. On another episode, Norton makes a reference to a co-worker "Nat Birnbaum" (as in "'nat', a three-letter word for bug", says crossword puzzle aficionado Norton). George Burns's real name was Nathan Birnbaum. Seasoned actress Eileen Heckart appeared as Alice's mother in the 1978 The Honeymooners Christmas special (who was in reality just three years older than her "daughter", Alice). Strangely, Heckart's character makes several comments in the episode alluding to her desire to become a grandmother by Ralph and Alice, this despite the fact that Meadows, who played Alice, was in fact 55 years old at that time. The apartment house The Kramdens and Nortons lived in an apartment house at 328 Chauncey Street in Brooklyn, New York City, in an area known as "Bushwick" – a nod to the fact that Jackie Gleason lived there after his family moved from his birthplace at 364 Chauncey Street. In the 1955 episode "A Woman's Work is Never Done", the address is referred to as 728 Chauncey Street. The landlord of the apartment house is Mr. Johnson. In The Honeymooners episodes taped from 1967 to 1970, the address of the apartment house changed to 358 Chauncey Street, and the number of the Kramden apartment is 3B. The actual 328 Chauncey Street is located in the Stuyvesant Heights section of the borough, approximately eight miles northeast of the show's fictional location. Apartment residents • Mr. and Mrs. Manicotti: An older couple of Italian descent. • Tyler: Older gentleman who lives on the same floor, who knocks out Ralph's fighter - “Dynamite” for waking him up while he [Dynamite] works out on the punching / speed bag. • Tommy Manicotti: He played stickball and contracted the measles. He also left his water pistol in the Kramdens' apartment. • Garrity: A vocal upstairs neighbor with whom Ralph frequently feuds. He fought with Ralph for disturbing the neighbors with practicing for The $99,000 Answer quiz show. But showing some humor in other episodes, he accused Ralph of renting the tuxedo for his sister-in-law's wedding from an undertaker, and loved Ralph's joke about "sending a knight out on a dog like this." • Garrity Boy: He played stickball and contracted the measles. • Mrs. Bennett: Needed her radiator fixed when Ralph was the janitor. • Johnny Bennett: He played stickball, earned an apple for a home-run—and contracted the measles like the other boys. • Mrs. Doyle: Mother of Tommy Doyle. • Tommy Doyle: He was arrested for spending a $100 counterfeit bill that Ralph gave him to take his suits to the cleaners. • 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. Alice gave Mrs. Stevens a kitchen thermometer. • Mrs. Olsen: She said that Ralph broke her Venetian blinds instead of repairing them when Ralph temporarily was the building janitor. • Mrs. Hannah: Needed her bathtub fixed when Ralph was the janitor. • Mrs. Fogerty: Accused Ralph of taking food out of her ice box when Ralph was the janitor. • Mrs. Schwartz: The apartment house blabbermouth who reported that the Kramdens had set the all-time lowest gas bill for the building. She also was curious to know if the house phone was able to connect to New Jersey when Ralph was the janitor. • Mr. Riley: Had a full garbage can that needed to be emptied when Ralph was the janitor. • Judy Connors: A teenager who did not want her father to meet a boy named Wallace, her date. • Tommy Mullins: A U.S. Navy service member who was home on leave for Christmas. • Carlos Sanchez: A mambo dancer who works at night. • Mr. and Mrs. August Gunther: Former residents of the building. August hit it big with his doughnut business. • Mr. Johnson: The building's landlord. ==Plot==

Most of The Honeymooners takes place in Ralph and Alice Kramden's small, sparsely furnished two-room apartment. Other settings used in the show included the Gotham Bus Company depot, the Raccoon Lodge, a neighborhood pool parlor, a park bench where Ralph and Ed occasionally meet for lunch, and on occasion the Nortons' apartment (always noticeably better-furnished than the Kramdens'). Many episodes begin with a shot of Alice in the apartment awaiting Ralph's arrival from work. Most episodes focus on Ralph's and Ed's characters, although Alice played a substantial role. Trixie played a smaller role in the series, and did not appear in every episode as did the other three. Each episode presented a self-contained story, which rarely carried over into a subsequent one. The show employed a number of standard sitcom clichés and plots, particularly those of jealousy, get-rich-quick schemes, and comic misunderstanding. As to the occasional plot continuations, there were two such one concerning Ralph being sent to a psychiatrist because of "impatient" behavior during work that resulted in several passengers lodging complaints about his professional demeanor, and one that continued for two sequential shows in which Aunt Ethel visited and Ralph hatched a scheme to