Frank Gannucci
11-07-2014, 09:11 AM
Episode Reviews: "Quiz Show" ('51 version) & "XMas Party" ('51 version):
Episode #8
TV: This episode is a part of The Honeymooners: The Really Lost Debut Episodes (episodes #1-6.) This special was shown in 1993 on Disney Channel (yes, THAT Disney Channel) and again in 2000 on TV Land.
VHS: Attached to "Bread", "Razor Blades", "New TV Set", "Ralph Threatens To Leave", & "Ring Salesman."
DVD: Attached to "Bread", "Razor Blades", "New TV Set", "Ralph Threatens To Leave", “Ralph and Alice Get Dressed For A Dance Last Night” (aka “The Dance”, "Ring Salesman" (JGS and ESS versions), "Quiz Show" (’52 version), "XMas Party" ('51 version), "Cold", "New Bowling Ball", "The Turkey", "Lost Baby", "Halloween Party", "Pickles", "Jellybeans" & "Six Months To Live."
Ralph and Alice come home from being on a quiz show with a lot of Krinkley Krax Cereal. Ralph: "Well, are you satisfied? Are you satisfied?" Alice: "Yes, I am satisfied. I am satisfied." Ralph: "Well, you ought to be satisfied. Thanks to your wrong answer on that quiz program, we have now won a year's supply of Krinkley Krax." You think that Ralph would be happy that Alice tried her best to answer that quiz show question, but no. This is Ralph Kramden, we are talking about people. Alice: "During the ride home in the cab, you were yelling at me from the top of your lungs." Ralph: "I had too. There were so many boxes between us that I could
not see you."
Ralph goes on a tangent on what would happen if they had won. Him and Alice also have an argument when they talk about there family members. Ralph says those Krinkley Krax are no prize. Alice: "Well, what harm can it do? We can use them for something." Ralph agrees. He can have them for all his meals as well as other things they can do with the cereal. He says all this in sarcasm. Alice is upset and goes into the bedroom. Ralph goes to the bedroom door and asks her if she is going to fill up his lunchbox for tomorrow. Alice opens the door and hits Ralph in the nose with the door. Ralph is steamed. He starts to fix his own lunch for tomorrow. He will also do everything for him himself and plans to show her who the man of the house is.
The Nortons come in. This is the first time that Art & Joyce were in the same scene. Trixie goes to the bedroom with Alice. Ed looks around and says: "Looks like you robbed the A&P." Ralph then talks about what happened on the quiz show and how he answered all his questions correctly and how Alice didn't. Ralph: “They said: Name a big town in Chicago. I said Illinois.” I think Jackie made a blooper there. Ed says that one time he was on a quiz show; he couldn't answer the first question that they gave him because of nervousness. That being his first name. Ha!
"Happy" Larry Barnabee along with several other people come in. This Larry Barnabee is a different one than the one that appeared in the remakes of this episode. He explains Alice's question was: "Who was President after Grover Cleveland?" He assumed that it was wrong. He later found out that Alice was right since Grover Cleveland had two unconsecutive terms. That's the first time that quiz show made a mistake. Since Alice got her question right, it was now Ralph's turn. D'oh. Not something that Ralph wants to hear.
They set up the recording audio device so they can record the host's question and Ralph's answer. "Happy" Larry Barnabee: "Mr. Kramden, what did Marconi invent?" Ralph: "Marcaroni." Ha! Ralph gets told that his answer was wrong. Ralph has been mad at Alice for no reason. The host of the quiz show says: "Mr. Kramden, too bad you are not as smart as your wife." The Nortons leave. Ralph apologizes to Alice and she accepts.
Episode #9:
TV: This special was shown on Disney Channel (yes, THAT Disney Channel) in 1993 and probably in 2000 on TV Land.
VHS: Has not been released on VHS.
DVD: Attached to "Bread", "Razor Blades", "New TV Set", "Ralph Threatens To Leave", “Ralph and Alice Get Dressed For A Dance Last Night” (aka “The Dance”, "Ring Salesman" (both ESS version & JGS versions), "Quiz Show" (both versions), "Cold", "New Bowling Ball", "The Turkey", "Lost Baby", "Halloween Party", "Pickles", "Jellybeans" & "Six Months To Live."
