Time Life is releasing the 1960's Jackie Gleason Show, including the 7 shirt Honeymooner sketches!

FINALLY!
Including the 7 unreleased shorts..
https://timelife.com/products/the-jackie-gleason-show-in-color-deluxe-collection

You’ll get 25 DVDs including:

The complete existing collection of all 107 Honeymooners live episodes!

Plus 27 never-before-released episodes of The Jackie Gleason Show IN COLOR including 7 color Honeymooners sketches that haven’t been seen since they first aired!

Guest stars include Milton Berle, Jack Benny, George Burns, Lucille Ball, George Gobel, Bob Newhart, Tony Bennett, Gene Kelly, Martha Raye, Mickey Rooney, and many more!

Plus hours of extras including:
Original curtain calls, cast commercials, and color home movies from set!
The rare TV special with Jackie and Julie Andrews - Julie & Jackie: How Sweet It Is. Julie even plays Ed Norton in a Honeymooners sketch!

A Bonus DVD of Dean Martin’s Celebrity Roast of Jackie.
His good friends team up to take him down and Jackie loves every minute of it.
And two Collectible Memory Books with rare photos, original scripts, and a history of The Honeymooners.

70 hours of hilarious, heart-warming humor!

Great! I just bought this DVD box set of EBay. I didn't realize that it was made by Time Life. My ship has come in and it's the QUEEN MARY!

It's been a long time since I've posted here, but the good news brought me back!

Some random thoughts:

1. The half hour infomercial for this set airs this weekend. Bloomberg News will run it Saturday, October 7 at 8PM Eastern, which as we all know, is the second half hour when the show originally aired.

2. The link above is for the Deluxe Set which includes an add-on of the Lost Episodes set. The Color Shows can also be ordered separately from the site.

3. It will be nice to have a pristine copy of Julie & Jackie as well as some of the episodes that have surfaced previously, not to mention finally obtaining the rest of the Color Honeymooners. I'm especially happy to see The Birthday Show and Reggie & The Red Baron, of which I have read but never seen. I'm also intrigued by the One Man Show. It's too bad we're not getting The Poor Soul Christmas, but Time Life has been known to drop holiday shows as separate releases (see The Carol Burnett Show), so maybe if these sell well enough...

4. Not to spoil the party, but some of the discs contain four shows, which concerns me that they may be edited. I hope I'm wrong. The aforementioned Carol Burnett sets started out with full episodes, but the recent 50th Anniversary Set included some trimmed episodes. We shall see..

5. Finally, it must be the proper alignment of the stars in the Gleason Galaxy that the release of this set and its accompanying infomercial coincide with the return of the Honeymooners to prime time in New York. WPIX added a block of retro shows (mostly 70s sitcoms from the Sony catalog) to its Saturday lineup and will cap it off with an hour of the Classic 39 at 9PM Eastern. The shows will continue for another hour at 11 after a break for the news.

Great! I just bought this DVD box set of EBay. I didn't realize that it was made by Time Life. My ship has come in and it's the QUEEN MARY!

I'm sure you know, but just a warning for others: you MUST be very careful when buying so-called legit DVD sets from Ebay. There are illegal rips sold on there (and this negatively affects the quality, many times). Best thing to do is research the seller feedback if you buy a DVD set there. Especially watch out for sellers with virtually no history.

Yes Stevea.
The sets being sold on eBay are starting @ $100.
I just purchased mine on TimeLife's site.
$99. including tax.
Your best to buy right from them.

It's been a long time since I've posted here, but the good news brought me back!

Some random thoughts:

4. Not to spoil the party, but some of the discs contain four shows, which concerns me that they may be edited. I hope I'm wrong. The aforementioned Carol Burnett sets started out with full episodes, but the recent 50th Anniversary Set included some trimmed episodes. We shall see..



If I recall correctly, weren't there a lot of musical performances in those color sketches? (I haven't seen them since they were originally on, so I may be wrong.) If there were, watch out for licensing problems. These can be a nightmare for DVD release.

Yes Stevea.
The sets being sold on eBay are starting @ $100.
I just purchased mine on TimeLife's site.
$99. including tax.
Your best to buy right from them.

