Episode Reviews: Episode #16 & #17 (I didn't include these earlier in my post below):

[Frank Gannucci]

Episode #17
DVD: MPI may release this episode in 2007.

This episode was remade three times. Two times as a lost episode, one
time as a CLassic 39 episode (entitled "A Matter of Life & Death),
and as a Color episode. I haven't seen this episode, but I have done
a review of the Color Honeymooners version of this episode. I haven't
seen this episode either but since I have seen "A Matter of Life &
Death" and part of the ending of this episode from the CBS
Honeymooners 50th Anniversary Special, I will do a review as best as
I can.

Alice is home. Trixie visits. Alice is talking about her mother's dog
being sick and having to be taken to the doctor. It costed more to
have the doctor give the dog a check-up then it did Ralph when he
recently visited the doctor. A telegram is going to come by tonight
with the news about the dog. Ralph and Ed come in. Ed wants a kiss
from Trixie. But she says no. One of the reasons is that he worked in
the sewer all day. The girls go upstairs. Ed asks Ralph if he wants
to bowl tonight. Ralph says no. He thinks that there is something
wrong with him since he went to the doctor and he has been felling
tired lately. Could it be plain exhaustion? The telegram is sent in.
Ralph gets the telgram from the delivery man and when the man holds
out his hand expecting a tip, Ralph says: "Your hand is very dirty."
Ralph reads the telegram aloud to Ed. The dog is dying in six months
from manochromia (sp?). Ralph: "This is the type of disease that
normally affects Boxers." Ralph thinks that the letter is about him
and he is dying. Ed: "Doctors can be wrong to you know. Take a friend
of mine, the doctor gave him six months to live. Boy, did he make a
monkey out of that doctor. He lived for almost eight months." In 2002,
during the Honeymooners 50th Anniversary Special, they played clips
from versions of this scene of the 1957 version of this episode and
played them in a collage format like they showed Ralph receiving the
telegram in the second version of this episode and then in the third
version, they showed Ralph saying to the man: "Your hand is very
dirty." They continued doing this until Ralph finished the letter.
Ralph gets an idea, he will sell this tory to a magazine for $5,000.
He writes a will and in the will, he will give Ed his bowling shoes.
Ed: "I was going to give myself a pair of bowling shoes. This
couldn't have happened at a better time." Gee, that was so not nice
of Ed to say that. After this, Ed leaves.

Alice comes in. Ralph is upset that he thinks he will die. He gives
the note to Alice. Alice laughs because that that note is for her
mother's dog: Ginger. Ralph: "You mean that I am not going to die?"
Ralph is now relieved. He doesn't have to worry about dying for some
time to come. Ralph & Alice embrace and kiss.

Episode #18
DVD: MPI may release this episode in 2007.

This episode is the fsecond version of the "Honeymooners XMas Party"
episode. I haven't seen it, but I think it is practically the same as
the third version.

The episode opens up with Alice decorating the Christmas tree. Ralph
comes home with potato salad from DeVitos. She says that he should
get it from Krauss'. Ralph explains that at DeVitos that Reginald Van
Gleason as running a party and that a lot of people are there
including people who came from Connecticut. Ralph, disgustedly,
leaves to get potato salad from Krauss'.

Trixie comes in and she reveals that Ed gave her an orange juice
squeezer. You squeeze the oranges on top of Napoloean's head and the
juice squirts out of his ears. Same gift that he would give her
in "'Twas The Night Before Christmas." A guy knocks on the door and
Trixie answers it and within a second she knows his name: Fenwick
Babbit. Either Trixie saw him before or he gave her his name very
softly and quickly. Fenwick is played by Jackie Gleason. After pacing
his beer barrel in the apartment, he begins to cut the ice. He hits
his finger and yells in Ralph Kramden fashion. Now I wonder why Alice
and Trixie don't come up with the thought that Ralph and him look
alike. When Trixie goes upstairs to get something for Fenwick,
Fenwick asks: "Does she live nearby?" The crowd laughs. When Trixie
comes back, Fenwick relizes that he is in the wrong apartment and
leaves. But not before he says to Alice: "You are a nice lady."

Ed comes in and says that he has come with, Frances Langford. The
crowd applauds for the guest star. She sings "Great Day" and "I Love
Paris" for Alice, Ed, and Trixie, and dances with Ed. Joe The
Bartender comes in (also played by Gleason). Of course after hearing
Joe speak, Alice, Ed and Trixie don't come up with tht thought that
him and Ralph look alike. Joe The Bartender reveals something that
just happened a few minutes ago at Krauss'. This poor soul comes in
and takes the last bit of steak and gives it to a kitten that he
bought in from the cold. Fatso Fogarty sees this an dbecomes mad. He
sets up a nasty practical joke in which he tells him he had "won" a
diamond and then handed him a cheap rhinestone. What made the hoax
particularly pathetic was that the poor soul, totally taken in,
cherished his prize. Alice, moved by the tale, tells Joe to send the
poor soul up, and she'll give him a real present. Joe, Frances and Ed
leaves. Trixie: "Now that Ed is gone, we can relax."

