Reviews: "Best of The Lost Episodes" & “Honeymooners Valentine Special”:

[Frank Gannucci]

Reviews: "Best of The Lost Episodes" & “Honeymooners Valentine Special”:

VHS: Not attached to anything.
DVD: Attached to "Goodbye Aunt Ethel", "What's Her Name" & "Vacation At Fred's Landing" (1953 version)

To do this review, I am going to give a list of what clips are played.

- From "Songs & Witty Sayings Part 1", Ralph says to Ed: "Let's get to the funny stuff." Then they play a clip of Alice & Trixie rehearsing from that same episode. Then they play a clip of Ralph & Ed rehearing loudly which causes Garrity to yell at them from above to keep it quiet. Ralph yells back at Garrity through the window. Then they play a clip of Ralph & Ed rehearsing a Laurel & Hardy bit that was a priceless tribute by Gleason & Carney to the two funny men. In this clip, Ralph insists on hitting Ed with the pie but misses and hits Alice instead.
- From "Peacemaker", they play the clip in which Ralph wakes up thinking that it is 5a (It is actually 11p). He is so out of it that he thinks Ed is Alice and "kisses" him. You can tell Gleason did not kiss Carney. Ralph leaves. Ed tries to get him to come back by going to the door. An edit job is done to make viewers think that when Ed went to the door the first time, Ralph came back in. Ralph is upset at Ed and wants to know what happened.
- From "Great Jewel Robbery", they play a clip where Ralph & Ed are having lunch. Unbeknownst to Ed, Ralph takes Ed's sandwich that has tobassco sauce. Ralph tastes it and because of the sauce, his mouth needs water very badly. If you haven't seen this clip, I am going to tell you Ralph's facial expression when he tastes the sandwich is priceless. Ed gives him the water but instead of letting him drink it, he douses him with the cup of water. Later on, they play a clip where Alice's mom comes by with Alice's gift. Alice's Mom: "When you are married to Ralph, you need everything."
- From "A Weighty Problem Part 1", they play a clip from the beginning where Ralph says that he is four pounds underweight. Ralph: "It says so in the chart." Alice: "You must have been looking at a chart for a hippo."
- From "A Little Man Who Wasn't There Part 1", they play a clip where Ed says to Ralph that he always has a friend in him, regardless of whether he (Ralph) is nuts. Then they play a clip of Ralph writing a letter to Ed saying that he can't see him anymore.
- From "The Next Champ", they play the pool room clip where Ed puts on so much powder on his hands, Ralph can't make the shot. Then, when Ralph makes the shot, Ed sneezes causing him to miss the shot. Ralph bangs his pool cue onto Ed's foot. Ed retaliates by doing the same thing to Ralph. Ed then makes his shot. He puts one leg on the table while doing so.
- From "Expectant Dad", Ed tells a story about how his sewer was swarming with FBI men because they were looking for wetbacks that were trying to beat the cross-town traffic. Later, they play a clip in which Ed & Ralph are trying to figure out who's the father, either Ralph or Ed since Ralph claimed that he saw Trixie and Alice going to an obstetrician’s office. (Alice works there.) Ed says that he hopes that it is him and if it is, he is going to make sure he finishes his education and after that, work down in the sewer with him. Later on when the girls are home, the boys try to find out who's the dad when Ralph asks who wants strawberries and chocolate sauce with chopped pickles. Ed says he wants some so Ralph yells at him to shut up.
- From "This Is Your Life Part 1", Ed thanks Trixie for the lunch that she made him. When Trixie hears this, she says that Ed took the bag of groceries, instead of his real lunch. Ed's complaint: The cookies were very stale. Trixie says that they were brillo pads. Ed didn't eat them; he gave them to his foreman for his lunch. Ed: "If he ever bites into them, I will get transferred to a sewer on Staten Island." Later on, when Ralph & Ed are at a restaurant. Ralph punches the guy that he thinks is wrecking his marriage. Only to find out that he was wrong and that he was some girl's boyfriend. Ed & Ralph leave.
- From "Hero", Alice asks when was the last time Ralph lifted 400 pounds. Ed: "This morning, when he got out of bed." Later on, when Ralph & Ed are in a classroom to talk to Tommy's teacher (Tommy is a kid who looks up to Ralph), Ed draws a line on the blackboard in a very hard fashion which causes Ralph to be driven nuts. Ralph's facial expressions are great.
