Frank Gannucci
10-06-2017, 07:46 AM
Honeymooners Episode Reviews: "Adoption" & "Stars Over Flatbush":
Episode #101 (Syndicated Episode #55)
TV: Half-hour.
VCR: Attached to "Ralph's Diet."
DVD: Attached to "Stars Over Flatbush" & "Game Called on Account of Marriage." On the Restored Lost Episodes DVD Box Set, it is attached to "Adoption", "Stars Over Flatbush", "One Big Happy Family" & "A Weighty Problem."
Color & Lost Episode Title: “The Adoption.”
Air Date: Sat. 3/26/55
Alice is trying to give Ralph a haircut. (Ralph lost all his money.) Ralph doesn't like the idea, but goes along with it. He is also afraid that Alice will cut his ear off. Alice: "With the way you eat, you will grow another one." Ed comes down. Ralph looks at himself in a hand-held mirror, but his head gets stuck. Ed helps out by moving Ralph's head, but it gets stuck again. Alice gets it unstuck. Ralph has had it. He is going to the barber shop and getting his haircut on Alice's allowance Alice & Ralph go into the bedroom. Trixie comes down all excited. Trixie (yells): "ALICE! ALICE!" The adoption agency called. The Kramdens may be able to get a baby. Alice gets the news and tries to talk to the doctor on Trixie's phone. Ed breaks the news to Ralph. Alice and Ralph want to adopt a baby. "We wanted this more than anything in the world," says Ralph. The adoption agency tells Alice her application is being considered, but that a staff worker must come to the apartment to look it over before final approval is granted. The Kramdens realize that there apartment looks terrible. So terrible that they might not get the kid so they go out and borrow a TV set, drapes, refrigerator, stove, new table and chairs, couch, etc.--to make the apartment look presentable. Ralph and Alice are as nervous as two kids on their first date as they wait for Miss Lawrence from the agency to arrive. Ralph says to Alice to be calm like he is, but he isn't calm at all. Miss Lawrence comes by and Ralph asks her for a cigar (he said he doesn't smoke but he smokes one every now and then.)
Miss Lawrence asks: "Are there any places of recreation?" Ralph says that there is a poolroom. Alice says there is a playground and she is planning on taking the baby there every day. Everything is going smooth until Ralph says to Alice that the light in the fridge turns on when you open the fridge. An ice man comesby with some ice to put in the ice box. Ralph says that they never got any ice from him. The man accidentally drops the ice on the floor. The jig is up. They tell Miss Lawrence that they spruced up the place and that the TV, the couch, the drapes, the refrigerator isn't theirs. They are fighting for this kid. Miss Lawrence says the agency is not as concerned with furnishings as it is with finding couples who really want children, and that she's never met a couple who want a child more than the Kramdens. Approved! Ralph tries to get Norton who comes in with a bunch of neighbors waiting to congratulate Ralph. (They heard by standing near the door.)
The Nortons accompany the Kramdens to the hospital. Ralph thanks the doctor. The Nortons eventually go outside. But Ralph is upset when they are told that they are going to get a girl. Ralph: "I want a boy." He was going to name the boy Ralph. Ralph: "Nobody wants a girl." What a nice thing to say...NOT! The doctor said that on the form, they would approve either sex. The doctor says he will see what he can do. He leaves and Alice goes outside in tears of sadness since that they are not getting the kid that is in the room. In a scene he would play again--with a puppy--in the Classic Thirty-nine episode "A Dog's Life," Ralph apologizes to the baby for not wanting to bring her home. During this scene, Jackie Gleason was reading his lines that were in the baby carriage (since there was no real baby in there). Ralph says that girls can't play football. In 1998, in high school, I remember hearing about a girl football player on the varsity football team. As the infant weaves her magic on Ralph, his arguments for not wanting a girl become less convincing. The doctor comes back with news that in a few weeks, they can get a boy. But Ralph now wants the girl. Ralph and Ed wheel the baby outside into the cab.
