I adore this show it's one of my favorites, but that apartment has to be the most dreadful, depressing thing i'v ever seen, i get the point that Ralph was cheap and Alice got on his case about it, i just always hated that apartment, nothing but a checkered tablecloth, an icebox and a room which we never got to see and can only assume was a bathroom somewhere in there!
shareNot even a couch to sit upon!
THE absolute worst set in tv (even The Flintstones had a tv!).
I always wondered why Ed and Trixie's apartment was much more furnished.
"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"
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I always wondered why they were so poor. Still do. They had nothing. Did we ever see their bedroom? It appears they only had two rooms. Yet Ralph must have had good credit because every once in a while, he'd buy a house (in one episode, a hotel!) that'd turn out to be a disaster. Beyond cooking and occasional laundry, it looks like Alice didn't have anything to do all day. There was nothing to maintain!
"Truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Beyond cooking and occasional laundry, it looks like Alice didn't have anything to do all day. There was nothing to maintain!
Jacky Gleason had the set built to look like the apartment his family lived in when he was growing up. It even had the same address. That probably explains the nineteen twenties style ice box. Did they still those in the fifties? Did they still of icemen to deliver the ice?
The lack of a TV set was also unusual for a TV sitcom. Remember "The Honeymooners" was orginally aired on the Dumont Network which was owned by a TV set manufacturer.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
The bedroom might have had two windows. It certainly had a bathroom attached to it, which would have had a window. So that's at least three, maybe four.
I always wondered why they were so poor. Still do.Same here. I know 'bus driver' doesn't sound like much of an occupation, but where I live (Southern California) bus drivers make decent money!
Beyond cooking and occasional laundry, it looks like Alice didn't have anything to do all day. There was nothing to maintain!Yep. I never understood WHAT Alice was supposedly busy with all day, since there was almost no furniture [to dust/wax] and only two rooms [plus, I assume, a bathroom]. The whole place could be scrubbed from top to bottom, wall to wall, in what, two hours? What did she do the rest of the time? And I know it was the '50s, but why didn't she get a job? If the Kramdens were in such dire financial straits all the time, a second income would've come in handy. It's not like they had children to care for all day.
I will admit when looking at Ralph and Alice's apartment it was like looking at a poor person's place during the depression.
shareI'll bet Alice didn't spend all day in the apartment. I'll bet she went up to Trixie's apartment and watched television and helped her with light housework. Maybe played cards. Maybe they went to the market or took a walk. But she couldn't have been busy all day. And she probably didn't let Ralph know just how much TV watching etc. she did each day.
"All necessary truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Beyond cooking and occasional laundry, it looks like Alice didn't have anything to do all day. There was nothing to maintain!
HA HA!It's true even the Flintsones had more didn't they?
Ed as pointed out did buy things on credit. But like Ralph he spent money on boweling,pool,the lodge.Audrey once said it was all Ralphs ideas that he would sink money into.I'm not sure even that explains it though becasue he suckered Ed into investing quite often too.
they were poor(although they shouldnt be ,Im sure bus drivers even back then got a a good paycheck)but they didnt have to buy new things, im sure resale shops and garage sales existed back then.
shareThe points made here are very good. Indeed, the Kramdens were far from wealthy, but they had each other, which was one of the main themes of the show. Their lack of wealth is shown in the apartment.
There's another issue as well. The Honeymooners started out as a skit in a variety show. Sets in variety show skits (especially in older ones) are often more simple than in a sit-com or TV drama.
I always thought of The Honeymooners as short comedy plays (two or three-act), and now that I think about it, the simple set is likely one of the reasons for my thinking that (besides the exaggerated speech and mannerisms of Jackie Gleason and Art Carney).
The set was based on Gleason's real apartment growing up in Brooklyn. Gleason said "The place was dull. The bulbs weren't very bright. The surroundings were very bare". I also remember him saying "There were 100 Ralph Kramdens and 7 or 8 Nortons on every block."
George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya.
People were still frugal then. I remember when we got our first TV, and it was after the Kramdens (or was it the Nortons) did. And the set is not important anyway(though it could have used a fresh coat of paint). It was still an awesome show.
Get me a bromide! And put some gin in it!
Haha they were filthy! ! Alice woee the same dress everyday. ...
Yes. My father used to live in what he refers to a "cold water flat". He said to go to the bathroom at night he would have to walk to the end of the hall way.
The Kramdens did have a bathroom in their apartment. There were several episodes where Ralph shaves or showers. We don't see it, but we hear of it.
"today i swear i'm not doing anything"
I've read that once a new staffer (probably props department) actually placed a dish of hard candy on the kitchen table. When Gleason noticed it, he went ape%$#@&! The apartment he grew up in didn't have a candy dish, so neither would the Kramdens. We should also remember that Gleason's father abandoned the family, so their poverty was even more striking than in a household that included a male breadwinner.
"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"
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Is there any candy in it? I remember my mother had a coupla coupla candy dishes where she placed sewing needles, paperclips and thumb tacks.
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?
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One point that I don't see anybody making (maybe I missed it) is that a big part of why they're so poor is that Ralph squanders so much money on get-rich-quick schemes. Alice is always mentioning the wallpaper that glows in the dark, or the no-cal pizza, etc.
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I was always so happy when the action took place in Norton's apartment, lol...
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