Which sitcom do you think is better: I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners?

I obviously chose The Honeymooners, and these are my reasons:

- The Honeymooners is a much funnier show

-While some say I Love Lucy was ahead of its time (e.g. creating the traditional sitcom format), The Honeymooners did start as a skit before I Love Lucy was made. (ILL was pioneering in its live studio filming, recording on film - it was a pioneer, don't get me wrong)

- The Honeymooners was done live (while being recorded))......Lucy was filmed in front of a live audience....the big difference of course being the mistakes/bloopers

- speaking of the bloopers, it was not only funny to watch Gleason and the cast mess up, but how brilliantly/funny they corrected/covered up the mistake....you have to remember this was live, no editing could be done

- Gleason didn't like to rehearse......knowing that the show was live, the fact that he didn't like to rehearse (i think they did once a week, but even that was a quick reading) shows why he is called the Great One - the show ran smoothly under all of the conditions b/c of the genius that was Gleason and the rest of the cast for that matter

- The Honeymooners as a tv show had only 39 episodes (C39)
the Lost ones are just as great, but every marathon plays the C39 of the Honeymooners.........these classic 39 do more for me than Lucy's 100+ episodes (i don't know how many Lucy has) and with only 39 shows to Lucy's......alot more, the C39 is still considered a classic

Vote for your favorite and tell the board why it's your favorite.

honeymooners!:wave:

Although both shows are worthy of praise and are unquestionably classics, I think the Honeymooners are better because of Jackie Gleason. There is just a quality about him that it believable to the audience. Gleason was asked in one of his final interviews why the Honeymooners are still so loved all these years later, he simply responded: “because their funny.” Can’t argue with the Great One!:wave:
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Yeah, this is a hard choice, BOTH shows are GREAT, GREAT, but for me, the HoneyMooners, win my vote.. but again it was hard, to selcet from the two shows.

The Honeymooners :) I even enjoy it. And i'm just 12, lol

For me, "I Love Lucy", dont get me wrong the Mooners are a great show, its just every time i watch it i feel like i am watching the "Flintstones"! So for me "I LOVE LUCY"!!!!!!!!

Obviously I Love Lucy is a wonderful show -- there's no denying that it's a classic and one of the funniest and most memorable ever.. But I really have to say that I prefer The Honeymooners.

I got into it when I was maybe 8 years old, and from the moment I saw Jackie Gleason, I knew I was hooked. He was so damn funny, and I always got a big kick out of watching him and Art Carney together. He and the rest of the cast were perfect together.

I love the Honeymooners best!



PS
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Ceal
:crazy:

The Honeymooners :D

Originally posted by jax77
Which sitcom do you think is better: I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners?

... The Honeymooners as a tv show had only 39 episodes (C39)
the Lost ones are just as great, but every marathon plays the C39 of the Honeymooners.........these classic 39 do more for me than Lucy's 100+ episodes (i don't know how many Lucy has) and with only 39 shows to Lucy's......alot more, the C39 is still considered a classic

Vote for your favorite and tell the board why it's your favorite.


I love both shows...

In my opinion, the C 39 of the Honeymooners was the single greatest season any TV show has ever had, at any time...just absolutely incredible comedy in those C 39...

However, I Love Lucy was great for five years, the Honeymooners was great for one year...I would have to disagree about the lost episodes, I don't think they're nearly as good as the C 39 episodes...and FYI, I Love Lucy made 179 episodes... and IMHO, any episode of I Love Lucy is better than any of the LOST episodes of the Mooners...but any of the classic 39 is as good as anything I Love Lucy ever did...

I think that one of the reasons Jackie Gleason called it quits after the C 39 was that he felt that he could never top that season...and I think he was right...he never did...

I think that, overall the cast on I Love Lucy was slightly better too...even though Gleason, Carney and Meadows were great in their roles, Joyce Randolph was not a good actress at all...whereas Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel were each absolutely perfect in their parts...

I will also grant you that Norton was unquestionably the greatest 2nd banana in the history of television, by far....

So, to sum it all up:

Classic 39 - best season ever, for any show
I Love Lucy - best show ever, from start to finish...never a really, really bad episode
Cast of the Honeymooners - (3 excellent members, one poor one, kind of like the Beatles BEFORE Ringo)
Cast of I Love Lucy = The best foursome ever (much like the Beatles AFTER Ringo)...

