The Honeymooners

The Honeymooners is an American television sitcom that originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It follows the lives of New York City bus driver Ralph Kramden (Gleason), his wife Alice (Audrey Meadows), Ralph's best friend Ed Norton (Art Carney) and Ed's wife Trixie (Joyce Randolph) as they get involved with various schemes in their day-to-day living.
Most episodes revolve around Ralph's poor choices in absurd dilemmas that frequently show his judgmental attitude in a comedic tone. The show occasionally features more serious issues such as women's rights and social status.
The original comedy sketches first aired on the DuMont network's variety series Cavalcade of Stars, which Gleason hosted, and subsequently on the CBS network's The Jackie Gleason Show, which was broadcast live in front of a theater audience. The popularity of the sketches led Gleason to rework The Honeymooners as a filmed half-hour series, which debuted on CBS on October 1, 1955, replacing the variety series. It was initially a ratings success as the No. 2 show in the United States, facing stiff competition from The Perry Como Show on NBC. Gleason's show eventually dropped to No. 19, and production ended after 39 episodes (now referred to as the "Classic 39 episodes").
The final episode of The Honeymooners aired on September 22, 1956, and Gleason sporadically revived the characters until 1978. The Honeymooners was one of the first U.S. television shows to portray working-class married couples in a gritty, non-idyllic manner, as the show is mostly set in the Kramdens' kitchen in a neglected Brooklyn apartment building. One of the sponsors of the show was Buick.
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.
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. 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.
Alice (née Alice Gibson), played in the first nine skits from 1951 to January 1952 by Pert Kelton, by Audrey Meadows until 1966, 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.
Another foil for Ralph is Alice's mother, who is even sharper-tongued than her daughter and despises Ralph as a bad provider. Alice's father is occasionally mentioned, but never seen. Alice's sister Agnes appears in episode 22, "Here Comes The Bride". (Ralph jeopardizes his newlywed sister-in-law's marriage after giving some bad advice to the groom, but it all works out in the end). Ralph and Alice lived with her mother for six years after getting married before they got their own apartment. In a 1967 revival, Ralph refers to Alice (played by MacRae in 1966–70 and once more in 1973) as being one of 12 children, and to her father as never working.
The Honeymooners originally appeared as a sketch on the DuMont Network's Cavalcade of Stars, with the role of Alice played by Pert Kelton (1907–1968). When his contract with DuMont expired, Gleason moved to the CBS network where he had The Jackie Gleason Show, and the role of Alice went to Audrey Meadows because Kelton had been blacklisted. According to playwright Arthur Miller, a family friend, writing many years later in his autobiography Timebends: A Life, extensive inquiries finally revealed that her blacklisting was due to the fact that her husband Ralph had, many years earlier, marched in a May Day parade. "Ralph, I knew, had absolutely no leftist connections whatever but had simply thrown himself in with a gang of actors protesting whatever it was that year, and Pert had never even voted in her life."
The character's name is mentioned in the 1998 American stoner comedy film Half Baked in the lyrics to the song by the movie's character "Sir Smoka-Alot".
Played by Art Carney; a New York City municipal sewer worker and Ralph's best friend (and upstairs neighbor). He is considerably more good-natured than Ralph, but nonetheless trades insults with him on a regular basis. Ed (typically called "Norton" by Ralph and sometimes by his own wife, Trixie) often gets mixed up in Ralph's schemes. His carefree and rather dimwitted nature usually results in raising Ralph's ire, while Ralph often showers him with verbal abuse and throws him out of the apartment when Ed irritates him. In most episodes, Ed is shown to be better-read, better-liked, more worldly and more even-tempered than Ralph, despite his unassuming manner and the fact that he usually lets Ralph take the lead in their escapades. Ed and Ralph both are members of the fictional Raccoon Lodge. Like Ralph, Ed enjoys and is good at bowling and playing pool. Unlike Ralph, Ed is good at ping-pong.
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 $730 in 2024 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, and for Yogi Bear (in terms of design, clothing, and mannerisms). 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 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 1955–56 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.
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 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.
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 sequences — 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.
In most episodes, Ralph's short temper got the best of him, leading him to yell at others and to threaten comical physical violence, usually against Alice. Ralph's favorite threats to her were "One of these days ... One of these days ... Pow! right in the kisser!" or to knock her "to the Moon, Alice!" (Sometimes this last threat was simply abbreviated: as "Bang, zoom!") On other occasions, Ralph simply told Alice, "Oh, are you gonna get yours." All of this led to criticism, more than 40 years later, that the show displayed an ironic acceptance of domestic violence. 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 other — 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.
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. The Kramdens—and later the Nortons when those characters were added—are childless, an issue only occasionally explored, but a condition upon which Gleason insisted. Ralph and Alice did legally adopt a baby girl whom they named Ralphina. However, the biological mother requested to have her baby returned. A few later sketches had Ralph mistakenly believe that Alice was pregnant.
Early cast additions in later sketches were upstairs neighbors Ed and Trixie Norton. Ed was a sewer worker and Ralph's best friend, although his innocent and guileless nature was the source of many arguments between the two men. Trixie (maiden name never mentioned), Ed's wife, was originally portrayed by Elaine Stritch as a burlesque dancer, but was replaced after just one appearance by the more wholesome-looking Joyce Randolph. Trixie is a foil to Ed, just as Alice is to Ralph, but often offscreen.