To be honest, (I'll be safe and say it's just my opinion), it's better to do as you say, or buy from Amazon, which is always legit. Another thing to watch out for on Ebay (which obviously doesn't apply in your quote) is sets selling for outrageously low prices.

Thank you very much. I did my research on the seller. He seems like he has very good positive feedback but I am now very concerned.

In regards to shows being edited, I hope that the Honeymooners sketches are shown intact.

Buying directly from Time-Life also helps with the sales count while buying from eBay may not.

Ordered from Time-Life. They say it is backorder status.

Already?!

Wonder when the official release date is/was?

Hmmm.. wonder if the Ebay folks get theirs first?

Hmmmm. Good point about them being uncut & unedited.
They are not promoting complete & uncut on the website.
We will have to wait & see if they say anything in the TV promo about this.

They are advertising singers Mel Torme & Tony Bennett, so hopefully their music cleared. Gleason did a lot of singing with the guest stars too, so we shall see.

Looking at some of the dates, it appears as though they either skipped over "The Incredible World of Ed Norton," or it's actually lost.

I want to order mine too from TIME, but I'm disturbed to hear it's already on "backorder", has this set NOT been officially released yet???

Also I would bet that these are NOT uncut episodes. Believe me if they were Time would make a big deal of making that point. I'm sure they must be edited versions. However, edited versions are sure a heck of a lot better than no versions, so I'm still a YES on this set. BUT I want to know are these available NOW or NOT?? If not I'll wait to order.:rolleyes:

When I placed my order and it said “backordered” I didn’t take it as being sold out. I just figured the announcement was not even a day old and back ordered just meant “pre-ordered.” My guess is that if they are running ads and selling the items will probably ship within a week or so ...

I want to order mine too from TIME, but I'm disturbed to hear it's already on "backorder", has this set NOT been officially released yet???

Also I would bet that these are NOT uncut episodes. Believe me if they were Time would make a big deal of making that point. I'm sure they must be edited versions. However, edited versions are sure a heck of a lot better than no versions, so I'm still a YES on this set. BUT I want to know are these available NOW or NOT?? If not I'll wait to order.:rolleyes:


After seeing the infomercial last evening, I'm assured that there are musical performances, but that does not mean that every show will be complete. Certainly, Disc 7 which has only two shows that are both full length musicals are complete.

As for The Incredible World of Ed Norton, maybe it could be held for a future release if sales warrant further editions. Personally, I'd love the Poor Soul Christmas, but that must be a musical licensing nightmare since the selections came from different composers. At least the Nutcracker March is public domain!

Regardless of episode length, this is a must buy for me, because I have not seen most of this material and it will keep me occupied for 27 Saturday nights. As for the backorder status, does Time-Life at least wait until shipping to bill the credit card?

As for The Incredible World of Ed Norton, maybe it could be held for a future release if sales warrant further editions. Personally, I'd love the Poor Soul Christmas, but that must be a musical licensing nightmare since the selections came from different composers. At least the Nutcracker March is public domain!
My concern is that old story about "Incredible World" being destroyed out of respect for Carney. However, Frank said that one of the TV commercials for this set had a clip of Carney popping out of the sewer. What else could that be from? Maybe the list on the site is incomplete.

"Poor Soul" is another notable omission, and music clearance could be an issue. It'd be great if they released the original with Audrey and Joyce as well. Hopefully this is the first of many!

And just a little update: Customer service told me it's not on backorder and will ship in 7 to 10 business days. So there's no release date, it's already out.

Has the infomercial begun airing? Any links to it?

Here is a 3 minute promo...

https://www.youtube.com/user/TimeLife

After watching it 3 times,
I didn't see a scene of Carney popping out of the sewer.

The 7 Honeymooners sketches are:
"Six Months To Live"
"Alice's Birthday"
"Lawsuit"
"Hot Tip"
"The New Bowling Ball"
"Norton Moves In"
"The New Manager"

All 7, are remakes of Lost Episodes & originally single scene episodes.
None of them contained scenes outside the Kramden apartment.

Would have no idea what the piece could be of Carney popping out of the sewer other than "Incredible World."

Hmmmm....

Note: "Alice's Birthday" is still one of the Lost Episodes missing from May 1953.
This will be the first time seeing the sketch.

