I'll have to admit to something that's somewhat embarrassing as I recall watching 'The Honeymooners' when it first aired in 1955. It's rather amazing that I actually remember this, because I was only four years old at the time. Saturday night was bath night, and my Mom would place me in a large wash basin on the kitchen table so I could see the television in the living room. If memory serves correctly, the lead in to 'The Honeymooners' was a game show called 'Beat the Clock', but I could be all wet on that, as I would have been taking that bath.Well if you're of a younger generation reading this and have never seen 'The Honeymooners', you owe it to yourself to sample some of those classic episodes. Jackie Gleason himself would be the first to admit that 'they're a riot Alice'. Gleason portrayed the show's lead character, Ralph Kramden, a driver for the Gotham Bus Company, and Alice was his wife, played by Audrey Meadows. Rounding out the principal cast were Art Carney as upstairs neighbor Ed Norton, and his wife Trixie, portrayed by Joyce Randolph. Besides the sheer humor of the show, it's also a great time capsule reminder of how life used to be in the mid-Fifties. The Kramdens and the Nortons lived in an apartment building in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn at 328 Chauncey Street. Ralph made sixty two dollars a week driving that city bus, while Alice took on a part time job baby sitting in one story for fifty cents an hour! The janitor of the apartment building made a hundred fifty dollars a month and got his rent thrown in for free, which was a big enough deal for Ralph to take on the job for a short while with hilarious results. A lot of, if not most of the stories dealt with some big idea or get-rich-quick scheme Ralph came up with that always ended in disaster. He would compound his problems with an attitude of superiority and chauvinism that would generally lead to an embarrassing let down. His pal Norton would often supply the voice of reason, but even some of his ides would backfire and the pair would have to come back the following week with an entirely new scheme. Through it all, the wives stood by their men through thick and thin, but not before getting in their own hilarious two cents worth.If you're a long time fan of The Honeymooners, no doubt you'll recall such classic phrases as Ed Norton's 'Hello, ball', Ralph's 'Bang, Zoom' when confronting Alice, and his classic 'Homina, homina, homina' when words failed to come to mind in yet another, classic, embarrassing situation. It's that kind of stuff I remember that stayed with me all these years catching the show in re-runs and on disc. And every time Ralph had to put his tail between his legs, Alice would be there to lend support in such a way that Ralph would have to admit, "Baby, you're the greatest".

Let's face it, there will never be a show like The Honeymooners with the great, Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph again. Gleason plays bus driver, Ralph Kramden, and Meadows plays his long-suffering, loving, and supportive wife, Alice. Carney is the dim-witted sewer neighbor and best friend with Randolph as his loving wife, Trixie. The episodes were always excellent and it is shown annually in a marathon on New Year's Day in the New York City area. I still think the writing, the acting, the comic genius timing of the cast, and the chemistry is what made it unforgettable. While it only lasted a season or two, even then network executives did not know the brilliance and canceled it after forty episodes maybe because of Gleason or whatever. The show is a brilliant legacy of New York City television in the golden age where shows were filmed in New York City. The Honeymooners will be forever immortal with DVD collections. For those of us, my father was one of the show's biggest fans and would watch it religiously at 11:30 every night. The channel stopped showing it at that time. It was replaced repeatedly with more colorized shows but the magic was gone. The Honeymooners will live forever in the hearts and minds of us who have grown up with it and were thrilled to find the lost episodes. This show is a classic because it has transcend time. It relates to the same problems as the working class of the 1950s for the 21st century. Even in Black and White, it's still gorgeous, unforgettable, timely, classic, and just brilliant comedy.

I love the Honeymooners. I remember watching it on channel 11 with my mother long after I was supposed to be in bed. Some of the lines Ralph and Norton have are just hysterical. They know how to deliver them in a way to seem natural and funny. I know that some of it was ad lib and that is what makes it even better. These 2 actors could just come up with these lines and go back and forth with each other without any hesitation. The episodes with Alices mother are the best. I love it when Ralph starts yelling at her that she's a blabbermouth. My favorite episode of all is the Christmas episode. I love Ed's reaction to the pan under the icebox. I wish they would put this show back on but until then I will just have to watch them at my brothers house on DVD.

Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden was one of the first veraciously developed blue collar American television characters.Ralph Kramden was very real. Never before had a TV character hollered, and bellowed the way Ralph and Alice did. When Ralph and Alice quarreled, it made for a very believable fight. Compare this to any "fight" displayed by the Dick Van Dyke Show's Rob and Laura Petrie; and the Kramdens emerge as the more believable, and honest of the two couples. The Honeymooners brought us such intense moments like Ralph fulminating "Your a blabber mouth" at his mother in law, and Ralph and Alice showing their commiseration over giving back their adopted daughter. The latter example was true character development that was lacking in the next decade to come. It would be nearly 15 years before we would be introduced to the next generation of the blue collar worker, in the form of Archie Bunker and Fred Sanford. Although Archie and Fred had flaws to their personas, Like Ralph Kramden, Archie and Fred would prove to be likable, and sensitive individuals, who grew with each season.The years that followed the Honeymooners would bring us shows like Father Knows best, and the Donna Reed Show. Unlike the Honeymooners, the aforementioned programs, never seemed to adequately deal with "real" problems, like finances or believable moral dilemmas. Most of the time the problems faced by the Andersons (Father Knows Best), or Stones (Donna Reed) were usually laughable, and lightweight at best, thus providing for poor character development. The Honeymooners did not need to rely on one liners, as they could deliver with character development. Nearly 50 years after the Honeymooners original run, the show continues to bring laughs to new generations in syndication. Along with the characters of Ralph, Alice, Norton, and Trixie, the humor and story-lines have proved themselves timeless. The Honeymooners will always be funny, and a pleasure to watch. This is something that many shows today will never claim or come close to.