Syndication and Home Video/DVD
The Honeymooners gained its greatest fame in syndication, where it has aired almost continually since its cancellation. New York's WPIX-TV has aired The Honeymooners nightly and on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day for more than four decades (after initially running in 1957–1958 on WRCA-TV, now WNBC), with occasional breaks, in a marathon titled The Honeymooners' Blowout. BBC2 aired 38 of the original 39 episodes beginning in 1989 and ending in 1991. The show has also aired in Australia, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Ireland and Suriname. It was previously seen on WGN America from June 2008 to September 2009 and Me-TV from December 2010 to September 2011. As of April 2012, the show has returned to Me-TV.
In 1984, the Museum of Television and Radio announced the discovery of four original Honeymooners sketches from the original The Jackie Gleason Show. When they later held a public viewing for three of them, the response was overwhelmingly positive. In January 1985, Gleason announced the release of an additional group of lost episodes from his private vault. As with the previously released sketches, these "lost episodes" were actually kinescopes of sketches from the 1952–55, 1956-57 run of The Jackie Gleason Show. Because the prints had not been stored under ideal conditions, parts of the soundtracks of three episodes were unusable, and voices had to be redubbed. Gleason personally approved the soundalike actors, with impressionist Joe Alaskey doing Kramden's lines.
Gleason sold the broadcast rights to the lost episodes to Viacom, and they were first aired from 1985–1986 as a series of 68 22-minute episodes on the Showtime cable network. They have since joined the original 39 episodes in syndication, and have also been released on VHS and DVD. In September 2004, another "lost" episode was reportedly discovered at the Peabody Award archives in Georgia. This episode, "Love Letter", originally aired on The Jackie Gleason Show on October 16, 1954. It aired for the first time since then on October 16, 2004, its fiftieth anniversary, on TV Land. CBS Television Distribution (the modern-day successor to Viacom), via CBS Broadcasting, owns the "classic 39" series outright, while the Gleason estate owns the "lost episodes" (although CBSTD does distribute them).
Paramount Home Entertainment/CBS DVD released the six-disc DVD box set The Honeymooners "Classic 39" Episodes in November 2003 (only available in Region 1). The set contains all 39 episodes from the series' original 1955–56 broadcast run. Also included in the set is an edited version of a 1990 anniversary special hosted by Audrey Meadows, as well as original show openings and closings (sponsored by Buick) that were removed when the show entered syndication.
MPI Home Video released 80 of the "lost episodes" in 'Region 1' DVD format in 2001–02 spread out on 24 single-disc volumes. MPI subsequently re-packaged the 24 volumes into six 4-disc box sets. Both the 24 individual volumes and the six 4-disc box sets went out-of-print during the course of 2008. However, MPI has since renewed its deal with Jackie Gleason Enterprises LLC and has continued to release new editions of the "lost episodes" and other Honeymooners material not currently owned by CBS. On July 28, 2011, MPI Home Video announced the release of a complete restored set of all existing Honeymooners Lost Episodes from 1951 to 1957. The 50 hour, 15 DVD set will contain 107 Honeymooners sketches, include the home video debut of the nine existing original DuMont Network sketches, six other sketches never before released on home video and the eight musical Honeymooners episodes from 1957 which are collectively known as the "Trip To Europe" shows that have been long sought after by Honeymooners fans. The new restored set of Lost Episodes was released on Oct. 4, 2011, sixty years after the first Honeymooners sketch aired.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Honeymooners- Lost Episodes Collection 1 | 13 | October 30, 2001 |
| The Honeymooners- Lost Episodes Collection 2 | 13 | October 30, 2001 |
| The Honeymooners- Lost Episodes Collection 3 | 15 | January 29, 2002 |
| The Honeymooners- Lost Episodes Collection 4 | 15 | March 26, 2002 |
| The Honeymooners- Lost Episodes Collection 5 | 12 | June 25, 2002 |
| The Honeymooners- Lost Episodes Collection 6 | 12 | August 27, 2002 |
| The Honeymooners- Lost Episodes: The Complete Restored Series | 107 | October 4, 2011 |
In June 2006, MPI Home Video released The Color Honeymooners – Collection 1 (NTSC and PAL), which collects the "Trip to Europe" story arc presented on The Jackie Gleason Show in 1966. It has since released an additional three volumes featuring additional episodes from this story arc. AmericanLife TV Network is currently airing The Color Honeymooners shows under license from Gleason Enterprises and Paul Brownstein Television.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Color Honeymooners- Collection 1 | 9 | June 27, 2006 |
| The Color Honeymooners- Collection 2 | 8 | February 26, 2008 |
| The Color Honeymooners- Collection 3 | 12 | May 27, 2008 |
| The Color Honeymooners- Collection 4 | 12 | August 26, 2008 |
Read more about this topic: The Honeymooners
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