Synopsis

Jackie Gleason plays a dual role, as bus driver Ralph Kramden and Ralph's look-alike, a notorious gangster boss. The gangster's henchmen hire the unwitting Ralph as an "insurance executive," as part of a scheme to allow their boss to flee the country with his moll -- and to avoid assassination at the hands of his rivals. Only after Ralph has been ensconced in the boss' lavish hotel room does he realize that he's been set up to be bumped off. When originally broadcast live on the April 17, 1954, edition of The Jackie Gleason Show, Stand-In for Murder" rolled merrily along for 40 minutes and 37 seconds -- then abruptly ended without wrapping up the plot line. It seems that the audience laughed so hard at the sketch that it ran overtime, forcing CBS to cut away to its local affiliates before the story had been resolved. The following week, a nervous-looking Gleason tried to explain the story's outcome to his audience, but succeeded only in making things even more confused. The "full" version of the sketch, which has been released to home video, ends in mid-scene with a quickie cut-in of the Jackie Gleason Show logo, followed by the CBS "eye" trademark. The 25-minute abbreviated version, prepared for the syndicated Honeymooners package, fades out just as Ralph Kramden realizes that he's been duped. The "complete" sketch remained unshown until it was restaged on November 18, 1967, in color and with songs added, as an episode of Gleason's Miami-based variety series.

Stand-in for Murder

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