The Honeymooners: Ralph and Norton have entered the annual amateur night at the Halsey Theater, where the grand prize is two hundred dollars. Their act consists of a mind-reading bit, jokes and a Laurel and Hardy impersonation, and a song-and-dance routine. When Ralph comes home from work, he discovers he and Norton are going to have some stiff competition: Alice and Trixie are doing a hula song and dance. Ralph is against Alice's performing, but Norton is more understanding; Trixie had been in burlesque, he tells Ralph, and has the tradition of the theater to uphold. Alice knows Ralph is afraid she and Trixie may win, and she appeals to his pride. Ralph not only accepts her challenge but bets her ten dollars he and Norton will win and promises to eat her grass skirt if she and Trixie win. Ralph and Norton are up past midnight rehearsing, and Alice and Garrity, are anything but a captive audience. The "restaurant sketch" they rehearse, in which Norton does a Stan Laurel impersonation as a customer who wants a piece of custard pie, and Ralph plays the waiter a la Oliver Hardy, is a priceless tribute by Carney and Gleason to the two great funny men. At the Halsey, the first contestant is Freitag Delicatessen's delivery boy, who plays a bicycle pump. Alice and Trixie wow 'em. Norton can't even guess the first object in the mind-reading routine, Ralph bombs as a standup comic, and the song and dance is a dismal flop. Final score: Alice and Trixie, $210; Ralph, a grass skirt for dinner. Running time: 38:39

Starring:

Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, Jackie Gleason, Joyce Randolph

Genre:

Comedy, Family