The Honeymooners – “Mama Loves Mambo”

Who can forget the hilarious Honeymooners episode when Alice wants to learns how to do a dance known as The Mambo!

As any fan of the show will know, Alice Kramden is a stay-at-home housewife who quite frankly does not have a whole lot do in their tiny apartment. Her husband Ralph, however, is quite content being the breadwinner of the family and frowns on Alice having any outside interests or hobbies.

The trouble begins when a new neighbor by the name Carlos Sanchez moves into the building. Carlos just happens to be a dance instructor! This is the perfect opportunity for our bored housewife Alice and her friends, the older Mrs Manicotti (who lives upstairs), her best friend Trixie Norton, and two other neighbors to try something new and fun.

You can only imagine Ralph’s surprise when he returns home after a long day at work (driving his bus) to find the handsome dance instructor Carlos playing loud Mambo music and dancing with the ladies!

The Confrontation

When Ralph finally confronts Carlos about the dance shenanigans in an obnoxiously rude way, Carlos reminds him of just how precious Alice is and how he should show her more kindness and understanding.
After Carlos’s speech, Ralph’s heart softens and he agrees that he’s been a dope. All is forgiven and in one of the greatest scenes in TV history, Carlos turns on the music and now all the husbands are enjoying The Mambo!

Fun Fact: Art Carney’s line in the script when introducing himself to Carlos was “Call me Edward”. Art improvised the line and said “Call me Eduardo”!

Cast for “Mama Loves Mambo”:

Jackie Gleason – Ralph Kramden
Art Carney – Ed Norton
Joyce Randolph – Trixie Norton
Audrey Meadows – Alice Kramden
Zamah Cunningham – Mrs Manicotti
Charles Korvin – Carlos Sanchez
Louis Sorin – Mr Manicotti
Ann Seymour – Neighbor

Actor Charles Korvin (Carlos Sanchez) lied to Honeymooners casting when he told them he was an experienced dancer. It was discovered at rehearsal that Korvin didn’t have a clue how to dance, and they didn’t have enough time to hire an actor that could dance, so they were stuck with him. If you watch him dancing in that episode, it’s horrendous! Norton has the best moves of all of them, except for maybe Angelina!

Directed by Frank Satenstein

Written by Marvin Marx, Walter Stone and Jackie Gleason

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