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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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSJ5CVPjob00ieEz63Phf5RJXCqem4KZ6fQwpnbAFUMhrM0VRyZAdTou1PbV3td0KPRtmECK4BkLz7b8TZlRBbSNU85DZt9GKDoj9l0nMFNAOEwB5jATz586EmT8N2XzndrqD/s1600/Van-Dyke-Parks-and-Jackie-Gleason.png)
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.