Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! This week, to celebrate Friday’s official release of my first book, Great American Sitcoms of the 1950s, which you can pre-order here (or on Amazon here), I’ve got another 1950s rerun — this time from nearly 12 years ago!

It’s… The Ten Best Episodes of THE HONEYMOONERS’ Classic 39: jacksonupperco.com/2013/08/06/the-ten-best-episodes-of-the-honeymooners-classic-39/

I actually reran this piece back in 2021 and shared a new list of favorite Honeymooners episodes then. But if you want to find out which entries from the Classic 39 (the only actual season of filmed half-hour sitcom episodes using “The Honeymooners” format) I think are the true best of the best, you’ll have to get my book. And I’ll tell you now — The Honeymooners is indeed well-represented on my “Top 50 Sitcom Episodes of the 1950s” list, for I still consider it to be one of the decade’s finest and most formative series, specifically as a sample of the idea-driven style of sitcommery that I use, with Nat Hiken’s The Phil Silvers Show, to represent the stylistic counter to the character-driven aesthetic best embodied by I Love Lucy. There’s a big chapter in my book — chapter eight — that looks at them in relation to each other. Additionally, The Honeymooners is fun to discuss because it’s an illustration of the maintained link between sitcoms and comedy-variety shows, which were quite popular in the first half of the decade, where some even boasted recurring sketches that could be considered almost like mini-sitcoms, with sustained situations (featuring a specific set of characters) in a series of individual comic scenarios. Obviously, such routines, like “The Honeymooners” from The Jackie Gleason Show and “The Hickenloopers” from Sid Caesar’s Your Show Of Shows, are not as well-developed as full-on situation comedies, which have greater requirements with regard to story, therefore demanding stronger and better-defined situations — namely, much more support from better-defined characters. But that also speaks to the basic difference between idea-driven and character-driven sitcoms in general — a theory I expand on in my book. I can’t wait for you to read it! (And good news to all who already pre-ordered from me — your books were shipped out today!)

Come back next week for another 1950s rerun! And stay tuned tomorrow for a new Wildcard!