Bang! Zoom! To the Moon...or Mars!

Myself at Chiller with Joyce Randolph who played Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners.

TV fans have never ended their love affair with The Honeymooners and today marks the 60th anniversary of that classic B&W show's debut.  Kind of.

In The Honeymooners, Jackie Gleason portrayed Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden.  His next door neighbor was sewer 'technician' Ed Norton (Art Carney) who often aided in Kramden's numerous mad money making schemes.  Comical highlights included Ralph and Ed appearing on TV to promote the kitchen tool of the future and leaving the set in ruins after Ralph botched his lines. 

The characters of Kramden and Norton actually originated as a series of sketches on Jackie Gleason's Cavalcade of Stars variety show for the Dumont network.  Kramden's wife Alice and Ed's wife Trixie were also featured on The Honeymooners, albeit it in the guise of various actresses through the saga of The Honeymooners.  The official Honeymooners' show commenced on October 1, 1955 for 39 episodes of classic comedy.  Once The Honeymooners ended its run as a series, it returned as sketches to Jackie Gleason's Variety Show on CBS.

The action of The Honeymooners generally transpired in the modest lodgings of Ralph and Alice Kramden.  Life could be gloomy for the couple but they persisted to make the best of things.  The two had titanic battles due in part to Ralph's big dreams and Alice's common sense.  The duo's bouts often included Ralph's threat to belt Alice with the promise of "Bang, Zoom, to the moon Alice!" but the big mouthed bus driver always saw his wife's reasoning and apologized with, "Baby, you're the greatest!"

Of course currently Mars seems much more popular then the moon.

I believe scientists have recently declared that there was once water on Mars.  I can't help but think of the romantic work of Ray Bradbury concerning the red planet.  I remember reading Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles one autumn in middle school, and somehow the book especially calls to me at this time of year.  While in middle school the book did not exactly entrance me, but I did return to The Martian Chronicles years later and was totally transfixed by its yarn of Mars' colonization by Earth men.  The individual stories that made up the tapestry of The Martian Chronicles are high points of literature to me.  And I am equally in awe of Bradbury's other works - especially those dealing with October and Halloween.  How appropriate for this time of year!