BANG ‘ZOOM!’
‘Honeymooner’ sez OK to bug-era series
To the Zoom, Trixie! Pandemic-era series “The Honeyzoomers” got a stamp of approval from Joyce Randolph — the only remaining cast member of the iconic sitcom “The Honeymooners,” which also starred Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Audrey Meadows.
“I’ve heard about it and I think it’s a wonderful idea,” she said of “The Honeyzoomers.” “I wish them luck.”
The web series created by playwright Charles Messina has posted 35 episodes online and has four more in the works. That will match the output of the “Classic 39 half-hour episodes of ”The Honeymooners,” which inspired Messina’s black-and-white comedy series, shot during the COVID lockdown. Actors worked from home and their scenes were edited together.
Randolph, 96, told the Daily News she tuned in to a New Years Eve “Honeymooners” marathon and enjoyed reruns of the show, which ran from October 1955 to September 1956 and has continued to crack up new generations of fans. While Randolph recalled “The Sleepwalker” episode fondly — where Carney’s character wrestled with sleep issues — she’s hardpressed to pick a favorite.
“Any one where I had more that four or five lines is a favorite,” she joked by phone from her home on the Upper West Side, where she’s lived for 60 years.
According to Randolph, asking Gleason to give her Trixie Norton character more lines was never a consideration.
“You don’t even talk to Jackie, let alone ask for anything,” she said. “He didn’t talk much and he didn’t like to rehearse much.”
Randolph recalls a hectic “Honeymooners” work schedule that saw 39 episodes filmed in under a year. She said there wasn’t a lot of chitchat among cast members, though everyone showed up on Saturdays ready to film the hit CBS show before an audience — even Carney, whose struggles with alcohol are well-documented and who finally got sober in the mid-1970s.
“Art was a quiet guy,” she said. “He kept a hotel room here in the city where he could go and drink. He was a big drinker, but not on Saturdays.”
When she used to imbibe, Randolph said Scotch and milk was her libation of choice. She no longer indulges.
“I fall over enough without being half-drunk,” she joked.
Randolph said she has her first COVID vaccination shot lined up for next week, with the second dose coming Feb. 8. She looks forward to catching a play again someday, but has no other plans.
“I just stay home and watch television,” she said. “I’ll probably keep doing that.”
In addition to her pioneering sitcom, Randolph cites “I Love Lucy” and “Seinfeld” as comedy programs that hold up well. She never had any idea people would still be talking about “The Honeymooners” in 2021.
“None of us knew,” she said.