Joyce Randolph is DEAD TO ME!

Great show, terrific cast. Good memories.

She lived a good life.

“And away we go! . . .”

I love the episode where she comes downstairs and is onscreen for almost a minute.

The apartment looks much less drab in color.

Few know she invented heterosexual anal sex in 1948. Thank your Joycie

I seem to remember that just a few years ago she would get dolled up and hang around classic Manhattan bars where the bartender would introduce her to tourists and she'd bask in their questions (and their paid-for drinks).

A friend and I were in Sardi's (mid-'90s) and she came in. She'd just bought new shoes and proceeded to put them on and show them off.

I suppose it was her time

Aw, I was hoping she'd make it to her 100th birthday.

I've mentioned on DL before that I met her once when I went to see the Hugh Jackman musical "Boy from Oz" on Broadway several years ago. She was standing in the lobby of the theater, looking as if she was waiting for someone, when I walked by and recognized her. Just a lovely lady with a really beautiful smile. RIP.

It's really too bad TV and film producers typecast her so narrowly, claiming she was too identified as "Trixie" and wouldn't hire her for much of anything interesting.

While her TV husband, Art Carney, was cast in incredibly diverse projects, even winning an Oscar for the beautiful film [italic]Harry and Tonto.[/italic]

I hated that for her; she seemed such a lovely and talented person.

[quote]I love the episode where she comes downstairs and is onscreen for almost a minute.

Unfortunately, this was very true -- Trixie never played a major role in any episode, making it virtually impossible for any of the networks that show "Honeymooners" to pay tribute to Randolph by showing Trixie-centered episodes because there were none. If I had to pick one, I'd probably go with "The Safety Award," a great episode that featured probably the only argument Trixie and Alice ever had over who'd get to wear a horrible polka-dotted dress to Ralph's award ceremony at the mayor's office.

A New York Times profile of Joyce from 2007:

It is 5:01 p.m. and Joyce Randolph, a k a Trixie Norton, is holding forth in the downstairs bar at Sardi’s, sipping her favorite formulation of the White Cadillac, Dewar’s and milk. “I think it does your stomach good,” she is saying. “The Scotch. The milk.”

Before her, flanking the silver Rolex clock above the bar, are the four caricatures of the sacred sitcom’s characters: hers and the portraits of Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows and Art Carney of “The Honeymooners.”

She is strong of voice and precise of diction at 82, given to addressing people as “Dear.” How sweet it is, then, to hang out with Miss Randolph in one of her favorite haunts where the honeymoon is never over.

For his 16 years at Sardi’s, José Estevez, the perpetually amenable barkeep, has looked on as new customers enact the ritual. First, they register the likeness portrayed in the caricature. Then they study the face at the barstool. Always, there is the double take. And so it is tonight.

“This is such a thrill!” said Toni Terracciano from Bethpage, N.Y., putting aside her glass of cabernet to reach for a moment with Trixie. “It’s girls’ night out,” said Ms. Terracciano, who would soon be heading for “Mary Poppins” with her mother and their friend Kathy Cocoman.

“We’re fans for so many years,” said her mother, Pat Astarita. “You were so wonderful on that show.”

Miss Randolph smiled, and shook her head. “It was the others, not me.”

“No, all of you were wonderful,” Ms. Astarita insisted. “I was about to cry. When I saw you.”

True, five decades ago Miss Randolph was dubbed the Garbo of Detroit, but she genuinely seems to enjoy greeting Honeymoonies, as the show’s most ardent fans are called. She is always available to smile and pose with them in a camera-phone flash.

“I talk to everyone,” she said. “You can’t be hoity.”

She signs her name to Playbills and cocktail napkins. “But I know what they really want is the name Trixie Norton,” she said. “So I sign that, too.”

She's a loser. I like people who reach 100.

She was no Vivian Vance.

Poor Dear. She was in the first bloom of youth.

She and her son at the Actors' Fund Benefit performance of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" in 2006.

RIP

Elaine Stritch was originally cast as Trixie.

RIP. The good always die young.

Her son smells cookies

[quote]The apartment looks much less drab in color.

That must be the Nortons' apartment. The Kramdens never had drapes and a fancy sofa.

Alice was always bitching because they didn't have nice things like Ed and Trixie.

[quote]Elaine Stritch was originally cast as Trixie.