In fact, I would rate, in terms of total overall acting talent, the greatest foursome casts ever as:

1) I Love Lucy
2) Seinfeld
3) The Honeymooners (because Randolph was so weak)

I do like them both.

But I like I Love Lucy better.

To be fair, this should be under General Sitcoms not The Honeymooners board.

I LOVE both the shows but if I have to choose, I`ll go with The Honeymooners!:wave:

If you mean any C39 Honeymooners episode tops I Love Lucy, I can't argue with that...as I said, the C39 is the single greatest sitcom season ever, for any show (imho).... However, just about any episode of I.L.Lucy is better than any of the lost episodes of the HMs.

And actually, regarding J.Randolph's acting talent...It always seemed to me that she was just glad to make it through a scene and remember all of her lines, and she didn't worry so much about delivery...considering that they only got to rehearse each show one time, she must have been a nervous wreck with every performance...Alice, on the other hand, did a great job delivering her lines...she was much better than Randolph...(btw, is it possible that the reason J Randolph "never really had a big part in any episode so she didn't have much to do" is BECAUSE she really wasn't that good to begin with? Just a thought...


Also, I don't think that it's such a disgrace to consider Seinfeld to be better, overall, than the Mooners...the writing and acting on the best Seinfeld episodes were darn near perfect...and Seinfeld had some of the greatest "guest stars" (even though they weren't necessarily 'stars') of any show ever... The extras in the Honeymooners couldn't act their way out of a paper bag...Gleason, Carney and Meadows are the only ones who had any acting talent at all...most of the other people were terrible... (Ralph's boss, Mr. and Mrs. Manacotti, Alice's mother, Ralph's buddies, other than Norton...imo were terrible actors)
An average Seinfeld episode is better than any Lost Episode of the Mooners...

Finally, to state that there wouldn't be shows like Seinfeld if it wasn't for the Honeymooners...that may or may not be true, but even if it were true, it doesn't make the Mooners "better" than Seinfeld...there probably wouldn't have been a "Beatles" if it weren't for Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, etc...but that doesn't mean that any of those guys were actually BETTER than the Beatles, just because they came along first and influenced them...

Anyway, once again, nothing against the Mooners, Seinfeld, Lucy or anyone else...The C39 is the best season ever, for any show (and always will be, considering the state of sitcoms today)...but the Lost Episodes are simply over rated, imo...I remember when the lost episodes were first aired on Showtime, about 1985 or 1986...I taped a bunch of them, but was disappointed with the quality, having grown up on the C39...so imo, the Mooners were great for one season, I.L. Lucy for five, Seinfeld for nine (although not every Seinfeld is a classic, it had enough instant classics to rank up there with Lucy & the Mooners).



dlemond was right, this should be a topic for the general discussions board...

Hope every one out there has a great day today


:wave:

There is NO way in this world I would even consider putting SEINFELD in the same paragraph as The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy. The only reason you will see the two listed here is so I can make this comment. Oh, I know there are a huge number of Seinfeld fans out there and I'm not saying it wasn't a funny show, but to even list it with classic 50's gems like Honeymooners and Lucy.....forget about it! Jerry's in one class and the others (thank heaven) are in another class all by themselves. Besides, shows like Lucy, Honeymooners, and others of that class, will still be around 20, 30 or who knows how many years from now. I will stack their longevity up against Seinfeld, Raymond, or any of the others from recent years. They're from a part of television history that will never be again, and will be endeared for generations to come. Ok, ok.....I'll get off my soap-box now! :-)

I voted for "The Honeymooners" but this is an old thread from the last couple of months.

I have to say "I Love Lucy" because I think Lucy was a brilliant comedienne. Also, I have seen the episodes so many times I have many of them practically memorized, so I am just way more familiar with that show. I have not seen that many episodes of "The Honeymooners". Before I recently started getting TVLand, I had only seen a handful of "Honeymooners" eps because I never had a station that consistenly carried it. I did, however, watch several episodes of the marathon on TVLand, and was surprised at how much the show "grew" on me. Their set (apartment) was kind of boring, though. In the episodes I've seen, the show is filmed mostly in their apartment. The men have jobs, but I had to wonder if the girls ever got out of that apartment during the day! I never even saw them going shopping or on other errands.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tweety
[B]I love both shows...

