Hollywood Ruins The Honeymooners

[mitsuki lover]

have you ever noticed how Hollywood has the ability to ruin some of the
great classic tv shows of the past.Think of My Favorite Martian,McHale's
Navy,etc.
This time it's The Honeymooners,THE GREATEST COMEDY OF ALL TIME,
well maybe THE SECOND GREATEST after I Love Lucy.Still one of the
greats.
What made The Honeymooners great was Jackie Gleason as Ralph
Kramden and Art Carney as Ed Norton.
Alices and Trixies came and went but one thing that was consistent was
Gleason and Carney as the two luckless dreamers of the American
Dream Ralph and Ed.(Note:When it comes to Alices I am prejudiced
toward Sheila Macrae since she played Alice in the '60s when I remember
watching the Jackie Gleason Show.)
And now Hollywood as decided to ruin The Honeymooners like they have
ruined many another classic tv series.
It's bad enough that they updated it to the 21st century and made all of the main characters black(does that mean when they get around to making
The Cosby Show Movie everyone's gonna be white and Jewish?)but
they had to mellow Ralph out so that he doesn't threaten to send Alice
to the moon every time he looses his temper!
Ok,yes spousal abuse is wrong but we never saw Ralph hit Alice for one
thing she'd hit him first and for another thing he was mostly all bluster when it came to making threats.
And it's that bluster that made Ralph Kramden so loveable and Gleason
to earn the nickname The Great One before Gretzky was born.
By taking the bluster out of Ralph Kramden the producers and writers of
The Honeymooners movie have taken out a core element of the series.
Then again no-one but NO-ONE should have portrayed Ralph Kramden
except for Jackie Gleason.
For anyone else to do so is like having a French Poodle play Lassie.

[Arnobius]

Well, I'm not suprised. I can't think on any one they haven't ruined. Still it says something about Hollywood that there so desperate to steal old material...

I hope my generation doesn't get to be like that

Jabberjaw... the movie!

[Azier the Swordsman]

You haven't heard about the new upcoming I Love Lucy movie yet? Whoopi Goldberg is supposed to star as Lucy with Chris Tucker as Ricky.











Kidding.

[Arnobius]

You haven't heard about the new upcoming I Love Lucy movie yet? Whoopi Goldberg is supposed to star as Lucy with Chris Tucker as Ricky.











Kidding.

The sad thing is, it sounds believable enouth to be true...

[Gypsy]

Call me a dweeb, but I don't like all this remaking of old shows, period. In rare cases, I'm sure it's possible to make a modern movie into a tribute to the old series but I haven't seen it happen yet (I am willing to stand corrected if anyone has any examples). In my humble opinion, Hollywood needs to stop watching reruns and think for themselves.

[Stephen]

Moved to the movie boards.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Big surprise.

[Bobtheduck]

I disagree with the statement about old TV shows being made into movies... I actually liked Beverly Hillbillies and I'm interested in Bewitched... Obviously there's no way Nicole Kidman could ever top Elizabeth Montgomery, but it just seems like a great concept... Plus, it's not so PIC that it would have to be censored too bad by the thought police in the studios... Not like I dream of Jeanie (they'd probably have to make the genie be a guy and the Major be a woman, at the very least)

As for changing the races of the characters, well... It's sad, but it fits... If they portray a white man with a violent temper treating his wife like that, it's spousal abuse... If they portray a black man doing the same to his equally fiery black wife, it's "flair" and "culture." This is not a comment on races, but a comment on political correctness and its inconsistancies... Still, I hated the Honeymooners in its original form, so I don't care one way or the other...

I'm really hoping that they don't ruin Bewitched... That was one of my favorite old TV shows (the Lucy Show was the one that made me laugh harder than I've ever laughed, though) "When are you going to leave that Derwood?" I wonder who's gonna play Endora? Even further derailing, I'm going to scream if I see one person on IMDB, or even here, say "Endora? They ripped that off of Star Wars! The moon of Endor!" since it is actually a Biblical reference (and since Bewitched greatly predates Starwars)

[Arnobius]

From what I heard they did a bad job on bewitched

One problem I had with these remakes, was that they tended to be much more crude and tend to go against the character type...

[Bobtheduck]

Not Beverly Hillbillies... It was only more modern, but none of the characters are against character except the bank guy's assistant lady... Jed, Grannie, Jethro, and Ellie May are all in character...