At home, the apartment is a mess. Ed comes in and introduces himself as "Uncle Ed." Ralph: "Don't scare the kid." The "baby" is crying. So Ed thinks that she needs milk but there is no bottle. They think of putting the milk into a glove and cutting off one of the finger tips of it (which eventually causes milk to squirt all over them.) That is a scene that they did in "Lost Baby." Ralph kicks Ed out. The doctor and Alice come in with sad news. The mother wants her baby back. Ralph is angry. He yells at the doctor, saying that the mother put her up for adoption and now they are the legal parents so they shouldn't surrender her. The doctor leaves and Ralph is yelling about how much he loves the kid. There is no funny statements being said here. Alice is sobbing. Alice: "Imagine how the mother feels." This is something that I don't like to see, Alice sobbing. Ralph eventually realizes that it is wrong to keep the kid, so he goes upstairs to Ed's to call the doctor. He leaves, Alice alone. She is sobbing. Once again, I do not like Alice sobbing.
Episode #102 (Syndicated Episode # 46)
TV: Half-hour.
VCR: Attached to "The Prowler." In 2015, a VHS on Ebay was found from the 80s that contained that contained a B&W kinescope of the Jackie Gleason Show that had this episode and it was attached to a B&W kinescope of the Color episode entitled "Flushing Ho." I am thinking that this was a homebrew copy since MPI has been the only distributer of the Lost Episodes and that MPI only got the rights to the Color episodes in 2004 (unless it was made another company that decided not to put their name on the box and got a cease and desist order from MPI.
DVD: Attached to "The Adoption" & "Game Called on Account of Marriage." On the Lost Episodes Restored DVD Box Set, it is attached to “Peacemaker”, “The Adoption”, “One Big Happy Family” & “A Weighty Problem”
Air Date: Sat. 4/2/55
This episode was colorized on YouTube in 2020. It has since been taken down.
Ed wakes up and goes into the kitchen to get ready for the day one morning and is annoying Trixie by reading an astrology book. After Trixie goes into the bedroom, Ralph visits Ed in his apartment. If you look on the TV, I think you can see the reflection of the camera lights. Oh no, not something that the camera crew wanted. Norton has discovered astrology, and Ralph thinks he's nuts, especially when Norton tells him the stars say he shouldn't ask his boss, Mr. Malone, for the raise he planned to request that day. Ed says: "I was born under the sign of Pieces the fish." Ralph: "You were born under the sign of Pistachio, the nut." Norton also sees in the stars that Ralph will have an accident that day and will be rendered speechless. When a window falls on Ralph's hand and the pain is so great that he can't utter a sound, Ralph becomes hooked on the stars too.
At home that night, Alice is talking to Trixie about what Ralph would do if he got the raise. He never got one before. Ralph comes home and after Trixie leaves, he asks Alice to scratch his back. She does. After they sit down to have dinner, Ralph explains that now he hasn't asked for his raise, but he will ask for it at 11:30pm Friday night. Alice: "Ralph, that's crazy. Your boss might be fast asleep." Ralph: "That's his tough luck." Ralph explains that now he is letting the stars run his life and he says for proof that Ed Norton predicted that he would get into an accident and the accident that happened to him was a window falling on his hand. Alice: "Are you sure that it didn't fall on your head." Ralph: "Since I found out that I am Taurus the Bull, I have become a new man." Alice: "You may be a new man, but it's the same old bull." Ha! Ralph (yells): "You think that that is going to get me mad?" (yells in anger): "WELL I AM NOT GOING TO GET MAD ALICE!" Ralph gets another itch on his back so Alice says that since he is Taurus the Bull to swipe at it with his tail. Ha! She goes into the bedroom.
Ed Norton comes in and thinks that Ralph is doing the Shake, Rattle and Roll by rubbing his back against the ice box to scratch his itch. As if appointed by destiny, in walks Freddie Muller with an invitation for the Kramdens to an engagement party he's giving for Mr. Malone, Friday night--from 9 P.M. to midnight. Ed: "That includes 11:30pm, doesn't it?" He leaves. Alice gets the news and can't believe it since it's so weird. Ralph: "This calls for a celebration." Ralph says that they will go out for dinner. Ed Norton talks about the stars more. Next, Norton sees in Ralph's horoscope that he's going to fall in love with a glamorous woman born under the sign of Aquarius. They figure that the party is the only place Ralph is likely to meet such a woman, so they decide to show up at Freddie's just before 11:30. Another woman comes by asking for a petition for a new playground. Ed says that that is great because he would like a new one to play in. Gee, a man Norton's age playing by himself in a playground. The woman is name Miss Tasslemann so Ralph asks when she was born. The answer is in February. Ralph (yells): "GET OUT!" Gee, that was so not nice.
