Has anybody here seen any of Gleason's appearances on The Colgate Comedy Hour? One of the listings on the Paley Center's website is particularly interesting: when Gleason hosted the show on September 2, 1951, he did a sketch where he portrayed a man coming home after being fired from his job. This was only a month before the Honeymooners sketches began on Cavalcade, so I'm thinking maybe this is an early representation of the character he had in mind when he first conceived the idea of The Honeymooners. Any insight would be appreciated.

Listing at PaleyCenter.org (http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=jackie+gleason+show&f=all&c=all&advanced=1&p=2&item=T78:0234)

...DuMont's "CAVALCADE OF STARS" in the 1950-'51 season, other variety shows offered him guest shots; Gleason not only made numerous appearances on NBC's "COLGATE COMEDY HOUR", he also found time to make several visits to CBS' 'FRANK SINATRA SHOW" as well.

As for that September 2, 1951 sketch, yes, Jackie was thinking about doing a similar sketch on "CAVALCADE" several weeks later- after rejecting the idea of "renting" Phil Rapp's "The Bickersons" as sketch material, he decided he could do his own version without paying an "outsider's fee" [which the show's budget couldn't afford, anyway], and he and his writers came up with what became "The Honeymooners"...


:tv:

Here’s a DVD Box set. Maybe Jackie’s appearance is on here.


https://www.amazon.com/Legends-Laugh.../dp/B002SYAGOG

Notice Jackie’s name is not on there but it does say on the back “…and many more.”