View Full Version : Question about the Audrey and Joyce


Wisenheimer
07-29-2010, 07:01 PM
Does anybody know why Audrey Meadows and Joyce Randolph did not join Jackie and Art in Miami for the Color Honeymooners? And also, why didn't Joyce appear in any Honeymooners episodes/specials after the Classic 39?

MrBand
07-30-2010, 07:23 PM
Not having been there or having spoken to them, I can't speak authoritatively, but accounts state that Audrey Meadows was enjoying her marriage to Robert Six, the president of Continental Airlines, which was based in Los Angeles. She was asked to return to the Alice Kramden character for the updated musical version of "The Adoption" and complied. When the decision was made to shelve the "American Scene Magazine" format of the Gleason Show and bring back the Honeymooners on a regular basis, she declined because it would mean too much time away from her husband.

According to her autobiography, Love, Alice, when Meadows was asked by Gleason why she would do the Miami specials in the 70s but not the shows in the 60s, she replied, "Because Continental didn't fly here then."

Joyce Randolph has stated that she was never asked to return to her signature role. It has been written that the 1970s specials came about as a result of the stars reuniting for the Dean Martin Roast of Jackie Gleason and that it was Jane Kean, not Randolph who was present when the deal was sealed. Of course, that wouldn't account for why Sheila MacRae was not asked to reprise her role. (She also appeared on the special.) After all, she was the most recent Alice, having played the character as late as 1973.

Wisenheimer
07-31-2010, 08:14 PM
Thanks for the enlightenment, pal. I've been curious as to why neither of them were in the Color Honeymooners.