Paul Reiser introduces us to this episode and provides us with some information.
The episode opens up with Alice decorating the Christmas tree. Ralph comes home with potato salad from DeVitos. She says that he should get it from Krauss'. Ralph explains that at DeVitos that Reginald Van Gleason as running a party and that a lot of people are there including people who came from Connecticut. Ralph, disgustedly, leaves to get potato salad from Krauss'.
Trixie comes in. For whatever reason, she is having trouble with the door. So Alice helps her. Trixie reveals that Ed gave her an orange juice squeezer. You squeeze the oranges on top of Napoleon’s head and the juice squirts out of his ears. Same gift that he would give her in "'Twas The Night Before Christmas." A guy knocks on the door and Trixie answers it. A man mumbles, yet Trixie somehow knows his name and he is delivering a keg of beer here. His name: Fenwick Babbit. Fenwick is played by Jackie Gleason. After placing his beer barrel in the apartment, Trixie goes upstairs to get a pan for Fenwick’s ice. Fenwick asks: "Does she live nearby?" The crowd laughs. Trixie comes back. Fenwick begins to cut the ice. He hits his finger and yells in Ralph Kramden fashion. Doesn’t look like he hit his finger to me. Now I wonder why Alice and Trixie don't come up with the thought that Ralph and him look alike. When Fenwick gets told that this isn’t the Murphy apartment, Alice calls him a big lummox. Wow! That ain’t nice. Fenwick realizes that he is in the wrong apartment and leaves.
Ed comes in and says that he has come with broadway star Jane Pickens. The episode abruptly cuts to Joe The Bartender’s (also played by Gleason) entrance. I wonder if that was because Jane originally sang two songs and Disney & probably subsequently TV Land (if they aired it) didn’t want to pay for the rights to the songs and just edited them out. Of course after hearing Joe speak, Alice, Ed and Trixie don't come up with the thought that he and Ralph look alike. Joe The Bartender reveals something that just happened a few minutes ago at Krauss'. A person came into his bar. Joe says that this person’s name is “The Poor Soul.” What a name, huh? This poor soul comes in and takes the last bit of steak and gives it to a kitten that he bought in from the cold. Fatso Fogarty, also at his bar, sees this and becomes mad. He sets up a nasty practical joke in which he tells him he had "won" a diamond and then handed him a cheap rhinestone. What made the hoax particularly pathetic was that the poor soul, totally taken in, cherished his prize. Alice, moved by the tale, tells Joe to send the poor soul up, and she'll give him a real present. Joe, Jane and Ed leaves. Trixie: "Now that Ed is gone, we can relax."
The poor soul comes up (played by Jackie Gleason in pantomime) comes up. “Tenderly” is played throughout this sketch. Ed somehow was able to identify him. Alice gives him a real present. Once again, Alice and Trixie don't even think that he and Ralph look alike. He gives her the "diamond" and leaves.
We cut back to Paul Reiser. Paul says that this episode was one of the most difficult episodes to make. So hard that Jackie actually had to rehearse (something that he rarely did because of his photographic memory) Since Jackie had to change clothes SIX times, he had to rehearse that so the actors would know how much time to spend on stage between his appearances.
Back to the episode. Trixie says that they are showing some Christmas Specials on TV, so she asks Alice if they can watch it on Alice's TV Alice says that the TV is n the brink. Rudy the Repairman comes by to fix it. Rudy is played by Jackie Gleason and once again by looking and hearing Rudy speak, Alice and Trixie don't think that Ralph and he look alike. Alice explains all the trouble she is having with some of the channels. Some of the channels that I think she talks about: 2, 4, 5, 7, 11, and 13. Now, since I used to live in North Jersey and about an hour away from New York, I can tell you that those channels in real life do exist (and that channel 2 has been a CBS affiliate forever.) And do you know what? The channel 11 that Alice is talking about would start to carry reruns of the Honeymooners four years later and has carried them for the better part of 50 years. Rudy, after hearing Alice's strange problems, brings in Whitey. Whitey talks to Ralph in language that is not real English. But Rudy understands him anyway. Great comedy. Rudy talks to Whitey about a dead horse. Rudy makes a pass at Alice and Trixie, destroys the television set, and departs. Alice tells Trixie that it doesn't really matter, since she just had the set on trial.