Time-Life usually puts out a 30 minute infomercial on their new products (Skelton, Carol Burnett, etc). The only Honeymooner sketch missing now is the the "The Incredible World of Ed Norton", which aired (?), January 17, 1970. The show also featured George Burns, Sandy Duncan, Morey Amsterdam and Ron Carey, Phil Leeds and Lou Marsh.

Could they (Time-Life) not consider this a true Honeymooner sketch since it did not feature Gleason?

Time-Life usually puts out a 30 minute infomercial on their new products (Skelton, Carol Burnett, etc). The only Honeymooner sketch missing now is the the "The Incredible World of Ed Norton", which aired (?), January 17, 1970. The show also featured George Burns, Sandy Duncan, Morey Amsterdam and Ron Carey, Phil Leeds and Lou Marsh.

Could they (Time-Life) not consider this a true Honeymooner sketch since it did not feature Gleason?

I have an episode guide printed from the old Honeymooners.net that lists "The Incredible World of Ed Norton" as having aired on January 19, 1970, but that was a Monday, not a Saturday. Could it have been a typo that should have read January 10, 1970? The Time-Life set includes an episode from January 10, 1970 that lists Art Carney among the guests. The episode guide from honeymooners.net describes the sketch as having been "presented among many others in the hour of the show." Maybe the set includes the sketch after all?

"Incredible World" was apparently a pilot for a proposed spin-off that aired as one half of a Gleason hour. Al Lewis was in it and George Burns was in the other half of the hour. I don't think they would've left those names off the episode description if it aired on the 10th. It's possible they could be saving Honeymooners-related items for later sets.

Other than this Norton sketch, the 7 short sketches are all that's left of Gleason Show Honeymooner scenes. The 1973 Woman's Lib sketch for his special has been released, 3 of the 4 of the later holiday specials are out, and the Julie Andrews as Norton sketch is now officially out. What's left? I know Gleason did a week co-hosting of the Mike Douglas show when he took it to Miami. He featured a short sketch featuring a sampling of his characters over the 5 days. I believe Reggie, Poor Soul, Rum Dum and the final Joe the bartender with Frank Fontaine were done, but no Honeymooner/Ralph.

There was a Honeymooners reenactment with Jackie & Sheila during a 1972 Mike Douglas appearance. There's also "Life Upon the Wicked Stage," the 1978 "Christmas Carol" special, a Ralph & Norton skit from Gleason's "Big Sell Revue" in 1960, and another Ed Sullivan from 1952.

Here is an add for the night "Incredible" aired.
The date is Jan 17, 1970.

Jan. 10, 1970 could be a Reggie sketch & why Carney is listed.
If you look at this site..

http://www.ultimate70s.com/actor/-/The_Jackie_Gleason_Show/18

there is additional info regarding the 1966-1970 seasons.
It appears that Carney came on to sing a bit in the last season.

One fan at the Home Theater Forum has received his set and unfortunately, my suspicions about episode length have been confirmed.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/jackie-gleason-color-variety-shows-time-life.354471/

I ordered it anyway as I have not seen most of the material and would like more. Definitely a case of voting with one's wallet.

One fan at the Home Theater Forum has received his set and unfortunately, my suspicions about episode length have been confirmed.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/jackie-gleason-color-variety-shows-time-life.354471/

I ordered it anyway as I have not seen most of the material and would like more. Definitely a case of voting with one's wallet.


Yes, received the set yesterday and started watching some today. I have watched two episodes so far. The picture quality is outstanding for 50 year old videotape. I think so far the shows have looked better than the MPI Color Honeymooners releases. However, so far the June Taylor Dancers at the beginning of the shows have been cut out. Either music rights, unable to obtain rights from June Taylor Estate, or they felt audiences would not be interested in it. Just my thoughts/opinions.

I caught the full infomercial last night and Carney definitely comes out of the sewer dressed as Norton. There was also a clip of "Norton" talking to Gleason in front of the curtain and a Honeymooners scene that appeared to take place in the Nortons' apartment. Maybe there was more to those short sketches than we initially thought.

The infomercial airs tonight at 8pm on WRNN.
Cablevision north Jersey ch 19

Just got my set.
I watched all 7 "Honeymooners,"
"Yes, We Have No Bonanzas" & "Reggie and the Red Baron"
and found the scene Carney pops out of the sewer.
Carney sings "If I Were A Rich Man." This is not from "Incredible World."

