It took television to make a bona fide star of Jackie Gleason, a former baggy-pants burlesque comic and occasional movie actor. Gleason embraced the new medium early on, scoring big-time with The Honeymooners, a 1955 spinoff based on a series of comedy skits broadcast earlier in the decade on The Jackie Gleason Show. The enormous success of The Honeymooners in syndicated reruns persuaded Gleason to revive the characters and format in segments of his later 1966-1970 incarnation of The Jackie Gleason Show, broadcast live from Miami Beach and in color over the CBS network. Jackie and his partner Art Carney reprised their roles of Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden and sewer worker Ed Norton, respectively, with Sheila MacRae assuming the role of Ralph's wife Alice and Jane Kean playing Ed's wife Trixie. Just like in the old b&w shows, the color skits were performed live, which encouraged Gleason and Carney to expand their beloved characters to the point of self-caricature, knowing the studio audience would react with delight (the occasional flubbed lines sometimes provoked titters from the cast, further adding to the fun). Gleason and his writers recycled classic bits from the earlier series in addition to creating new material, but the gags were never as important as the performances: Jackie and his fellow players knew how to milk laughs from even the driest scripts. The eight episodes compiled on this extra-less three-disc set don't quite equal the 1955 classics in quality, but that shouldn't stop those who grew up loving The Honeymooners from being eager to check this collection out. Recommended. [Note: The Color Honeymooners: Collection 3 is also newly available.] (E. Hulse)
The Color Honeymooners: Collection 2
MPI, 3 discs, 450 min., not rated, DVD: $39.98 Volume 23, Issue 3
The Color Honeymooners: Collection 2
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