The King of Queens was partly inspired by the classic television sitcom The Honeymooners.
Smithwick started her career as the assistant to the Producer on The Honeymooners feature film for Paramount Pictures.
Before he got that job, Jackson appeared in one of the best-loved among the so-called "original 39" episodes of The Honeymooners.
Kaplan says the highlight was working with Jackie Gleason; despite his drinking problem, Kaplan says he could sober up Gleason by doing old routines from The Honeymooners and getting laughs from the crew.
Ralph, designed afterwards, was named after Alice's husband on The Honeymooners.
The south side of the building has a Trompe-l'œil of "The Honeymooners" – depicting two characters from the television show The Honeymooners – and a Pacific Northwest temperate rainforest mural painted by Robert Scott Dobie, a Vancouver Island-born artist.
The main protagonist, a hungry dog (whose voice resembles Art Carney's portrayal of Ed Norton from The Honeymooners) is humming the theme song of Tom and Jerry.
Bugs Bunny boards the Chattanooga Choo Choo and finds two hobos who look and act like Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton, from "The Honeymooners" TV show, who want to eat Bugs after being hungry for days.
Randolph is the last surviving member of the famous Honeymooners quartet, which included Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden, Art Carney as Ed Norton, Audrey Meadows as Alice Kramden (after replacing a blacklisted Pert Kelton), and Randolph as Trixie Norton.
Sketch topics include parodies of old sitcoms like The Honeymooners and The Facts of Life under the Nick at Nite-parodying heading "Logo at Nite", a lesbian speed dating session and an extended send-up of Broadway legend Elaine Stritch working as a Wal-Mart greeter, among other decidedly un-glamorous jobs.
The play is divided into eight scenes or "variations", each depicting a differing final moment of Trotsky's life and making satirical allusions to soap opera conventions, The Honeymooners, and Act 5, Scene 1 from Hamlet.
Eddie Albert and Grace Brandt reprised their radio show, The Honeymooners-Grace and Eddie Show for television.