With the colorful array of characters whom Gleason had invented, including the cast of "The Honeymooners" sketches, Cavalcade of Stars became a great success for DuMont and increased its audience share from 9% to 25%. Gleason's contract with DuMont expired in the summer of 1952, and the financially struggling network (which suffered through ten rounds of layoffs from July through October 1953) was unable to retain him, and he moved to CBS.
In July 1952, CBS president William S. Paley sent Gleason and his cast on a highly successful nationwide five-week promotional tour, performing musical numbers and sketches (including the popular "The Honeymooners"). However, Kelton, who played Alice Kramden and other roles, was blacklisted and replaced on the tour by Beulah actress Ginger Jones, who also became blacklisted (having earlier been named on the Red Channels blacklist) by CBS. As a result, yet another Alice was needed.
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." The lineup of Gleason, Carney, Meadows and Randolph was now in place.
The increasingly popular "The Honeymooners" sketches were prominent in episodes of The Jackie Gleason Show variety show. During the first season, they appeared on a regular basis (although not weekly) as a series of short sketches ranging in length from seven to thirteen minutes. For the 1953–54 season, the shorter sketches were outnumbered by ones that ran for 30 minutes or longer. During the 1954–55 season, most episodes of The Jackie Gleason Show consisted entirely of "The Honeymooners". Fan response became overwhelming, and Meadows received hundreds of curtains and aprons in the mail from fans who wanted to help Alice lead a fancier life. By January 1955, The Jackie Gleason Show was competing with—and sometimes beating—I Love Lucy as the most-watched television show in the United States. Audience members would queue around the block hours in advance in order to attend the show.
The "Classic 39" episodes of The Honeymooners are those that originally aired as a weekly half-hour sitcom on CBS from October 1955 to September 1956.
Before Gleason's initial three-year contract with CBS expired, he was offered a much larger contract by CBS and General Motors' Buick division. The three-year contract, reportedly valued at $11 million (about $129 million now), was one of the largest in showbusiness history at the time. It called for Gleason to produce 78 filmed episodes of The Honeymooners over two seasons, with an option for a third season of 39 more. He was scheduled to receive $65,000 for each episode ($761,000 now) and $70,000 per episode in the second season ($820,000 now), but he had to pay all production costs out of that amount. Art Carney received $3,500 per week ($41,000 now), Audrey Meadows $2,000 ($23,000 now), and Joyce Randolph (who did not appear in every episode) $500 per week ($5,900 now). Production was handled by Jackie Gleason Enterprises Inc., which also produced Stage Show, a program that aired directly before episodes of The Honeymooners and starred the Dorsey Brothers. Meadows, who later became a banker, was reportedly the only cast member to receive residuals when the "Classic 39" episodes were rebroadcast in syndication because her brother Edward, a lawyer, had inserted language to that effect into her contract. 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 September 22, 1956. In explaining his decision to end the show with $7 million 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 $1.5 million.
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.
All 39 episodes of The Honeymooners were filmed at the DuMont Television Network's Adelphi Theatre at 152 West 54th Street in Manhattan before an audience of 1,000. Episodes were never fully rehearsed because Gleason felt that rehearsals would rob the show of its spontaneity. As a result, mistakes often were made, with lines recited incorrectly or altogether forgotten, and actors did not always follow the scripted action directions. To compensate, the cast developed visual cues for each other. For example, Gleason patted his stomach when he forgot a line, while Meadows would glance at the icebox when someone else was supposed to retrieve something from it.
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. One of the few other sitcoms about a blue-collar family was The Life of Riley, a show that featured Gleason in its first season (1949–50).
The instrumental theme song for The Honeymooners, titled "You're My Greatest Love", was composed by Gleason and performed by an orchestra led by Ray Bloch, previously the orchestra leader for Gleason's variety show as well as for The Ed Sullivan Show. Although lyrics were composed, they were never sung. Sammy Spear, who later became Gleason's musical director, provided the arrangement. 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.
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.
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.
The Honeymooners gained its greatest fame in syndication, where it has aired continually since its original cancellation. 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 with a marathon that begins on the final hour of New Year's Eve and runs well into New Year's Day. In the United Kingdom, it originally aired on ITV between 1958–1963. BBC Two aired 38 of the original 39 episodes beginning in 1989 and ending in 1991. The show also has aired in Australia, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Ireland and Suriname. It previously was seen on WGN America from June 2008 to September 2009 and on Me-TV from December 2010 to September 2011. In April 2012, the show returned to Me-TV. The show currently airs on the network on Sunday nights. 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. In September 2004, another "lost" episode was discovered at the Peabody Award archives in Georgia. The episode, titled "Love Letter", originally aired on The Jackie Gleason Show on October 16, 1954. 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.
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."
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.
The success of The Honeymooners in countries outside the United States has led to the production of new shows based entirely on it.
Two series, 26 episodes in all were made for R.C.T.I. 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.
Vince Musacchia created a comic book series based on The Honeymooners for Hypergraphics between 1987 and 1989.
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.
In 1988, First Row Software released a Honeymooners computer game for the Commodore 64 and DOS systems. 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.
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.
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.