And was fired after doing one episode and replaced with Joyce Randolph. It was when the "Honeymooners" sketches were first done on the Dumont Network and Alice was played by Pert Kelton, best remembered as Mrs. Paroo in "The Music Man," on Broadway and in the movie.

The actress who originally played Alice was also fired and blacklisted.

"Kelton lost the role of Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners due to blacklisting of her husband Ralph Bell, which by association affected her career. But the reason publicly given was that her health was poor."

Yes. So blacklisted. Like I said.

I was actually discussing her with family around Christmas with family. 99 years is one hall of a long run. RIP Joyce.

Rip Joyce.

R that doesn't look like the original kitchen, it's too spruced up and wider than the old set.

They were among the first to go for an open concept kitchen though.

Alice would have prettied it up more than it was. I know Jackie wanted it to look like that...

Outlived Jean Kane by 11 years.

My mother always hated The Honeymooners because he would threaten physical violence on Alice

Kean, r30.

And Alice always called his bluff, R31. Ralph blustered, but never touched a hair on her head.

[quote]"Kelton lost the role of Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners due to blacklisting of her husband Ralph Bell, which by association affected her career. But the reason publicly given was that her health was poor."

Pert Kelton, unlike some who were blacklisted, had a major career comeback with the stage and movie versions of "The Music Man." One of her last roles was in the 1960s color version of "The Honeymooners," in which Sheila MacRae played Alice. Kelton returned as Alice's mother. Jackie Gleason, bringing out the cast for their curtain calls, introduced Kelton as "my original Alice."

One of these days...

How did she die, I can't find a cause of death?

Perhaps we need something to distract us- May I suggest a delicous bowl of

KramMar's Delicious Mystery Appetizer

Wow, R.I.P to her. The Honeymooners is my comfort show.

She and Jackie's grandson died in the same week.

[quote]How did she die, I can't find a cause of death?

The COVID vax killed her!

I wonder if either Jackie Gleason or the network bosses wanted prettier women as Alice and Trixie, hence the recasting.

It's amazing (and in this case wonderful) the power of TV that Joyce Randolph was remembered for that one role. RIP

99...so young. RIP Joyce !

Jackie thought Audrey Meadows was too pretty to play Alice until she showed up in curlers and a housecoat.

Yes. Audrey was actually turned away for being too pretty for Alice. She actually had photos taken of her in rollers and a housecoat etc. and sent it to them. After that they invited her to audition and she showed up that way and got the part.

Jackie didn’t want Alice recasted. The actress was fired and blacklisted with her husband.

Couple of Christmases ago I found on YouTube a reunion special with all the original 4 castmembers that came out on TV in about the middle 1970s, and wanted to watch it with my mom for this past Christmas but couldn't find it available anymore. :( But I do remember, and I think it's still available on YT, a Christmas skit of the "new" Honeymooners that were featured in segments in color on Jackie Gleason's late-1960s network variety show aired from Miami, where all the those skits featured musical numbers and had replacement wives (including Shelia MacRae as Alice). A fun show and nice TV-laughter, classic memories.

It’s crazy when you realize this show was only on for one season

R44, why did they fire the other Actress? Was she and her husband suspected of being communist?

[quote]I wonder if either Jackie Gleason or the network bosses wanted prettier women as Alice and Trixie, hence the recasting.

When Jackie Gleason decided to revive "The Honeymooners" as weekly musical hour-long episodes for his 1960s variety show, he wanted Audrey Meadows to play Alice. Meadows had recently appeared on the '60s show in a one-hour musical reunion episode called "The Adoption" that got big ratings. But she lived in New York and didn't want to work in Miami Beach, where Gleason's show was taped. So Sheila MacRae got the part. Joyce Randolph didn't appear in the "Adoption" reunion show. It was explained that Trixie was visiting her mother.

[quote]It's amazing (and in this case wonderful) the power of TV that Joyce Randolph was remembered for that one role. RIP.

Joyce Randolph began playing Trixie in 1952 on Gleason's variety series and played her for much of the '50s. The reason she's remembered as Trixie is because she played the role on the "Classic 39" episodes shot in 1955-1956 as a standalone half-hour sitcom. Those episodes have been endlessly syndicated ever since. They've never really been off television.

[quote]It’s crazy when you realize this show was only on for one season.

