Marilyn Gleason provides an intimate glimpse into the life and career of her husband Jackie Gleason

Marilyn (Taylor) Gleason first met Jackie Gleason as a member of her sister's dance troupe, the June Taylor Dancers, who were featured on Jackie's Cavalcade of Stars. They married in 1975 and remained together until his death in 1987. Mrs. Gleason recently spoke with American Public Television about Jackie Gleason and the upcoming APT Documentary JACKIE GLEASON: GENIUS AT WORK.

Jackie was very involved with every aspect of his TV shows including the choreography of the musical numbers, which was unheard of on live TV at the time. What was working with Jackie like?

It was very interesting and loads of fun because it was inspiring. He would get marvelous ideas and say, "Well I don't know why we can't do that. Come on, let's get together and figure out a way that we can do it." He was always climbing a staircase looking for something a little above, beyond and better. It's interesting working with someone like that because you become inspired and you want to tail right along and be just as forceful and as involved as he would be.

Would you say he was a perfectionist?

Oh definitely, anything worth doing is worth doing well, otherwise, don't bother.

What do you think Jackie would have seen as the highlights of his career?

He loved Broadway shows. He did quite a few of them in the '30s and '40s. But, he adored television because every week it was opening night of a new show and that was what he loved to do.

A few years ago you donated Jackie's book collection to the University of Miami. Could you please describe his lifelong love of learning?

The library was three walls of a 16x16 room. Seventy-five percent of his library was on psychic phenomenon, the occult; he was always interested in that.

He loved everything new; he could tire easily of the same routine, of doing the same thing over and over. That's why when he did his character sketches, each week it would be a new sketch, a new dialogue, a new story, and that is what fed him – he loved that.

What was Jackie's favorite character?

His favorite was (the wealthy) Reggie Van Gleason III. He loved doing that character because it was outrageous. He could go in many directions and extremities with that character. You could go many places with Ralph Kramden (the eternally frustrated bus driver), but the human part of Ralph kept him from being a caricature. And most of Jackie's sketch characters were caricatures or exaggerations.

JACKIE GLEASON: GENIUS AT WORK is a look at the many characters Jackie played over the years. What do you think it was about some of Jackie's characters that people really took to, while others fell by the wayside?

It's like a parent with many children. You love all children the same and you raise them and put every effort into every single one of them. Some of them are smarter than others and some have more ambition than others. With the characters that Jackie and the writers invented in the '50s, some had more definition, more places to go – for instance, Ralph Kramden (an eternally frustrated bus driver), or the Poor Soul (a pathetic street character played in pantomime). And, Fenwick Babbit (a timid, mild-mannered character) was actually similar to the Poor Soul – but he spoke. They were both very loving and thoughtful of other people. The audience loved what the Poor Soul did because they were able to piece it together in pantomime, and if you make the audience work a little bit to piece the things together, I think they appreciate it more.