marry her off to the neighborhood butcher. The series presents Ralph as an everyman and an underdog who struggles to make a better life for himself and his wife, but who ultimately fails due to his own shortcomings. He, often along with Ed, devises a number of get-rich-quick schemes, none of which succeed. Ralph would be quick to blame others for his misfortune until it was pointed out to him where he had fallen short. Ralph's anger then would be replaced by short-lived remorse, and he would apologize for his actions. Many of these apologies to Alice ended with Ralph saying in a heartfelt manner, "Baby, you're the greatest," followed by a hug and kiss. But Ralph never carried out his threats, and others have pointed out that Alice knew he never would because of their deep love for each indeed, Alice never was seen to back down during any of Ralph's tirades. In retaliation, the targets of Ralph's verbal abuse often responded by simply joking about his weight, a common theme throughout the series. For the "Classic 39" episodes of The Honeymooners, there was no continuing story arc. Each episode is self-contained. For example, in the series premiere episode "TV or Not TV", Ralph and Norton buy a television set with the intent to share it. By the next week's show, the set is gone although in later episodes a set is shown in the Nortons' apartment. In the installment "The Baby Sitter", the Kramdens get a telephone, but in the next episode, it is gone. And, in the episode, "A Dog's Life", Alice gets a dog from the pound which Ralph tries to return. But, in the end, Ralph finds himself growing to love the dog and decides to keep it along with a few other dogs. However, in the next episode, the dogs are nowhere to be seen and are never referred to again. Occasionally, references to earlier episodes were made, including to Ralph's various "crazy harebrained schemes" from the lost episodes. Norton's sleepwalking in "The Sleepwalker" was referenced in "Oh My Aching Back", but it was not until the 1967 "Trip To Europe" shows that a Honeymooners story arc is finally used. ==History==

Origins In July 1950, Jackie Gleason became the host of Cavalcade of Stars, a variety show that aired on the struggling DuMont Television Network. After the first year, he and his writers Harry Crane and Joe Bigelow developed a sketch that drew upon familiar domestic situations for its material. Based on the popular radio show The Bickersons, Gleason wanted a realistic portrayal of life for a poor husband and wife living in Brooklyn, his home borough. The couple would continually argue but ultimately show their love for each other. After rejecting titles such as "The Beast", "The Lovers" and "The Couple Next Door", Gleason and his staff settled on "The Honeymooners". Gleason took the role of Ralph Kramden, a blustery bus driver, and he chose veteran comedy film actress Pert Kelton for the role of Alice Kramden, Ralph's acerbic and long-suffering wife. "The Honeymooners" debuted on October 5, 1951, as a six-minute sketch. Ensemble cast member Art Carney made a brief appearance as a police officer who is hit with flour that Ralph throws from the window. The tone of these early sketches was much darker than that of the later series, with Ralph exhibiting great bitterness and frustration with his marriage to an equally bitter and argumentative middle-aged woman (Kelton was nine years older than was Gleason). The Kramdens' financial struggles mirrored those of Gleason's early life in Brooklyn, and he took great pains to model the set on his memory of the apartment where he had lived. Jones's replacement was Audrey Meadows, known for her work in the 1951 Broadway musical Top Banana and on the Bob & Ray television show. However, Gleason was concerned that Meadows was too attractive to make a credible Alice. To convince him, Meadows hired a photographer to take pictures of her in the early morning with no makeup, clad in a torn housecoat and with her hair undone. When Gleason saw the photos, he said, "That's our Alice." When he learned that it was Meadows in the photos, he reportedly said, "Any dame who has a sense of humor like that deserves the job." Randolph received royalty payments when the "lost" Honeymooners episodes from the variety shows were released. The first episode of the new half-hour series aired on Saturday, October 1, 1955, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time opposite Ozark Jubilee on ABC and The Perry Como Show on NBC. Because the show was sponsored by Buick, the opening credits originally ended with a sponsor identification by announcer Jack Lescoulie ("Brought to you by your Buick dealer. And away we go!"), and the show concluded with a brief Gleason sales pitch for the company, all common practices at the time. All references to Buick were removed when the show entered syndication in 1957, although Gleason frequently said "And away we go!" frequently