The poor soul comes up (played by Jackie Gleason in panotime) comes
up and Alice gives him a real present. Once again, Alice and Trixie
don't even think that him and Ralph look alike. He gives her
the "diamond" and leaves.

Trixie says that they are showing some Christmas Specials on TV, so
she asks Alice if they can watch it on Alice's TV (which probably
looks terrible). Alice says that the TV is n the birnk. Gee, in "TV
or Not TV", Alice says that the Kramdens never got a TV. Rudy the
Repairman comes by to fix it. Rudy is played by Jackie Gleason and
once again by looking and hearing Rudy speak, Alice and Trixie don't
think that Ralph and him look alike. Alice explains all the trouble
she is having with some of the channels. Some of the channels that I
think she talks about: 4, 5, 7, 11, and 13. Now, since I used to live
in North Jersey and about an hour away from New York, I can tell you
that those channels in real life do exist. And do you know what, the
channel 11 that Alice is taling about would start to carry reruns of
the Honeymooners four years later and hascarried them for the better
part of 50 years. Rudy, after hearing Alice's strange problems,
brings in Whitey. Whitey talks to Ralph in language that is not real
English. But Rudy understands him anyway. Great comedy. Rudy makes a
pass at Alice and Trixie, destroys the television set, and departs.
Alice tells Trixie that it doesn't really matter, since she just had
the set on trial.

Ed Norton comes in and brings in little Eddie Hodges that is
going to sing at Krauss'. "He is not going to drink", says Ed. Eddie
had to be a kid. Ed sings: "Welocme My Baby Back Home." It's
interesting that Jackie allowed this kid to sing on his show when you
think about the fact that he didn't want kids to appear on his show
because he thought that kids may not be able to act on cue. Both Eds
leave. Alice says that Ed is always looking to help someone. Trixie
says that after a wedding he drove a couple of family members home.
The only problem was that it was their wedding. Oh boy!

Ed comes back in and Reginald Van Gleason comes in (played by Jackie
Gleason). He brings in gifts for Ed, Trixie, and Alice. He also
brings in his band and June Taylor Dancers, but with Alice's
permission. The band plays a song VERY loudly and Gleason dances with
the dancers. Try doing what Reggie is doing in an ordinary apratment
at night in real life and you will probably get a TON of complaints
(and maybe get kicked out too.) Anyway, at one point Reggie dances to
far to the left and you can see the stage curtain. Another think that
wasn't in the script. Once again, Alice, Ed and Trixie don't come up
with the conclusion that Reggie and Ralph look and probably sound
alike (maybe except for Reggie's mustache). Reggie and his whole
entourage leave. Ed: "Reggie is okay in my book." Ed says that in
Reggie's limo, he watches wrestling. Not on TV, he watches wrestlers
wrestling each other in the limo in a pro wrestling match. Oh God!
Trixie is afraid to leave because another star may drop by. Alice
says that she wonders where Ralph is. Ed says to Trixie that he will
give her what every woman wants on her hand, that being rubber
gloves. Ha!

Ed and Trixie leave. Ralph comes by with a policeman. Alice explains
the whole situation to the policeman and leaves. Ralph reveals what
happened. After he returned the original potato salad, he had to walk
two LONG blocks to Krauss only to find out that Krauss was asleep. He
kocked so hard on his door that he knocked out the window and got in
trouble with the police. Anyway, Alice and Ralph exchange gifts.
Ralph, opens his gift first and finds out that Alice gave him rubber-
lined gloves. Alice gets an ornage juice squeezer from Ralph. The
same gift that Ralph will giver again in "'Twas The Night Before
Christmas." Ralph says that after 14 years of marriage, every
Christmas gets better and better. 25 years later in an ABC Special,
Ralph and Alice say that they are celebrating 25 years of marriage
(the writers thought that that would be appropriate since that show
marked the 25th anniversary of the show.) The hug and kiss.

I lot of people probably don't like this episode since it's a great
departure from traditional episodes. I liked it because it's a great
X-Mas episode and it offers a change of pace. Jackie Gleason must
have had to do some quick costume changes in tis episode since this
episode (like all the other ones in the 50's) were done live.

Credit goes to Yahoo! Groups You're A Riot!