Just looked up Bewitched... I hate those type of TV show movies... Like Fat Albert and Brady Bunch... I like the ones that are actually like the show, but maybe modern... That don't break the fourth wall... Breaking the fourth wall or making a movie about "the show" rather than based on the show is stupid... Grr...

[Arnobius]

Not Beverly Hillbillies... It was only more modern, but none of the characters are against character except the bank guy's assistant lady... Jed, Grannie, Jethro, and Ellie May are all in character...

Just looked up Bewitched... I hate those type of TV show movies... Like Fat Albert and Brady Bunch... I like the ones that are actually like the show, but maybe modern... That don't break the fourth wall... Breaking the fourth wall or making a movie about "the show" rather than based on the show is stupid... Grr...

The problem with Beverly Hillbillies was it was rather crude.

The people I know who grew up with the show, hated it. But if you liked it, that's fine. It's just my opinion here...

[bbboy21]

Rather more of taste

[righteous_slave]

It's like these Hollywood folks aren't even trying to come up with their own ideas any more. Honeymooners, Bewitched, War of the Worlds, Dukes of Hazzard, King Kong. It's a conspiracy so everyone thinks that all the old TV shows and movies were stupid and doesn't go back and look at them and see how much better they really were than so much of the tripe that is put out now. If people did that, then Hollywood might actually have to put out some quality entertainment, instead of making billions off of rehashes.

[Bobtheduck]

Few big name productions are "original". They're usually based on books or previous franchises of some sort (comics, other movies, TV shows, etc) The only times, really, that the movies (or the screenplays, at least) are original works are independent movies. A few examples of that are Donnie Darko and Memento. They are the rare cases...

Oh, and King Kong... I have hope for that one, only because Peter Jackson also did LotR and that was really really good... Well, actually, I'm not all that fond of moster movies, so nevermind... It's not because it's a remake, but because it's a monster movie...

And the original Dukes did suck... So, the movie isn't going to change my mind on that, even if the daisy dukes become thongs or something like that...

[Tommy]

I can think of one that did I good job. Two words:
"Mission Impossible".

And then there`s dirty, minorly funny "Starksy and Hutch" and "Charlies Angels".

It goes the other way around. Series can ruin movies.
"My Big Fat Greek Life." That was on TV for almost 2 days. the movie was funny, but the series was horrible.

I can picture them making an animated series to "Pirates of The Carribean"......Disney, DON`T!!!!!!

[bigsleepj]

It's like these Hollywood folks aren't even trying to come up with their own ideas any more. Honeymooners, Bewitched, War of the Worlds, Dukes of Hazzard, King Kong.

Well, as Orson Welles said: "Hollywood is the only factory town that doesn't have a laboratory for experiments". But citing "War of the Worlds" there isn't exactly fair since its a "classic" book and every director wants to direct a version of their favourite book at some time or other. King Kong and Dukes of Hazzard are up for scrutiny though.

[righteous_slave]

Few big name productions are "original". They're usually based on books or previous franchises of some sort (comics, other movies, TV shows, etc) The only times, really, that the movies (or the screenplays, at least) are original works are independent movies. A few examples of that are Donnie Darko and Memento. They are the rare cases...



And the original Dukes did suck... So, the movie isn't going to change my mind on that, even if the daisy dukes become thongs or something like that...

Yes, there are like six or seven storylines that everything ever writen can be catagorized as (if any one knows what they are please post, I have been trying to remember for ages), but that doesn't mean that Hollywood can't try. Instead they keep pushing the same junk on us over and over again. And don't forget that 98% of the time, movie adaptations are inferior to thier source material, be it books, comics, TV shows whatever.

The Dukes sucks!?!?! Oi. There's no accounting for taste.

Bigsleepj, I mention War of the Worlds mostly because it appears to be a special effects bonanza, and the original story made it's biggest impact being broadcast on the radio, with nothing but the words and a voice. It was so convincing that there was widespread panic thinking it was a real news cast. It makes a good example of how Hollywood can take something powerful (WOW original story) and water it down. I haven't seen the movie yet, so I may be wrong on that account.

[rocklobster]

Why is there a trend in Hollywood to recycle old movies and TV shows? I mean come on, Herbie, Honeymooners, Bewitched? What's next, a PC version of Gone With the Wind?