Overview: In 1977, Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney and Jane Kean reunited for the second of four hour-long specials representing the final performances of their classic Honeymooners characters.

Ralph enlists Alice, Ed and Trixie to perform with him on stage after he agrees to supervise and star in the annual office holiday fund-raiser for a charity chosen by his boss’ wife. Ralph ends up rewriting and reimagining Charles Dickens’ dramatic classic A Christmas Carol with comedic results when Ed serves as the inexperienced director.

DVD Verdict: This 1977 Christmas Special has not been seen on TV since it first aired, let alone on home entertainment media, but now it is here, lovingly remastered for DVD by those good folks over at MPI Home Video.

I actually can recall first seeing it on TV live back 1977 and from what I can now recall, all these years later, can confidently say that I thoroughly enjoyed it! But my opinion would obviously have been tainted by the joy of seeing my favorite TV characters in a new story after a decade of being off-air.

Regardless, the confusion that went on as Norton directed a play put on by Ralph’s boss brought me to the floor laughing then and once again now via this DVD. Everyone seemed to be spot-on with their performances, as if, in fact, the series had never stopped!

Their characters were existing even though we were not able to watch them, if that makes sense. But now some 44 years later I wish I could see this special again on TV live as it once was, just to try and recapture some of that golden day stardust.

That said, to have it here on DVD, to now watch whenever I wish is a right royal blessing, of course. Indeed, I think I am safe in saying that the other three specials were a bit of a letdown (especially when viewed again on DVD all these years later).

I honestly don’t know quite why that is, but as I have been seeing some of the live 1950’s segments on DVD for the first time, these reunion specials no longer held that joy of something new.

Luckily, that cannot be said of this rather wonderful Honeymooners return with this righteous flashback to the good-old-days within the very funny A Christmas Carol. This is a Full Screen Presentation (1.33:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Bonus Footage of Trixie’s Honeymooners Memories featurette with Jane Kean and The Honeymooner’s Women’s Lib skit from 1973.