<p> Before the advent of home taping, no one thought of owning a copy of a television show and there was a chance that a favorite episode might never be seen again. Much early programming has disappeared into the ether, yet many things have been unearthed from the archives. One of the most important discoveries, the 1950s comedy sketches by Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and company, have finally been issued on a 15-DVD set, “The Honeymooners Lost Episodes: The Complete Restored Series.” </p> <p>Part of the fun is watching how “The Honeymooners,” which began as a component of Gleason's variety show “Cavalcade of Stars” (on the short-lived DuMont network), is seeing how the familiar concept quickly developed. On the first episode (1951), Carney didn't play the dim sewer worker Ed Norton but a cop, who turns up at the door of Ralph and Alice Kramden (Gleason and Pert Kelton), his uniform covered in flour after Alice hurled kitchen fixtures from their apartment window in the heat of an argument. </p> <p>As a result of the McCarthy era blacklisting of suspected subversives, the actress who would define the role, Audrey Meadows, replaced the shrill Kelton. Meadows' Alice was no pushover but fought back against the abusive Ralph with a softer touch. Lost was the palpable danger of those early episodes, in which Ralph, a sweating raging bull, seemed inches from sending Alice to the hospital. </p> <p>Even after the lineup settled in and Gleason migrated to CBS, “The Honeymooners” was outstanding not only for its sharply funny dialogue but for its unusual angle of vision. It was the only successful early sitcom to portray characters at the edge of poverty and the pressure of working class frustrations mounting to the verge of explosion. The couples at the heart of the series, Ralph and Alice and Ed and Trixie, remained childless and urban in a world where “Leave it to Beaver” was the ideal. </p>
