Rant #2,291: All You Need Is Love

Welcome to 2019!

The possibilities for this year to be a great one are all there for the taking, as is the possibility that this can be another stinker like 2018 was.

Of course, I am talking personally now, and your 2018 may have been a great one.

Mine reeked, so I am looking for something better in 2019.

So here is what I did yesterday to start the new year off the right way--

I did next to nothing, and I do mean next to nothing.

My son and I watched the ball drop together--the Mrs. was fast asleep by this time--and we both found a new wrestling show on TV--it is called Major League Wrestling and it is on the fledgling BeIn sports channel.

This is an absolutely weird station that is in both English and Spanish, and features a gaggle of off-center sports including soccer, auto racing, hockey, basketball and wrestling, all popular sports but shown here from alliances that I have never heard of.

Anyway, we watched that until 1 a.m., and then we both went to sleep.

Waking up later, I began to digitize some LPs that I have, purposely choosing some records that I have not listened to in literally a decade or two or maybe even more.

While I was doing that, I got back to my "new year's normal," if you will, by watching "The Honeymooners" on WPIX-TV Channel 11 in New York.

I do have a timeless love for this show. It is so low-tech, even for the time period it is set in--the mid-1950s--but the show is just so well done, even more than 60 years after it aired new.

The themes are universal, and all revolve around love. Jackie Gleason hit the nail on the head with this show, and his Ralph Kramden, the New York City bus driver, I think, is the greatest character ever created for TV.

Sure, he is a lummox in many instances, but he is a hard working guy who just wants the breaks to fall his way in his own world.

He is supported by Audrey Meadows as Alice, his wife, the redhead with a heart of gold. She shakes her head at her husband, but loves him dearly.

And Art Carney as Ed Norton, the plumber who is the Kramdens' neighbor and Ralph's best pal, is the perfect foil for Ralph, the main participant in the various episodes Ralph gets himself into and out of. And Carney, as elastic as he is, hits the nail on the head every time he appears on screen.

And then you have the forgotten Joyce Randolph as Trixie, Norton's wife. She is the most underwritten of all the characters on the show, only seeming to exist because Norton needed a wife. She is Alice's best friend, so her appearances provide the cement that holds the Nortons and the Kramdens together.

The show is so funny, and so real, even all these years later. I found myself laughing at the same things I probably laughed at when I was a kid and I watched this show, and as I ease into senior citizenry, I probably will still laugh at the same things.

A show that is perpetually funny, yet poignant, is a keeper, and when Ralph says to Alice, "Baby, you're the greatest!," and they embrace, well, that is how we all feel about our better halves, isn't it?

The show is truly about love, is grounded in love, and just about everything Ralph does reflects love, even when it revolves around bowling or the lodge he belongs to.

But mostly, it has to do with Ralph's true love for Alice, and Alice, through it all, truly loves Ralph.

I guess the Beatles said it a decade later with "All You Need Is Love," but that is essentially the ongoing theme of this show.

I am sure that some people might look at this show as sappy and old fashioned, but I think the show--and its theme--are as relevant today as it was during the Eisenhower era that this sitcom existed in.

Now, on to make 2019 the great year that it has the potential to be.

Just a word--I might not be writing this column tomorrow. I have some personal business that I must attend to, but the time is up in the air, so check back anyway, I might just be here, but if I am not, I will speak to you again on Friday.