'Mooners Monday: Unconventional Behavior

I'd wager of the famous Classic 39 "regular" Honeymooners episodes, Unconventional Behavior is one of the handful of most pop--oh, why bother? Almost all of them are among the most beloved or most popular. This has some of the most memorable imagery, though--Ralph and Ed stuck together by a bum pair of trick handcuffs, trying to get some shuteye on a train to (as far as they know) Minneapolis.

I think this presents one of the great what if scenarios for the series. It would be cool to see a scene or two of the boys at the actual Raccoon Convention. We see them in their lodge togs, and we see them describing all the sophomoric pranks they are planning on pulling, but I like the idea of them interacting with others at the event.

This raises the question: what exactly do they do at the convention? I love that when Ralph plans the trip, his first impulse is to run to a novelty shop and get a joy buzzer, bags for filling with water and hurling out the window, etc. What else goes on there? Talk about Robert's Rules of Order? Speeches by the Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler? Demonstrations on the latest in beer keg taps?

One of the most interesting parts of The  Official Honeymooners Treasury is the revelation that, according to an early script draft discovered by Marvin Marx's widow, the original concept put the guys, the gals, and various Raccoon bigwigs on the train to Minneapolis. Aso, the actor who plays the train conductor, Humphrey Davis...

told the authors that a later script featured comedian Jack Norton playing twins to comic effect and confusing Ralph and Ed. Norton (the actor, not the character) was a resident at the will Rogers Hospital in New York, suffering from emphysema, and the physical exertion of the role proved too much for him.

Playing twins required Norton to go back and forth across the stage and the faux Pullman sleeper set-up, and Davis says that the actor started to struggle. He adds that Jackie Gleason noticed this and sent him back to the hospital with some money.

Norton circa 1940 (courtesy of Wikipedia)

The interesting thing is that Davis claims Gleason and Art Carney were left with 5 minutes to fill and improvised the famous bit about trying to sleep in the bunks while handcuffed. Now, I don't know about that, seeing as how some of the draft script excerpts published in the book do include bits of them trying to go to sleep. So maybe there is some truth to the story, but the "off the cuff" (no pun intended) creation of the whole scene may not be accurate.

By the way, you have to check out this episode's chapter in The Official Honeymooners Treasury. The excerpt from that early script draft is huge, and it's almost like reading a whole new episode.