As his sobriquet, The Great One, implies, Jackie Gleason was a comedian of superlative talents, but one whose persona housed enormous contradictions. A literally larger-than-life performer who became a star on the small screen when he failed to achieve headline status on stage and in the movies during the 1940s, Gleason became "Mr. Saturday Night" during the next two decades, and helped to define the comic possibilities of television. Although he hosted a variety series for over 20 years, the corpulent comedian is best remembered for a situation comedy that lasted only one season: The Honeymooners. A high-living bon viveur, Gleason achieved success by never forgetting the lowly "Ralph Kramdens" who populated his boyhood.

In a medium where understatement is the cool virtue, broad physicality and verbal bombast were the red-hot core of Jackie Gleason's game. Even as the medium became more refined, extravagance was...