Here and there I’ve read that Van Dyke Parks played the role of Tommy Manicotti in the television series The Honeymooners. He doesn’t appear in the “classic thirty-nine,” the episodes shown through years of reruns on New York’s WPIX-TV. And there’s no Honeymooners credit for him at the IMDb. But VDP does appear, as I just discovered, in at least one of the “lost episodes,” “The Hero” (February 19, 1955). He was all of twelve. The episode is at YouTube in five parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So yes, Van Dyke Parks is Tommy Manicotti. Correction: Tommy Borden. See below.
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January 3, 2018: The episode is back, at Dailymotion. Gone again. I’m glad I took a screenshot to guard against future disappearances.
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May 12, 2023: Thanks to the reader who shared the correct name in the comments. Van Dyke’s character is named Tommy Borden. The episode is back at YouTube. You can hear the teacher refer to Tommy Borden at 14:34.
No, it’s gone again.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Van Dyke Parks in
The Honeymooners
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Michael -- thanks for pointing this out! As both a Honeymoonie and a Brian Wilson fan, for years I thought stories of VDP being on The Honeymooners as Tommy Manicotti were apocryphal; after all, Honeymooners fans know that it was Ralph Roberts. A recent fan discussion, though, made me wonder if there was a chance that in one or more of the "lost 75" he would have been cast as Tommy before (or after) Ralph Roberts had played the role. Surprisingly, this episode has eluded me until I found your blog post via Google recently. Thanks!
Sean, hello. (I remember you from rec.music.beach-boys, or whatever the name was.) I noticed the discussion on the Smiley Smile board and was a little amused to see people taking my word about it. But it’s true. I cringed today when I saw that the clips had been removed — I never thought to download any. Suffice to say that it’s recognizably Van Dyke. He does a great job of talking like a Brooklyn kid and has some long scenes, just him and Gleason.
Great! Back in 1969, I saw him on in an old "Heidi" movie on TV. And, of course, there's also his much later "Twin Peaks" appearance.
Also (among others), The Swan, which airs on TCM now and then.
Tommy Borden was his name on Hero episode...
Right you are. IMDb has it wrong. The episode is back at YouTube. I just watched, and that’s his name. You can hear it at 14:34.
Thanks for sharing a correction. I’ve added it to the post.
And just submitted a correction to IMDb.
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