The Jackie Gleason Show - Format

Format

The show typically opened with a monologue from Gleason, followed by sketch comedy involving Gleason and a number of regular performers (including Art Carney) and a musical interlude featuring the June Taylor Dancers. (Taylor was Gleason's sister-in-law; he married her sister Marilyn in 1975.)

Gleason portrayed a number of recurring characters, including:

• supercilious, mustachioed "playboy" millionaire Reginald Van Gleason III
• friendly Joe the Bartender
• loudmouthed braggart Charlie Bratten
• mild-mannered Fenwick Babbitt
• bombastic Rudy the Repairman
• a put-upon character known only as the Poor Soul, whom Gleason always performed in pantomime.

Gleason also occasionally portrayed Stanley R. Sogg, a late-night movie pitchman for Mother Fletcher's products ("No-Cal Chicken Fat"), similar to the later Art Fern character played by Johnny Carson in his "Tea Time Movie" skits on The Tonight Show.