What can only be called the holy grail of American television comedy will arrive when MPI Home Video releases the mammoth collection THE HONEYMOONERS LOST EPISODES: THE COMPLETE RESTORED SERIES. The 15-DVD collectible set of rare sketches and full-length shows – many not seen since their original broadcast – will be available October 4, 2011, with an SRP of $129.98.
From the moment it debuted on the DuMont Network’s Calvacade of Stars variety show starring Jackie Gleason in 1951, THE HONEYMOONERS has been an American television treasure.
When Gleason moved to CBS a year later he took THE HONEYMOONERS with him and between 1952 and 1957, THE HONEYMOONERS became a regular feature of The Jackie Gleason Show on CBS. Viewers fell in love with beleaguered Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden (Gleason, The Hustler, Smokey and the Bandit), his long-suffering wife Alice (Audrey Meadows) and their best friends and neighbors, sewer worker Ed Norton (Oscar winner Art Carney, Harry and Tonto) and his wife Trixie (Joyce Randolph).
These classic HONEYMOONERS episodes were broadcast live and never seen again until Jackie Gleason opened his private film vault in 1985 and announced that he had kinescopes – films made from a television monitor – of these thought-to-be-lost live HONEYMOONERS shows.
Now, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the very first HONEYMOONERS broadcast, MPI Home Video and Jackie Gleason Enterprises present the most complete collection possible of these rare gems. Many have not been seen anywhere in 50 years and numerous sketches and episodes are making their DVD debut.
Among the highlights and firsts of this more-than-50-hour collection: 30 episodes and sketches never before on DVD – including the eight highly sought-after 1957 HONEYMOONERS musical hours, which have not been seen anywhere since their original broadcasts; two previously unknown HONEYMONERS radio shows; rare color home movie footage of a 1957 HONEYMOONERS rehearsal; the first home video release of the nine known surviving HONEYMOONERS sketches from the DuMont Cavalcade of Stars variety show, featuring the original Alice Kramden, Pert Kelton; and new bonus features including an interview with Joyce Randolph.
Included among the 107 HONEYMOONERS live broadcasts in the collection are 14 full-length shows and 4 sketches not seen since their original airings in the 1950s.
The collection has been digitally restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and includes a deluxe 42-page booklet containing the full HONEYMOONERS history and rare photos, compiled by HONEYMOONERS expert Robert S. Bader.
With “The Great One,” Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden – one of television’s most beloved and iconic characters – THE HONEYMOONERS remains as hilarious as when it was first seen more than half a century ago. Generations of HONEYMOONERS fans can rejoice as the most complete collection of these classic shows is now available.
