Episode list

Ralph gets chosen for a commercial for a candy bar company that sponsor an opera show for TV. He has some problems learning his lines, but the biggest problem comes when he develops a toothache before the big night. When he bites into the bar during the live broadcast he winds up writhing in pain all over the stage.

Ralph is fighting with Alice about her sisters up coming wedding. It seems Ralph has world series tickets for the day of the wedding. He and Ed cook up a plan to get the bride and groom to elope. The only way the groom to be will go through with it is if Ralph and Ed help with the event. They show up with the ladder and help the bride with all her baggage, and there's a lot. After the bride is outside and all the bags are down stairs, the bride and groom get in a fight and call off the elopement, and stomp off in a huff. Ralph and Ed throw all the bag back inside just in time for the bridge and groom to show back up to say they've made up and need the bags back. Ralph refuses and sends them on their way with what they have. Just as he's taking down the ladder a beat cop shows up and listens to their tale about the tickets and wedding. He proceeds to tell Ralph the Giants won the game earlier in the day (the 4th in a row) and had already won the Pennant. He also doesn't believe their story and arrests them, adding insult to injury.

Sketches: Reggie Van Gleason, the Poor Soul, Mother Fletcher; featuring Art Carney and Zamah Cunningham.

Ralph finds a love letter he wrote to Alice years ago and believes it was sent to her by another man.

Ralph spots an escaped criminal on his bus. He gets all the passengers off and helps the police arrest him. While the press is at his apartment taking his picture he finds out that the criminal has escaped. Ralph plans to hide but the police come to his apartment and talk him into acting as bait to recapture the criminal who has vowed to get even with him. After the police recapture the escapee in Ralph's apartment he becomes even more famous. Shortly there after one of the local political boss's comes to him and gets him to run for local assembly man.

Following domestic spats, Ed moves in with Ralph and Alice moves in with Trixie.

Ralph and Alice are contestants on Beat the Clock. Featuring Bud Collyer.

Alice's brother Frank comes over for dinner. Ralph and Frank have a history of problems and they spend the evening arguing. As the evening comes to a close Frank as for a loan of $500 since Frank already owes Ralph $500 Ralph throws him out. But Ralph decides that the inside information his brother-in-law had about a new highway going past a closed hotel was a good idea. He gets Norton involved and they buy the place. Needless to say the hotel is a dump. They actually manage to do a nice job of rehabilitating the hotel only to find out that the road is going to be an elevated highway.

Ralph is intrigued by the potential fame and fortune in writing popular songs. Before long, he and Norton pitch in (by raiding their spouses' Christmas Club funds) and buy a piano; Alice is furious. Desperately working through the night in Ralph's apartment, Ed and Ralph exhaust every lame premise for writing a hit song, until a chance series of disruptive noises sparks Ralph's imagination, and their new masterpiece begins to take shape. Within a day, they are auditioning their new opus "My Love Song to You" for a local publisher, who tells Ralph that he likes Ed's music, but refuses to publish the song with Ralph's amateurish lyrics. Ralph makes the ultimate artistic sacrifice by allowing the publisher to hire a lyricist to replace his own words. Ralph is thus thrust into an emotional funk, which reaches its height on the night Ed's new song makes its radio broadcast debut.

Title:

"Santa and the Bookies" (re-staging of episode from 12/12/53)

(no synopsis at this time)

Ralph sues Norton over a television set which Norton won in a raffle.

Ralph has bad news and good news. His house is without heat, but he's just been promoted to assistant to the assistant cashier. He catches a cold from his lack of heat in his apartment. And while working at the office Ed came by to see his new office while there Norton becomes interested in the safe and Ralph shows him how easy the door works. Once the door is closed Ralph can't put the money he counting back in the safe, so he's forced to take the money home. Over night the safe is broken into and the police and owners think he stole the money. So, when Ralph comes to work first thing in the morning and is arrested, until the police find the real thieves.

The Raccoon Convention is coming up, and Ralph hopes a hypnotist from the lodge can help him to get the necessary funds from Alice's secret stash.

Mr. Marshall tells Ralph he's crazy (in Ralph's words) and has a problem with his temper, having received complaints from passengers who have traveled on his bus. So he tells Ralph to see a psychiatrist to see if anything can be done about his temper. Ralph is very concerned that he will lose his job. Ralph is very upset about this, and talking with Norton doesn't help, but when he finally gets a chance to talk with Alice she reassures him seeing a psychiatrists doesn't have to be something to worry about. But Ralph takes Norton with him to the doctors office. The psychiatrist advice: Ralph needs to stop seeing Ed Norton. Ralph's doesn't have the nerve to tell Norton to his face so he decides to write him a letter. After several attempts at writing the letter Norton comes over and by chance sees part of a letter that he interprets as a suicide note. Norton decides to stay as close as possible to Ralph to keep him from hurting himself, and in the process nearly pushes him over the edge.

