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Female friendships have been at the center of some of television’s most memorable and iconic shows — from comedy highs to dramatic lows. Here are TV’s Top 10 BFFs.MEGALaverne and Shirley on 'Laverne & Shirley'mega

Schlemiel! Schlimazel! They might be polar opposites, but as roommates and co-workers at Milwaukee’s fictional Shotz Brewery, Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) constantly lifted each other’s spirits as they got in and out of trouble!

Ethel and Lucy on 'I Love Lucy'Prime Video/YouTube

In one of the most legendary sitcoms in TV history, Lucille Ball as Lucy and Vivian Vance as Bff Ethel made audiences howl with laughter over their hilarious antics.

Mary and Rhoda on 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'mega

The classic opposites attract couple of polite local news producer Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) and her brash best friend and upstairs neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) became a...

Bob Newhart, James Earl Jones, Peter Marshall, Shannen Doherty, and more luminaries were honored during the heartfelt In Memoriam segment led by Jelly Roll at Sunday’s Emmy Awards. Jimmy Kimmel then hit the stage to crack a few jokes in honor of Newhart’s deadpan humor.

The country star started his heartstring-tugging performance with “I Am Not Okay,” his single about his struggles with mental health, by sharing a sweet message. “I believe that music is therapeutic. I believe that music can heal. I also believe that storytelling is just as cathartic,...

Producers for the 76th annual Emmy Awards have been editing the special “In Memoriam” segment to be featured on Sunday’s ABC ceremony. Since the most recent ceremony was delayed until mid-January, there are only eight months of TV legends who have died instead of the typical 12 months.

We have assembled a list of people below who might be selected. Members of the academy’s TV Hall of Fame are host and producer Phil Donahue, anchor and journalist Robert MacNeil, lighting designer Bill Klages and actor and comedian Bob Newhart. Some of the previous Emmy winners and nominees include previous academy president Leo Chaloukian, actor Bill Cobbs, actor Dabney Coleman, actress Shelley Duvall, actor and writer Joe Flaherty, director Jerry Foley, actor Louis Gossett Jr., actor Bill Hayes, actor James Earl Jones, host Peter Marshall, actor and comedian Martin Mull, actress Gena Rowlands, actor James B. Sikking, actor Donald Sutherland and actor Carl Weathers.

Movie, TV and music fans are remembering notable figures who have died since the start of 2024. “Beverly Hills 90210” star Shannen Doherty, “Bob Newhart Show” star Bob Newhart, “An Officer and a Gentleman” Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr., “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Richard Lewis, “Starsky and Hutch” star David Soul and “Honeymooners” star Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie, are among celebrities from the world of television who have died.

In film, cinephiles are remembering actor Donald Sutherland, producer Roger Corman, “Chinatown” screenwriter Robert Towne, “Moonstruck” director Norman Jewison, “Harry Potter” star Maggie Smith and “The Shining” star Shelley Duvall.

Last year, the entertainment community said goodbye to celebrities including musicians Jimmy Buffett, Shane McGowan, Robbie Robertson and David Crosby, actors Andre Braugher and Matthew Perry, writer-producer Norman Lear and director William Friedkin.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph owned 2024, clinching the first award of the night at the 96th annual Academy Awards. She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mary Lamb in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb in The Holdovers

Randolph’s win wasn’t entirely unexpected, given her clean sweep throughout awards season. She had already secured the Best Supporting Actress accolade at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, and Critic’s Choice Award earlier this year.

During her speech after receiving an Oscar, the actress became candid about her challenges. She also made a revelation, stating that acting was never part of her plan, but here she is.

Oscar Winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph Reveals Acting Was Never Her Plan

Da’Vine Joy Randolph in a still from The Holdovers

After tearfully receiving her first Academy Award, Da’Vine Joy Randolph delivered...

Oppenheimer won the marquee Cast in a Motion Picture prize as the 30th annual SAG Awards were presented Saturday, and its star Cillian Murphy might have wrestled Oscar front-runner status away from Paul Giamatti by taking the trophy for Male Actor in a Leading Role.

Lily Gladstone was cemented as the favorite for the Best Actress Oscar, winning Female Actor in a Leading Role for Killers of the Flower Moon at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in a ceremony streaming live on Netflix for the first time.

Related: Lily Gladstone Calls For Compassion In Emotional Speech After Historic SAG Awards Win

Robert Downey Jr won the Male Actor in a Supporting Role for Oppenheimer in a mini-upset. But the evening’s first film award wasn’t much of a surprise as Da’vine Joy Randolph continued her awards-season dominance with a Supporting win for The Holdovers.

