Overview of 'The Honeymooners' Season 2

Episode 1 - Bus Accident

Release Date: 1953-09-19

A bus accident finds Ralph at home with Alice with his sprained thumb and he's driving her nuts. Visits from both Ed and Trixie don't help very much. When the company doctor drops in it's he who finds Ralph is fine and it's Alice who is sick.

Episode 2 - Lucky Number

Release Date: 1953-09-26

Ralph plays hooky from work to go to a Baseball Ball game with Norton. At the game, Ralph discovers he has the ""lucky"" ticket number which entitles him to the prize of $1000. Ralph wants to spend it & Alice wants to save it. Ralph's picture appears in the paper & if his boss sees it, he'll know he played hooky from work. Running time: 17:02

Episode 3 - Hot Dog Stand

Release Date: 1953-10-10

Ralph and Norton try to collect enough money to open a hot dog stand in New Jersey. Runtime: 35:13

Episode 4 - Two Tickets to the Fight

Release Date: 1953-10-24

Uncle George from Pittsburgh is in town and Alice has invited him to dinner. Ralph has other plans: He and Norton have front-row seats at the fights. Alice is especially fond of Uncle George because he's been generous with the Kramdens. Among other things, he once bought them a refrigerator that Ralph later sold. Ralph could care less. He says, ""I'm not missing the best fight of the year!"" Alice answers, ""You try and walk out that door and you'll be in the best fight of the year! "" Uncle George arrives before Ralph can get out of the house, so Ralph tries to get rid of him by faking a backache. Norton walks in on the middle of Ralph's act and is taken in by it too. Not wanting to go to the fight alone, he offers Ralph's ticket to Uncle George.

Episode 5 - Halloween Party

Release Date: 1953-10-31

Ralph ruins his tuxedo for a Halloween party at the bus company, not realizing that it's not a costume party. Runtime: 9:22

Episode 6 - Champagne and Caviar

Release Date: 1953-11-07

Mr. Marshall is dropping in on the Kramdens, and Ralph, who desperately wants a promotion and a raise, is going to extremes to impress him--he buys champagne, caviar, and expensive cigars. Norton comes down and embarrasses Ralph in front of Marshall. Ralph finally gets rid of him by giving him money to take Trixie to the movies. Then Ralph gets poked in the eye by the Fickle Finger of Fate. The board of directors for the bus company has been pressuring Marshall to give his drivers a raise, but now that he sees how well Ralph lives on the $62 a week he already pays him, he wants to use Ralph and his gracious life style as proof that he already pays his drivers enough. Ralph is crestfallen, but he dines that evening on caviar and champagne.

Episode 7 - Letter to the Boss

Release Date: 1953-11-14

Ralph writes a nasty letter to his boss after he thinks he's been fired. Included are two faint spells from Ralph: #1: Break dance style, and #2: falling flat onto Mr. Marshall's office floor (cartwheel faint).

Episode 8 - Finger Man

Release Date: 1953-11-28

Ralph spots Bullets Durgom, a wanted killer, on his bus and helps the police capture him. Ralph races home with the news, just a step ahead of the reporters who descend upon Chauncey Street for photos of the hero and a firsthand account of how he helped apprehend one of the country's meanest thugs. A police chief comes by to congratulate Ralph, and while he's there one of his men races in with the news that Bullets has escaped. Ralph is terrified, because Bullets has threatened to get him. The cops figure Bullets will head straight to Chauncey Street to carry out his threat, so they set a trap for him: two cops will wait in the Kramden's bedroom, ready to spring out when Ralph says ""Bullets, it's you,"" when the killer enters the apartment. Bullets appears and Ralph is tongue-tied. Just as Bullets is about to shoot, Norton walks in, and upon seeing him blurts out ""Bullets, it's you."" The cops fly out of the bedroom, nab Bullets, and commend Ralph for being so brave.

Episode 9 - Santa and the Bookies

Release Date: 1953-12-12

Alice is knitting baby clothes to make some extra money for Christmas. When Norton comes down and asks Ralph if he can hide Trixie's Christmas present in the Kramdens' apartment, Ralph says yes and sticks the present in the bureau drawer -- where Alice has hidden the baby clothes. A moment later, when Norton tells Ralph that Trixie has made a doctor's appointment for Alice, Ralph is sure that Alice is pregnant. He decides he has to make some more money in a hurry so that his future son can go to college, so he answers a newspaper ad for a Santa Claus job. What Ralph doesn't know is that the guys who placed the ad are bookmakers and that they plan to use the Santa to collect bets. Ralph is hired and so is Norton -- as an elf. Ralph and Norton set up shop on the sidewalk, and bettors walk by and drop in their money and slips of paper with the names of the horses they want to bet. When a cop drops some money into the pot and Norton asks him where his slip is, Santa and his helper wind up