My review so far...
I enjoyed "Yes, We Have No Bonanzas" & "Reggie and the Red Baron."
Bored with all Honeymooners. Sheila MacRae seems uninterested & bored herself. & I am convinced these sketches are filmed without the studio audience. There is clearly a laugh track added.
My thinking is these may have been filmed all in 1 day, without the audience. & then spliced into shows that needed filler. "Hot Tips" was the best of the bunch.

As for the "Julie & Jackie." Hold on to your older copies.
Parts of this is butchered too.
It seems that this version is from a repeat broadcast.
The opening credits are slightly different, sponsored by an insurance company.
"Ya Got Trouble" is completely removed.
The end of the 1st verse of the Reggie sketch "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" abruptly ends with an odd fade out.

Wasn't the last season of the variety show shot piece meal to accommodate Carney not wanting to live in Florida for an extended timeframe? I remember seeing an episode (maybe with Milton Berle, who was practically a regular towards the end!), where Carney all but does a walkout bit during the opening monologue and that's it for him.

That would explain the 1969-70 season.
The Honeymooners season was 1968-69.
So bizzarre!

Does anyone have a link to the full informercial? Not the short clip one on the Time Life site?

It's ok so far. I've watched four of the seven Honeymooners episodes. Very cool to see Frank Marth show up in one, as he did not show up in any of the hour color ones, though George Petrie did. Very little Jane Kean which is expected, but disappointing.

The rest of the shows, though... Jackie is pretty much the straight man. And it's disappointing. I'm looking forward to some of the more gimmicky episodes mentioned above as I would think that Jackie played a bigger part in those.

As said above, the June Taylor Dancers are cut. Jackie just walks through them at the beginning. The "Stay tuned for more..." bumpers with Greta and Lanita are there, which is nice.

I'm just not a big stand-up fan, and even though it's a lot of legends and greats, it just isn't what I'm looking for. I want The Great One.

-J\/\/

There were only 20 new episodes shot between September 1969 and February 1970. 17 of them featured Carney. 12 of those were Honeymooners. Not including the Incredible World of Ed Norton pilot.

found the scene Carney pops out of the sewer.
Carney sings "If I Were A Rich Man." This is not from "Incredible World."
Which show is it from? I haven't come across it yet.

I'm glad to see they added material to some of the sketches and it's great to finally see "Alice's Birthday" acted out. Carney's line about a piece of fruit from the original script is noticeably absent.

It's also great to see Gleason with Lucy, Phil Silvers, Sid Caesar, etc. He called Sgt. Bilko the greatest comedy show (or something to that extent). High praise!

Just got mine today and had a mini-marathon of 4 episodes. The edits remind me of how the American Scene show was cut for syndication.

I think it is funny that upon starting the disc you get a disclaimer that mentions restoration of original elements. Restore elements and then edit hell out of 'em?

The biggest loss is the June Taylor Dancer bits. Those served as a kind of audience energy warm-up, followed by Gleason's entrance. It is jarring but, once you get past that and just enjoy what content is there, you get into the vibe.

Shorter run times just mean I want to see more and more.. I can't do just 30 minutes, it has to go longer.

I do have a few episodes in uncut form, and that does make me want to see these released properly. This set has flaws but the content, what is there is quality.

I want more. I want Time-Life to revisit this and give us more-- more complete shows (yes I will pay a premium for complete content. Give me everything including opening slates and VT countdown) and, by all means, dig further into the vault for American Scene shows.

Again, I will pay more for complete shows. Others would too, I bet.

This is a good start. Not perfect. But it leaves me (us the fans? Am I right?) wanting MORE!

Got my set, miss the June Taylor openings, heavy on the stand up comics and Gleason in monologue situations. He seemed to back off sketches & characters unless it was a "book" type show featuring Reggie, or the Poor Soul Christmas. The lone color Joe the Bartender is fun (Fontaine is especially Crazy in this guest spot), but they cut his song. The Milton Berle spots are good, they play off each other well. I tend to agree that the short Honeymooners look like they block filmed them and dropped them into a show when needed. The laugh track seems forced and their timing is off. I'm enjoying the set, and hope they continue to put others out...going back to American Scene Magazinr era.