At the party Ralph is edgy, and he nearly faints when an attractive blond asks him for a match. He nearly has a heart attack a few minutes later when Mr. Malone's fiancée, a cute blond Aquarius, asks him to dance with her. The boss tells Ralph and Ed a joke which Ed doesn't find funny, so Ralph reminds him that he told a joke, so Ed laughs in a way that you know that it's fake. Ralph: "It takes a while for Ed to get a joke." At exactly 11:30 Ralph asks Mr. Malone for the raise. Malone turns him down, and then dresses him down for trying to take advantage of a social situation. Ralph wants to kill Norton. Ed is outside with probably a headache, so he tells Alice that he is going out there to make sure Ed gets that headache. Gee, that sounds so not nice.
At home the next day, Ralph is installing not one, not two, but three locks on the door to make sure that Ed doesn't come in. Ralph: "Three locks are better than one." Ralph explains how Norton cost him a raise, which subsequently cost him a better home, an opportunity to play golf on Long Island and a real good oil well. Yeah, that makes sense...NOT! Up pops Mr. Malone, to apologize to Ralph for yelling at him, and to give him the raise. After he leaves, Ralph remembers part of the stars' prediction on how he is going to fall in love with an attractive woman born under the sign of Aquarius and since he is in love with Alice, he says he shouldn't take that raise until he remembers that Alice was born on February 8. Question: "The Great Jewel Robbery" was centered on Alice's birthday, but didn't it air on FEBRUARY 28TH, 1955? Ah, not like it matters. It seems that the stars were right after all--until Norton comes down with the news that he's been reading last year's book. Ralph (yells): "GET OUT!"
Credit I think goes to (the original) Bill's 'Mooners Archives, eBay.com, tv.com, Honeymooners Lost Episodes Book, tvguide.com, honeymooners.net, Honeymooners Lost Episodes DVD booklet, Wikipedia.org, Yahoo Groups You're A Riot! & Amazon.com.
Episode #101 (Syndicated Episode #55)
TV: Half-hour.
VCR: Attached to "Ralph's Diet."
DVD: Attached to "Stars Over Flatbush" & "Game Called on Account of Marriage." On the Restored Lost Episodes DVD Box Set, it is attached to "Adoption", "Stars Over Flatbush", "One Big Happy Family" & "A Weighty Problem."
Color & Lost Episode Title: “The Adoption.”
Air Date: Sat. 3/26/55
Alice is trying to give Ralph a haircut. (Ralph lost all his money.) Ralph doesn't like the idea, but goes along with it. He is also afraid that Alice will cut his ear off. Alice: "With the way you eat, you will grow another one." Ed comes down. Ralph looks at himself in a hand-held mirror, but his head gets stuck. Ed helps out by moving Ralph's head, but it gets stuck again. Alice gets it unstuck. Ralph has had it. He is going to the barber shop and getting his haircut on Alice's allowance Alice & Ralph go into the bedroom. Trixie comes down all excited. Trixie (yells): "ALICE! ALICE!" The adoption agency called. The Kramdens may be able to get a baby. Alice gets the news and tries to talk to the doctor on Trixie's phone. Ed breaks the news to Ralph. Alice and Ralph want to adopt a baby. "We wanted this more than anything in the world," says Ralph. The adoption agency tells Alice her application is being considered, but that a staff worker must come to the apartment to look it over before final approval is granted. The Kramdens realize that there apartment looks terrible. So terrible that they might not get the kid so they go out and borrow a TV set, drapes, refrigerator, stove, new table and chairs, couch, etc.--to make the apartment look presentable. Ralph and Alice are as nervous as two kids on their first date as they wait for Miss Lawrence from the agency to arrive. Ralph says to Alice to be calm like he is, but he isn't calm at all. Miss Lawrence comes by and Ralph asks her for a cigar (he said he doesn't smoke but he smokes one every now and then.)
