The Honeymooners was one of the classic shows I watched as kid. It unfortunately was on for only one season instead of the two year contract Gleason signed, which is a tragedy and a mystery to lots of people who love this iconic show. There are many reasons as to why it went for only 39 classic episodes and that no more were filmed, and many are theories or just random ideas and thoughts but there is not one real answer as to why.
I feel like that Jackie Gleason liked doing the variety more than doing a set show. He was king of the variety show back then. He could do any type of idea for the variety show and it didn’t have to keep to a central theme like that of the Honeymooners. He was a man who could do lots of different acting jobs and improvise.
He liked doing the variety show since it showed off his talents to everyone. I think Jackie Gleason had a big ego and that played into having his own variety show and having the Honeymooners. That is evident when he decided to move the whole variety show down to Florida because he wanted to be there so he could golf more and enjoy the good weather. His ego played into his role as Ralph Kramden as he thought he was king of the palace and the only one in charge of everything, to playing his character Ralph or doing his show.
Since Gleason was really about having his ego filled and people saying he was the best he would always look at the ratings. With the variety show going up in the ratings he had a genius idea, of making the Honeymooners skit a full length show since people really liked the skit.
He thought he could be very successful and the show would top the ratings chart. Peopled loved the Honeymooners as we all can see after all this time. It’s been off the air for years and we ask how can the ratings for this show be so low when it was a very popular show?
But Gleason was losing in the ratings to the Perry Como Show, a show about a musician who sang on his show and acted in a few sketches and had guests on. So it was a prime example of having run up against a show which was beating him in the ratings at that time of the day it was on. Gleason was smart but also playing into his ego he was like “great I’m not doing as well as I thought of doing a full length show that I think I need to pull the plug and go back to what I do best,” which for Gleason would be his variety shows.
He decided that if he can’t compete with the Perry Como show he shouldn’t being doing the full length show. That the ratings was all he was worried about because he wanted to be the best at what he did and even though he was good as Ralph Kramden, he was best at doing all kinds of roles in this famous Jackie Gleason variety show. Even though that would mean losing lots of money for the two year contract he would have had been paid for two years. He instead let his ego taker over and worried about the ratings too much.
It also plays into his ego about not having a full two years and that he probably felt he couldn’t do better, but at the same time those 39 classic shows were some of his best work and he couldn’t replicate it for two full years. He used his smarts here to realize they couldn’t do as well but they did, but that’s the problem he overdid it by over thinking here. With Gleason’s mind and comedic talents he could have and should have done two full years. It could have even been one of those shows that have a long, very long run let’s say five years or ten years.
In the filmed 39 #3 it talks about how the show should have never even been made because it was a failed idea and that in all likelihood its star was rapidly fading back into the obscurity where it emerged. That could mean it was an idea that was like lighting in bottle, and had all the success it could have.