The Color Honeymooners Collection 2 (1966)

The Color Honeymooners (a/k/a The Jackie Gleason Show) a top-rated comedy/variety program aired from the sun and fun capital of the world Miami Beach! on Saturday night from 1966-70 on CBS-TV. This long-running series marked the final weekly TV show for The Great One. Reprising their famous characters from The Honeymooners the cast was led by Jackie Gleason (Ralph Kramden) and Art Carney (Ed Norton). Newcomers Sheila MacRae and Jane Kean played long-suffering wives Alice and Trixie. Like popular variety series of the time the show s format was a clever combination of new comedy sketches coupled with classic Honeymooners bits. Plenty of big name guest stars and a generous helping of singing and dancing rounded out the hour.Regulars included Gleason s glamorous Glea-Girls; the June Taylor Dancers; Sammy Spear and His Orchestra and announcer Johnny Olson.Still GalleryFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 030306770796 Manufacturer No: DVD7707 Product Description

The Honeymooners in color

The Color Honeymooners was on CBS Saturday nights from 1966-1970. I'd look at the TV Guide and tell my father, "The Honeymooners are on." That was becuase Gleason did not do these hour-long skits every week. He alternated with his variety format. I grew up with this version and I remember thinking at the time that Shiela MacCrae was the one and only Alice. The earlier B & W epsiodes were not shown at the time so I had nothing to compare it to. I enjoyed the singing and dancing. Gleason, Carney were in true form and still were able to belt out in song and comedy. I never cared for Jane Kean as Trixie. She shouts her lines and says them as if she's reading a book. Macrae was OK, but she didn't have the punch that Audrey Meadows had. Seeing these episodes again after all these years makes you feel like its going home week, especially if you grew up with the Jackie Gleason Show. However, now that I've seen all 39 of the half-hour Honeymooners, I have to say those are much better. July 22, 2008

This Is NOT "The Honeymooners"!

As a die-hard fan of the old black & white Honeymooners, I find it hard to believe that anyone who loves the old Honeymooners would even remotely like this tripe!
In my opinion, The Color Honeymooners is just an attempt to capitolize on the popularity and success of the real Honeymooners.

The treatment that us Honeymooners fans are receiving at the hands of the DVD studios is disgraceful. While the original 39 episodes of the real Honeymooners is a good product at a fair price, the release of the "lost" episodes is an overpriced disgrace (I will not purchase the lost episodes until and if such time as they are released either in proper season sets or as a complete unit and at a fair price)- and this Color Honeymooners is pure garbage at Broadway prices...not even deserving the name "Honeymooners".
Singing and dancing and "guest stars"?! Sorry...THAT is NOT the Honeymooners! They can call it The Honeymooners, and have the same characters and some of the same actors.....but this show bears no resemblence to the real Honeymooners...and if you love the real Honeymooners, it is doubtful that you'd even remotely enjoy this. May 8, 2008

Gleason and Carney- How Sweet They Were!!

"The Jackie Gleason Show" featuring "The Honeymooners" from the 1960's unfortunately gets compared to "The Classic 39" episodes that were filmed during the 1955/56 Televison Season. Silly comparsions between Shelia MacRae/Jane Kean versus Audrey Meadows/Joyce Randolph for one. First, Audrey Meadows was originally asked to reprise her role as Alice, but declined because of her marriage to Bob Six which lasted for many years until he died. Same applied to Joyce Randoph who did not want to relocate to Miami and was basically retired from acting. Both MacRae and Kean would evenually grow into their roles as Alice and Trixie as one can see from this particular volume. As much as I like Audrey Meadows, one can argue that Pert Kelton was better than Audrey Meadows as Alice. The character of Alice was extremely important to the show, but only Gleason and Carney were irreplaceable as Ralph and Ed. I'm a huge "Honeymooners" fan and I find the musical episodes from 1960's better than the original incarnations done from "The Jackie Gleason Show" in the 1950's. Just watch the "Lost Episodes" and you'll see what I mean. The musical numbers, particularly the numbers done by Gleason and Carney together demonstrated what great timing they had. Gleason and Carney sang the songs very much how Rex Harrison did in "My Fair Lady" with perfect pitch and tempo. I particuarly like the songs "Let's Consolidate", "It's Not Knowing That Can Drive You Out Of Your Mind", and "You've Got To Have An Angle". They were written by the talented songwriting team of Lyn Duddy and Jerry Bresler who for 4 years wrote the music for "The Honeymooners". Some fans complain that the songs and dances slowed the episodes down. I disagree because the songs and dances embellished the show from their 50's version. It's amazing that "The Great One", Jackie Gleason never won a Emmy for his performance as Ralph Kramden. He should of as you can see from the 60's version of "The Honeymooners." I hope MPI Video will continue to release future volumes of "The Color Honeymooners".
March 24, 2008