Miss Lawrence asks: "Are there any places of recreation?" Ralph says that there is a poolroom. Alice says there is a playground and she is planning on taking the baby there every day. Everything is going smooth until Ralph says to Alice that the light in the fridge turns on when you open the fridge. An ice man comesby with some ice to put in the ice box. Ralph says that they never got any ice from him. The man accidentally drops the ice on the floor. The jig is up. They tell Miss Lawrence that they spruced up the place and that the TV, the couch, the drapes, the refrigerator isn't theirs. They are fighting for this kid. Miss Lawrence says the agency is not as concerned with furnishings as it is with finding couples who really want children, and that she's never met a couple who want a child more than the Kramdens. Approved! Ralph tries to get Norton who comes in with a bunch of neighbors waiting to congratulate Ralph. (They heard by standing near the door.)
The Nortons accompany the Kramdens to the hospital. Ralph thanks the doctor. The Nortons eventually go outside. But Ralph is upset when they are told that they are going to get a girl. Ralph: "I want a boy." He was going to name the boy Ralph. Ralph: "Nobody wants a girl." What a nice thing to say...NOT! The doctor said that on the form, they would approve either sex. The doctor says he will see what he can do. He leaves and Alice goes outside in tears of sadness since that they are not getting the kid that is in the room. In a scene he would play again--with a puppy--in the Classic Thirty-nine episode "A Dog's Life," Ralph apologizes to the baby for not wanting to bring her home. During this scene, Jackie Gleason was reading his lines that were in the baby carriage (since there was no real baby in there). Ralph says that girls can't play football. In 1998, in high school, I remember hearing about a girl football player on the varsity football team. As the infant weaves her magic on Ralph, his arguments for not wanting a girl become less convincing. The doctor comes back with news that in a few weeks, they can get a boy. But Ralph now wants the girl. Ralph and Ed wheel the baby outside into the cab.
At home, the apartment is a mess. Ed comes in and introduces himself as "Uncle Ed." Ralph: "Don't scare the kid." The "baby" is crying. So Ed thinks that she needs milk but there is no bottle. They think of putting the milk into a glove and cutting off one of the finger tips of it (which eventually causes milk to squirt all over them.) That is a scene that they did in "Lost Baby." Ralph kicks Ed out. The doctor and Alice come in with sad news. The mother wants her baby back. Ralph is angry. He yells at the doctor, saying that the mother put her up for adoption and now they are the legal parents so they shouldn't surrender her. The doctor leaves and Ralph is yelling about how much he loves the kid. There is no funny statements being said here. Alice is sobbing. Alice: "Imagine how the mother feels." This is something that I don't like to see, Alice sobbing. Ralph eventually realizes that it is wrong to keep the kid, so he goes upstairs to Ed's to call the doctor. He leaves, Alice alone. She is sobbing. Once again, I do not like Alice sobbing.
Episode #102 (Syndicated Episode # 46)
TV: Half-hour.
VCR: Attached to "The Prowler." In 2015, a VHS on Ebay was found from the 80s that contained that contained a B&W kinescope of the Jackie Gleason Show that had this episode and it was attached to a B&W kinescope of the Color episode entitled "Flushing Ho." I am thinking that this was a homebrew copy since MPI has been the only distributer of the Lost Episodes and that MPI only got the rights to the Color episodes in 2004 (unless it was made another company that decided not to put their name on the box and got a cease and desist order from MPI.
DVD: Attached to "The Adoption" & "Game Called on Account of Marriage." On the Lost Episodes Restored DVD Box Set, it is attached to “Peacemaker”, “The Adoption”, “One Big Happy Family” & “A Weighty Problem”
Air Date: Sat. 4/2/55
This episode was colorized on YouTube in 2020. It has since been taken down.
Ed wakes up and goes into the kitchen to get ready for the day one morning and is annoying Trixie by reading an astrology book. After Trixie goes into the bedroom, Ralph visits Ed in his apartment. If you look on the TV, I think you can see the reflection of the camera lights. Oh no, not something that the camera crew wanted. Norton has discovered astrology, and Ralph thinks he's nuts, especially when Norton tells him the stars say he shouldn't ask his boss, Mr. Malone, for the raise he planned to request that day. Ed says: "I was born under the sign of Pieces the fish." Ralph: "You were born under the sign of Pistachio, the nut." Norton also sees in the stars that Ralph will have an accident that day and will be rendered speechless. When a window falls on Ralph's hand and the pain is so great that he can't utter a sound, Ralph becomes hooked on the stars too.
