The Honeymooner Lost Episodes 60th Anniversary Edition (1 Viewer)

[Mark Y]

Good news- not only will the new set include the surviving Pert Kelton footage, but for the first time anywhere, all eight of the B/W "Trip to Europe" shows! http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Jackie-Gleason-The-Honeymooners-Lost-Episodes-The-Complete-Restored-Series/15757

Great news! Next question: Is there any documentation of how many Honeymooners skits they actually did on the DuMont network? The Wikipedia references to all "known" sketches and calling the Christmas one the "last surviving" sketch suggests/implies that they did more -- I should check the couple of Honeymooners books I have, I wonder if it would say in there.

 

[jdee28]

The set sounds great! A must buy for me; hopefully it'll live up to its description Beyond episode inclusion, what would make this set truly out of this world would be to include, as an extra, the wrap-around footage of the Jackie Gleason Show that each Honeymooners skit was apart of. But I won't hold my breath on that one; maybe for the 75th Anniversary edition, if we're all around then

 

[DeWilson]

Great news! Next question: Is there any documentation of how many Honeymooners skits they actually did on the DuMont network? The Wikipedia references to all "known" sketches and calling the Christmas one the "last surviving" sketch suggests/implies that they did more -- I should check the couple of Honeymooners books I have, I wonder if it would say in there.

I wonder where the data might be found. TV GUIDE was only regional then, so there's at least a NYC edition - but would it mention the skits on the show that week?

 

[DeWilson]

They would have to lease that material from the company that controls of the Sullivan show, SOFA Entertainment. If SOFA hasn't released this material yet and if it presumably has value, I would think SOFA would release it themselves rather than lease it. Of course there could be problems with the rights to the characters if the Gleason estate owns those rights.

Not necessarily - there's something like 400+ hours of existing ED SULLIVAN shows that have not seen the light of day in TV packages or on DVD. - Other "key" non-music/non-musical material in the Sullivan collection are 6 TV appearances by THE THREE STOOGES - Moe,Larry, and Curry Joe.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

EXCELLENT NEWS - I can't believe it! - I've always wanted something like this! I have been re-watching the old 23 MPI DVD's many times, and always wished they'd do a better release. The Lost Episodes are very underrated, and at this point in my fandom I actually prefer watching them instead of the very tired "Classic 39" shows. Anyone know if these will be in chronlogical order? That would really be an added benefit.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

That's what I wondered, too. The only logical thing would be for them to be in chronological order, but in the looney world of DVDs, who knows what they'll do? In the I'm Never Happy Dept., I don't quite understand why other parts of "The Jackie Gleason Show" are never included. He played many other characters besides Ralph Kramden. While I'm rambling on, here's a blast from the dear old days that no longer exist. For two weeks in November of 1954, the four stars of "The Honeymooners" sketches and other members of the Gleason entourage (like the beloved June Taylor dancers) did a live stage show along with the movie "Drum Beat" at the Paramount Theater in Times Square in NYC. They did six shows a day, the first at 10 A.M. and the last at midnight. It's hard to imagine The Great One, who even hated to rehearse, doing that, but he did.

 

[Charles Ellis]

I would also love to see the other Gleason characters, especially Reggie Van Gleason III and Joe the Bartender! MPI should release complete shows or a compilation of both The American Scene Magazine, the 1966-70 color shows (the non-Honeymooners stuff), and the vintage 1950s material. Back in the 80s, compilations from The American Scene Magazine were syndicated a la Benny Hill's TV work- all from the original B/W videotapes- no kinescopes! So the videotapes from circa 1961-70 have been archived (Jackie was always interested in technology and wisely archived his work- I only wish Ernie Kovacs had done that during his lifeftime, Edie Adams had to move heaven and earth to rescue whatever kinies and videos were left after his death). Some years back I was lucky to see some of the DuMont Honeymooners (featuring Elaine Strich as the first Trixie Norton!), and the tone was different: Ralph and Alice seemed to be at each other's throats all the time, and you truly felt that Ralph was really going to send Alice "to the moon'! I wonder if Edward Albee saw the DuMont shows........

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Frankly, as much as I like Jackie Gleason, he's always "just Jackie Gleason" to me in every character he plays. I don't see why, in a HONEYMOONERS set, we'd need the other characters too (it's a set of the Honeymooners skits, not the entire JACKIE GLEASON SHOW).

 

[Mark Y]

Frankly, as much as I like Jackie Gleason, he's always "just Jackie Gleason" to me in every character he plays. I don't see why, in a HONEYMOONERS set, we'd need the other characters too (it's a set of the Honeymooners skits, not the entire JACKIE GLEASON SHOW).