Ed Norton comes in. Ed explains that he saw two guys bringing a horse into their truck. Trixie explains to Ed that it was two what happened with those two men and how they “attempted” to fix Alice’s TV. Ed: “They found a dead horse in it?” Trixie: “Yeah, stupid.” Ed looks like he is about to hit Trix. Something that Ralph ordinarily does in later episodes. A man who is the son of person named Cardini comes in after. Ed: “he’s a terrific juggler." Cardini’s kid starts juggling things. The person who played him is doing a great job. Ed even joins in. Both Ed and the juggler leave.
We cut back to Paul. Paul says that Jackie’s favorite character was Reggie Van Gleason III. Reggie was rich & flamboyant. Those things Jackie would become later in his life since at this time, he wasn’t very rich and flamboyant at all.
Back to the episode. Alice says that Ed is always looking to help someone. Trixie then says a get-rich-quick idea that Ed had. He had an idea of making tires last forever by putting helium into them instead of air. Ed read that dirigibles are filled with air to keep them up. Ed figured out that way if the tires are three feet off the ground, they wouldn’t burst. (What?) I wonder if Joyce meant to say balloons. When Alice asks her how the tires would move on air, Trixie says that Ed had another idea. The idea: To raise the roads. Ha! That is not an idea that Ralph would get.
Ed comes back in and Reginald Van Gleason comes in (played by Jackie Gleason). An old Disney Channel logo comes on the screen indicating that my copy was taped off Disney. He brings in gifts for Ed, Trixie, and Alice. He also brings in his band (from Jimmy Ryan’s café according to Reggie) and June Taylor Dancers. The band plays a song VERY loudly and Gleason dances with the dancers. Try doing what Reggie is doing in an ordinary apartment at night in real life and you will probably get a TON of complaints (and maybe get kicked out too.) Once again, Alice, Ed and Trixie don't come up with the conclusion that Reggie and Ralph look and probably sound alike (maybe except for Reggie's mustache). Reggie and his whole entourage leave. Ed: "Reggie is okay in my book." Ed says that in Reggie's limo, he watches wrestling. Not on TV, he watches wrestlers wrestling each other in the limo in a pro wrestling match. Oh God! Trixie is afraid to leave because another star may drop by. Alice says that she wonders where Ralph is. Ed says to Trixie that he will give her what every woman wants on her hand, that being rubber gloves. Ha!
Ed and Trixie leave. Ralph comes by with a policeman. Alice explains the whole situation to the policeman and leaves. Ralph reveals what happened. After he returned the original potato salad, he had to walk two LONG blocks to Krauss only to find out that Krauss was asleep. He knocked so hard on his door that he knocked out the window and got in trouble with the police. Ralph says that after 13 years of marriage, every Christmas gets better and better. 25 years later in an ABC Special, Ralph and Alice say that they are celebrating 25 years of marriage (the writers thought that that would be appropriate since that show marked the 25th anniversary of the show.) Anyway, Alice and Ralph exchange gifts. Ralph opens his gift first and finds out that Alice gave him rubber-lined gloves. Alice gets an orange juice squeezer from Ralph. The same gift that Ralph will giver again in "'Twas The Night Before Christmas." They hug and kiss.
I lot of people probably don't like this episode since it's a great departure from traditional episodes. I liked it because it's a great X-Mas episode and it offers a change of pace. Jackie Gleason must have had to do some quick costume changes in this episode since this episode (like all the other ones in the 50's) were done live.
Paul wishes us Happy Holidays!
