Plot: What’s it about?
I have seen most of The Honeymooners episodes on laserdisc and I’ve liked most of them, to be sure. The show has become a television classic, with great work from Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Joyce Randolph, and Audrey Meadows. Since I like the series, I am very happy to see that MPI has started to release some episodes, especially since they’ve changed their approach to issuing the series on disc. After a first disc was released as a solo title, I was worried MPI might opt to issue all single discs, but that wasn’t the case. Now MPI has chosen to release entire box sets and in this case, that means a total of four discs. I prefer this method and I think fans will also, as it makes it easier to pick up a lot of episodes in one fell swoop. This first volume in the series contains the already released first disc, as well as three more volumes and of course, all contain some classic episodes of the show. I commend MPI for releasing one of television’s true classic programs, as well as doing so in these terrific four disc collections. I’ve included a breakdown of what’s included on each disc below and in case you don’t want the entire set, MPI also offers each volume as a solo edition.
Volume 1
1. Letter to the Boss
2. Suspense
3. Dinner Guest
4. Ralph Kramden’s Greatest Schemes (Bonus Feature)
Volume 2
1. Songs and Witty Sayings
2. Norton Moves In
3. Income Tax (Bonus Episode)
Volume 3
1. Christmas Party
2. Forgot to Register
3. Champagne and Caviar (Bonus Feature)
4. Finger Man (Bonus Feature)
Volume 4
1. New Year’s Eve Party
2. Two-Family Car
3. My Man Norton (Bonus Feature)
Video: How does it look?
The episodes are presented in full frame transfers, as intended. The shows have not aged too well, but have held up in decent enough form, I think. The prints have specks & debris, but look clean, though again, the age shows with these episodes. At times there are tears and more serious damage, but in the end, the image is watchable. The contrast is smooth and sharper than expected, so no detail is buried here. This is about as good as these episodes are going to look, unless some massive restoration work is done. That was my take on the first volume and on the whole, the other episodes are along the same lines. I think if you’ve seen the series before, you should know what to expect and these transfers are flawed, but acceptable.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio here is much cleaner than expected, with no distortion or other age related errors to speak of. I wouldn’t say these sound all that crisp, but they sound as good as any other releases of this series, which is about all you can ask for. You can sometimes note the limitations of the methods used to capture the audio, but never to a fault, per se. The music has no errors to report, while dialogue is clean and always easy to understand. This is by no means a reference level track, but given the material involved, I think this is just fine.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Each disc contains some sort of bonus, whether it is a lost episode or an extra program and in either case, they’ve been listed above in the episode guide.
