49 Fun Facts About The Honeymooners

Ralph Kramden was employed as a driver by which fictional New York firm?

Gotham Bus Company employs him for the whole run, yet Ralph is never once seen driving a bus on screen, only turning up at the depot.

Ed Norton, Ralph's upstairs neighbour and best friend, worked for which New York City department?

The sewers nearly cost Ralph his best friend in one episode: the two fall out over a ring, and make up only after Norton is hurt in an explosion underground.

Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton were both enthusiastic members of which fraternal lodge?

The Raccoon Lodge made Ralph its treasurer, but in 'The Loudspeaker' he writes a speech, sure he is Raccoon of the Year, and the honour goes to Norton.

Who played Alice Kramden in the Classic 39 episodes of 1955-56?

Audrey Meadows made Alice so real that viewers mailed her aprons and curtains by the hundred to brighten the Kramdens' bare kitchen.

Which actor played Ed Norton in every Gleason version of The Honeymooners?

Art Carney was the one piece Gleason refused to change: he recast both wives in the 1960s but would only revive the sketch when his Norton was available.

Who played Trixie Norton in the Classic 39 episodes?

Joyce Randolph was hired after Gleason spotted her in a live Clorets commercial on his own variety show; the sketch's first Trixie had lasted a single outing.

The Honeymooners began as a sketch on Cavalcade of Stars, on which struggling early network?

DuMont watched Gleason's sketches turn Cavalcade of Stars into a hit, then lost him: in 1952 CBS lured him and his staff away with a much larger budget.

In the first filmed episode of The Honeymooners, what do Ralph and Norton buy together and then fight over?

A TV set: Ralph, too cheap to pay full price, talks Norton into going halves, then tricks him into keeping it in the Kramdens' apartment.

Which car maker sponsored The Honeymooners during its one season as a filmed sitcom?

Buick bankrolled the filmed series in one of the biggest contracts television had seen, and its name was cut from the opening when the show went into reruns.

What was the address of the Kramdens' and Nortons' apartment building?

328 Chauncey Street: Gleason gave the Kramdens the address he had grown up at, and had their kitchen built from his memory of the family apartment.

The Kramdens' neglected tenement apartment was in which New York City borough?

Brooklyn was Gleason's own home borough: he had grown up poor there, and he told his writers to make the Kramdens live the way such families really did.

Ralph's most famous hollow threat to Alice was to send her where?

To the Moon: 'Bang, zoom!' was as far as it ever went, and the rows ended with Ralph telling Alice, 'Baby, you're the greatest.'

Who was the first actress to play Alice Kramden, in the original sketches of 1951-52?

Pert Kelton came back to the sketch in the 1960s colour episodes, no longer as Alice but as Alice's mother.

Why did the original Alice lose the role when Gleason moved to CBS in 1952?

She had been blacklisted, though the public was told she had heart trouble. Arthur Miller later traced it to her husband once marching in a May Day parade.

How did Gleason's new Alice of 1952 convince him she was not too glamorous for the part?

Photos with no makeup did it: she had herself shot at dawn in a torn housecoat with her hair undone, and Gleason, not recognising her, said, 'That's our Alice.'

Ralph Kramden was the model for the lead character of which Hanna-Barbera cartoon?

The Flintstones borrowed so much that Gleason's lawyers thought he could have it taken off the air, but he did not want to be the man who took Fred away from children.

Ed Norton's voice and mannerisms are said to have inspired which Hanna-Barbera cartoon character?

Yogi Bear is said to borrow Norton's breezy delivery, because Hanna-Barbera liked to model its characters on popular stars of the day.

Instead of a fuzzy kinescope, which system filmed the Classic 39 as they were performed?

Electronicam put film and television behind one lens, so these episodes looked good enough to rerun for decades when most live shows of the time did not.

What did Gleason all but refuse to do before filming The Honeymooners?

Rehearse the scenes: he held that comedy stops being funny once it is rehearsed, so the cast got one run-through on the day, lines were often fluffed, and the actors learned to cover for one another.

What did Gleason do on stage to signal to the cast that he had forgotten a line?

Patted his stomach: lines were often dropped during filming, so the cast agreed on silent cues like this one to call for help.

In one Classic 39 episode, what does Ralph pitch as a gourmet appetizer, unaware that Alice bought it for a pet?

Dog food: Norton finds it in the icebox and tucks in, Ralph loves it too, and he is pitching it to his boss as a mystery appetizer when an executive recognises the taste.

In 'Better Living Through TV', Ralph freezes with stage fright while trying to do what on live television?

Sell a kitchen gadget: Ralph, sure it will make his fortune, plays the Chef of the Future to Norton's Chef of the Past, then goes rigid the moment the commercial is live.

In 'Young Man with a Horn', which instrument from his boyhood does Ralph refuse to let Alice throw away?

A cornet: finding it sets Ralph brooding on the chances he missed, so he resolves to better himself and sits a civil service exam, which he fails.

During the run of The Honeymooners, Ralph Kramden was made an honorary member of which real organisation?

The Transport Workers Union represents New York's real bus drivers, and in 1988 one of the city's bus depots was renamed after Gleason as well.

A bronze statue of Gleason as Ralph Kramden stands outside which New York landmark?

