[danj]

IMHO, The Honeymooners was the best sitcom of all time. I Love Lucy and Bilko are right on its heels. Great stuff! We do forget that there was a lot of junk on fifties tv and we only remember the best.

Gleason was a comic genius and one of tv's greatest characters - not just as Ralph Kramden but as just plain Jackie.

Pert Kelton was the original Alice and a great personal friend of Jackie's. The network didn't like her and insisted she be replaced. She was, with the immortal Audrey Meadows. Still, Pert was a great Alice. She played Alice's mother on the 60s version of The Honeymooners. She's probably best remembered for her tour-de-force performance as Marion the Librarian's mother in the classic musical "The Music Man."

One reason the fifties are considered "the golden age" of American television is talent - the sheer volume of it. Yes, there was a lot of junk then but the quality stuff was frequent and well remembered. I present a small list of names as examples why it was the golden age:

1. Rod Serling
2. Sid, Imogene, Carl, and Howard
3. Nate Hiken and Phil Silvers
4. Jackie, Audrey, Art, and Joyce
5. Lucy, Desi, Vivian, and Bill
6. Paddy Chayesky
7. Richard Boone
8. Ed Sullivan
9. Milton Berle
10.Fran Allison
11.Andy Griffith
12.Eve Arden
13.Nanette Fabray
14.Nat "King" Cole
15.Burns & Allen
16.Jack Benny
17.James Arness
18.Dick Powell
19.Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Carl Reiner (again)
20.Abbott and Costello