Great to have, but missing one episode

I already own the first two Color Honeymooners DVDs and eagerly look forward to Volume 3 and beyond. But I was very disappointed that this edition skipped over the episode entitled "Life Upon the Wicked Stage". It's a remake of one of the best Lost Honeymooners offerings, which was titled "Songs and Witty Sayings", where Ralph and Norton do a funny mind reading act. Unfortunately, while there were supposed to be 9 shows included here, MPI dropped this one. I called a rep from the company and was told that they had to delete the episode due to music rights issues. However, I noticed that this very show is aired on the cable TV at present. I would much rather have the show edited on DVD instead of not at all, and it's my hope that MPI returns to it and includes it in a future volume. March 21, 2008

The Honeymoon continues-Miami Beach style!

MPI continues its' release of the Honeymooners sketches taken from the colour series of Jackie Gleason Shows,Dec.17/66 to April 26/67.
And how sweet they are too.These sketches were all basically remakes of shows done a few years before now in colour,and of course with the added musical accompaniment.But they didn't disappoint then and they don't now.The classic 39 Honeymooner episodes filmed in 1955/56 had been going strong in syndication since they went off the air.In some markets they would run both back to back,to great success.Furthermore Gleason himself knew that there would be the inevitable comparisons from those older shows to the newer ones and he made sure he gave the audiences both live in Miami Beach and at home his level best.And he succeeded in spades.
It all started back in late 1963 when Gleason happened to mention to a New York columnist that he sure wouldn't mind doing future shows in a sunnier and more golf oriented climate,like California(Gleason was an avid golfer).This caught the eye of the PR man for the Miami Beach tourism board one Hank Meyer who jumped right on it to invite Gleason and his entourage down to perform their shows in their fair city.After some some speedy negotiations it was all set and Jackie and his crew trained it southward into Miami Beach the following year.
Miami Beach rolled out the red carpet for the troupe who had the new Jackie Gleason auditorium set up especially for his show.Basically what the home audience saw then and now is a glorified stage show.It was taped on a Friday night live,edited for the hour format,and broadcast the next night nationwide.Jackie also got a myriad of other perks such as his home and attached office looking directly out onto a local golf course.And of course his infamous golf cart built to look like a small Rolls Royce and loaded to the nines with every kind of liquor imaginable.But what he got in perks Miami Beach gained 100 fold.Every broadcast started out with those famous words that are still remembered well today:"From the sun and fun capital of the world,Miami Beach...",as the camera quickly comes in toward the shoreline on crystal blue waters.The tourism bucks Miami and indeed all of Florida made on his show are really incalculable.
For about seven years The Jackie Gleason Show again reigned supreme in its' Saturday Night timeslot until the early seventies when about that time the head of the CBS network discovered a new term called "demographics".It didn't matter how high your ratings were(Jackies' were always high) but only if you fit that 18-34 year old age group that the TV gurus now believed they should be paying the most attention to.They felt Gleasons' show wasn't in the "loop",as it were, and cancelled it.
But that was about four years away at the time of the airing of the shows that are on these three discs.All of which have been transferred quite well with the odd few film flaws but pretty much all inherent in the product.Like the previous Vol.1 these shows have been cut down to varying degrees.These shows would have run closer to the 55 minute mark when first aired,while each of these rarely hit 50 minutes and most well under.From what I can tell they have mainly excised the opening banter where Gleason would come out and talk to the audience before going into the sketches.Whether this is what MPI is doing or the way the film now exists I can't say as MPI so far has refused any correspondance I have thrown their way regarding this very subject.If I ever find out I will certainly let you know immediately.
In conclusion this new release of the Honeymooners sketches from the colour era of The Jackie Gleason Shows are pure delights.There are only eight epsidoes in this release,one less from the previous volume and there are no special features whatever.However each and every sketch is sure to please those old enough to recall the series when it first aired or any new fans of the Great One. March 16, 2008

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