Those short sketches definitely seem pre-filmed. You can hear the applause fade out unnaturally.

I haven't been on here in over five years, but when I heard about the new DVD set, I had to check in on what everybody thinks. I can't wait to watch The Honeymooners and the Three Stooges with my baby boy.

I too noticed the edits with the June Taylor dancers. What a shame! Time-Life does not indicate anything on the box saying that certain musical numbers were omitted for music license issues so we are left wondering why they were left out.

I am probably one of the lone people who actually have a copy of "The Poor Soul Christmas" (1966) when it was re-run once around 1985 on my PBS station, channel 21, in Garden City, NY. I treasure this because it hasn't been seen since then and many people are looking for it. Yes it's all set to music, no dialogue. The June Taylor dancers are NOT cut out (TV and music rights issues were different back in the '80s) and the whole episode is very entertaining and will bring a tear to your eye, especially when the whole cast comes out of the larger than life gift box and they give the Poor Soul the golden key. When he waves goodbye, it is so SAD. To me, it was like visiting heaven and having a short visit with your loved ones and then saying goodbye and returning to earth.:) :)

You could stop all of us to dry our tears by posting this special onto You Tube, they we could all visit a little bit of Heaven. This would be a great service to those that have wanted to see this. I saw it when I was a kid when it was originally broadcast and again when it was repeated a couple years later over Metro Media channels. But this was all before the days of DVD recorders, if you post this we'd love it.:)

Sounds like the single disc release is episodes in the box set released already.
AVOIDABLE!!


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-st-classic-hollywood-jackie-gleason-20180202-story.html

Couldn't agree more Chris. I was holding out hope that the DVD was going to include "The Incredible World of Ed Norton." Oh well. Maybe it will get released.

Sounds like the single disc release is episodes in the box set released already.
AVOIDABLE!!


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-st-classic-hollywood-jackie-gleason-20180202-story.html


Thank you for posting the link. Did I read this correctly?

(Time-Life will also soon be releasing a three-disc set of unseen episodes of the original "Jackie Gleason Show.")


So are we getting a set of the 50s show?

Who knows what that vague and puzzling sentence means. It could mean this time they'll re-release 3 discs from the multiple disc set instead of the now one disc re-release from the multiple disc set. Somehow I don't believe they're actually going to really release shows that have NOT been seen since broadcast. Now if this impossible possibility is true, I hope, really hope that Time'll do like they did with a handful of Dean Martin shows and release them UNCUT, all music, all June Dancers, no cuts, complete. Now if this is the case, count me at the front of the line. I just won't hold my breath.:rolleyes:

I hope the "upcoming" set has lost Honeymooners footage but upon reading that, it seems like they won't be releasing any more COLOR episodes. At least not soon. Will that "Incredible World of Ed Norton" sketch ever be released?

Hello all,

Though I'd mention that I have written a review/web article on the single disc "The Jackie Gleason Show In Color". Here's the link:
https://reelrundown.com/tv/The-Jackie-Gleason-Show-In-Color-DVD-Review

Marshall

OK, after careful investigating I have the answer everyone here has. The new single disc release is NOT a never before seen release. It is in fact Disc 4 from the 10 disc release. OK? Now for those not wanting to buy the 10 disc set, this is great. To the rest of us foolish enough to actually believe Time Life's claim on the cover of the new single disc release this "new" disc is a genuine disappointment. If you bought the 10 disc set, you can skip double dipping with the "new unreleased" disc, reality is it's already released as Disc 4 in the 10 disc set.

You may thank me for my service.

He told me that it IS a rerelease of a single disc.

As far as Time Life releasing the variety shows uncut, I remember on the old Jackiegleason.com message board there was a post that was made in 2008 that for the Jackie Gleason Shows to be released, there are a TON of things that need to be done. I don't think I remember all that was said. But Among what was said was I believe are giving the shows the Live Feed treatment, cleaning up the footage, negotiating for the stars, union expenses for the magicians and clearing the songs. Music clearances are the biggest cost issue with the other for things that I mentioned are also very costly. So for Time Life to release these episodes uncut with no overdubs, they need to be certain that the footage will sell enough to recoup their original investment.