Mama Loves Mambo

Infobox Television episode
Title =Mama Loves Mambo
Series =The Honeymooners


Caption =Ralph walks in on a mambo lesson and makes a scene.
Season =1
Episode =23
Airdate =March 3, 1956
Production =n/a
Writer =Marvin Marx and
Walter Stone
Director =Frank Satenstein
Guests =Charles Korvin (Carlos Sanchez)
Episode list =List of The Honeymooners episodes
Prev =Here Comes the Bride
Next =Please Leave the Premises

Mama Loves Mambo is the 23rd episode of the TV series "The Honeymooners". Ralph and Norton have to deal with a new neighbor, who is unwittingly winning their wives' hearts - and their cooking time. The title is taken from the Perry Como hit "Papa Loves Mambo."

Plot

The whole apartment building is abuzz with the news that a new neighbor is moving in downstairs. Ralph and Norton don't know much about the new man - only that he's an 'older' man who lives on his own. They figure that he's a lonely widower, and don't think much of it - until the new neighbor, Carlos Sanchez (Charles Korvin), comes to pay them a visit. While he is older, he's still quite handsome. Not only that, but he teaches dance lessons to women. The boys are now a lot more wary about being friendly to him (Ralph was supposed to deliver a cake to Carlos, but decides not to. Norton, on the other hand, decides to hand Carlos Trixie's potato salad, figuring that'd be punishment enough).

The next day Carlos is teaching mambo dancing to the women from the apartment building, including Alice, Trixie and even Mrs. Manicotti in the Kramden apartment. Just then Ralph comes back from work and he's shocked to find his apartment filled with women dancing. After kicking everyone out of the apartment, Ralph is annoyed to find that Alice didn't have any time to cook him a hot meal, and instead wants to serve him tuna from a can.

Norton soon comes down, with the same complaint - Trixie didn't fix him a hot meal. Ralph talks derisively about Carlos, though Alice would hear none of it - she's happy to finally be able to 'let loose' a little and have some fun at the apartment. Mr. Manicotti then comes up, not only complaining of the lack of hot food, but that his wife, "is-a doing THIS, and-a THAT", shaking his hips around. Carlos then comes to the apartment, having forgotten his phonograph player. The boys then confront Carlos about the fact that none of them are getting the attention from their wives they expect.

Carlos then counters that he wasn't as lucky in love as them - he never found the right woman to settle down with. But if he did, he would treat her like a princess, and not expect her to be a sort of slave. A chagrined Ralph admits that Carlos is right, and that they do take their wives for granted. He then shyly asks if Carlos will teach them to do the mambo. Carlos is delighted, and immediately sets the record player on, teaching the men how to dance (though Ralph, being Ralph, does his own 'version' of the mambo).

Soon the men become so gentleman-ly to the women that it becomes too much for them to bear. Alice tells Trixie it's like what they said on that one TV show: they asked for it. Soon the wives bravely tell their respective husbands to go back to the way they were before. So they reluctantly agree.