in various shows, and the quote is inscribed on his gravestone. The initial critical reaction to the half-hour sitcom Honeymooners was mixed. The New York Times and Broadcasting & Telecasting Magazine wrote that it was "labored" and lacked the spontaneity of the live sketches. But TV Guide praised it as "rollicking", "slapsticky" and "fast-paced". In February 1956, the show was moved to the 8:00 p.m. ET timeslot, but it already had begun losing viewers to the hugely popular Perry Como Show. Gleason's writers also had begun to feel confined by the restrictive half-hour format—in previous seasons, "The Honeymooners" sketches typically ran 35 minutes or more—and Gleason felt that were beginning to exhaust original ideas. After just one season, Gleason and CBS agreed to cancel The Honeymooners, which aired its 39th and final original episode on September22, 1956. In explaining his decision to end the show with $7million remaining on his contract, Gleason said, "The excellence of the material could not be maintained, and I had too much fondness for the show to cheapen it." Gleason subsequently sold the films of the "Classic 39" episodes of the show to CBS for $1.5million. ==Production==

s. In 1955, many television shows (including The Jackie Gleason Show) were performed live and recorded using kinescope technology, although many sitcoms were recorded on film, such as ''Amos 'n' Andy, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, My Little Margie and I Married Joan. I Love Lucy, which was recorded directly onto 35mm film, had influenced television production companies to produce directly on film. For The Honeymooners, Gleason utilized the Electronicam TV film system, developed by DuMont in the early 1950s, which allowed for a live performance to be directly captured on film. 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. In contrast to other popular comedies of the era (such as Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet), which depicted their characters in comfortable, middle-class suburban environments, Richard Rychtarik's set design for The Honeymooners reflected the blue-collar existence of its characters. The Kramdens lived in a small, sparsely furnished two-room apartment in a tenement building at least four stories high (the Kramdens lived on the third floor and the Nortons lived one floor above them). They used the single main room as the kitchen, dining and living room. It consisted of a table and chairs, a chest of drawers, a curtainless window with a painted backdrop view of a fire escape and adjoining tenements, a noisy sink and an outdated icebox. The Kramdens' bedroom never was seen. The music heard in the episodes was not performed during the show, so to enhance the feeling of a live performance for the studio audience, an orchestra performed before filming and during breaks. The show's original announcer was Jack Lescoulie, who also was a spokesman for the sponsor, Buick. For the unsponsored syndicated version, the introduction was voiced by CBS staff announcer Gaylord Avery. ==Revivals==

On September 29, 1956, one week after The Honeymooners ended as a weekly 30-minute series, The Jackie Gleason Show returned. "The Honeymooners" returned as part of the revived variety show. Eight episodes were produced as original full hour "Honeymooners" musicals with music and lyrics by Lyn Duddy and Jerry Bresler. The stories featured the Kramdens and Nortons touring Europe after winning a contest. Live musicals had become popular on live television following the success of the 1954-1955 live broadcasts of Mary Martin in Peter Pan as well as that of several Max Leibman original musicals. Including the musical episodes, a total of 20 skits of various lengths were performed that season, including restaging of several older skits. (One episode, featuring a remake of "Six Months of Live" is still missing.) In 1959, TV Guide magazine mentioned Gleason's interest in producing new Honeymooners shows. This did not happen for several years, but Gleason did team with Carney to revive an old Honeymooners scene for an October 1960 CBS special titled The Big Sell. After the spectacular failure of Gleason's 1961 game show ''You're in the Picture and the relative success of the eight-episode talk show that Gleason used to fill its time slot, his variety show returned in 1962 under the title Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine''. The "Honeymooners" sketches returned as part of the show whenever Carney was available. However, Meadows and Randolph were replaced by Sue Ane Langdon and Patricia Wilson for two sketches. In January 1966, Meadows returned on Gleason's American Scene Magazine variety series as Alice for "The Honeymooners: The Adoption", a reenactment of a 1955 non-musical sketch of the same name, with original songs added by Duddy and Bresler. When The Jackie Gleason Show, by then based at Gleason's relocated