- From "Brother-In-Law", Ralph orders Alice to go into the hotel kitchen and start cleaning up. Alice: "Only if I clean it up with you." Ralph stamps his feet like a little kid which causes wood to fall from the ceiling. Later on, when Ralph is behind the front desk, Ed accidentally blows dust off the top of the desk onto Ralph's face.
- From "Ralph's Sweet Tooth", Ed tries to cure Ralph's sore tooth by giving him schnapps to put on the tooth. Ralph gets the hiccups from the schnapps so Ed gives him water. Ralph drinks the water which makes the pain worse. Ralph: "The water is cold." Ed: "The water was for your hiccups, not your tooth." Ralph gets mad at Ed. The hiccups were obviously fake.
- From "New Year's Eve Party", Ralph is in Mr. Marshall's office. Ralph finds out when Mr. Marshall is speaking to a driver named Philbin on the phone, that he needs people to drive busses on New Year's Eve unless they are pretty sick. Ralph feigns stomach pain to get the night off.
- From "Ralph's Sweet Tooth", Ralph tastes a bite of Choosy Chew and because of the bad tooth, he hollers around the set of the TV show called "Choosy Chew Symphony Hour." (Ralph took some tonic from the dentist's office that he thought would cure him of the pain without having a dentist do work on his tooth only to find out that it didn't work.) Ralph's facial expressions are great.
- From "Battle of The Sexes", Ralph says to Alice that he is the king and she's nothing. Later on, when Ed & Ralph are setting up the cot, Ralph somehow hurts his finger when he tries to open the cot.
- From "A Little Man Who Wasn't There", Ed takes some sugar balls from the Kramden sugar cup without asking. Later on, when Ed finds out from Ralph that he needs to see a psychiatrist, Ed gives Ralph the knee test. He lightly hits Ralph's knee with the hammer. Ed: "When I hit the knee, it is supposed to go up." Ralph says that Ed didn't hit it hard enough. Then Ralph asks Ed to hit it unexpectedly. Ed sings: "Shin Bone Is Connected To The Knee Bone." Ed hits Ralph in the knee. Ralph yells in pain. His facial expressions are great.
- From "Principle of The Thing", they play the clip where Ed warms up to take his pool shot which causes Ralph to get mad. Then they play a clip from earlier in the episode where Ralph tries to get some water only to find out that the pipes have no water. Ralph gets even further upset when he goes to open the door to the bedroom only for the knob to fall off. Ralph blames the landlord. He also blames Alice for wasting money. Ralph: "You are living off the fat of the land." Alice: "You ARE the fat of the land." Later on, they play the clip where Ralph shows Alice the gaudy wallpapers that he bought. Alice responds by getting the rolled up wallpapers, putting them in Ralph's arms, putting his bus driver's hat on and opening the door. Alice: "I don't want to see you in this house again until you get your money back." Ralph: "Don't hint Alice." Later on, Ralph tells Alice that the landlord (played by Jack Benny) has arrived. With the landlord being there in the room, Ralph tears into the landlord. The landlord says: "Well" in the same fashion that Jack Benny would.
- From "Dinner Guest", they show the clip where Ralph, Alice, Mr. Marshall and his wife start dancing to music on the radio. Ed comes in and shows Mrs. Marshall how to do the mambo. Ed then shows Ralph how to do it. Ed steps on Ralph's foot which causes him to holler in pain. Ralph's facial expressions are great.
- From "Suspense", Ralph thinks that Alice is going to poison him. (Unbeknownst to Ralph, Alice was rehearsing for a play.) Alice then has some fun with Ralph by drinking the "poison." Ralph thinks that Alice is dying so he calls Ed down to help Alice.
- From "Game Called On Account of Marriage", Ralph angrily yells that he is going to ball game instead of Alice's wedding and that's that. Alice: "And they say that all fat men are jolly." Ralph: "One of these days Alice, pow in the kisser."
- Then they play clips of Ralph saying "Pow in the kisser" from the 1953 version of "Vacation At Fred's Landing", "Norton Moves In" & "Lunchbox."
- From "Ralph's Sweet Tooth", Ralph & Ed are rehearsing. Ralph: "Well, go ahead. Where we left off." Ed: "We left off when you didn't remember what to say."
- From "King of The Castle", they play the clip where Ed & Ralph sing "Ragg Mopp" when they try to clean up the kitchen. Ralph dances too.
- From the 1952 version of "Cold", Ralph screams and walks around in pain when Alice gives his foot bath hot water. Joyce Randolph tries her best to hide her laughter during this scene by covering her mouth.
- From "Ralph's Diet", they play the clip of Ralph apologizing to Alice.