Yes, this is a Honeymooners set, and that's what will be in there. But I think what some people seem to forget sometimes is that these aren't really lost "episodes" of The Honeymooners, but instead sketches which originally played as part of a one-hour comedy-variety show alongside other elements, now presented out of that original context. It's sort of like if Mama's Family had been repeated over and over and over and over for 30 years, and then someone dug out The Carol Burnett Show, but only released "The Family" sketches. It's too bad that there doesn't seem to be enough interest to get the complete Jackie Gleason shows released.

 

[Mark Y]

(sorry, duplicate post)

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I understand, and in fact I often use the "Mama's Family" Carol Burnett Show analogy myself when trying to explain to people what these "Lost Episodes" are. For me personally, I don't think much of Joe the Bartender, The Poor Soul, Reginald Van Gleason, etc.. and I don't really miss them. In fact, there's the Christmas Episode of the Lost Honeymooners where Gleason does The Poor Soul and Reginald, and when they appear, they just seem like Ralph Kramden in disguise to me. As Great as Jackie was, I just feel he was very limited in his range and is always just Jackie being Jackie. Also, bear in mind that those Honeymooners sketches are what clearly stood out and gradually got larger and larger until they took up the entire Gleason Show! In the case of Carol Burnett, that whole show was pretty much consistently humorous and you couldn't really take just ONE SKIT from it.

 

[Statskeeper]

It's up for pre-order on Amazon now.

 

[Mark Y]

I understand, and in fact I often use the "Mama's Family" Carol Burnett Show analogy myself when trying to explain to people what these "Lost Episodes" are. For me personally, I don't think much of Joe the Bartender, The Poor Soul, Reginald Van Gleason, etc.. and I don't really miss them. In fact, there's the Christmas Episode of the Lost Honeymooners where Gleason does The Poor Soul and Reginald, and when they appear, they just seem like Ralph Kramden in disguise to me. As Great as Jackie was, I just feel he was very limited in his range and is always just Jackie being Jackie. Also, bear in mind that those Honeymooners sketches are what clearly stood out and gradually got larger and larger until they took up the entire Gleason Show! In the case of Carol Burnett, that whole show was pretty much consistently humorous and you couldn't really take just ONE SKIT from it.

I agree, but I'd still like to see them and have them be available. (I remember a skit where Ralph meets Art Carney and he gets starstruck. "You're Art Carney! Art Carney!") Question: I remember seeing a recurring skit where Gleason played a burglar. But the character's name is escaping me, if he even had one. Can anyone help me out here? They would start with him entering someone's house through a bedroom window or something like that.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Is there a listing yet for each episode on each disc, and what order the shows will be in?

 

[TonyD]

I just watched a series of the "color honeymooners" were they win a trip around th world. Are these episodes part of this set of lost episodes? I'm a bit confused as to what this set will consist of. Btw right now it is only $80.xx on amazon but these prices don't always last too long. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005E7SEOI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[Joe Lugoff]

It is confusing, because what you're talking about were 1960s remakes of 1950s episodes. What's going to be on this set are the original 1950s (black and white) episodes of the Kramdens and Nortons going around the world, and they've never been on home video before. I believe the 1960s remakes used the exact same scripts. Of course, the 1950s versions will have Meadows and Randolph instead of MacRae and Kean.

 

[Rick Thompson]

This is probably a stupid question, but I've never seen it explicitly stated anywhere. Are the "Classic 39" part of this? Or is it just the "lost episodes"?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

This is probably a stupid question, but I've never seen it explicitly stated anywhere. Are the "Classic 39" part of this? Or is it just the "lost episodes"?

The Classic 39 are owned by CBS/Paramount, and have their own box set. So, no, they won't be part of this set.

 

[Garysb]

It is confusing, because what you're talking about were 1960s remakes of 1950s episodes. What's going to be on this set are the original 1950s (black and white) episodes of the Kramdens and Nortons going around the world, and they've never been on home video before. I believe the 1960s remakes used the exact same scripts. Of course, the 1950s versions will have Meadows and Randolph instead of MacRae and Kean.

While I believe you are correct that the scripts are the same, I don't believe 1950's versions were musicals like the 1960's remakes. I could be wrong as I have never seen the 1950's versions. Still wish they would have included the 1960's remake of The Adaption, the last B&W Honeymooners and the last appearance of Audrey Meadows until the 1970's reunion specials. The remake was expanded to the full hour and contained music. The clip i saw had Ralph singing to his little girl.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

The Internet gives me conflicting answers as to whether the 1957 "Honeymooners Go to Europe" shows were musicals or not. This site says they were: http://www.classictvinfo.com/Honeymooners/ Well, we'll soon find out for sure.