At home that night, Alice is talking to Trixie about what Ralph would do if he got the raise. He never got one before. Ralph comes home and after Trixie leaves, he asks Alice to scratch his back. She does. After they sit down to have dinner, Ralph explains that now he hasn't asked for his raise, but he will ask for it at 11:30pm Friday night. Alice: "Ralph, that's crazy. Your boss might be fast asleep." Ralph: "That's his tough luck." Ralph explains that now he is letting the stars run his life and he says for proof that Ed Norton predicted that he would get into an accident and the accident that happened to him was a window falling on his hand. Alice: "Are you sure that it didn't fall on your head." Ralph: "Since I found out that I am Taurus the Bull, I have become a new man." Alice: "You may be a new man, but it's the same old bull." Ha! Ralph (yells): "You think that that is going to get me mad?" (yells in anger): "WELL I AM NOT GOING TO GET MAD ALICE!" Ralph gets another itch on his back so Alice says that since he is Taurus the Bull to swipe at it with his tail. Ha! She goes into the bedroom.
Ed Norton comes in and thinks that Ralph is doing the Shake, Rattle and Roll by rubbing his back against the ice box to scratch his itch. As if appointed by destiny, in walks Freddie Muller with an invitation for the Kramdens to an engagement party he's giving for Mr. Malone, Friday night--from 9 P.M. to midnight. Ed: "That includes 11:30pm, doesn't it?" He leaves. Alice gets the news and can't believe it since it's so weird. Ralph: "This calls for a celebration." Ralph says that they will go out for dinner. Ed Norton talks about the stars more. Next, Norton sees in Ralph's horoscope that he's going to fall in love with a glamorous woman born under the sign of Aquarius. They figure that the party is the only place Ralph is likely to meet such a woman, so they decide to show up at Freddie's just before 11:30. Another woman comes by asking for a petition for a new playground. Ed says that that is great because he would like a new one to play in. Gee, a man Norton's age playing by himself in a playground. The woman is name Miss Tasslemann so Ralph asks when she was born. The answer is in February. Ralph (yells): "GET OUT!" Gee, that was so not nice.
At the party Ralph is edgy, and he nearly faints when an attractive blond asks him for a match. He nearly has a heart attack a few minutes later when Mr. Malone's fiancée, a cute blond Aquarius, asks him to dance with her. The boss tells Ralph and Ed a joke which Ed doesn't find funny, so Ralph reminds him that he told a joke, so Ed laughs in a way that you know that it's fake. Ralph: "It takes a while for Ed to get a joke." At exactly 11:30 Ralph asks Mr. Malone for the raise. Malone turns him down, and then dresses him down for trying to take advantage of a social situation. Ralph wants to kill Norton. Ed is outside with probably a headache, so he tells Alice that he is going out there to make sure Ed gets that headache. Gee, that sounds so not nice.
At home the next day, Ralph is installing not one, not two, but three locks on the door to make sure that Ed doesn't come in. Ralph: "Three locks are better than one." Ralph explains how Norton cost him a raise, which subsequently cost him a better home, an opportunity to play golf on Long Island and a real good oil well. Yeah, that makes sense...NOT! Up pops Mr. Malone, to apologize to Ralph for yelling at him, and to give him the raise. After he leaves, Ralph remembers part of the stars' prediction on how he is going to fall in love with an attractive woman born under the sign of Aquarius and since he is in love with Alice, he says he shouldn't take that raise until he remembers that Alice was born on February 8. Question: "The Great Jewel Robbery" was centered on Alice's birthday, but didn't it air on FEBRUARY 28TH, 1955? Ah, not like it matters. It seems that the stars were right after all--until Norton comes down with the news that he's been reading last year's book. Ralph (yells): "GET OUT!"
Credit I think goes to (the original) Bill's 'Mooners Archives, eBay.com, tv.com, Honeymooners Lost Episodes Book, tvguide.com, honeymooners.net, Honeymooners Lost Episodes DVD booklet, Wikipedia.org, Yahoo Groups You're A Riot! & Amazon.com.