The Honeymooners General Discussion

[Primetimer]

Quote

Ms. Randolph, who played Trixie Norton in the classic sitcom, was the last survivor of a cast of four that dominated Saturday night TV.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/14/obituaries/joyce-randolph-dead.html

[Tom Holmberg]

Sad.  The show is still funny, despite some un-PC elements.  Quite different from the other sitcoms of that era.

[Gemma Violet]

I'm glad this thread was set up.  There's got to be a lot of Honeymooners fans like me out there. 

Tonight's episode (on MeTV) was the $99,000 Answer, where a very nervous Ralph is asked what he does for a living:

Ralph:  I brive a dus.

Emcee:  You brive a dus?

Ralph:  I dus a brive.

[Blergh]

Mr. Gleason KNEW what was funny and what wasn't! For instance, despite Ralph and Alice one time considering adoption, he made sure that both couples were childless because 'adults struggling was funny but kids struggling was NOT' [and he knew that firsthand].

 Also, when he did the sketches in the mid 1960's and had Sheila MacRae playing Alice, during rehearsal he noticed her tearing up and asked her what was up. She replied 'This Alice cries.'

Without missing a beat, he declared 'Not on MY show. If you cry, everyone'll hate me!'

And from that point Mrs. MacRae stayed as stoic as Miss Meadows had been during his bluster!

[annzeepark914]

As a kid watching that show, I was always a bit afraid of Ralph Kramden (all that yelling). But I loved it when Ed and Trixie showed up, especially Ed and his stories about working in the sewers. 

[Blergh]

One interesting 'behind the scenes' fact is that, contrary to most pre-1970 performers [including Art Carney and the recently deceased Joyce Randolph], Audrey Meadows DID get paid royalties for the series' reruns the rest of her life.

That's because, in addition to her and her elder sister Jayne being performers, her missionary parents [with the surname of Cotter- not Meadows] had made sure that both their sons had become lawyers and the brother, in turn, were happy to use their skills make sure that the  exec producer and star  Mr. Gleason didn't nickle-and-dime their baby sister!

BTW, although she spent most of her preteen life in [of all places] Wuhan, China, before the family permanently relocated back to the United States, Miss Meadows had been the only one of the four  offspring to have been born in New York City instead of China!

[Gemma Violet]

Every time Trixie enters the scene, I always notice her hair, especially from the back.  It's so shiny and bouncy and perfectly coifed.  Alice had more of a matronly hairdo.  Sort of like their apartments--the Kramdens' was cold-looking and bare, without even a curtain for the window, and the Nortons' was warm and decorative.