Other possible Honeymooners sketches

[Bill S.]

As the few of us that frequent this board are now well aware of, Gleason & Carney did a short Honeymooners sketch on The Big Sell Revue that wasn't well documented. It's the only "official" post-Pert Kelton Honeymooners that I know of that wasn't listed in John's book. That got me thinking about other shows that were either rumored to have featured a Honeymooners sketch or featured at least two cast members. Here's a small list I threw together, additional info would be great:

• The Red Skelton Hour [October 4, 1955] Gleason & Carney were guests on this show just a few days after "TV or not TV" aired. Gleason appeared as the Poor Soul according to the IMDb listing.

• Step on the Gas [October 19, 1960] I was under the impression that this was a Gleason special, but the TV.com listing for this title doesn't even mention him.

• Jackie Gleason Special [December 20, 1970] Vincent Terrace's Television Specials book says the following: "An hour of music, songs, and comedy, including a revival of The Honeymooners with Jackie (Ralph Kramden), Art Carney (Ed Norton), Sheila MacRae (Alice Kramden), and Jane Kean (Trixie Norton)." Someone (I think Ben) mentioned a while back that this may have just been a rerun of "The Poor Soul in Christmas-Land" from 1966.

• Mike Douglas Show appearances [1972-1976] Gleason is credited with appearing on The Mike Douglas Show 18 times. 4 of those appearances also featured Honeymooners co-stars: Sheila MacRae on 11/13/72, Jane Kean on 11/15/72 and 11/29/72, and Audrey Meadows on 1/16/76.

[Benno123]

Step on the Gas starred Jackie Cooper, not Jackie Gleason:

[Benno123]

The December 1970 "special" was a rerun of an earlier Christmas show:

[ChrisTV]

Some things I found....

Looks like Gleason & Carney were on "The Red Skelton Hour".
The 1955 show looks like the Poor Soul appeared with Red's Clem Kadiddlehopper character. Doesn't appear that a Honeymooners sketch was performed.

"Step On The Gas" looks like it was with Jackie Cooper, not Gleason.
Even TCM's site list Gleason incorrectly.
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/478601/Step-on-the-Gas/

I found 2 more newspaper listings that the 1970 Gleason special was a repeat of the 1966 "Poor Soul Christmas".

Can't find anything that a Honeymooners sketch was performed on a Mike Douglas Show. But who knows, maybe they did perform it & it was this, that Mike Douglas recalls Carney came through a window on

Including some photos....

[Bill S.]

OK, so I guess we can cross "Step on the Gas" and the 12/20/70 show off the list. Can't rule out the others just yet. Carney doesn't appear in that photo with Gleason & Skelton and that show was an hour long. I'm thinking there had to at least be a brief Honeymooners plug that close to the series premiere. The Mike Douglas appearances could have just been interviews, but Gleason did do sketches during his other guest spots, and Mike was a Honeymooners fan.

Question for Ben: is the Channel 8 mentioned in those listings an affiliate of both CBS & ABC?

[ChrisTV]

A funny note about the Red Skelton Hour. It was only 30 minutes long.
Only in the summer of 1954 was it actually 60 minutes. And that seemed to be for repeats.

I checked TV schedules from 1953-1960 & it was only 30 minutes each night for those seasons. Sometime in the 60's it went back to 60 minutes.

The show is now known as simply The Red Skelton Show for DVD & listing purposes.

This would make me think because it was only 30 minutes and there were other guests on the show, Mel Allen in a Baseball sketch, that no Honeymooners was performed. I think we would have heard something about it by now.

Perhaps Art Carney appeared in the Baseball sketch?

Wonder why in the world they called it The Red Skelton Hour when it was 30 minutes. Those crazy 50's!

[Benno123]

Channel 8 in Cleveland started as a DuMont/ABC channel 1949 -1955, became CBS and stayed that way until 1994 when it switched to FOX.

Channel 8 (WJW) was the start of the careers for Tim Conway and Ernie Anderson. And don't .forget that Mike Douglas started his show in Cleveland but that was on KYW (I think).

[Bill S.]

Originally Posted by ChrisTV

Can't find anything that a Honeymooners sketch was performed on a Mike Douglas Show. But who knows, maybe they did perform it & it was this, that Mike Douglas recalls Carney came through a window on

Carney appeared by himself on 5/30/69. I wonder if the window scene that Mike claimed to have seen was discussed or even shown during that episode. That could explain why it's missing from Gleason's archive.

[Bill S.]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1972-Jackie-...item2c6dfa194a
Looks like we can add another sketch to the list. Not sure why "Nov 20" is stamped on there, but unless IMDb is wrong, this should be from the November 13th show.

[ChrisTV]

Bill, I believe the stamped date is the date the picture is sent to the media.
It would make sense here, seeing that the show aired 11/13/72.

It says "re-enact", I wonder if this is from a lost episode or color episode?
My thinking is that it could be 1 of the 7, still unreleased, shorter color sketches. Thinking that Sheila MacRae would be familiar w/ the sketch & they probably didn't fill more than 15-20 minutes with the sketch.

However, that means "Norton" is written out. Or it is 1 of the earlier Cavalcade sketches that didn't include Norton or Trixie.

Or maybe, it is a new sketch written for that show.

Lastly, I wonder if this is from a rehearsal or from the actual show?
The background looks bare, making me think it's from rehearsal.

[Bill S.]

Originally Posted by ChrisTV

I wonder if this is from a rehearsal or from the actual show?
The background looks bare, making me think it's from rehearsal.

If it was just a short reenactment, they may not have bothered reconstructing the entire set.

[Frank Gannucci]

Originally Posted by Bill S.

Carney appeared by himself on 5/30/69. I wonder if the window scene that Mike claimed to have seen was discussed or even shown during that episode. That could explain why it's missing from Gleason's archive.

I have that episode on DVD. I got it from a private collector from eBay. He has A LOT of Mike Douglas Show episodes that are producers copies (complete with time codes on the screen.) No new window scene information was discussed. The Honeymooners was discussed though like Ed addressing the golf ball.

I asked him about the episode that Jackie and Shelia appeared on and he doesn’t have it.

[Bill S.]

Originally Posted by Frank Gannucci

I have that episode on DVD. I got it from a private collector from eBay. He has A LOT of Mike Douglas Show episodes that are producers copies (complete with time codes on the screen.) No new window scene information was discussed. The Honeymooners was discussed though like Ed addressing the golf ball.

I asked him about the episode that Jackie and Shelia appeared on and he doesn’t have it.

Did you ask if he has any other episodes with the cast members?

[Frank Gannucci]

I did yesterday and today. No response yet.

[Frank Gannucci]

I got a response back from the guy. He doesn’t have the episode with Jackie Gleason and Shelia MacRae. Out of all the rare producers copies of Mike Douglas Shows that he acquired, this isn’t one of them.