headquarters in Miami Beach, Florida, returned in 1966, the "Honeymooners" sketches, in color for the first time, featured Sheila MacRae and Jane Kean in the roles of Alice and Trixie, as Meadows and Randolph declined to relocate to Miami. Gleason did not object to recasting the roles of the wives but was adamant that the Ed Norton role should never be played by anyone other than Carney. The 1966 videotaped "Honeymooners" were also musical episodes that comprised 18 of the first season's 32 shows. Most of these were updated remakes of 1956-57 musical episodes with songs by Duddy and Bresler, expanded with new material. This include an addition episode added to the "Trip To Europe" sketches. Ten of these programs were syndicated for local stations as The Honeymooners Go to Europe and the 1966-1970 color hour shows were released on DVD as The Color Honeymooners. One notable 1967 segment featured the return of Pert Kelton (in one of her last performances before her death in 1968), but as Alice's mother. "The Honeymooners" ended again when CBS announced the cancellation of The Jackie Gleason Show on February 16, 1970, the result of a disagreement in direction between Gleason and the network. Gleason wanted to continue interspersing "The Honeymooners" within his regular variety show, while CBS wanted a full-hour "Honeymooners" every week. CBS's ongoing effort to move its product toward younger audiences and away from established variety show stars was another potential factor in the show's demise. On October 11, 1973, Gleason, Carney, MacRae and Kean reunited for a "Honeymooners" sketch titled "Women's Lib" as part of a Gleason special on CBS. Four final one-hour specials aired on ABC from 1976 to 1978, with Meadows returning as Alice and Kean as Trixie. These specials came at a time when Gleason and Carney were each achieving newfound expanded fame, with Gleason's prominent role in the box office smash Smokey and the Bandit and Carney winning an Academy Award for his leading role in Harry and Tonto. These were the final original "Honeymooners" productions. In May 2022, MPI released Jackie Gleason TV Treasures, which includes three previously unreleased "Honeymooners" sketches from the early 1960s, the 1966 musical remake of "The Honeymooners: The Adoption" episode and seven color "Honeymooners" sketch episodes not included in previous collections. ==Awards==

Carney won five Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Ed Norton—two for the original Jackie Gleason Show, one for The Honeymooners and two for the final version of The Jackie Gleason Show. He was nominated for another two in 1957 and 1966, but lost. Gleason and Meadows both were nominated in 1956 for their work on The Honeymooners. Gleason was nominated for Best Actor–Continuing Performance but lost to Phil Silvers, while Meadows was nominated for Best Actress-Supporting Role but lost to Nanette Fabray. Meadows also was nominated for Emmys for her portrayal of Alice Kramden in 1954 and 1957. The following table summarizes award wins by cast members, both for The Honeymooners and The Jackie Gleason Show. ==Broadcast history==

==Syndication and home media releases==

The Honeymooners gained its greatest fame in syndication, where it has aired continually since its original cancellation. As of 2026, WPIX in New York City has aired the series for more than five decades (after it had initially run in 1957–1958 on WRCA-TV), with occasional brief breaks. It regularly airs on WPIX, every year on Thanksgiving (along with an airing of March of the Wooden Soldiers afterwards), and with a marathon that begins on the final hour of New Year's Eve and runs well into New Year's Day. Reruns of the show also air on Catchy Comedy. In 1984, the Museum of Television and Radio announced the discovery of four original "Honeymooners" sketches from The Jackie Gleason Show, and response was overwhelmingly positive. In January 1985, Gleason announced the release of an additional group of "lost" episodes from his private vault. As with the previously released sketches, these "lost episodes" were actually kinescopes from the 1952–55 and 1956–57 runs of The Jackie Gleason Show. Because the prints had not been stored under ideal conditions, parts of the soundtracks of three episodes were unusable, and the voices had to be redubbed. Gleason personally approved the soundalike actors, with noted voice actor Joe Alaskey providing Ralph Kramden's lines. Gleason sold the broadcast rights to the "lost" episodes to Viacom, and they first were aired from 1985 to 1986 as a series of 68 22-minute episodes on the Showtime cable network. They since have joined the original 39 episodes in syndication and also have been released on VHS and DVD. It aired for the first time since then on October 16, 2004, its 50th anniversary, on TVLand. Viacom successor CBS Media Ventures, via CBS Broadcasting, owns the "Classic 39" series