Related: “Your Solidarity Ignited Workers Around The World,...

Joyce Randolph, the last living member of The Honeymooners, has died. Randolph, who portrayed Trixie Norton in all 39 original episodes of The Honeymooners, was 99. Her death was announced on Jan. 14 by her son, Randolph Charles.

Joyce Randolph was a New York City icon

Born in Detroit in October 1924, Randolph got her start in acting when she landed a part with a touring theater company. By 1943, she had moved to New York City, intent on becoming a stage actor. She appeared in several stage productions before landing roles on TV. Randolph’s big break came on The Jackie Gleason Show, but she is best known for her part on The Honeymooners. After the series ended in 1956, Randolph appeared sporadically in TV and films but seemed focused on other endeavors.

Joyce Randolph | Walter McBride/WireImage

She married her husband, Richard Charles, in 1955. They welcomed one child in 1960. Randolph and Charles remained married...

Joyce Randolph, the last of the surviving cast members of The Honeymooners, has died. Her son confirmed her death, of natural causes, at her Manhattan home on Saturday night to the Associated Press. She was 99.

From 1955 to 1956, over what is known as The Honeymooners’ “Classic 39” episodes, Randolph starred as Trixie Norton, the patient, supportive wife to doltish sewer worker Ed Norton, played by Art Carney. Together as the Nortons, they were the upstairs neighbors and de facto best friends to loudmouthed bus driver Ralph Kramden and his long-suffering wife Alice,...

Have you ever wondered what the cast of classic TV shows made? While they certainly didn’t earn what current-day stars are earning, plenty of big contracts floated around during the golden age of television. The cast of The Honeymooners was paid pretty well when all things are considered, but there were some pretty big salary discrepancies on the set. So, how much are they making, and what would that look like in today’s money?

Jackie Gleason made the most out of the cast, followed by Art Carney

Jackie Gleason, the famed actor best known for portraying Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, was the creative mastermind behind the series. Because he came onto the show as the resident creative with the name recognition to draw a crowd, he understandably made much more than anyone else. According to several sources, Jackie Gleason’s CBS contract was worth $11 million, but that wasn’t his money,...

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on the classic sitcom “The Honeymooners,” and was the last surviving member of the cast, died Saturday in New York City. She was 99.

Randolph was in hospice care at the time of her death and died of natural causes, her son, Randy, told TMZ.

Randolph’s character was married to Art Carney’s Ed Norton on “The Honeymooners.” They were the neighbors of Ralph and Alice Kramden, played by Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows.

Born Joyce Sirola to a Finnish American family in Detroit, she got her start in show business when she joined a touring production of “Stage Door” while working at a department store, then moved to New York where she acted in theater and on television in shows such as “Buck Rogers.”

Gleason noticed her in a commercial and cast her in “The Honeymooners” in 1951. It first appeared as a sketch...

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on the television classic The Honeymooners, died Saturday at her home in New York City, according to multiple reports. She was in hospice care at the time of her death, which was from natural causes.

Randolph played the wife of sewer worker Ed Norton, played by Art Carney. The couple were the best friends and neighbors of Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), and Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows).

Randolph was tabbed for the role after Gleason saw her on a chewing gum commercial.

Trixie was married to a sewer worker, and I guess she considered herself a little better than the character of Ed Norton,” Randolph said in a 1999 interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “But she was just a housewife — she and Alice didn’t have jobs. They stayed home all the time, which was kind of amazing, but the husbands didn’t want them to work.

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie, the wife of Art Carney’s goofy sewer worker Ed Norton, on the classic sitcom The Honeymooners, has died. She was 99.

Randolph, the last surviving member of the famous foursome that also included the stars Jackie Gleason (as Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden) and Audrey Meadows (as Ralph’s level-headed wife, Alice), died Saturday at her home in New York, her son, Randy, told TMZ.

Gleason spotted Randolph doing a commercial for Clorets and hired her to play Trixie on his DuMont network variety show Cavalcade of Stars, which premiered in 1951 and featured the Kramdens and the Nortons — neighbors in a rundown Bensonhurst apartment building — in a recurring skit.

Randolph continued on CBS’ The Jackie Gleason Show and then on The Honeymooners when it was spun off in 1955-56 as a half-hour sitcom recorded in front of a live audience. That season is known for...

Joyce Randolph has sadly passed away.

The last surviving cast member of The Honeymooners died Saturday (January 13) at the age of 99 at her home in New York City due to natural causes, her son confirmed to TMZ on Sunday (January 14).

She famously played the role of Trixie Norton, the wife of Art Carney’s Ed Norton. The sitcom ran from 1955 to 1956 on CBS, following Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and his wife Alice (Audrey Meadows), and Trixie and Ed.

