The $99,000 Answer

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“The $99,000 Answer”
The Honeymooners episode

Ralph is told that the composer of "Swanee River" is in fact not Ed Norton.
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 18
Written by Leonard Stern and
Sydney Zelinka
Directed by Frank Satenstein
Production no. n/a
Original airdate January 28, 1956
Episode chronology
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"The Baby Sitter" "Ralph Kramden, Inc."
List of The Honeymooners episodes

The $99,000 Answer is the 18th episode of the TV series The Honeymooners. Ralph practices to be on a game show to win $99,000.

[edit] Plot

Ralph is a contestant on The $99,000 Answer, a game show similar to the real-life The $64,000 Question, in that you have to answer a continuing series of questions to win the jackpot. Ralph is clearly very nervous as he makes his way in front of the camera, and is only able to mutter out that he wants "Popular Music" as his category before the show ends.

Ralph now has one week to bone up on as many pieces of music as he possibly can. To help him out, he has Norton come down with a piano to his apartment and play sheet music to Ralph, where Ralph has to guess the name of the tune and give the correct information (such as who wrote the tune and when it was released). The only problem with Norton playing is that he always plays the opening bars to "Swanee River" before he launches into the music (tellingly, Ralph doesn't even know the name of the song, referring to it by the opening bars of the song).

Alice can't stand all the noise that they're making - they're up until past 2 in the morning, playing sheet music. Even Mrs. Manicotti from downstairs gets in the act, singing the first bars of an opera which Ralph correctly identifies. Alice tries to convince Ralph to just be happy with getting past the first few questions and walk away, but Ralph insists that he's going to go on to the $99,000 question and win it all.

When Ralph next comes on the quiz show, he's full of confidence, predicting that he'll be able to go all the way without having to stop to be asked if he wants to continue. His confidence immediately shatters, though, when the $100 question turns out to be the opening bars of Swanee River, and he's asked who wrote that song. Ralph, completely nervous, doesn't know what to do, and when asked again who wrote that song, mumbles, "Ed Norton?" The host replies that that's not the correct answer and an ashen Ralph is escorted off the stage, but not before desperately trying to reveal his music knowledge by reeling off names of songs based on the words the host uses.

[edit] Trivia

  • The plot was parodied in a cartoon short featuring Pinky and the Brain.
  • The show features notable quiz-show host Jay Jackson, the first nighttime emcee of Tic Tac Dough, as the emcee. Jackson's real-life show was one of those spawned during the quiz craze, and was later found to have been rigged, though Jackson has never been found aware of the rigging.
  • This episode also features a notable moment during the rehearsal by Kramden and Norton in Kramden's apartment, with Norton playing piano. The bus driver is stumped by a piano passage played by Norton before a neighbor knocks on the Kramden door. The passage is the Gleason-composed "Melancholy Serenade," the theme of Gleason's variety show, from which the Honeymooners sketches emanated.