Joyce Randolph is the "fourth banana" on The Jackie Gleason Show | TV Guide Chicago, December 18-24, 1954

Joyce Randolph, who once was known as "the most murdered woman on TV," has come a long way in four years. Now she's "fourth banana" on The Jackie Gleason Show.

Jackie, of course, is "top banana. Art Carney is No. 2. Then comes Audrey Meadows, followed by Joyce, who plays Carney's wife, Trixie, in the "Honeymooners" sketches.

Joyce attained this spot the hard way. Born in Detroit, she began her career as an amateur theater mime, graduated to summer stock, and made her TV debut in 1948 in Du Mont's experimental theater.

After a spot of movie-acting, Joyce returned to TV as a practically non- stop corpse. In two years she was murdered 22 times in whodunits. Be- tween homicides, she sang and danced in shows starring Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor and Martin and Lewis. But casting directors insisted on cata- loging her as the still, silent type.

One night Jackie Gleason dropped in to see a whodunit, and there was Joyce with the haft of a six-inch poniard protruding from the small of her back. Gleason just yawned.

Several months later, though, Jackie saw her in a song-and-dance show. "Get me that girl," he commanded an aid, "that blonde in the back row."

The aid obeyed, and in December, 1950, Joyce succeeded Elaine Stritch as sewer specialist Ed Norton's wife in "The Honeymooners."