Keep reading to find out more…

The character originated on The Jackie Gleason Show in 1952, which she appeared on until 1957.

The sitcom also got a 2005 film adaptation starring Cedric the Entertainer, Gabrielle Union, Mike Epps and Regina Hall. Just recently in 2022, CBS announced it was developing a female-driven “reimagining” of the comedy series, via TVLine.

She would also appear on shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Plainclothesman, The Doctors and the Nurses...

Joyce Randolph, best known for starring as Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners, has died at the age of 99. The actress passed away on January 13 in her home in New York City of natural causes, her son, Randolph Richard Charles, told TMZ. She had reportedly been in hospice care. Randolph played Trixie Norton, the loyal, strong-willed and bossy housewife of Ed Norton (Art Carney) on The Honeymooners, a working-class comedy that ran one season from 1955 to 1956. She did not appear in every episode (while her co-stars did) but brought a hilarious realism to her character that made her memorable to audiences even when she wasn’t onscreen. She was the last surviving cast member of The Honeymooners — Jackie Gleason passed away in 1987, Audrey Meadows in 1996, and Carney in 2003 — and remained one of the most iconic actresses from the Golden Age of television. Randolph was born Joyce Sirola on October 21, 1924 in Detroit,...

Joyce Randolph, the last surviving cast member of The Honeymooners, has died. She was 99.

Randolph passed away Saturday at her New York City of natural causes, Randolph’s son confirmed to TMZ Sunday.

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On The Honeymooners, Randolph played Trixie Norton, the wife of Art Carney’s Ed Norton. The sitcom, which ran from 1955 to 1956 on CBS, followed the day-to-day life...

In the grand scheme of television history, The Honeymooners didn’t air for terribly long. The show was filmed over a single calendar year. Still, the iconic sitcom has a cult following and has provided the world with plenty of pop culture references. Fans of the series might have noticed that the cast often wore the same wardrobe, but not many people realize one staple wardrobe piece came from an actor’s personal collection. Art Carney portrayed Ed Norton in The Honeymooners and provided the character’s iconic porkpie hat.

Jackie Gleason (1916 – 1987), Art Carney (1918 – 2003), Audrey Meadows (1922 – 1996), and Joyce Randolph | CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images Related

Lucille Ball’s Palm Springs Home Was Built on a Lot That Desi Arnaz Won in a Poker Game By a Man Who Wouldn’t Be Allowed in the Neighborhood

Norton’s ‘The Honeymooners’ ensemble is iconic

Art Carney’s wardrobe for The Honeymooners was very specific.

A female-led reboot of the classic sitcom “The Honeymooners,” produced by Damon Wayans Jr., is in the works at CBS.

Written by “Black-ish” and “Mixed-ish” alum Lindsey Shockley, “The Honeymooners” is described as a bold, female-fronted reimagining of the iconic working-class comedy centered around new wife, Ruth, and her husband, Alex, who are determined to have a marriage where they are true equals in every way. But what happens when a marriage has two heads of household? Are they co-heads? Or no head at all?

The multi-cam project — currently in the development stage — hails from CBS Studios, and Wayans Jr. and Kameron Tarlow’s Two Shakes Entertainment, which has a pact with CBS Studios.

The reboot does not yet have cast members attached to it.

The original “The Honeymooners” ran from 1955 to 1956 on CBS. The sitcom was created by and starred Jackie Gleason, and was based on a recurring comedy...

Prepare to shake your head as steadily reading this as I am while typing it.

CBS is (once again) developing a “reimagining” of The Honeymooners, the classic TV comedy that in October 1955 was spun off from The Jackie Gleason Show and starred Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney and Joyce Randolph.

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Executive-produced by Damon Wayans Jr. and Kameron Tarlow (through their...

Exclusive: A classic blue-collar comedy title from the CBS library is plotting a return. The network is developing The Honeymooners, a reimagining of the 1950s sitcom created by and starring Jackie Gleason. The multi-camera project with a feminist twist hails from Damon Wayans Jr. and Kameron Tarlow’s Two Shakes Entertainment and CBS Studios where the company has been based.

Written by Lindsey Shockley (Mixed-ish) and to be directed by Kelly Park (Country Comfort), The Honeymooners is described as a bold, female-driven reboot of the iconic working-class comedy centered around new wife Ruth and her husband Alex who are determined to have a marriage where they are true equals in every way. But what happens when a marriage has two heads of the household? Are they co-heads? Or no head at all?

Shockley and Park executive produce with Two Shakes Entertainment’s Wayans Jr. and Tarlow.

