Ever notice how in almost every episode--especially those that involved a guest actor--that Ralph, when talking to them, would brush them aside with a right arm back-handed motion? Apparently, to Gleason, they were not standing exactly on their marks.
He did that many times. One of the more obvious times was when the whole gang was visiting Bert Wiedemeyer and his wife, Rita. Ralph had to speak to her but Bert was in the way. As Ralph brushed him aside, he (Ralph) said, right in the middle of his scripted line, "Excuse me." Bert replied with, "Surely!"
Maybe if he had attended rehearsals regularly, Gleason would have been able to interact with his costars more comfortably. Since he preferred to skip them, the broadcast performances are full of little glitches. In that same episode with the Wiedemeyers, Ralph playfully punches Rita on the arm. Maybe he didn't realize how precariously she was posed in that supertight dress (it was so tight that she couldn't sit down in it, which is why she can only perch on the arm of a chair) because he nearly knocks her over. Later, Bert accidentally bumps clumsily into the coffee table, and Art Carney, Gleason and Audrey Meadows are all savvy enough to turn an awkward mistake into a funny exchange:
Norton (pretending Bert has dropped a piece of food): Leave it there, the cat'll get it!
Ralph (with over-the-top joviality): "Leave it there, the cat'll get it!" (turning to Alice) "Leave it there, the cat'll get it!"
Alice (peeved, shoots Ralph a dirty look): I heard him, I heard him!
In the episode about the fishing trip, the head of the Raccoon Lodge has a brain freeze and forgets a word in one of his lines; Ralph, sounding a bit annoyed (as the character usually does), helps him out by snapping "applicants!" The audience laughs, but the actor who fluffed the line replies, "I'm sorry, sir, I couldn't think of the word!" "Sir"? Maybe it was Gleason who was a bit annoyed. It was probably pretty nerve-wracking to work with the hot-tempered Gleason.
tmaj, you describe this as if it's a bad thing. If he had attended rehearsals regularly, we wouldn't have had the great ad-libs. What he did instead was surround himself with the kind of actors who could think on their feet like that and deal with it. I think it worked brilliantly.
I've noticed in several episodes the scenes are edited/cut or go to new sequence. Probably because someone forgot their lines. *One of my favs was 'Alice and the Blonde',really like it when Rita enters the picture and Ralph goes humana humana,at that time I thought he sweep her off her feet then Norton gets real 'chummy'. Too bad Rita wasn't in more episodes,who knows? She coulda made Honeymooners more fun to watch.* I always figured when Norton asked Bert'how bout one for the road',he was gonna kiss Rita(his character was the kind that would do it). That dumb Trixie couldn't take it anymore,hmmm?
ive seen these episodes countless of times and immediately went to youtube to see these flubs when I say omg I don't think I ever caught it the first hundred times but looking for them now was priceless that lodge one is hilarious love the rita and burt episode but when Norton meets rita for the first time and does a small salute is killa.....but I love ralph when hes leave it there the cat ill get it is too much ......wow.... im 36 now and remember them putting me to sleep here in nyc at 11:30 on wpix ch 11 man I miss those good ole days goooooood timessssssss
im 36 now and remember them putting me to sleep here in nyc at 11:30 on wpix ch 11 man I miss those good ole days goooooood timessssssss
Me too!!!!!! I wouldn't go to bed until I watched the Honeymooners and then years later they did the new years eve marathon, not sure if that still goes.
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Lucille Ball's work on "I Love Lucy" has also stood the test of time and Ball was stickler for rehearsals. Ball and Gleason were difficult, brilliant comedic actors but neither could've worked with the other.
Doris Singleton (Carolyn Applebee) on working in "I Love Lucy:" "It was no fun and games on THAT set."
Except they did work together, and very well. Lucille Ball was one of the ones who began calling Gleason "The Great One," along with Orson Welles. Gleason made a small appearance on Here's Lucy, playing Ralph Kramden, Lucie Arnaz said he was one of the easiest people to work with and one of her mother's favorites. Then a few years later he did a special with Lucy that he did rehearse for since it was a LBP. He respected Lucy so he played by her rules since it was her production. Lucy always said she wanted to do more work with Gleason but never had another opportunity.
Get real. Ball may have been among the first to coin Gleason "The Great One" (but wouldn't it only take ONE person to "coin" a phrase???). The Ball of ILL fame was a totally different person by the horrible Here's Lucy. According to everything I've read (including Coyne Steven Sanders' brilliant "Desilu" bio), Ball never bothered to learn her lines - choosing instead to read cue cards - and spent most of "rehearsal" time at board meetings. Ball was a bitch by most who have been interviewed, and Gleason a tired egomaniac. By the '70's neither really cared about art - just image.
Again, I doubt they would've worked well together in 1955. But by the '70's, they were rich and oddly disconnected from the talent that made them "great."
I agree, and I was referring negatively to Ball's last series, not the brilliant I Love Lucy. Such a shame that The Honeymooners only ran for one season.
Lucy may have been a bitch and he an egomaniac but apparently they did not see each other that way when they worked together. We will never know how well they would have worked together in the 1950s since it never happened. That's as real as it gets. Have to disagree with you on the last sentence in the first paragraph as well, Jackie Gleason gave a great performance in "Nothing in Common," which he made the year before he died. Hard to say how much he was thinking about his "image" at that point.
They did work together he had a cameo as Ralph on either here's Lucy or Lucy show when she was visiting jack Benny. Ralph comes in as the bus driver of some guests at Benny's house.
I'm surprised at how poor their apartment was. But then, I lived in the only tenement in Oak Park, Illinois, and it was a lovable dump. I like that even with a municipal job, they seem to be broke - Norton too, in my world a sewer worker is getting along fine. Maybe not happy, but fine. A lot of people are barely "making do," so it's nice to see people who are living on the edge of society.
I'm not a woman much less Deanna Durbin, but the old-time glam-shot appeals to me.
The Kramden's apartment was based on Jackie's childhood flat in Bushwick, that was why it had that 30s type feel to it. the Norton's had nicer furniture because they bought everything on time.