Port Authority Bus Terminal got him when the cable channel TV Land began putting up statues of its characters as publicity; the plaque calls Ralph a 'Dreamer'.

In 'Here Comes the Bride', whose marriage does Ralph nearly wreck with his advice?

Alice's sister Agnes turns up in tears on her wedding night after the groom takes Ralph's advice to be king of his castle; he soon admits he should never have listened.

What did the childless Kramdens name the baby girl they briefly adopted in a 1955 sketch?

Ralphina did not stay: her birth mother asked for her back, and Gleason kept both couples childless for the rest of the run.

Which actress played Trixie Norton as an ex-burlesque dancer in one Honeymooners sketch before the role was recast?

Elaine Stritch played Trixie as a brassy former burlesque dancer; Gleason thought better of it after one sketch and had the part rewritten as a wholesome housewife.

In the celebrated episode 'The $99,000 Answer', Ralph flubs the composer of which song?

Swanee River was the warm-up Norton had played at the piano all week before every practice song, so when it came up as the first question Ralph could only offer, 'Ed Norton?'

In 2002 TV Guide ranked The Honeymooners third among the greatest shows ever, behind I Love Lucy and which 1990s sitcom?

Seinfeld took first place, which left a one-season sitcom from 1955 ranked ahead of every drama, news programme and variety show in television's first half-century.

Why was the Classic 39's Alice reportedly the only cast member paid for the reruns?

Her brother's contract clause is the reported reason: a lawyer, he wrote rerun payments into her deal, and it went on to make her a fortune.

What reason did Gleason give for ending the filmed Honeymooners after one season?

Ideas running dry: he said the material could not stay excellent and he was too fond of the show to cheapen it, so he went back to live variety and sold the 39 films to CBS for $1.5 million.

Which rival NBC programme steadily drained the audience of The Honeymooners during its one season as a sitcom?

The Perry Como Show won the head-to-head: Gleason's variety hour had been the country's No. 2 programme a year earlier, but the sitcom ended its season 19th, one place behind Como.

The 1966-70 colour Honeymooners musicals were produced from Gleason's new base in which city?

Miami Beach cost the sketch half its cast: the actresses who had played Alice and Trixie would not move south, so both wives were recast.

The hour-long musical episodes of 1956-57 sent the Kramdens and Nortons on a contest-winning trip where?

Europe: Gleason remade the whole trip in colour a decade later, expanded with new material.

The 'lost episodes' from Gleason's private vault were first broadcast in 1985-86 on which channel?

Showtime got them after a museum turned up four forgotten sketches in 1984 and Gleason then revealed that he had dozens more locked in his own vault.

Who played Ralph Kramden in the 2005 feature-film remake of The Honeymooners?

Cedric the Entertainer could not sell the remake: it cost $25 million and took only about $13 million worldwide.

The actor who played Ed Norton won the Best Actor Oscar for which 1974 film?

Harry and Tonto cast him as an old man crossing America with his cat, and the man best known as a sitcom sidekick took the Oscar ahead of Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino.

An imaging instrument named Ralph after Kramden flies on which NASA space probe?

New Horizons carries a spectrometer called Alice, so the camera built to work beside it was named Ralph, and the pair studied Pluto together in 2015.

In one Classic 39 episode, what does Ralph find on his bus that makes him briefly rich?

A case of counterfeit cash: Ralph quits his job and goes on a spending spree before he learns the money is fake and the forgers come looking for it.

Which 1980s detective series staged a fantasy sequence with its two leads as Ralph and Alice Kramden?

Moonlighting opened its fourth season with the spoof: David and Maddie, at odds over where their affair was going, turn up as Ralph and Alice, with Bruce Willis doing the bluster.

Ralph Kramden's other empty threat to Alice was a 'Pow!' aimed right at what?

The kisser was never in danger: Gleason vetoed his writers' title 'The Beast' because he saw, under the bluster, a man with a great need for affection.

Which sport does Ralph Kramden falsely claim to play well to impress his boss, then try to learn from a book?

Golf: Norton reads out the manual while Ralph practises at home, and when the boss's injury seems to cancel the game Ralph brags again, only to learn that a vice president will play him instead.

In 'The Worry Wart', why does the tax office summon Ralph Kramden?

A missing signature: Ralph spends the night combing his return for mistakes with Norton, sure he is in trouble, and learns in the morning that he simply forgot to sign it.

Wrongly convinced he is dying, how does Ralph Kramden raise money for Alice?

Sells his story: a magazine buys the dying bus driver's tale before Ralph learns that the report he read came from the vet and described his mother-in-law's pet.

The sketch was modelled on which popular radio comedy about a squabbling married couple?

Gleason wanted a realistic poor couple in his own home borough who argued constantly but clearly loved each other.

In the first Honeymooners sketch in 1951, the future Ed Norton actor appeared as what?

A policeman: he had only a cameo in a sketch that ran just six minutes, and Norton the neighbour was written in later.

Which of Gleason's catchphrases is inscribed on his tomb?

And away we go! was the shout that launched his variety shows, so the line that opened his evenings now marks his resting place.

A stage musical of The Honeymooners had its world premiere in September 2017 at which New Jersey theatre?

Paper Mill Playhouse staged a new story: Ralph and Norton win a jingle contest and are swept into Madison Avenue advertising, where success threatens their friendship.