"The Honeymooners" ran for only one season as a standalone half-hour sitcom. But "Honeymooners" sketches ran on Gleason's popular variety series for much of the 1950s. In the 1956-1957 season (following the "Classic 39" season), there a were a number of one-hour musical "Honeymooners" episodes, including the "Trip to Europe" episodes, with Gleason, Carney, Meadows and Randolph, that were later remade for the color 1960s Gleason variety show in which Sheila MacRae and Jane Kean played Alice and Trixie.

[quote]Couple of Christmases ago I found on YouTube a reunion special with all the original 4 castmembers that came out on TV in about the middle 1970s, and wanted to watch it with my mom for this past Christmas but couldn't find it available anymore.

There were a series of three or four "Honeymooners" one-hour specials in the 1970s that had most of the original cast: Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Audrey Meadows. But in all of them, Trixie was played by Jane Kean, who first played Trixie in the one-hour color episodes on Gleason's 1960s variety show.

Why didn't she do Broadway?

Let's face it, she was great as Trixie but she still wasn't very good. She would proclaim her lines.

In the earlier Honeymooners sketches, before the classic 39 episodes, there was a running joke about Trixie having been in burlesque. She would brag about having been in Vaudeville, and then Gleason would make some remark suggesting burlesque taking her down a few pegs.

There was a good one where Ralph makes his crack, and Trixie says "Ralph, are you implying subtly that I was in burlesque?" Ralph replies "No. I'm STATING OUTRIGHTLY that you were in burlesque!"

What was remarkable and so memorable about The Honeymooners was it was about real working class people, nothing sanitized or glamourized about them, unlike most sitcoms of the 1950s.

The Life of Riley with William Bendix had a similar vibe but with softer characterizations and set in a pretty suburban world with teenaged kids and their issues. I believe Jackie Gleason actually played Riley in the pilot episode.

[quote] It was explained that Trixie was visiting her mother.

Was her mother ill at the time? Was that the reason for the visit ?

I remember when Chrissy Snow had to leave the apartment she shared with Jack and Janet for a whole season to care for her sick mother. She was kind enough to phone her room-mates each week, but she never told them how her mother was doing.

R55, obviously her mother was not well as Chrissy never returned, presumably to spend the next decade caring for her housebound mother.

[quote]The Life of Riley with William Bendix had a similar vibe but with softer characterizations and set in a pretty suburban world with teenaged kids and their issues. I believe Jackie Gleason actually played Riley in the pilot episode.

Not just a pilot. Gleason starred in the first TV version of "The Life of Riley," which ran for one season in 1949-1950. The show had been a hit on radio with William Bendix as Riley. Bendix also starred in a movie version in 1949. His movie contract with RKO kept him from doing the TV series. In 1953, a new version of the series, this time with Bendix as Riley, debuted and, unlike the first series, was a hit.

Riley's wife in the first series was played by Rosemary DeCamp.

As a child, I watched the Honeymooners with my mother. Once, when I was about 5, Ed Norton shouted, "Ralph, you're a genius!" And I shouted back, "And you're a penis!"

My mother laughed so loud and long that I'll never forget that moment.

[HONNEYMOONERS!]In today's 'WOKE' ATMOSPHERE, it would not pass as political correct! What a shame! But if they really got into the 'theme' of the series, they would find Alice an independent, self assured woman, who, very much loved Ralph! (and visa versa!) Ralph was just a frustrated dreamer, dreaming of a better life for them! and, notice, he always kissed her and called her the greatest! (.........."to the moon, Alice!" (hahaha!)

[quote] How did she die, I can't find a cause of death?

A naked bungee jumping accident, Rose.

to her credit, she appeared to understand her place in the grand scheme of things.

she was in a long marriage, had a kid, no tabloid nonsense.

was it ever stated how she felt about being left out of the future Gleason Honeymooner endeavors?

R57- I like FAT Jackie Gleason

I don't like THIN- ish Jackie Gleason

[quote]was it ever stated how she felt about being left out of the future Gleason Honeymooner endeavors?

She was clearly disappointed, but always came off as classy and gracious and never said anything unkind on the subject. (Publicly, anyway.)

She looks exactly like Allison Janney in OP's pic.

Ethel Owen the actress who played Alice's mother ( she was very good too in the role) lived to 103 years old.

R65. how did she die?

[quote][R65]. how did she die?

Ralph sent her to the moon.