Even though there were 39 classic episodes in the Honeymooners series there are and still are many themes that take place in this sitcom that will always be talked about as key things and made this one of the most classic and iconic sitcoms ever. It was on in the 1950’s but it still is viewed by many people through reruns and on DVD by all kinds of people from all generations.
There are many themes that were talked about in class like, relationships between husband and wife, relationships between best friends and family. We also talked about relating to Ralph Kramden and how the Honeymooners is more of a culture then just a sitcom in black and white and how it has merged into the culture even in present times and translated into lots of future television shows and movies; and how the show was also very good at the current culture of shows but not having the same humor since the references had become outdated.
Steritt talks about how Jackie Gleason had a huge ego and would do anything to get the ratings and money. His thing wasn’t stand up where he was by himself; he needed a sketch show with many people in a four person dynamic. Every time he saw the ratings go up he would be so happy and would try harder to get to the top. I agree with him that Gleason had a big ego and only worried about himself when he decided to move the show and also pulled the plug on the show only after one year (pg 1-8).
He describes the main purpose of adding the Ed Norton character to the show was to prevent the show from resting solely on the Kramdens arguing all the time over anything but also did say he would become the backbone of the show. (pg 8) I myself have argued that it was essential to have Norton in the show because that kind of relationship everyone can relate to that having a best friend aspect is essential.
This would set a trend for other shows for using the idea. You would see over time with most sitcoms the best friend aspect and it’s not just Ed and Ralph it’s also with Alice and Trixie being best friends too. The idea that he would say one thing that says Ed wasn’t important and the next saying he is the most important doesn’t make sense. The funny thing is Ed is the only one with a relationship with the other 3 characters.
He had his wife and his best friend but he also was friends with Alice. The idea of having the best friend also goes back to the concept of Ralph’s character being a very relatable guy and you can relate to someone with a best friend. Sterrett goes on to talk about the shows that took the narrative of a best friend and using it well like ‘The Flintstones’ with Fred and Barney/Wilma and Betty being best friends like we talked about in class.
He also brings up Peter Bonerz playing Dr. Jerry Robinson in ‘The Bob Newhart Show’ as being Bob’s goofy friend and Cosmo Kramer played by Michael Richards on ‘Seinfeld’. I kind of disagree with the Kramer comparison. I know he hits the goofball buddy on the mark by being smart sometimes, but George Costanza is Jerry’s actual best friend even though he has three really good friends in general.
He also brings up Barney Fife played by Don Knotts as Andy Griffith’s best friend ‘The Andy Griffith Show’, he is the clueless, goofy, but loyal friend as all of these references are.(pg 11) There are many examples like ‘Boy Meets World’ with Corey Matthews and Shawn Hunter being best friends where one is the smart reasonable one and the other is goofy but loyal best friend.
The same with ‘Drake and Josh’, step brothers are best friends where one is the goofy but loyal one and the other is the smart one etc.etc., you can go on and on how the show made the idea of best friends being important to a show’s dynamic and there are many examples of this.
The show according to Steritt was a about a blue collar postwar couple who is middle class who struggle to make ends meet and the separate but equal gender ideology and window in the postwar life style.
“The Honeymooners reached out to its audience with a mixture of nostalgia and pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others, recalling a difficult past that many had put behind them but which the Kramdens continued for our viewing pleasure. That they will never move from the situation therein.” (pg20) Steritt’s exact words are “He is the ordinary guy signified.” I agree that we like to root for the underdog. The idea that a show revolves around a married couple in the same kind of situation lots of people were in back then or now resonates with us.
When you watch a show most times you want to feel like you can relate to the cast or some of the characters. The fact they are in the same situation no matter what they do or they can’t fix it and boy trust me Ralph tried many times to get rich quick type of schemes. For me I’ve tried lots of times to make the situation better but in the end made it worse or it didn’t work so I can feel Ralph’s pain. I disagree with Sterrett about it being for our pleasure to see them suffer as it was relating to them for some kind of purpose.
We actually are rooting for Ralph or both of the Kramdens to succeed because we are relating to them and of course if we can relate to them we would want our situation to get better so we would want theirs to get better as well.
Steritt talks about the show being a dramedy in some of the episodes like the lost episode called ‘The Adoption’, and that the Honeymooners was ripe for against the grain interpretation by creative spectators. (pg 32) One thing the Honeymooners would do was dive into all kinds of story plots in the classic episodes and they covered lots of things like gender equality, poverty, scheming to get rich quick, relationships between friends and wife and work, etc.
