Why Just one Season?

[Vince 887]

Does anyone know the reason why Jackie Gleason or CBS decided on only 1 season of the Honeymooners? were the ratings high or low when it originally aired?

[W.B.]

Gleason's deal with Buick (sponsor of that ultimately 'Classic 39' season) called for two seasons, with an option for a third. It was signed during the 1954-55 season which was the absolute peak of Gleason's TV career (#2 in the ratings, behind I Love Lucy; the second highest peak of his TV career being 1966-67 when he finished in 5th place, but we're getting ahead of ourselves here). But in 1955-56 The Honeymooners was 20th in the ratings (while NBC's Perry Como Show was 19th); while Ralph & co. did well, its original lead-in (later switched) was Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey's (ratings-) disastrous Stage Show, which was only notable for bringing the first national TV exposure of Elvis Presley (pre-dating Ed Sullivan). According to William Henry 3d's book The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason, the decision to end the show came from Buick - and CBS ("loath to offend" a major sponsor, per Henry) forced Gleason to agree. So it was neither he nor the network, but the sponsor, that ground The Honeymooners as a stand-alone series to a screeching (no pun intended) halt after those 39 shows that the public has seen at least a thousand times each since.

[howilu]

I read in a book about The Honeymooners that Gleason pulled out of his contract because he felt the excellence of the material from the first season couldn't be maintained. That's why we've seen the same 39 episodes over and over again.

[Samme]

The story of Buick and CBS calling an end to the
show may very well be true and it makes sense since the show's ratings were lower than the variety show. But I've always suspected, and I've never read this anywhere, that the show really
ended because Gleason was just too lazy to ever
want to work this hard again after this first
season. This was a frantic pace in which they
did two episodes a week. That's incredible. And
Gleason was known as a guy who didn't like to
rehearse at all. Just show up and do it. And though he was a guy who had his in hand in every aspect of the variety show, the thing that struck
me in seeing old reruns was how much space was
filled with silent comedy sketches. Jackie didn't
seem to like being bothered with learning lines.
And with The Honeymooners he had to learn two full scripts every week! It drove him to do the best work of his life but I bet he didn't fight too hard when he saw the sponsor was just as happy to
go back to the variety show. I bet Jackie was
very willing to go back to that slower pace and
doing "The Poor Soul" bits. I bet he actually
welcomed it.

[Brian Damage]

Gleason's deal with Buick (sponsor of that ultimately 'Classic 39' season) called for two seasons, with an option for a third. It was signed during the 1954-55 season which was the absolute peak of Gleason's TV career (#2 in the ratings, behind I Love Lucy; the second highest peak of his TV career being 1966-67 when he finished in 5th place, but we're getting ahead of ourselves here). But in 1955-56 The Honeymooners was 20th in the ratings (while NBC's Perry Como Show was 19th); while Ralph & co. did well, its original lead-in (later switched) was Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey's (ratings-) disastrous Stage Show, which was only notable for bringing the first national TV exposure of Elvis Presley (pre-dating Ed Sullivan). According to William Henry 3d's book The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason, the decision to end the show came from Buick - and CBS ("loath to offend" a major sponsor, per Henry) forced Gleason to agree. So it was neither he nor the network, but the sponsor, that ground The Honeymooners as a stand-alone series to a screeching (no pun intended) halt after those 39 shows that the public has seen at least a thousand times each since.


Thank you for that interesting post.

[Mr. Cranky]

I've seen every episode dozens of times. It's a real shame there was only one season. Imagine if we had 5 or 6 seasons.

[TVFactFan]

Does anyone know the reason why Jackie Gleason or CBS decided on only 1 season of the Honeymooners? were the ratings high or low when it originally aired?



I don;t know the reason but it's a damm shame that it was only 39 eps. Especially when every single ep of the 39 was very funny. I was hooked on this show at the age of 9. I just always found TV characters with short-tempers like ralph very funny.

[tv star collector]

I don;t know the reason but it's a damm shame that it was only 39 eps. Especially when every single ep of the 39 was very funny. I was hooked on this show at the age of 9. I just always found TV characters with short-tempers like ralph very funny.
According to James Bacon's Gleason biography, "HOW SWEET IT IS: THE JACKIE
GLEASON STORY" (1986): Gleason turned down seven million dollars to film a
second season. "They offered me more money but I turned it down. They
wouldn't believe me when I said we couldn't come up with the same quality of
scripts that second year. It was that simple."

[TVFactFan]

According to James Bacon's Gleason biography, "HOW SWEET IT IS: THE JACKIE
GLEASON STORY" (1986): Gleason turned down seven million dollars to film a
second season. "They offered me more money but I turned it down. They
wouldn't believe me when I said we couldn't come up with the same quality of
scripts that second year. It was that simple."


Maybe Jackie wanted to see Ralph Kramden out of the Apartment more in season 2-lol

[Darkhaven80]

I always wondered why it was never aired more, thanks for the explanation. A good show

[comedyfreak]

That was interesting to learn, I often wondered that myself.