Episode 10 - Honeymooner's Christmas Party

Release Date: 1953-12-19

It's Christmas Eve. Alice is decorating the tree and setting out holiday refreshments. Ralph comes home with potato salad, but Alice says it's the wrong potato salad. It came from DeVito's, which would have been the right place to go for lasagne, but the right potato salad would have come from Krauss'. Ralph can't believe that Alice is actually asking him to go out for different potato salad, and he's right. She's not asking him. She's telling him. He leaves. Trixie enters, and describes to Alice what Ed gave her for Christmas--a juice squeezer that looks like Napoleon and squirts juice out of its ear. Fenwick Babbitt (played by Jackie Gleason) comes by, to deliver ice and beer. After hauling the beer barrel all over the apartment and standing around with the block of ice, he discovers he's in the wrong apartment, and leaves. Ed enters, escorting Frances Langford. Frances used to know Trixie in vaudeville. She sings ""Great Day"" and ""I Love Paris"" for Alice, Ed, and Trixie, and dances w

Episode 11 - New Year's Eve Party

Release Date: 1953-12-26

It's the day before New Year's Eve, and Alice and Trixie want Ralph and Norton to take them out to celebrate the arrival of 1954. Ralph, who says he hates going out on New Year's Eve, anticipates that Alice is going to ask him to take her out, so he decides to- pick a fight with her so she'll be too mad at him to want to go anywhere. First he screams about dinner; but Alice doesn't retaliate because one of her New Year's resolutions is not to argue with Ralph. Ralph gropes for other things to get her riled, and when they fail he blurts out that he's not taking her out for New Year's Eve. Then they fight. In walk Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, who've come to retrieve a briefcase full of sheet music Alice found earlier that day in a telephone booth. They invite the Kramdens and the Nortons to be their guests New Year's Eve at the Statler Hotel, where the Dorsey Brothers band is playing. Suddenly Ralph is in a festive mood. Moments later Freddie Muller arrives with bad news: Ralph has to work Ne

Episode 12 - This is Your Life

Release Date: 1954-01-16

It's Christmas Eve. Alice is decorating the tree and setting out holiday refreshments. Ralph comes home with potato salad, but Alice says it's the wrong potato salad. It came from DeVito's, which would have been the right place to go for lasagne, but the right potato salad would have come from Krauss'. Ralph can't believe that Alice is actually asking him to go out for different potato salad, and he's right. She's not asking him. She's telling him. He leaves. Trixie enters, and describes to Alice what Ed gave her for Christmas--a juice squeezer that looks like Napoleon and squirts juice out of its ear. Fenwick Babbitt (played by Jackie Gleason) comes by, to deliver ice and beer. After hauling the beer barrel all over the apartment and standing around with the block of ice, he discovers he's in the wrong apartment, and leaves. Ed enters, escorting Frances Langford. Frances used to know Trixie in vaudeville. She sings ""Great Day"" and ""I Love Paris"" for Alice, Ed, and Trixie, and dances w

Episode 13 - Cottage for Sale

Release Date: 1954-01-23

Ralph and Norton have a secret that Norton can't wait to blab to the wives--he and Ralph are going to buy a cottage in the country. They want to spend nearly a thousand dollars for it, and Alice and Trixie are immediately against the idea. Ralph convinces Alice to go look at a model cottage, and she and Trixie fall in love with it--not knowing that they're looking at a model that costs more than twice as much as the one Ralph and Norton want to buy. Alice changes her mind and decides she'd love to own a summer cottage. The boys send the wives away so they can bargain with the salesman, a shady character who'd give a used-car salesman a good name by comparison. He tells Ralph and Norton he'll give them a ""modified"" version of the two-thousand-dollar cottage for $989, the price of the model they wanted originally. When the Kramdens and the Nortons arrive at Paradise Acres to spend their first night in their dream cottage, they discover they've been sold a nightmare instead. The wives are

Episode 14 - Lawsuit

Release Date: 1954-03-27

After breaking his leg in a bus accident, Ralph tries to sue the bus company. Runtime: 15:08

Episode 15 - The Fortune Teller

Release Date: 1954-04-03

Ralph reluctantly allows a fortune teller to read his palm, and is determined to find out what it is after she stops. Runtime 34:51

Episode 16 - The Next Champ

Release Date: 1954-04-10

Ralph decides to manage a young boxer, who ends up moving in with the Kramdens. Runtime: 37:35

Episode 17 - Stand In For Murder

Release Date: 1954-04-17

A mob boss, who is a dead ringer for Ralph, is holed up in his apartment because a rival gang leader, Barney Hackett, wants to bump him off. Nick, one of his henchmen, takes a ride on Ralph's bus and gets the idea of somehow setting up Ralph to get knocked off in place of his boss. He offers Ralph a ""job"" as a top executive with an insurance company, as the pretext of getting Ralph to the boss's apartment so he can be set up. When Ralph tells Alice he's been offered a job as boss of the ""eastern district"" of an insurance company (whose name he doesn't even know), with a salary of six hundred dollars a week, a Park Avenue apartment, and a chauffeured limousine, she is--what else--skeptical. The next day Ralph reports to work on Park Avenue, while the mob boss moves to another hideout. Nick makes a deal with Hackett to bump off Ralph (Hackett, of course, isn't wise to the switch), but the assassination attempt fails, thanks to Norton's interference. Next, Nick sends Ralph to Hackett's he

