The Top 50 TV Shows of All-Time: #3
#3- "THE HONEYMOONERS" CBS 1955-1956------------------------------------------------
This one's the granddaddy. The "Classic 39" episodes of "The Honeymooners" were lifted from the variety treasure chest of Jackie Gleason's "Cavalcade of Stars," with the Great One starring as underdog New York City busdriver Ralph Kramden, he of the larger-than-life physique and larger-than-life ambitions for himself and bride Alice, played by Audrey Meadows, who gave as good as she got and might still be the most self-assured, empowered woman ever presented on the small screen. Art Carney portrayed Ralph's jack-in-the-box neighbor and first pal Ed Norton, pride of the city sewers, and Joyce Randolph was Norton's wife, Trixie. More than a half-century later, the program still commands a national prime-time audience in reruns every Sunday night on the WGN America cable channel, owing its longevity to its excellent performances, the palpable energy of the show having been presented with little rehearsal and without edit before a live studio audience, and to Gleason's titanic stage presence. New York City's television superstation WPIX aired reruns of the program nightly for more than 20 years. The "Classic 39" episodes were originally aired over the course of only one season, but the premise of the show, under Gleason's hand, was produced under different formats for close to 30 years--first as sketch, then, situation comedy, and later, as revival, sometimes with different supporting players, on film and on video, in both black-and-white and color, and even as a musical. The basic living room set throughout consisted only of a table and chairs, a bureau, a sink, an old-fashioned icebox, and a curtainless window. The show instead was all character, and Gleason's Kramden may just be the most quintessentially "American" figure in the medium's history, thanks to his bluster, short temper, and obsessive dreams of upward-mobility and that ever-elusive financial jackpot. In a bronze memorial presented earlier this decade, TV Land acclaimed the series' star as "Ralph Kramden: Bus Driver- Raccoon Lodge Treasurer- Dreamer."
Here's a picture of me (a rare glimpse indeed) taken earlier this year in front of that memorial, a monument to the man, at the Eighth Avenue entrance of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.
posted by CM @ 9:00 PM
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