I know. What a surprise. There was a tape trader around here that had an episode of the Jackie Gleason Show from January 17, 1970 in which Jackie says that we will see Art Carney in the second half. Yet, the second half is part of a previous episode of the JGS. The probable reason? Art Carney was going to do the "Incredible World of Ed Norton" sketch that was going to be a pilot for a spinoff and it was sooo bad that at the last minute Jackie asked for the footage to be destroyed as well as the script out of respect for Carney.

Does anyone have this episode?

The copy I have is a b&w kinescope, and it runs just shy of 46 minutes. The date provided on the dvdr menu claims it is from 12-11-69 which is not the case. The first half touting something "special" with Carney would the be 1-17-70, and the last half spliced in from the 1969 episode which features Frank Gorshin and Max Bygraves.

Now, why is that? Well, it is all speculation and I, for one, do not believe the "it was so awful Gleason cut it to protect Carney's reputation," and so on. What I do believe is that, having traded, bought and sold a few collector prints of various films, and having owned (and still do!) a few obscure homebrew telecine copies of third and fourth-hand films, it could be:

a) A Mistake. Simply, when cobbling together a full-length program to dupe for armed forces, personal archiving, or overseas sales, mis-matched elements were used. Hell, I got a couple of 16mm Stooges film prints that have The End titles spliced in from the wrong eras, and even some of those Screen Gems logo plastered hack jobs (a widescreen era Columbia Pictures logo, tacked on one!).

b) A rights issue. Quite often, for unspecified reasons (usually involving $$) authors may choose to not allow programs to be shown, sold, traded or otherwise. It happens, and it could have happened when JG's folks were making these film copies.

c) Lost elements. Broken or ruined footage may have been replaced. Or, with so few copies in circulation, someone may have taken a shine to that particular footage, hoping to retire upon its later "discovery" and subsequent sale to the right person. So they put in something else laying around to fill time. This kind of cut and paste leads to the next possibility:

d) Hoarding. This happens too often in the film collectors' circles. One gets hold of rare footage and is scared to let anyone near it for fear of devaluing the material. Best examples I know of are things like the Three Stooges Cartoon/live action combo films "Stooges Scrapbook" and "The Spain Mutiny". People have them but will not share, sell or allow viewing. 2 people have also claimed in the last 12 years to have superior 16mm copies of the Stooges' swansong "Kook's Tour" but allegedly could not agree on a ransom price.

I would guess it is a combination of A and D, with someone subbing in some footage and selling the print as is. I'd bet somewhere long ago, someone knew they had something rare and cannibalized the footage. The kinescope ends with Johnny Olsen reminding you to tune in to the Honeymooners next week, and it has the Bressler/Duddy song credit which hints at it maybe coming from another Honeymooners episode, which would be incorrect, as well, and flown in from separate elements

AND, the print just runs out as broken film. Poof. Proving (?) that the elements were kinda iffy anyway.

Frustrating, but there you have it.

The search continues!

Thank you very very much. So frustrating. I was hoping that the print would be such that I could tell if it was originally aired that way or if someone recorded over the Incredible World Sketch.