B & B vs. The Honeymooners

 

By Gidget


 



Baloo and Ralph Kramden:

 

Both have a penchant for dressing up in disguise. Both are loud, obnoxious, overweight, blowhards.  Both are blue-collar working stiffs.  Both have stormy relationships with the women in their lives.  Both have a weakness for get-rich-quick schemes and chase the impossible dream.  But despite all these character flaws, both have hearts of gold and deeply care about their friends.

 

                                                                                                               

                                                                       

Ralph Kramden

Baloo

                                                                                                                                   

FAT, as Alice would delicately put it

Well-upholstered, as he would delicately put it

Bus driver

Pilot

Wears a bus driver’s cap

Wears a flight cap

Too big for his pants --- poor Alice has to keep letting them out

Doesn’t wear pants

Tries to get enough money to get out of the Brooklyn slums

Tries to get enough money to buy the Duck from Rebecca

Tells Alice, “Baby, you’re the greatest.”

Thinks he’s the greatest pilot in the world --- and has a trophy to prove it

Tries to charm the blonde wife (Mrs. Wedemeyer) of his boss to get a raise

Is charmed by blonde movie queen Kitten Kaboodle and gets a raise (slaps herself)

Best friend:  Ed Norton, who works in the sewers

Best Friend:  Louie, who smells like the sewers

So-called king of his castle

So-called Baron of Bruinvald

Get-rich-quick schemes:

Glow-in-the-dark shoe polish, game shows (The $64,000 Question)

Get-rich-quick schemes:

Treasure hunts, pizza delivery service by plane, claiming reward for returning Moby Dimple the whale to Seymore’s Seaquarium

Faked being a spaceman

Faked a Martian invasion

Enjoys going to the fights

Knows how to box

Adores his ‘baby’ = Alice

Adores his ‘baby’ = the Sea Duck

Encountered dangerous bank robbers

Encountered Babyface Half-Nelson and his gang

Constantly threatens to send Alice ‘to the moon’

Claimed that he could see the moon (when pretending to fly to Mars)

“I got a BIG mouth!”

“…Whatever’s okay with the big guy (his stomach) is all right by me.”

Logo:  Jackie Gleason’s face is superimposed on the moon

Logo:  Baloo gives the ‘thumb’s up’ against a backdrop with a plane

 

 

Rebecca Cunningham and Alice Kramden:

Both are practical, although Alice is more so.  Both handle the money in their specific domains.  Both are loud, demanding and not creampuffs.  Yet, despite all this, they are both hopeless romantics.  Both enjoy male attention and appreciate getting flowers once in a while.

                                                                                   

Alice Kramden

Rebecca Cunningham

           

Doesn’t own a phone (or most appliances, for that matter)

Constantly on the phone

Gives Ralph an allowance (which he promptly blows on get-rich-quick schemes

Pays Baloo a salary (which he promptly blows on get-rich-quick schemes and the turtle toss

Neat, stiff 50s ‘do

Neat, rigid 40s ‘do

Doesn’t work outside the home (except in a couple of eps)

Always working – both in and outside the home

Has a great sex life (after a heated verbal battle with Ralph first)

Had sex (proof:  Molly)

Charmed by the mambo teacher (who shows her and best friend Trixie some moves)

Charmed by Covington (who took her dancing once)

Likes Ralph’s best friend Ed Norton – and often defends him against Ralph’s put-downs

Can’t stand having Baloo’s best friend Louie around

Patient, hard-working and world-weary

Impatient, hard-working and rather naďve

Used to call Ralph ‘Buttercup’ before they were married

Once called Baloo ‘Butterball’ (War of the Weirds)

Almost adopted a baby girl they would have called ‘Ralphina’

Has a daughter

 

 

Ed Norton and Wildcat are sort of alike.  Easy-going, a little dense, work with their hands, have relationships with sweet women (Clem and Trixie)

 

Back to Spin-a-Tale