outright, while the Gleason estate owns the "lost episodes". Paramount Home Entertainment/CBS DVD released a six-disc DVD box set titled The Honeymooners "Classic 39" Episodes in November 2003 (only available in Region 1). The set contains all 39 episodes from the series' original 1955–56 broadcast run. Also included in the set is an edited version of a 1990 anniversary special hosted by Meadows as well as original show openings and closings sponsored by Buick that were removed when the show entered syndication. MPI Home Video released 80 of the "lost episodes" in Region 1 DVD format in 2001–02 on 24 single-disc volumes. MPI subsequently re-packaged the 24 volumes into six four-disc box sets. Production of the 24 individual volumes and the six four-disc box sets ceased in 2008, but MPI has since renewed its deal with Jackie Gleason Enterprises and has continued to release new editions of the "lost" episodes and other Honeymooners material not currently owned by CBS. In 2011, MPI announced the release of a completely restored set of all existing Honeymooners Lost Episodes from 1951 to 1957. The 50-hour, 15-DVD set contains 107 Honeymooners sketches and the home-video debut of the nine existing original DuMont Network sketches, six other sketches never before released on home video and the eight musical Honeymooners episodes from 1957 (the "Trip To Europe" shows). The set was released on October 4, 2011. In June 2006, MPI released The Color Honeymooners – Collection 1 (NTSC and PAL), which collects the "Trip to Europe" story arc presented on The Jackie Gleason Show in 1966. It has since released an additional three volumes featuring additional episodes from this story arc. AmericanLife TV Network has also aired The Color Honeymooners shows under license from Gleason Enterprises and Paul Brownstein Productions. In May 2022, MPI released Jackie Gleason TV Treasures, which includes three previously unreleased "Honeymooners" sketches from the early 1960s, the 1966 musical remake of "The Honeymooners: The Adoption" episode and seven color "Honeymooners" sketch episodes not included in previous collections. Paramount and CBS Home Entertainment released the 39 episodes on Blu-ray disc in March 2014. In Australia (Region 4), Shock Entertainment released "The Honeymooners - Classic 39 Episodes" five-disc set in NTSC format on November 13, 2009, rereleased on August 5, 2020. ==Impact==

• In 1997, the episodes "The $99,000 Answer" and "TV or Not TV" were respectively ranked No. 6 and No. 26 on "TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time". • In 1999, TV Guide published a list titled "TV's 100 Greatest Characters Ever!" Ed Norton was No. 20, and Ralph Kramden was No. 2. • In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked The Honeymooners #31 on their list of the 101 Best Written TV Series. • The instrument used for visible and infrared imaging on the New Horizons space probe was named after Ralph Kramden, in parallel to the Alice instrument (naming not related to the TV show). ==Legacy==

Because of its enduring popularity, The Honeymooners has been referenced numerous times in American pop culture, and has served as the inspiration for other television shows, most notably The Flintstones. The show also introduced memorable catchphrases into American culture such as "Bang, zoom, straight to the Moon!", "One of these days... one of these days...," "Homina, homina, homina," and "Baby, you're the greatest." The Flintstones In 1960, the Hanna-Barbera-produced animated sitcom The Flintstones debuted on ABC. Many critics and viewers noted the close resemblance of the show's premise and characters to those of The Honeymooners, and William Hanna and Joseph Barbera have both stated that The Honeymooners was among their inspirations for The Flintstones. Gleason later said that he considered suing but decided that becoming known as "the guy who yanked Fred Flintstone off the air" was not worth the negative publicity. The Honeymooners had been compared in its day to the similar comedy series The Bickersons as well as to the work of Laurel and Hardy (particularly Sons of the Desert). The Flintstones series and its spinoffs changed over the years and deviated from the similarities to The Honeymooners. Spoofs, parodies and importation • In the Futurama episode "The Series Has Landed", Ralph Kramden is believed to have been an early astronaut, due to his catchphrase (which Fry protests was "a metaphor for beating his wife"). • In the episode "Spanish Fry" of the same show, Lrrr says, "One of these days, Ndnd, bang! zoom! straight to the third moon of Omicron Persei 8!!" • The Moonlighting episode "A Trip to the Moon" contains a lengthy parody of The Honeymooners as The Bluemooners, with Bruce Willis as Ralph, Charles Rocket as Norton, Allyce Beasley as Trixie, and Cybill Shepherd as Alice. • The sitcom The King of Queens was partially inspired by The Honeymooners. The