I should also mention that these Paul Reiser specials played the same (albeit updated versions) of the early 50’s version of The Jackie Gleason Show theme song.
Episode #8
TV: This episode is a part of The Honeymooners: The Really Lost Debut Episodes (episodes #1-6.) This special was shown in 1993 on Disney Channel (yes, THAT Disney Channel) and again in 2000 on TV Land.
VHS: Attached to "Bread", "Razor Blades", "New TV Set", "Ralph Threatens To Leave", & "Ring Salesman."
DVD: Attached to "Bread", "Razor Blades", "New TV Set", "Ralph Threatens To Leave", “Ralph and Alice Get Dressed For A Dance Last Night” (aka “The Dance”, "Ring Salesman" (JGS and ESS versions), "Quiz Show" (’52 version), "XMas Party" ('51 version), "Cold", "New Bowling Ball", "The Turkey", "Lost Baby", "Halloween Party", "Pickles", "Jellybeans" & "Six Months To Live."
Ralph and Alice come home from being on a quiz show with a lot of Krinkley Krax Cereal. Ralph: "Well, are you satisfied? Are you satisfied?" Alice: "Yes, I am satisfied. I am satisfied." Ralph: "Well, you ought to be satisfied. Thanks to your wrong answer on that quiz program, we have now won a year's supply of Krinkley Krax." You think that Ralph would be happy that Alice tried her best to answer that quiz show question, but no. This is Ralph Kramden, we are talking about people. Alice: "During the ride home in the cab, you were yelling at me from the top of your lungs." Ralph: "I had too. There were so many boxes between us that I could
not see you."
Ralph goes on a tangent on what would happen if they had won. Him and Alice also have an argument when they talk about there family members. Ralph says those Krinkley Krax are no prize. Alice: "Well, what harm can it do? We can use them for something." Ralph agrees. He can have them for all his meals as well as other things they can do with the cereal. He says all this in sarcasm. Alice is upset and goes into the bedroom. Ralph goes to the bedroom door and asks her if she is going to fill up his lunchbox for tomorrow. Alice opens the door and hits Ralph in the nose with the door. Ralph is steamed. He starts to fix his own lunch for tomorrow. He will also do everything for him himself and plans to show her who the man of the house is.
The Nortons come in. This is the first time that Art & Joyce were in the same scene. Trixie goes to the bedroom with Alice. Ed looks around and says: "Looks like you robbed the A&P." Ralph then talks about what happened on the quiz show and how he answered all his questions correctly and how Alice didn't. Ralph: “They said: Name a big town in Chicago. I said Illinois.” I think Jackie made a blooper there. Ed says that one time he was on a quiz show; he couldn't answer the first question that they gave him because of nervousness. That being his first name. Ha!
"Happy" Larry Barnabee along with several other people come in. This Larry Barnabee is a different one than the one that appeared in the remakes of this episode. He explains Alice's question was: "Who was President after Grover Cleveland?" He assumed that it was wrong. He later found out that Alice was right since Grover Cleveland had two unconsecutive terms. That's the first time that quiz show made a mistake. Since Alice got her question right, it was now Ralph's turn. D'oh. Not something that Ralph wants to hear.
They set up the recording audio device so they can record the host's question and Ralph's answer. "Happy" Larry Barnabee: "Mr. Kramden, what did Marconi invent?" Ralph: "Marcaroni." Ha! Ralph gets told that his answer was wrong. Ralph has been mad at Alice for no reason. The host of the quiz show says: "Mr. Kramden, too bad you are not as smart as your wife." The Nortons leave. Ralph apologizes to Alice and she accepts.
Episode #9:
TV: This special was shown on Disney Channel (yes, THAT Disney Channel) in 1993 and probably in 2000 on TV Land.
VHS: Has not been released on VHS.
DVD: Attached to "Bread", "Razor Blades", "New TV Set", "Ralph Threatens To Leave", “Ralph and Alice Get Dressed For A Dance Last Night” (aka “The Dance”, "Ring Salesman" (both ESS version & JGS versions), "Quiz Show" (both versions), "Cold", "New Bowling Ball", "The Turkey", "Lost Baby", "Halloween Party", "Pickles", "Jellybeans" & "Six Months To Live."