Episode 18 - Move Uptown

Release Date: 1954-04-24

Ralph tries to get kicked out of his apartment so he can rent a nicer one in The Bronx. Runtime: 36:58

Episode 19 - The Man in the Blue Suit

Release Date: 1954-05-01

When Alice gives away a jacket that contains Ralph's poker winnings, he and Norton scheme to get it back. Runtime: 34:30

Episode 20 - Hair Raising Tale

Release Date: 1954-05-08

Ralph and Norton get suckered into buying the formula for a miracle hair restorer. Runtime: 37:31

Episode 21 - What's the Name

Release Date: 1954-05-15

Alice and Ralph return home from the movies. Time passes and Alice can't remember the actress who starred in the film. Ralph can't remember her name either and now he can't sleep until he thinks of the name. All the noise keeps Ed awake and he comes down to see what's going on. A cop then comes to the door and tells Ralph that if the noise doesn't stop, he's going to wind up in front of a judge. That's it! says Ralph. Arline Judge is the dames name. NOTE: This is the same story line as "What's Her Name?" from season 1. Except in this version ends with Ralph and Alice singing the song "One of These Days, Pow Right in the Kisser".

Episode 22 - Boxtop Kid

Release Date: 1954-05-22

The Kramdens leave Brooklyn for the Bronx?!? Yes, if Ralph has his way. His friend George and his wife are moving to Albany, and Ralph and Alice have a chance to rent their apartment, a spacious, nicely decorated place that looks like the Taj Mahal next to the Kramdens' flat. For only fifteen dollars a month more than they're paying at Chauncey Street, the Kramdens can experience comfort and luxury; but first they have to sublet their apartment. When a couple of prospective tenants wash out, Ralph decides to move out in the middle of the night. That doesn't work--Norton falls down the stairs carrying a load of pots and pans and Ralph's brother Charlie doesn't show up with the car--so Ralph tries to get kicked out of the apartment by making a racket and painting the apartment in crazy colors. The landlord of the building in the Bronx drops in to interview the Kramdens, and Ralph, who's never met the Chauncey Street landlord, thinks he's the landlord of his building. Ralph does his best

Episode 23 - Two Men on a Horse

Release Date: 1954-05-29

Ralph wins $73.85 playing poker and hides the money in the pocket of an old suit so Alice won't find it. The next day, a man from the Help the Needy Society comes to the apartment looking for old clothes and newspapers. Alice gives him Ralph's old suit. When Ralph hears this he and Norton race down to the mission to retrieve the suit. They decide that if Ralph goes in and asks for the suit because his money is in the pocket, the society may check with Alice to verify the story. Instead, Norton makes up Ralph to look like a bum in need of new clothes. Ralph gets on the clothes line, but when he gets to the counter the man tells him he can't get clothes without a ticket. Then Ralph learns he can't get a ticket until he fills out some forms and is investigated by the society. He gives the clerk a nutty sob story, gets a ticket, and grabs the suit he thinks is his. It's not. He sees another guy about his size wearing a similar jacket and tries to pick a fight with him, hoping the guy will

Episode 24 - Good buy Aunt Ethel

Release Date: 1954-06-05

This is an expanded version of the March 1953 skit ""Alice's Aunt Ethel."" In this episode, Ralph comes home from work in a fabulous mood--which lasts only until Alice tells him Aunt Ethel is coming for a visit. The middle sequence of this episode--in which Ralph is trying to sleep on a cot in the kitchen while Alice makes coffee for Aunt Ethel--is ""Alice's Aunt Ethel"" all over again. When Ralph's scheme to get rid of Aunt Ethel by faking a bad back fails, he concludes that the only way to get rid of her for good is to marry her off to somebody. Freddie Zimmerman, the butcher from Freitag's Meat Market, is chosen as the pigeon and invited over for dinner. Ralph goes all out to ensure that the evening is a success. He sends Aunt Ethel to the beauty parlor and buys her a corsage; he borrows the Nortons' love seat and his pal George's record player and records; he sprays the apartment with perfume, and buys four pounds of chopped meat from Freddie to make sure he's in a good mood.

Episode 25 - Vacation at Fred's Landing

Release Date: 1954-06-19

The Kramdens and the Nortons are going on vacation together. The girls think they're going to Atlantic City, but the boys decide they want to go fishing at Fred's Landing. They get their way--and wind up having to push their borrowed car halfway to Fred's. After two days at Fred's, Alice and Trixie are worn out cooking, cleaning, toting water, collecting firewood. They decide to annoy the boys enough to get them to want to leave. They don't know that Ralph and Norton are miserable too. Ralph decides he'll dress up in a bear suit to scare the girls into begging him and Norton to go home, so the boys can leave and save face at the same time. Ralph returns with the suit, to find Norton face to face with a real bear. Ralph admits he made a mistake wanting to go to Fred's and it's off to Atlantic City. This is another version of a sketch that was originally broadcast on June 27, 1953.