In my opinion, the C 39 of the Honeymooners was the single greatest season any TV show has ever had, at any time...just absolutely incredible comedy in those C 39...

I totally agree!


"However, I Love Lucy was great for five years, the Honeymooners was great for one year."

I have to disagree here...I Love Lucy was great when it took place in their New York Apartment, however, some of their Hollywood episodes were clinkers, and MOST of the episodes in Europe were pretty bad in my opinion, as were those that took place in Connecticut...hardly a classic.



"..I would have to disagree about the lost episodes, I don't think they're nearly as good as the C 39 episodes...and FYI, I Love Lucy made 179 episodes... and IMHO, any episode of I Love Lucy is better than any of the LOST episodes of the Mooners...but any of the classic 39 is as good as anything I Love Lucy ever did..."


Once again, I agree, the classic 39 were far better than the lost episodes, but the lost episodes were made as part of a larger, live, Jackie Gleason show. Since they weren't made as a single entity, they shouldn't be compared to I Love Lucy.

"I think that, overall the cast on I Love Lucy was slightly better too...even though Gleason, Carney and Meadows were great in their roles, Joyce Randolph was not a good actress at all...whereas Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel were each absolutely perfect in their parts...

I will also grant you that Norton was unquestionably the greatest 2nd banana in the history of television, by far...."

I will analyze this on a point system. Both Lucy and Gleason were King and Queen at what they did, both score a 10. Desi was a very much under appreciated talent, who I believe had moments where he could be as funny as Lucy, I will give him an 8. Audrey was the best at what she did, which was, setting up Gleason, and putting him back on track when he got lost, I'll also give her an 8. Carney was probably one of the best 2nd bananas in the history of TV or Film, he gets a 10. Frawley, also very funny, a veteran who worked with the best, I'll give him a 7. Now we get to the bottom line...Vivian Vance was great, she was to be emulated in future shows like Laverne and Shirley...she gets a solid 8 from me, but as you stated, Joyce Randolph wasn't a very good actress, at least she didn't have many funny lines written for her character...I would have to give her a 3...giving the I Love Lucy cast a final total 33 points and The Honeymooners cast 31 points.


"Classic 39 - best season ever, for any show"

I agree totally.

"I Love Lucy - best show ever, from start to finish...never a really, really bad episode"

Totally disagree, while it may be the best show ever, I challenge you to sit through exclusive showings of the Europe and Connecticut episodes...You will see just how flawed the show really was.


"Cast of the Honeymooners - (3 excellent members, one poor one"

I agree

"Cast of I Love Lucy = The best foursome ever"

I once again have to agree here.

"In fact, I would rate, in terms of total overall acting talent, the greatest foursome casts ever as:

1) I Love Lucy
2) Seinfeld
3) The Honeymooners (because Randolph was so weak)"

Yup yup, I agree again...but this brings ME to my final conclusion...because I feel the only episodes that should ever be compared with I Love Lucy are the Classic 39, I have to say the Honeymooners wins hands down. I challenge anyone to look through those 179 ILL episodes, and pick the best 39...The Honeymooners 39 will still be funnier...In fact, there's only 1 classic 39 I don't really care for "Young Man With A Horn"...I can name a whole bunch of episodes I'd pass on I Love Lucy.

One final note...The Honeymooners didn't have nearly the kind of budget ILL had, they did it all on a small stage in NY, whereas the Ricardos had the luxury of a huge budget, recreating such grand scale things as Ocean Liners, swimming pools, The Empire State Building and much more....and still The Honeymooners got the laughs on such a smaller budget :)

In my opinion, I Love Lucy is the greater show.

- I Love Lucy outlived The Honeymooners by five seasons (actually eight if you include 1957-1960) and produced more than four times as much episodes than The Honeymooners.

- I Love Lucy was clearly the best show (or sitcom for that matter) of the 1950's by always staying in the Top 3 Most- Watched Shows . In fact, I Love Lucy was THE #1 show for four of its six seasons (1952-1953, 1953-1954, 1954-1955, & 1956-1957). The Honeymooners, on the otherhand, didn't do nearly as well as ILL. In fact, The Honeymooners never topped I Love Lucy in the ratings at all. It didn't even get into the Top 10 shows list.

- I Love Lucy is seen in more countries and is played more often than The Honeymooners. Since 1994, ILL has hit the airwaves constantly in the United States nation wide (national television - i.e TV Land / Nick at Nite) but I honestly can't say that for The Honeymooners.

