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The Honeymooners is the ultimate situation comedy. No matter what happens to the Bensonhurst foursome, Ralph will
still work for the bus company, Norton in the sewer. They'll be struggling to
get by, passing the time bowling, shooting pool, arguing with the wives, and
dreaming of a better day. And it's in the mundanity of everyday life that The
Honeymooners finds boundless humor. Even when the events were anything but
mundane--bank robbers, counterfeiters, TV commercials, game shows, golf dates
with The Boss--the real story and the best jokes were about the reality of their
lives and the realization that, because of marriage and friendship, they didn't
really have it so bad after all. The chemistry between Jackie Gleason and Art
Carney still amazes after all these years. Audrey Meadows's Alice is the perfect
foil for Ralph, stern but sympathetic. And Joyce Randolph's Trixie? Well, let's
just call her "earnest." Still, for all of Norton's frenetic energy and Alice's
wisdom, the show belongs to Ralph Kramden. Somehow, Gleason took a chauvinistic,
paranoid, insensitive, scheming, bitter, loudmouth, underachieving bus driver
and made him a hero to millions.
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