Was The Honeymooners the first sloveny, blue collar husband, attractive wife comedy?
No, but you’re close. Presuming you’re talking about television comedy, it appears the founding text there is The Life of Riley, which premiered on NBC in 1949 (two years before the first Honeymooners sketches on Calavade of Stars). It also starred Jackie Gleason, as it happens, as a bumbling airplane riveter in suburban L.A trying to deal with his demanding family and tricky neighbors. Most episodes are available on the Internet Archive — here’s the first: http://www.archive.org/details/S… . NBC’s Life of Riley, like most television of the time, was based on a radio series; the radio Life of Riley aired on ABC and then NBC radio from 1946-1951, starring William Bendix. The radio program outlived the TV version, which was poorly received and cancelled after one season. (There was a later TV version of Life of Riley, this one starring the same William Bendix, that aired 1953-1958; it is widely credited as inspiring much of the genre, and in particular you can clearly see Bendix’s inf
