LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jackie Gleason
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In 2003, after an absence of more than thirty years, the color, musical versions of The Honeymooners from the second Jackie Gleason Show in Miami Beach were returned to television over the Good Life TV cable network. In 2005, a movie version of The Honeymooners appeared in theatres, with a twist--a primarily African-American cast, headed by Cedric the Entertainer. (There had been reports a few years earlier that Roseanne co-star John Goodman would bring The Honeymooners to film, playing Ralph, but these plans never materialized). This version... bore only a passing resemblance to Gleason's original series and was widely panned by critics.
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Jackie Gleason (February 26, 1916 - June 24, 1987) was a Brooklyn-born comedian famous for brash humor and fast ad-libs who immortalized his Brooklyn neighborhood in The Honeymooners, playing bus driver Ralph Kramden. Ralph, his buddy Ed Norton, and their wives Alice Kramden and Trixie Norton were later transplanted into the stone age as The Flintstones, the entire show being a transparent tribute to The Honeymooners.
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Jackie Gleason and President Nixon had a number of things in common and became good friends. Gleason was a strong supporter of the Republican party. Gleason lived in Florida, and Nixon had a compound on Biscayne Bay only miles away. In addition to being avid golfers, both had high regard for the FBI. Nixon had in April 1937 applied to become an agent with the FBI, and Gleason worked for the FBI as an official "contact" for the Special Agent in Change (SAC) in Miami where he lived for the last twenty years of his life.
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In his life Jackie Gleason had a purpose that weakened him terrifically—he wanted to conquer the world through show business and he cultivated acquaintances with persons in power like then President Richard Nixon. Yet even when he did get all the trappings of success—fame, money, the affection of America—Gleason felt like a failure to himself. He once said to an interviewer:
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Rotund comedian-actor Jackie Gleason (born Herbert John Gleason) broke into show business at age 15 by winning an amateur-night contest and went on to perform in vaudeville, carnivals, nightclubs, and roadhouses. In 1940 he was signed to a film contract by Warner Bros., and he debuted onscreen in Navy Blues (1941). His career was interrupted by World War II, but at the war's end, Gleason returned to Hollywood, this time playing character roles in a number of films. His film work... lent little strength to his career, and he performed in several Broadway shows before achieving major success as the star of such TV comedy series as The Life of Riley, The Honeymooners, and The Jackie Gleason Show. It was during his reign on television that Gleason created such enduring characters as Ralph Kramden (the loud-mouth busdriver from The Honeymooners), Reggie Van Gleason, and Joe the Bartender. As a result of the comedic talents he displayed on TV, he became known as "The Great One."
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DVD movie review of 'Nothing in Common', Jackie Gleason's final film. David Basner (Tom Hanks) is a successful advertising executive who has it all: Money, happiness, and women who want him. Then one day his world falls apart when his mother leaves his father (Jackie Gleason). Now, he must balance his life between his mother, who is happy with her newfound independence, and his father, a recently laid off salesman who is hard-headed, stubborn, and hides a lot from David. Now David must cope with the downfall of his family and his life.
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Jackie Gleason