Taking a break from cleaning my apartment for our short film's last day of shooting, I'm watching reruns of Martin. I thought I'd seen pretty much every episode, but this one is new to me. And a small revelation has dawned: Who knows who's behind this -- whether it's Martin Lawrence himself, producer Samm-Art Williams, or the writers -- there are at least three episodes that are direct rip-offs of (or homages to, whichever you prefer) the Honeymooners.
For those of you who were born after 1980-something, the Honeymooners is a TV show that aired in the 50's starring comic legend Jackie Gleeson. And for those of you who are really young, the 2004 movie with the same title starring Cedric the Entertainer is the movie version of the show. Schaa.
I. Martin and Gina have a business dinner with a big-shot producer and his sexpot wife. Trying to score points with the producer, Martin flatters and flirts with the wife, laying it on thick, insulting Gina in the process. Later, Martin arrives home to find Gina wearing tight clothes and cutesy-talking like the wife, accusing that that's the kind of gal Martin really likes. Martin assures her that (one of my girlfriend's favorite lines), "I like my women classy, not showin' all the ass-y!" Of course the wife and producer happen to walk in on them at this moment, which blows the deal.
Time travel back to the 50's. In "Alice and the Blonde," Ralph and Alice Kramden are at a dinner with Burt Wedemeyer, who Ralph is schmoozing for a promotion at the bus company, and his cutesy-pie sexpot wife Rita. The same hook is delivered as Ralph comes home to find Alice strutting and shimmying and coming off like a dumb blonde to please Ralph.
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:243674
II. In another classic Honeymooners, Alice demands that Ralph not bowl in a tournament finals in case he should injure his bad back before a physical exam at work the next morning. Ralph angrily assures her he won't, and Alice takes off for a short trip. But Ralph's league buddies, including Norton, pressure him to go. They win the trophy but have to carry Ralph home with it. That night, Ralph sleeps with a hot water bottle to get right. Alice returns with her boisterous Uncle who's just thrilled to see Ralph after so many years...and shows his exciement with repeated whacks to Ralph's back, making him nearly pass out. Ralph nearly gets away Scot Free -- he wins the trophy and passes his physical -- but his teammates stop by to pass along their congratulations by way of Alice. D'oh!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh,_My_Aching_Back
Fast Forward to the mid-1990s. Well, today actually, since I hadn't seen this one before. The half I caught of this Martin episode has him at home with Cole and Tommy in agony from throwing his back out in a basketball game. A chiropractor arrives and straightens him out and he goes to the party, lying to Gina as if he decided not to play ball as dioscussed (which implies that the 1st half I didn't see is also identical the Honeymooners episode). And sure enough, Martin finds a guest who's just tickled pink to see him and shows the appreciation by slapping his back a bunch of times.
III. Martin refuses to pay a rent increase and stages a shut-in war against the landlord. The stubborn little man won't budge, and soon he and Gina have their power and water turned off in the dead of winter. Eventually, the end up out on the street in front of the building with all of their furniture. Martin still won't budge...until it begins to snow.
The Honeymooners plot is pretty much identical here, right down to Ralph and Alice being outsted onto the street in front of their building, Ralph not budging, then the snow falling.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0604644/plotsummary
All three stories are infused with enough of the show's regular flavor to distinguish the plotlines. We're used to seeing movies being remade, not TV shows, so it was quite the surreal experience to see the carbon copies unfolding. In a way it's very odd since the two shows have such distinctly different target audiences, but in another way it's kind'a cool: comedy is universal and at its core can easily span cultures, regardless of who it's originally intended for. I guess this is how you explain Kelsey Grammer being the unlikliest of producers for Girlfriends.
And I thought the King of Queens was the modern day Honeymooners!