Honeymooners, among other shows, was parodied directly in a dream sequence in the episode "Inner Tube". • Robert McKimson would pay homage the show with a series of animated Looney Tunes shorts, in which the principal characters, Ralph and Alice Crumden and Ned and Trixie Morton, are depicted as mice and Ralph's "big dream" is to get enough cheese to impress Alice. These cartoons are The Honey-Mousers (1956), Cheese It, the Cat! (1957), and Mice Follies (1960). McKimson would also direct the 1956 Bugs Bunny cartoon Half-Fare Hare, in which Bugs is pitted against caricatures of Ralph and Ed as train-riding hoboes. • Friz Freleng would also reference the Honeymooners in the Sylvester and Tweety short Red Riding Hoodwinked (1955) also features the usually-cheerful Granny character taking on the role of blustery, female Ralph. In another Sylvester and Tweety cartoon, A Bird in a Bonnet (1958), when Sylvester falls into an open manhole, inside a voice like Ed Norton's says, "Whoo-hoo-hoo! Hey, look at this, Ralph, a pussycat." To which Sylvester simply peers out of the sewer to the audience. • The writer/comic Louis C.K. stated in an interview that he based the layout of Louie's apartment in the HBO show Lucky Louie on the Kramdens' apartment, in contrast to other shows such as The King of Queens that have very nicely decorated apartments despite the characters' professed low incomes. • Stan Freberg created a brief audio skit titled "The Honeyearthers", in which Ralph, Alice, Norton, and Trixie are aliens living on the moon. In keeping with the 1950s ideas of what aliens would look like, they have two heads, one eye, one ear, four hands, three feet and antennae. Ralph drives a rocket ship and Norton works in a "green cheese mine". At the end of the skit, Ralph offers to take Alice on a "honeyearth" to renew their marriage. • In Back to the Future (1985) George McFly (Crispin Glover) and his older son Dave (Marc McClure) are seen cracking up in nerdy fashion while watching the episode "The Man from Space". After his younger son Marty (Michael J. Fox) goes back in time to November 5, 1955, he watches the same episode at the home of his then-teenaged mother Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson), where her father (George DiCenzo) wheels their newly acquired television set in front of the family table, saying giddily: "Now we can watch Jackie Gleason while we eat!" – a reference to the TV series. In real life though, November 5, 1955 was the day "The Sleepwalker" aired, while "The Man from Space" aired on December 31. • In the 21 Jump Street season 3 episode "High High" (where the Jump Street team is assigned to go undercover at a performing arts school), Doug Penhall cites The Honeymooners as one of his favorite shows growing up. Towards the end, he reenacts a scene from the episode "Young Man with a Horn" for acting class. • The Honeymooners was spoofed in an episode of Perfect Strangers as a result of the character Balki Bartoukomos (Bronson Pinchot)'s spinning an extended metaphor about the characters' existential situation to an episode of The Honeymooners he had once seen; Balki's description of the episode is shown in a black-and-white flashback. • As Ralph Kramden was a New York City bus driver, one of the service depots in Brooklyn was renamed the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot in 1988. All buses that originate from the bus depot bear a sticker on the front that has a logo derived from the "face on the Moon" opening credits of The Honeymooners. The MTA also took 1948 GM-TDH5101 bus number 4789, renumbered it to 2969 and made it the 'official Jackie Gleason bus'. • A statue of Gleason as Ralph Kramden stands at the Eighth Avenue entrance to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. The plaque on the base of the statue reads, "Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden — Bus Driver — Raccoon Lodge Treasurer — Dreamer — Presented by the People of TV Land" • An episode of The Simpsons, "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution", includes a fictional rip-off of The Honeymooners called The Adventures of Fatso Flannigan. • In 2011, an adult parody titled The Honeymoaners was released by DreamZone Entertainment, with Peter O'Tole as Ralph and Anthony Rosano as Ed. Both actors also played Fred and Barney in The Flintstones – A XXX Parody, an adult parody of the Flintstones, which have a resemblance to the show (as mentioned above). The plot of the parody is similar to the episode "The $99,000 Answer", only here the show is called "The $69,000 Answer" and Ralph is answering questions about sex. • The Honeymooners was spoofed in episode 22 of the first season of Saturday Night Live (then known as NBC's Saturday Night) in a sketch featuring The Killer Bees (referenced as 'The Bees' in this particular episode). John Belushi took the role of Ralph, with Gilda Radner as