‘The Honeymooners’ Female-Driven Reboot In Works At CBS With Damon Wayans Jr. Executive Producing
07.01.2022 - 22:35
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: A classic blue-collar comedy title from the CBS library is plotting a return. The network is developing The Honeymooners, a reimagining of the 1950s sitcom created by and starring Jackie Gleason. The multi-camera project hails from Damon Wayans Jr. and Kameron Tarlow’s Two Shakes Entertainment and CBS Studios where the company has been based.
Written by Lindsey Shockley (mixed-ish) and to be directed by Kelly Park (Country Comfort), The Honeymooners is described as a bold, female-driven reboot of the iconic working-class comedy centered around new wife, Ruth, and her husband, Alex, who are determined to have a marriage where they are true equals in every way. But what happens when a marriage has two heads of the household? Are they co-heads? Or no head at all?
Shockley and Park executive produce with Two Shakes Entertainment’s Wayans Jr. and Tarlow.
The original Honeymooners was based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason’s variety show. The sitcom aired for one season on CBS from 1955-1956. Mostly set in the Kramdens’ kitchen in a Brooklyn apartment building, The Honeymooners was one of the first U.S. TV shows to feature working-class married couples in a non-idyllic environment.
Gleason starred as New York City bus driver Ralph Kramden, along with Audrey Meadows as his wife Alice, Art Carney as his best friend, sewer worker Ed Norton, and Joyce Randolph as Norton’s wife, Trixie. Most of the episodes centered around Kramden and Norton’s schemes to strike it rich, while their wives looked on with weary patience. One of Kramden’s signature lines, along with an upraised fist, was “To the moon, Alice, to the moon!” as a comeback to Alice’s jibes.
Carney won five Emmy Awards for