“The Honeymooners pairs a strong and decisive housewife with a well meaning but inept husband,” said Steritt. Ralph is fond of reminding Alice that he is “king of his castle” even though we all know that he’s not a king of anything beyond his walls. That there is a whole episode that shows how Ralph realizes that Alice’s job at home is harder then he would think and he even wouldn’t admit it till the very last second when things blew up on him. (pg 34)
This brings up one of the main themes from the series, the relationship between Ralph and Alice or you could call it Ralph V.S. Alice too. They have one of the most complicated relationships and I agree Ralph doesn’t ever realize how good Alice is for him till things blow up in his face. They have a love hate kind of relationship where they are at each other’s thoughts always arguing and yelling at each and insulting each other.
They also make up at the end of the episodes all the time. It’s a kind of relationship where she can always be mad at Ralph but in the end forgives him because Alice really loves him because she knows who Ralph is inside and out.
The idea of a relationship like this made people realize that they would be good ideas for shows in the future like ‘The Flintstones’, with Fred and Wilma and with the show ‘The King of Queens’, with Doug and Carrie and in ‘Family Guy’, with Peter and Lois. They are always up to no good or arguing with their wives over things but at the end of the day they love each other because their wives know that their husbands always have good intentions.
Even with all the yelling and fighting it’s all verbal and never physical, Ralph would never really lay a hand on her because he loves her too much. He just overdoes it sometimes the way he acts and so Alice can let him yell at her all day and not even really get that mad, also the idea of her being smarter and always finding out when they are scheming something.
Ralph and Ed is a good dynamic because some wives out there know when their husbands are up to no good. Which always plays into some of the episodes where you see Ralph go ballistic over men talking to his Alice that his jealousy always gets the best of him and it proves how much he really does love Alice.
Steritt says Alice is Ralph’s double and his exact opposite at the same time. She is steady, stable, and sensible but she also worries about her job status in the working world as Ralph always worrying about getting rich or a better life. (pg 46) This could be true but I feel like Alice is the exact opposite of Ralph like opposites attracting each other.
That Ralph is a loudmouth, fat and jumps to conclusions and is irritable, but Alice is the opposite, she’s quiet, petite and doesn’t jump to conclusions, she thinks things through and takes care of money better. That a guy needs a woman like Alice to survive in this world. That is the perfect marriage we all would want so we love watching it take place on this show.
Steritt brings up the whole point of the Norton couple of Ed and Trixie as a chief function for the show to be comic doubles, against whom their personalities and experiences are measured. (pg 46) I kind of agree on this that they are there for the reason to have someone who’s going through the same experience of living in this apartment as working middle class couple with one working and other is a stay at home who is childless too. But the real idea goes back to something previously mentioned that if Ralph has a best friend in the show and not just his wife it adds more substance and comedy to the show.
It also stands the same that there be two couples in the show. That it’s an ideal thing to have this because when you have a best friend and one of you is either married or in a relationship, you would love if your best friend has a girlfriend or wife too but it’s perfect when you and your best friend have wives or girlfriends who are best friends. Then you and your best friend can hang out more and do things because your wives or girlfriends will not get mad at you because you all will be together.
That is because people wish this was true for their own lives and it was a good idea to have two very similar married couples being friends with each other. It adds more ideas to do episodes where they go out with their wives together or travel out of town because it a dynamic for comedy to see what stupid things Ralph and Ed do and see Alice and Trixie’s response.
Another theme Sterrett brings up is the idea of Ralph and his fatness where it is a theme in many episodes. That they never use the word fat but they use the words heavy and overweight and there are so many fat jokes coming from Alice or Ed in terms of comebacks or just things he says that sets himself up for fat jokes.
This is another trait that people like because either they like to make fun of fat people or the idea that maybe not in 1950 but recently more people are fat and that they can relate to him more. It also has translated to other shows like Fred in ‘The Flintstones’, Doug in ‘The King of Queens’, and Peter in ‘Family Guy’ or Homer in ‘The Simpsons’.
“The Honeymooners operates on at least three levels: One is the programs dialogic interchange on the relationships between Gleason’s offstage and onstage personality. Second is the frequency of references to pop culture. Third is the recurrence of episodes that touch on TV’s presence as a practical and discursive issue of much novelty and importance in the post wars years,” said Steritt.
Which I agree with mostly because Jackie Gleason is so talented and does a good job playing Ralph that you can’t tell when he’s really being the character he’s playing or if he’s mimicking his own personality and that they do have those references on the show where Ralph dances, acts, appears on TV shows or doing a commercial, tells a magazine about his death coming, playing his cornet, or going roller skating.
The Honeymooners will always be a show people will not forget because the show is still relevant even with the references they have. It is relatable to many people still and has appeared in all forms of media even after the show and his untimely death it still has something for everyone to enjoy.