The Jackie Gleason Show

Having watched "The Honeymooners" enthusiastically with the rest of America during The Golden Age of Television in the 1950s, revisiting it in 2020 is not so enjoyable. Jackie Gleason, long celebrated as a comedic great, well, here, his Ralph Kramden character hasn't aged well. What was funny, even hilarious 60 plus years ago is today too often offensive. The antics of Ralph Kramden significantly tag him as more repulsive than engaging. Of course, this program needs to be evaluated in the context of the era in which it was presented. For it's time, one of cultural standards and values differing greatly from today, it's popularity during its heyday can be understood. For a 21st century viewer it can rub you the wrong way, enjoyable only with the understanding that it's an entertainment relic from times long past.

And now it's been 60 years, more or less, since the peak of the Jackie Gleason Show. I don't know how many geezers in 1954 pined for the good old days of Harrigan & Hart, and it seems odd that the present day senior citizens cackle at their memories of Jackie Gleason. In 1954, there was no videotape of the 1890s which the old folks could refer to for a cold splash of reality and maybe put an end to their babbling. But now there is a filmed record of the early 1950s TV shows of Gleason, Jimmy Durante, the Ritz Brothers, Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle et al, and you can watch most of them on Youtube. Painfully dumb is the only way to describe most of it. I just finished watching a 1951 clip featuring Reggie van Gleason, III. The Three Stooges are high art in comparison.

If I could reach into a barrel of all of Gleason's skits and pull some out at random to create a complete show, I would find:

At the top of the show, he recites verbatim the Mutt & Jeff cartoon from the previous Sunday funnies.

Ralph: One of these days Alice, Pow! right in the kisser.

Charlie Bratton: Hey Clem, what's that slop you're eating? Clem: Some day I'm going to kill that man.

Fenwick Babbit unbuttons and rebuttons a sweater with about 30 buttons and says "You're a nice man".

Reggie: Mmm boy are you fat.

Stanley Sogg: Tonight's movie is brought to you by Mother Fletcher.

Weirdo: I'm with you. Jackie: Oh no you're not!

I can't find any Rudy the Repairman quotes and you needn't look for any on my account. This show may have been a landmark of early television but it has very little entertainment value today.

The great one, Jackie Gleason, was the center of this show. He always had great support with Art Carney for years one of the best and most under rated second bananas in history. When you watched this show, Gleason was the glue.

The show would always open with Sammy Spear & his Orchestra playing a number, with the June Taylor Dancers on screen doing a major dance including those now often copied ceiling shots down on them in formation. Jackie would then always come out on stage, usually in his bath robe. He would do some monologue comedy which Gleason was good at, and would always finish it with "Let's have a little traveling music Sammy....And Away We go..." Then we'd go into the delightful worlds of Gleason comedy. There was a lot more to this program than just The Honeymooners. Gleasons range went from that to the Poor Sole doing silent comedy, to Reginald Van Gleason. Usually most shows would feature a stop to see Joe the Bartender (Gleason) who along with Frank Fontaine (Crazy Gogenheim) would regal the viewers into a comfort zone only Gleason could create.

There were guest stars who would work with Gleason, sometimes more music & dancing. Regardless who was on, the variety found on Gleason almost always was sure to please. The 1960's revival got too dependent on the Honeymooners towards the end and got away from the variety format.

One thing sure, Gleason proved over & over again on his variety show how talented he was & what a range he had. All that and he never won an TV Emmy award. It amazes me that the TV academy never gave him a lifetime achievement award even now because Gleason made major contributions to early television becoming accepted into peoples homes. Without Gleason, Red Skelton, Lucy and Ed Sullivan, I am not sure CBS would have survived any more than the Dumont network which fell apart when Gleason left it.

They don't do TV like this anymore. No. Seriously. That was not meant as a cliché. They literally don't do TV like this anymore. And that is in spite of the fact that much of what Gleason developed in the course of this show has been borrowed, copied, and shamelessly imitated by hundreds of current writers and producers over the last half-century. No matter whether he won any awards at the time. No matter that, when the show finally went off the air, CBC paid him more money NOT to work anywhere else than had ever been paid before. (Much like when Johnny Carson woke up one day and realized that his show was NBC's largest cash cow, and demanded a new contract, NBC correspondingly paid HIM more than any other "host" had ever seen). Gleason's greatest creation, the Honeymooners, has been spiffed and riffed moreso than any other concept you can think of. The Bugs Bunny people even did an entire cartoon, played by "mice" versions of Gleason and Carney. If you are lucky enough to get a chance to see a Honeymooners episode (many were stripped out and played on their own for years after) you will (or should be) astonished at how much punch the actors got, considering the sets were cardboard and the props were something from a lawn sale. Which is not to take away from Gleason's other talents or even his other creations, like the Poor Soul and the Bartender, but Honeymooners was the top of his craft. At the end of each show, after telling jokes, acting, and dancing, Gleason often needed a towel because he was pouring in sweat. You don't see that anymore today either. If by any chance you only know Gleason from forgettable walk-ons in films like Cannonball Run, and never saw this show, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

For all the love people have (myself included) for 'The Honeymooners', it's indisputable that some of Gleason's antics as Ralph Kramden are no longer viewed in the way they were then. So I tip the hat to the overall creativeness and gifted performances by the cast and people behind the camera. Minor roles were often filled by fine actors. I was even impressed with little Ralph Robertson, the boy who played Tommy in "Hero"-the kid was a completely natural talent. Along with Carney, Gleason, et al, he fit right in.