The original Honeymooners was...

Back in 1955, Jackie Gleason turned his popular "The Honeymooners" sketch, which originated on his variety show, into a regular 30-minute sitcom called, you guessed it, The Honeymooners. The idea was that he and co-stars Art Carney, Audrey Meadows and Joyce Randolph would shoot 78 episodes in the first two seasons, with an option for a third season of 39 more. But following that first year, Jackie took the unexpected — and pretty much unprecedented at the time — move to cancel his own show. Believing that those episodes, collectively known now as "The Classic 39," was as good as the show could be, he decided to return to his variety show format, folding Ralph Kramden, Ed Norton and their wives back into it. "Jackie really marched to his own beat," offers his stepson, Craig Horwich, who serves as the head of Jackie Gleason Enterprises in an exclusive interview. "Not in any sense of ignorance or...

Back in 1950s and '60s television, you really never saw a family struggling to get by. But then came The Honeymooners. Think about it: I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, Leave It to Beaver, My Three Sons — usually there was domestic bliss for the most part. But that wasn't the case with the Classic TV series that starred Jackie Gleason as bus driver Ralph Kramden, Audrey Meadows as his long-suffering wife, Alice; Art Carney as dim-witted but lovable best friend and sidekick, Ed Norton; and the last living member of The Honeymooners Joyce Randolph as his wife, Trixie. The two couples lived in a Bensonhurst apartment in Brooklyn, New York, struggling to get by. And it was exactly that struggle, and wanting to break free of it, that propelled much of the comedy. Ralph was the get-rich-quick scheming, short-tempered, soft-hearted guy who was always striving for greatness, but...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Since my all-time favorite TV series is  "The Honeymooners", the legendary sitcom that was originally broadcast in 1950s, one might think I would have been overjoyed at the prospect of seeing the show's new incarnation as a big-budget musical production that just premiered at the prestigious Papermill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, a venue so revered that it was honored with a special Tony award. In reality, I had considerable trepidation about seeing the show. The characters in the TV series- bus driver Ralph Kramden, his devoted but long-suffering wife Alice and their best friends, sewer worker Ed Norton and his wife Trixie- have been ingrained in the minds of every American baby boomer. In fact, the re-runs have rarely left the New York airwaves even sixty years after their original airings and the four main cast members- Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney and Joyce Randolph...

CBS Mulls Reboot of The Honeymooners TV ShowOne of these days... one of these days.... Variety reports CBS is considering a reboot of The Honeymooners TV show. Bob Kushell will write the pilot script for CBS Television Studios. He will also executive produce with Carl Beverly, Sarah Timberman, Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, and Jeff Greenstein.The original Honeymooners began as a sketch on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars, from 1951. The show moved to CBS in 1952 as The Jackie Gleason Show. The Honeymooners premiered on CBS as a half-hour TV series in October of '55 and ran until it was cancelled after 39 episodes, in September of '56. Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph starred.Read More…...

Like it or not, CBS is taking a stab at recreating one of its most beloved sitcoms of all time.

The network is currently in the midst of developing a new take on The Honeymooners, THR.com reports.

RelatedFoxy Brown Getting a TV Reboot From Hulu, With Meagan Good to Star

The reboot, being helmed by The Muppets‘ Bob Kushell, would once again center on two couples who double as best friends and neighbors — only this time, one of the couples remarries after divorcing each other four years prior. (Perhaps Ralph and Alice separated after he threatened to send...

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press

Jake Coyle, Associated Press

New York (AP) - Elaine Stritch, the brash theater performer whose gravelly, gin-laced voice and impeccable comic timing made her a Broadway legend, has died. She was 89.

Joseph Rosenthal, Stritch's longtime attorney, said the actress died Thursday of natural causes at her home in Birmingham, Michigan.

Although Stritch appeared in movies and on television, garnering three Emmys and finding new fans as Alec Baldwin's unforgiving mother on "30 Rock," she was best known for her stage work, particularly in her candid one-woman memoir, "Elaine Stritch: At Liberty," and in the Stephen Sondheim musical "Company."

A tart-tongued monument to New York show business endurance, Stritch worked well into her late 80s, most recently as Madame Armfeldt in a revival of Sondheim's musical "A Little Night Music." She replaced Angela Lansbury in 2010 to critical acclaim.

In 2013, Stritch - whose signature "no pants" style...