Paul Reiser introduces us to this episode and provides us with some information.
The episode opens up with Alice decorating the Christmas tree. Ralph comes home with potato salad from DeVitos. She says that he should get it from Krauss'. Ralph explains that at DeVitos that Reginald Van Gleason as running a party and that a lot of people are there including people who came from Connecticut. Ralph, disgustedly, leaves to get potato salad from Krauss'.
Trixie comes in. For whatever reason, she is having trouble with the door. So Alice helps her. Trixie reveals that Ed gave her an orange juice squeezer. You squeeze the oranges on top of Napoleon’s head and the juice squirts out of his ears. Same gift that he would give her in "'Twas The Night Before Christmas." A guy knocks on the door and Trixie answers it. A man mumbles, yet Trixie somehow knows his name and he is delivering a keg of beer here. His name: Fenwick Babbit. Fenwick is played by Jackie Gleason. After placing his beer barrel in the apartment, Trixie goes upstairs to get a pan for Fenwick’s ice. Fenwick asks: "Does she live nearby?" The crowd laughs. Trixie comes back. Fenwick begins to cut the ice. He hits his finger and yells in Ralph Kramden fashion. Doesn’t look like he hit his finger to me. Now I wonder why Alice and Trixie don't come up with the thought that Ralph and him look alike. When Fenwick gets told that this isn’t the Murphy apartment, Alice calls him a big lummox. Wow! That ain’t nice. Fenwick realizes that he is in the wrong apartment and leaves.
Ed comes in and says that he has come with broadway star Jane Pickens. The episode abruptly cuts to Joe The Bartender’s (also played by Gleason) entrance. I wonder if that was because Jane originally sang two songs and Disney & probably subsequently TV Land (if they aired it) didn’t want to pay for the rights to the songs and just edited them out. Of course after hearing Joe speak, Alice, Ed and Trixie don't come up with the thought that he and Ralph look alike. Joe The Bartender reveals something that just happened a few minutes ago at Krauss'. A person came into his bar. Joe says that this person’s name is “The Poor Soul.” What a name, huh? This poor soul comes in and takes the last bit of steak and gives it to a kitten that he bought in from the cold. Fatso Fogarty, also at his bar, sees this and becomes mad. He sets up a nasty practical joke in which he tells him he had "won" a diamond and then handed him a cheap rhinestone. What made the hoax particularly pathetic was that the poor soul, totally taken in, cherished his prize. Alice, moved by the tale, tells Joe to send the poor soul up, and she'll give him a real present. Joe, Jane and Ed leaves. Trixie: "Now that Ed is gone, we can relax."
The poor soul comes up (played by Jackie Gleason in pantomime) comes up. “Tenderly” is played throughout this sketch. Ed somehow was able to identify him. Alice gives him a real present. Once again, Alice and Trixie don't even think that he and Ralph look alike. He gives her the "diamond" and leaves.
We cut back to Paul Reiser. Paul says that this episode was one of the most difficult episodes to make. So hard that Jackie actually had to rehearse (something that he rarely did because of his photographic memory) Since Jackie had to change clothes SIX times, he had to rehearse that so the actors would know how much time to spend on stage between his appearances.
Back to the episode. Trixie says that they are showing some Christmas Specials on TV, so she asks Alice if they can watch it on Alice's TV Alice says that the TV is n the brink. Rudy the Repairman comes by to fix it. Rudy is played by Jackie Gleason and once again by looking and hearing Rudy speak, Alice and Trixie don't think that Ralph and he look alike. Alice explains all the trouble she is having with some of the channels. Some of the channels that I think she talks about: 2, 4, 5, 7, 11, and 13. Now, since I used to live in North Jersey and about an hour away from New York, I can tell you that those channels in real life do exist (and that channel 2 has been a CBS affiliate forever.) And do you know what? The channel 11 that Alice is talking about would start to carry reruns of the Honeymooners four years later and has carried them for the better part of 50 years. Rudy, after hearing Alice's strange problems, brings in Whitey. Whitey talks to Ralph in language that is not real English. But Rudy understands him anyway. Great comedy. Rudy talks to Whitey about a dead horse. Rudy makes a pass at Alice and Trixie, destroys the television set, and departs. Alice tells Trixie that it doesn't really matter, since she just had the set on trial.