That's the end.

Honeymooners Valentine’s Special:
VHS: It has been released but with no episodes attached to it.
DVD: Attached to “Great Jewel Robbery” & “Lawsuit”

This clip fest that I think MPI made in 1992. It is definitely not to be confused with the similarly named 1970s special. (How would have thought that back in 1992, that MPI would have released the 1970s specials eighteen years later?)

This clip fest starts off with a rare moment in which Jackie & Ray Bloch are in the same scene with Ray's orchestra behind him. Jackie: "You don't know how much of a kick I get in which I hear a band play something that I composed." The video then shows Jackie leading an orchestra with the narrator saying: "Jackie was the most romantic comedian in history." Various romantic clips involving Jackie’s other characters are shown (including one of Jackie's characters with a man in drag in which the Narrator says: "Even if the premise was completely outrageous, The Great One carried it with a style that rivaled Valentino.") Another clip shows Jackie flirting with the commercial girl on his variety show as well as him having fun with a chorus line full of girls (in which there is an image of the 48 states. This was filmed before the annexation of Alaska & Hawaii.)

Jackie loved the ladies and Charlie Bratton was no exception. Jackie (as Charlie) is shown with a backdrop that says "Busy Bee Grocery." This was the same backdrop that was used in "People's Choice." Charlie amongst girls sings: "Charlie is here." The next clip is from "This Is Your Life" in which Ralph tries to catch Alice with Phil Cucco (played by George Petrie) and level the home wrecker only to find out that Charlie left (Ralph tried to catch them while looking into the window) and that he decked Mr. Wilson from the show "This Is Your Life." Ralph also finds out the truth that Alice was trying to get Ralph on the show but since he punched out Mr. Wilson, he killed his own spot on the show and Alice was not being unfaithful at all. (Phil left because he thought that Mr. Wilson & Alice wanted to talk business.) Soon after, the Kramdens hug and kiss.

Ralph may have had a jealous nature but the Poor Soul was the opposite. He bought a TV set as a birthday present for his girlfriend. He tries to set it up in her apartment (that, for whatever reason, has a lot of hay or something like that inside. If it was meant to be feathers, it didn't look like them to me.) After he plugs it in, the circuits are overloaded and explosions abound. The Poor Soul gets arrested due to the fact that he thought that he was responsible for dropping a pie out the window.

The next clip is from "Alice's Aunt Ethel." The narrator says that the Kramdens romance left during the first season. The clip shows Ralph's plot to get rid of her by faking a bad back only for it to backfire when Aunt Ethel reveals that she will cancel her plan to leave and nurse Ralph back to health. Next clip is Reggie running an outdoor cafe in Central Park. (Hot dogs were 10 cents.) He ruins an evening for a romantic couple by saying insults. After the couple leaves, Reggie's girlfriend comes by. She is proud that he is working but she misses the old Reggie. Reggie responds by turning the cart that he was using around to reveal a guy with a martini shaker.

Next clip is from "Expectant Father." Both Ralph & Ed think that with Trixie going to the doctor with Alice that only one of them is going to be a dad. When the wives come home, they don't expect a thing. Soon, Ed struggles to carry Trixie up the stairs. Ed: "It better be you." Trixie has a look on her face that suggests that she doesn't like the fact that Ed is carrying her. Ralph then finds out that Alice & Trixie are not pregnant and that Trixie was taking Alice to the doctor just for Alice's job in which she wanted to make some money for Christmas. Ralph didn't know about this job. They hug and kiss as that brings us to the end of the clip fest with no credits.

Credit I think goes to (the original) Bill's 'Mooners Archives, eBay.com, tv.com, Honeymooners Lost Episodes Book, tvguide.com, honeymooners.net, Honeymooners Box Set booklet Honeymooners Lost Episodes DVD booklet, Wikipedia.org, Yahoo Group You're A Riot! & Amazon.com.