The 2012 World Nine-Ball Champion Darren Appleton once said in an interview, “It’s important to try and intimidate your opponent…let him know who’s boss.”  A scan of billiards movies would confirm Appleton’s remark.   Consider the intimidating gaze of “Cue Ball” Carl Bridgers, as he sucks on chicken feet, in Shooting Gallery, or the menacing stare of Third Eye Ryu, the junkie three-cushion billiards player, from Wandering Ginza Butterfly.

But, for a particular bus driver named Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), intimidation on the billiards table comes in the form of “my friend Harvey.”   That’s the premise of “The Bensonhurst Bomber,” one of the great billiards TV episodes of all time, from the classic sitcom The Honeymooners.   The entire episode can be viewed here.

In this 1956 episode, Kramden and his pal Ed Norton (Art Carney) begin to play pool on what seems to be an unoccupied billiards table.  The opening dialogue includes Norton calling one of the best and most hilarious combinations in billiards TV history:

“I will knock the 8 and the 15 ball into the corner pocket there, but before the 8 ball goes into the corner pocket, it will kiss off the 3 there, causing the 9 ball to drop into this here side pocket.  Before the 9 ball drops into that pocket, it will hit there, caro-o-o-m off the cushion there, come bouncing into these balls here, which will cause a chain reaction, making all of the balls go into the corner pockets, with the exception of the number 4 ball, which will end up there on my upper left in that corner.”

They’re then approached by a mousey, nasal-voiced man, who claims he was already using the table.  The corpulent Kramden, amused and annoyed, brushes off the man.  But, the man insists that unless he gets the table, he will get “[his] friend Harvey.”  This naturally produces ridicule, until the man returns with Harvey, who is a foot taller than Kramden and looks like he regularly spars with wild moose.  Kramden’s apologies get him nowhere, and Norton’s foot-in-mouth commentary leads to Harvey challenging Kramden to a “fight at Kelsey’s gym.”

The remainder of the episode occurs outside of the pool hall.  Kramden initially proposes that he flee town, but Norton reminds him that he’s committed to fighting Harvey.  Eventually, Norton concocts a scheme, which goes both horribly right and oh-so-wrong, to make Harvey think Kramden is, in fact, a dangerous fighter.

“The Bensonhurst Bomber” is great comedic television, but I was particularly mesmerized by the opening pool scene for two reasons.  First, watching the physicality of Art Carney as he lined up to take his shots reminded me so much of the billiards scene from 1934 film Six of a Kind in which W.C. Fields, as Honest John, prepares to play pool.  And, of course, second, watching Jackie Gleason, immaculately dressed and perfectly holding a cue stick in a scene that is a harbinger of his future role as Minnesota Fats in the 1961 billiards classic The Hustler.  It made me want to yell out, “Fat Man, you shoot a great game of pool.”

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A special thank-you to my friend and relative-in-law Tom Osterman, who as soon as he learned about my blog, said to me, “You’ve watched that great Honeymooners billiards episode, right?”  Now I have, Tom.