As a Honeymooners fan, which do you think is funnier/better -- the Classic 39 or the Lost Episodes?

As a huge fan myself, I happen to love them both.....but maybe there are some out there who like one more than the other.

I think it's a natural thing for most people to say the classic 39 are funnier since they've been around in syndication for over 40 years. We've memorized every line and double-take from every episode so it's hard to put them aside. I must say though, that the "Lost" episodes have their place as well. After watching them several times now over the past 18 years (wow, hard to believe they've been out that long) I can appreciate these episodes as much, and in SOME cases even more, than the classic 39. There is a sharpness and edge of spontaneity about them that is absent from the 39. Some of the dialogue and ad-libs are quite funny and actually refreshing. The early "lost" episodes (1952-53) which were mostly 8 to 10 minutes in length, were, for the most part, weak. But once they started using the full hour format and expanded, they got better and much funnier. One thing for sure: I will never tire of seeing either the "lost" or "classic" episodes.....they are ALL gems!

I love them all!

I love them all, too...the "Classic 39" because here is Gleason's totally refined vision on the screen...everyone knew what they had to do and did it like clockwork for 39 weeks; the "Lost Epsodes" because you can trace how the characters developed from the "Calvacade Of Stars" days on Dumont and the first three seasons of Gleason's variety series on CBS (1952-55), and the "what if" segments from the 1956-57 season.

Watching "The Honeymooners" is an education in the refinement of tv situation comedy, something I belive all future sitcom writers shuld study dilligently!!

I love them all. The Classic 39 and the Lost Episodes.

I love them both.

Well of course I love them all but if I had to pick one over the other I'd pick the Classis 39. Maybe it's because these are the episodes I grew up on and am most familiar with. Thats not to say that I don't enjoy the Lost Episodes too, but if 2 networks were airing Honeymooners episodes at the same time and one was the Lost and one was the Classic 39 I'd have to watch the Clssic 39. I feel the same way when comparing I Love Lucy to The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. The Comedy Hour is great but I Love Lucy wins hands down. Again this is probably due to the sense of familiarity.

"The Honeymooners: Lost Episodes" was a collection of hundreds of kinoscope segments from the "Cavalcade of Stars" and the "Jackie Gleason Show" from the 50's produced in 1985.

I picked the classic 39. i remember when they first brought out the lost episodes and it was weird to me seeing those characters/sets in situations that I wasn't already familiar with from seeing it a million times like the classics. I could never get into the lost eps but I could watch classic 39 eps over and over and over again.

there are some lost episodes that i like but my favorites are classics i may end up getting the box set dvd for chrismtas even if i recorded it over the weekend would be nice to have it on dvd as well

I hope that WB11 will air the Classic 39 during the wee hours of the morning.

Originally posted by vashti1999
I picked the classic 39. i remember when they first brought out the lost episodes and it was weird to me seeing those characters/sets in situations that I wasn't already familiar with from seeing it a million times like the classics. I could never get into the lost eps but I could watch classic 39 eps over and over and over again.

My brother called me on the phone last night that he bought "The Honeymooners Special Edition" on DVD featuring 39 of the timeless episodes ever that it had being currently shown on TV.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000BV1XX.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I bought these from Columbia House this past year. They sold them as 7 volumes at $25 a piece. I wish I had waited the box set is more affordable and has some extras I'd like to have. Does anyone know if the original openings are on the discs's as extras or do they replace the openings with them? What are they like, the openings I mean?