Ed Norton comes in. Ed explains that he saw two guys bringing a horse into their truck. Trixie explains to Ed that it was two what happened with those two men and how they “attempted” to fix Alice’s TV. Ed: “They found a dead horse in it?” Trixie: “Yeah, stupid.” Ed looks like he is about to hit Trix. Something that Ralph ordinarily does in later episodes. A man who is the son of person named Cardini comes in after. Ed: “he’s a terrific juggler." Cardini’s kid starts juggling things. The person who played him is doing a great job. Ed even joins in. Both Ed and the juggler leave.
We cut back to Paul. Paul says that Jackie’s favorite character was Reggie Van Gleason III. Reggie was rich & flamboyant. Those things Jackie would become later in his life since at this time, he wasn’t very rich and flamboyant at all.
Back to the episode. Alice says that Ed is always looking to help someone. Trixie then says a get-rich-quick idea that Ed had. He had an idea of making tires last forever by putting helium into them instead of air. Ed read that dirigibles are filled with air to keep them up. Ed figured out that way if the tires are three feet off the ground, they wouldn’t burst. (What?) I wonder if Joyce meant to say balloons. When Alice asks her how the tires would move on air, Trixie says that Ed had another idea. The idea: To raise the roads. Ha! That is not an idea that Ralph would get.
Ed comes back in and Reginald Van Gleason comes in (played by Jackie Gleason). An old Disney Channel logo comes on the screen indicating that my copy was taped off Disney. He brings in gifts for Ed, Trixie, and Alice. He also brings in his band (from Jimmy Ryan’s café according to Reggie) and June Taylor Dancers. The band plays a song VERY loudly and Gleason dances with the dancers. Try doing what Reggie is doing in an ordinary apartment at night in real life and you will probably get a TON of complaints (and maybe get kicked out too.) Once again, Alice, Ed and Trixie don't come up with the conclusion that Reggie and Ralph look and probably sound alike (maybe except for Reggie's mustache). Reggie and his whole entourage leave. Ed: "Reggie is okay in my book." Ed says that in Reggie's limo, he watches wrestling. Not on TV, he watches wrestlers wrestling each other in the limo in a pro wrestling match. Oh God! Trixie is afraid to leave because another star may drop by. Alice says that she wonders where Ralph is. Ed says to Trixie that he will give her what every woman wants on her hand, that being rubber gloves. Ha!
Ed and Trixie leave. Ralph comes by with a policeman. Alice explains the whole situation to the policeman and leaves. Ralph reveals what happened. After he returned the original potato salad, he had to walk two LONG blocks to Krauss only to find out that Krauss was asleep. He knocked so hard on his door that he knocked out the window and got in trouble with the police. Ralph says that after 13 years of marriage, every Christmas gets better and better. 25 years later in an ABC Special, Ralph and Alice say that they are celebrating 25 years of marriage (the writers thought that that would be appropriate since that show marked the 25th anniversary of the show.) Anyway, Alice and Ralph exchange gifts. Ralph opens his gift first and finds out that Alice gave him rubber-lined gloves. Alice gets an orange juice squeezer from Ralph. The same gift that Ralph will giver again in "'Twas The Night Before Christmas." They hug and kiss.
I lot of people probably don't like this episode since it's a great departure from traditional episodes. I liked it because it's a great X-Mas episode and it offers a change of pace. Jackie Gleason must have had to do some quick costume changes in this episode since this episode (like all the other ones in the 50's) were done live.
Paul wishes us Happy Holidays!
I should also mention that these Paul Reiser specials played the same (albeit updated versions) of the early 50’s version of The Jackie Gleason Show theme song.