A boy (Tommy) in the building Ralph lives in idolizes him, and Ralph can't resist embellishing his abilities to the boy. After talking with Ralph Tommy goes home and writes a paper for school about his "hero" Ralph Kramden. After reading the paper the teacher writes to Ralph asking him to come in for a conference. She wants Ralph to set Tommy straight about his abilities. Tommy is having a lot of trouble at school because the other kids don't think Ralph can do all the things Tommy says he can, and Tommy has been in fights, sticking up for his hero. Tommy doesn't have a father so he plans on asking Ralph to be his pal in father son competition with the scouts. Ed tries to help Ralph get ready for the scout event without much success. Ralph decides to try to fake an injury. When Tommy comes over to get Ralph to go with him to the scouting event Ralph has his arm in a sling. Ralph finds himself feeling ashamed about lying to Tommy and tells him the truth. To Ralph's surprise Tommy doesn't care, he still looks up to him.

Ralph can't sleep because fighting going on between Ed and Trixie. Eventually Ed decides to leave and Trixie comes down talk with Alice. Alice gets Ralph to go out and find Ed. By the time Ralph gets back with Ed Trixie wants an apology. They start fighting again, and this time Ed comes down to Ralphs apartment. Alice gets Ralph to let Ed spend the night so the fighting will stop. But Ed's personal habits drive Ralph crazy. Ralph finally resorts to force and drags Ed back to his place to apologize. This leads to Ralph finding out the bad things Ed said about Ralph in the past. The episode ends with Ed and Trixie back in each others arms and Ralph with a banged up arm. Ralph's night ends with no sleep.

Despite not having much to show for their lives, Ralph and Alice decide that they want to adopt a baby. Naturally, Ralph is set on having a son and won't hear of anything else. With the Nortons' help, the Kramdens prepare for the new arrival. When Alice and Ralph go to the adoption agency, they are first shown a girl baby but Ralph insists that they bring a boy. While they wait, in one of Gleason's best moments as Ralph Kramden he reluctantly, then fully, bonds with the baby, then has a fit when they try to take her back. The Kramdens take the baby home and all seems well, but before the adoption is finalized, the birthmother changes her mind an wants her baby back. Alice is heartbroken and Ralph is just plain furious.

Ed finds an astrology booklet on the subway, and convinces Ralph to use the booklet and its predictions as a guide to making critical decisions--such as the exact day and time (down to the minute) that Ralph should ask his foreman, Joe Malone, for a raise. According to the booklet, the crucial hour is Friday night at 11:30 pm, which happens to fall during Joe's own engagement party.

Also complicating things is the booklet's warning that during this critical period, Ralph ("Taurus the Bull") is very susceptible to falling in love with a lady whose sign is Aquarius...a prospect that increases Ralph's angst as his big encounter with Joe Malone approaches.

The content of this episode can best be summarized as follows: NORTON + ASTROLOGY = HILARITY.

The Kramden's and the Norton's decide to share a bigger nicer apartment in Queens. It doesn't take long before they are at each others throats. After one especially bad fight they get thrown out and have to go back to their old places.

Ralph comes home in a foul mood. An inspector for the buss company comes on his buss and tells him he is getting to fat, an may not be able to continue driving a bus. He comes home and talks with Ed about it and between the two of them, after looking up the rules, they decide he's still under weight for his height. So, now that he reassured his weight won't be a problem he goes to a banquet that his lodge is putting on. At the lodge meeting he's in rare form and eats more then anyone at the meeting. And while at the meeting he finds out he's not as tall as he thought. It becomes obvious he has to go on a diet for the physical at the end of the week. By the end of week things are looking good, but Alice makes the mistake of letting a neighbor hide food for a birthday party at her house. Ralph is supposed to be at the gym until late that night.

With everything in the apartment breaking down, Ralph decides to exercise a clause in the lease and uses the rent money to fix up the place.

Alice and Trixie enter the contest Ralph and Norton hope to win.

Dear IMDB Staff--- PLEASE READ: Your "Edit Page" mechanism will not allow me to add the title to this episode. Submitting the info as a Synposis is the only way I can think of sending it.

This episode, broadcast on 5/21/55, is "Letter to the Boss (II)", a restaging of the same episode and script first performed on November 14, 1953. Please add this title to the current page.

NOW your goofy system won't allow me to submit the above info, because it's TOO SHORT for a synopsis (!)

OK.....SO HERE's MY SYNOPSIS ~

Ralph is devastated since he was ordered to "turn in his uniform" at the end of his daily bus route; convinced he has been fired from his job, he proceeds to write the nastiest letter possible to the president of the Gotham Bus Company ("you dirty BUM...."), with the ever-willing Ed Norton taking dictation for him. Just after Norton leaves to mail the letter, Ralph's co-worker Freddie Muller stops by to congratulate him on his new promotion; Ralph was ordered to "turn in his uniform" in preparation for his new position as an EXECUTIVE with the bus company!

Now the chase is on to find Norton and prevent him from mailing the scathing letter to Ralph's boss.