Alice, Dan Aykroyd as Norton, and Jane Curtin as Trixie. • The first adult film parody of the show, Honeymooners, premiered in 1976 and starred John Leslie as the Ralph Kramden character. • The Toronto Coach Terminal included a restaurant and bar named Kramden's Kafe from 1990 until 2013. • The Honeymooners was partly the inspiration for the Nickelodeon series Kenan & Kel. • In 1988 Ron Jeremy led a cast of adult performers in the critically panned The Horneymooners. • Seth MacFarlane's "Family Guy" has parodied it on numerous occasions. Adaptations and remakes The success of The Honeymooners in countries outside the United States has led to the production of new shows based entirely on it. International remakes ), inspired by Ralph Kramden in Miodowe lata ========== Two series, 26 episodes in all were made for RCTI in 1996. It was the first sitcom of that style ever attempted in Indonesia. It was titled Detak Detik (Ticking Seconds) and starred Mat Sola as the Jackie Gleason character. Art Carney rang the cast prior to production to give them his best wishes. It was decided to make Mat Sola a Silver Bird taxi driver, as they had a bit more prestige in Indonesia. They left Nurbuat, who mirrored Ed Norton, as a sewerage worker. The chemistry worked well. The series had to remove any references to alcohol, as Indonesia is a country with a Muslim majority population. ========== French Canada was entertained for years in the 1960s and '70s by a sitcom titled Cré Basile, with Olivier Guimond, Béatrice Picard, Denis Drouin and Amulette Garneau, which was an uncredited Quebecois version of The Honeymooners. It could, by contemporary standards, qualify as plagiarism. ========== In 1994, the Dutch broadcasting network KRO produced a version of The Honeymooners titled Toen Was Geluk Heel Gewoon (Back then happiness was common), using translated scripts of the original series but changing its setting to 1950s Rotterdam. After the original 39 scripts were exhausted, the series' lead actors, Gerard Cox and Sjoerd Pleijsier, took over writing, adding many new characters and references to Dutch history and popular culture. The series was a hit in the Netherlands and it finished its run after 16 years and 229 episodes in June 2009. The actors reprised their characters five years later in a feature-length movie. ========== In 1994, the Swedish network TV4 produced a version of The Honeymooners titled Rena Rama Rolf, but changing its setting to contemporary Gothenburg, where Rolf (Ralph), played by Lasse Brandeby, is working as a streetcar driver. The show ran until 1998. ========== In 1998, the Polish network Polsat produced a version of The Honeymooners titled Miodowe lata which translates to "Honey years" (because in Polish a honeymoon is translated as a "honey month"), using both translated scripts of the original series and new ones, but changing its setting to modern-day Warsaw. The original series ran until 2003 and was continued in 2004 as Całkiem nowe lata miodowe. Comics Vince Musacchia created a comic book series based on The Honeymooners for Hypergraphics between 1987 and 1989. Film On June 10, 2005, a feature film remake of The Honeymooners was released, featuring a predominantly African American cast. The roles of Ralph, Alice, Ed, and Trixie were played by Cedric the Entertainer, Gabrielle Union, Mike Epps, and Regina Hall, respectively. The movie was a critical and commercial failure, earning slightly more than US$13 million worldwide. The film was released by Paramount Pictures. Video game In 1988, First Row Software released a Honeymooners computer game for Commodore 64 and MS-DOS. The game involves the Kramdens and Nortons trying to earn $223 for train fare to Miami Beach, where Ralph wants to host the annual Raccoon Lodge convention, by playing a variety of mini-games related to the series. Additionally, players have the option of trying to double their money after each round by answering a Honeymooners-related question in a bonus round based on "The $99,000 Answer" episode. Reboots In December 2016, a CBS reboot of The Honeymooners with Bob Kushell writing and executive producing the series was announced but it never came to fruition. Producers Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Eric & Kim Tannenbaum, and Jeff Greenstein were also announced as part of the development deal. In January 2022, a CBS reboot of The Honeymooners with Damon Wayans Jr. executive producing the series was announced. Musical In September 2017, Paper Mill Playhouse produced the world-premiere of a musical adaptation of The Honeymooners, starring Michael McGrath as Ralph, Michael Mastro as Ed, Leslie Kritzer as Alice, and Laura Bell Bundy as Trixie. The musical had a book by Dusty Kay and Bill Nuss, with music by Stephen Weiner and lyrics by Peter Mills. It was directed by John Rando and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse. ==Further reading==