The Honeymooners

…the sketches that evolved into The Honeymooners series on CBS.

The Honeymooners (CBS, 1955–56), one of the most beloved sitcoms in TV history, began in 1951 as a sketch within Cavalcade of Stars (DuMont, 1949–52), and it then became a recurring segment of The Jackie Gleason Show (CBS, 1952–55; 1957–59; and 1964–70). The George Burns…

…in Jackie Gleason’s television series The Honeymooners, and his byword was “Smarter than the average bear!”

…wife, Alice, collectively known as The Honeymooners, were originally 5 to 10 minutes long, but by 1954 they dominated the show. The Honeymooners was popular not only because of Gleason but also because of the comic sparks between Gleason and costars Art Carney, who played Kramden’s dim-witted but devoted friend…

…bus driver Ralph Kramden, in The Honeymooners. From 1951 to 1957—including one season (1955–56) as a half-hour sitcom—and occasionally thereafter in the 1960s and ’70s, the two characters and their wives, Trixie Norton (played by Joyce Randolph in the 1950s) and Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows), were seen in sketches on…