One of the most commonly accepted clichés of American television is the family sitcom with the schlubby husband and gorgeous wife. It’s so pervasive that a quick Google search brings up this entry on the topic from TvTropes.org, which features 3,700+ words devoted to live action TV examples alone. Most TV fans look down on this conceit and series that use it, and yes, this sitcom stereotype has a basis in truth, but when did the trend start, and just how common is it? More interestingly, is there a connection between this aspect of a show and its quality or cultural significance? Here are 12 of the best and most influential American network sitcoms, along with a look at how each series plays into, subverts, or ignores the regular Joe/hot wife cliché.

I Love Lucy

1951-1957

CBS

I Love Lucy centers on main couple Lucy and Ricky (Lucille Ball...

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on the classic TV series The Honeymooners, will be appearing at a charitable fund raiser at the Episcopal Actors Guild in New York City on the evening of October 20. Ms. Randolph will be interviewed on stage by Cinema Retro Editor-in-Chief Lee Pfeiffer who will discuss her experiences working with such legendary co-stars as Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows and Art Carney. The event coincides with Mpi's new release of a fabulous boxed set of "lost" episodes from the series that contains an incredible number of previously unseen bonus extras. Mpi Home Video will be donating boxed sets as raffle prizes and Ms. Randolph will autograph these for the winners.

Only a small number of tickets to this event remain. Click here for more information.

Click here to order the Lost Episodes set from Amazon and save!

Everything's half-baked in this movie about a noble homeless man. Starring Ernie Hudson as the stoic lead with many friends and fellow vagabonds to keep track of, "Everything's Jake" bowed at the Santa Barbara (Calif.) International Film Festival and played like gangbusters with many in the audience.

Prospects are bleak for a big theatrical happening around the debut film of director Matthew Miele, who co-wrote and co-produced the low-budget indie with Christopher Fetchko. It's up-front and always apparent mission to bring cheer to general audiences will earn the approval of some critics and audiences, but it's likely to find its biggest success on cable.

Jake (Hudson) lives on the streets of New York by choice. In the opening, he calls the entire city his home, and with the help of the first of several montages to popular music, the viewer is meant to be swept along in the grubby romanticism of the concept. "Everyone stares, but nobody cares" is the discouraging reality Jake has to deal with, but with a support network and comfortably residing at the "bottom of it all," he's arguably the Happiest Miserable.

He's even more psyched when a down-and-out former professor, Cameron (Graeme Malcolm), reluctantly becomes his friend and teaches Jake a better way to play the bongos. In between trips to the library, where he fends off the grouchy, fey assistant (Stephen Furst) and chats up the pushover-for-a-bookworm librarian (Debbie Allen), Jake plays for money on the subway and sidewalks.

With a stash of cash kept safe by one of his many intimates who have jobs and homes -- including security guards, priests, taxi drivers -- Jake makes the rounds, reads the classics, plays chess, dines on garbage and scams a little money from dog walkers by picking up fresh poop and then demanding a fee to dispose of it.

To summarize the further adventures of Jake, once he's shown "Tarzan" Cameron -- who sleeps in a tree in the park -- the ropes and they've dreamed about having a "homeless parade," even getting a ridiculously restrictive permit, things get complicated. A major plot twist sends the film off on an unconvincing tangent that seriously disrupts the lead's idyllic life and overtaxes the filmmakers' abilities to make us see why this is so horrible.

By treading boldly into a milieu that resists glamorizing -- peopling it with Hollywood actors working out simplistic conflicts, hoping that excessively literal and chatty voice-overs will numb the viewer into accepting the watered-down version of life on the streets, and using famous tunes by Bob Dylan and others -- Miele and Fetchko run roughshod over the material and leave credibility behind in the first few moments.

Singer Lou Rawls has a couple of scenes as a concerned Hot Dog vender. Lou Myers (NBC's "A Different world") plays one of Jake's best but expendable friends. Willis Burks II as the lead's chess partner fares better. Robin Givens shows up near the end as a conscienceless publisher. Doug E. Doug, Joyce Randolph and Phyllis Diller all make brief and forgettable appearances.

EVERYTHING'S JAKE

Blackjack Entertainment

A Christopher Fetchko production in association

with Boz Prods., Mirador Pictures, mad.house inc.

Director:Matthew Miele

Screenwriters-producers:Matthew Miele, Christopher Fetchko

Executive producer:Bo Zenga

Director of photography:Anthony Jannelli

Production designer:John Henry

Editor:Noelle Webb

Costume designer:Martha Gretsch

Casting:Judy Keller

Color/stereo

Cast:

Jake:Ernie Hudson

Cameron:Graeme Malcolm

Librarian:Debbie Allen

Abe:Lou Myers

Publisher:Robin Givens

Colonel:Willis Burks II

Assistant librarian:Stephen Furst

Running time -- 91 minutes

No MPAA rating...