- I Love Lucy offered so many things to viewers in general than The Honeymooners: a talented Cuban that could perform, sing, and dance; beautiful latin music sung by Desi throughout the series; a view of another culture: Cuba (spanish);
real love with a touch of REALITY shown between the characters [since they [Lucy, Desi] were actually MARRIED IN LIFE]; an ongoing storyline; a brilliant cast of actors and characters; recurring characters; The QUEEN OF COMEDY / FIRST LADY OF AMERICAN COMEDY; The fab foursome, ect.

- The Honeymooners had a lot of shouting and yelling especially from the star of the show. Everytime he turned around . . . he was either yelling at Alice, Norton, or some random character. IMO, Ralph Kramdem was like the Archie Bunker of the 1950's as far as the yelling goes. I'm not real too fond of Archie Bunker.

- I would have to disagree to the ones that say that "The Classic 39" tops any episodes of I Love Lucy. I find that hard to believe or comprehend, especially, when so many TV Lists of Best TV-made episodes include at least three I Love Lucy episodes in them. I honestly can say that I haven't seen a one from The Honeymooners on that particular kind of TV Listing.
Even so, almost each episode of ILL was brilliantly written, brilliantly performed, and offered to us constant laughs. No other show that I can think of has ever done that successfully well.

- I bet anyone of these 39 most-recognized I Love Lucy episodes can top most, if not all, of the "Classic 39" Honeymooners

001. ILL #19 - "The Ballet"
002. ILL #25 - "Pioneer Women"
003. ILL #29 - "The Freezer"
004. ILL #30 - "Lucy Does A TV Commercial"
005. ILL #33 - "Lucy's Schedule"
006. ILL #38 - "The Operetta"
007. ILL #39 - "Job Switching"
008. ILL #45 - "Lucy Is Enceinte"
009. ILL #51 - "Lucy Goes To The Hospital"
010. ILL #64 - "The Camping Trip"
011. ILL #66 - "Ricky and Fred Are TV Fans"
012. ILL #72 - "Lucy Tells The Truth"
013. ILL #79 - "The Million Dollar Idea"
014. ILL #87 - "Bonus Bucks"
015. ILL #88 - "Ricky's Hawaiian Vacation"
016. ILL #89 - "Lucy Is Envious"
017. ILL #92 - "The Diner"
018. ILL #96 - "The Golf Game"
019. ILL #98 - "Lucy Cries Wolf"
020. ILL #110 - "California, Here We Come"
021. ILL #113 - "Ethel's Hometown"
022. ILL #114 - "L.A. At Last!"
023. ILL #116 - "Lucy Gets In Pictures"
024. ILL #122 - "The Star Upstairs"
025. ILL #124 - "Harpo Marx"
026. ILL #127 - "The Tour"
027. ILL #129 - "Lucy and John Wayne"
028. ILL #132 - "The Great Train Robbery"
029. ILL #137 - "Ricky's European Booking"
030. ILL #140 - "Bon Voyage"
031. ILL #145 - "Paris At Last!"
032. ILL #150 - "Lucy's Italian Movie"
033. ILL #153 - "Return Home From Europe"
034. ILL #162 - "The Ricardos Visit Cuba"
035. ILL #164 - "Lucy and the Loving Cup"
036. ILL #166 - "Lucy and Superman"
037. ILL #171 - "Lucy Raises Chickens"
038. ILL #172 - "Lucy Does The Tango"
039. ILL #176 - "Building A BAR-B-Q"



Basic Overview:
- I Love Lucy IS the Greatest Show of 1950's and of All-Time. Nothing can compare to it, so why bother?
- I Love Lucy paved the way for future sitcoms, NOT
The Honeymooners.
- I Love Lucy has something that no other sitcom has (which includes The Honeymooners): Lucille Ball, the Queen of Comedy AND Desi Arnaz, the Talented Cuban Performer.

Just my thoughts.

The Honeymooners are great, I absolutely love it but I prefer I Love Lucy. Always. It was well-written and well-acted and much funnier than The Honeymooners. And like LucyFan said, Ralph Kramden was always yelling. It was funny sometimes but I hated it when he yelled at Alice. So, I go with I Love Lucy. :D :p :rolleyes: