After the end of The Honeymooners, the question was not if, but how Jackie Gleason could follow up what became a cult classic.
In 1961, Gleason tried a quiz show, You're In The Picture, a notorious bomb for which Gleason spent an entire half hour the following week apologizing for. A self-titled talk show lasted 2 months.
In September 1962, Gleason returned to the variety show format that had worked so well for him ever since he had been hired by DuMont in 1949 to take over Cavalcade of Stars. The Jackie Gleason Show, the third series to bear the name, and until 1966 sub-titled, The American Scene Magazine, became a Saturday night fixture for CBS.
After 2 seasons in New York, Gleason decided to relocate the show to Miami, creating a bit of a problem for announcer Johnny Olsen, on loan from Goodson-Todman, for whom he was staff announcer for their NY-based game shows. Olsen began commuting between Miami & New York to accomodate Gleason. In 1966, the American Scene Magazine sub-title was retired, but the series lasted just 4 more years before falling victim to the first phase of CBS' "rural purge", along with The Red Skelton Show (Skelton moved to NBC) and Petticoat Junction (cancelled after 7 seasons). CBS was beginning to cut shows that skewed demographically toward older viewers, as advertisers prefer younger audiences.
All the familiar characters and skits were intact. All-new Honeymooners skits with Art Carney & Gleason now joined by Sue Ane Langdon (replaced by Sheila MacRae) and Jane Kean. Gleason as The Poor Soul, Reginald Van Gleason, & Joe the Bartender, among others. The latter skits also featured singer-comic Frank Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheim, a comic persona which was also the inspiration for the Looney Tunes character Pete Puma.
From the color era, Jackie welcomes another comedy icon. Rodney Dangerfield:
My earliest memories of the series are, of course, the tail end of the Miami era (1966-70). Time-Life video has acquired the rights to the series and are shilling via infomercial (check your cable listings).
Rating: A.
4 comments:
Believe it or not I had seen several B/W eps of this show from the early 60s. When I was in college back in '89-90, this was airing in the afternoon on a local Las Vegas channel. I found it entertaining (I had enjoyed the Honeymooners as a kid and my parents used to tell me about this show and Gleason's other characters). I was always amazed by Crazy Guggenheim! What a beautiful voice! The version of the show I saw never had any Honeymooner skits and ended on The Bartender sketch.
Frank Fontaine and Jim Nabors were two of a kind. Fantastic comic talents, and turned it up a few notches when it came time to sing. I think Fontaine sold his fair share of records, too, as a result of the Gleason show.
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but it bears repeating:
Frank Fontaine had been doing that "punchy" character for many years in nightclubs, and before that vaudeville.
The character's name had always been "John L.C. Sivoney".
When Fontaine joined the Gleason show, the character was renamed "Crazy Guggenham", which was one of the many names that "Joe the Bartender" had always talked about in what had been monologs delivered straight to the camera.
You'll recall that once Fontaine had been added, the skits were always in a two-shot: Crazy on camera left doing the jokes, and Joe on camera right reacting.
This fits in with Gleason's famous reluctance to learn lines; it's said that he never actually listened to or read any of Crazy's stories until it came time to record them, so his reactions would be fresh (that's the story, anyway ...).
Seems "John L. C. Sivoney" doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as Crazy Guggenheim does, Mike.
'Sides, today, comics & television writer Marc Guggenheim ("Arrow") gets the nickname "Crazy" because he's a few fries shy of a happy meal when it comes to TV....
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