Vowel sound heard twice in True Blue / MON 8-23-21 / Jackie Gleason Show catchphrase / Headdress for the archbishop of Canterbury / Self-referential in modern lingo / Classic British sports cars

Constructor: Bruce Haight

Relative difficulty: Normal (maybe slightly on the harder-than-usual side, depending on your old-time TV knowledge) 

THEME: TV "catchphrases— that is all that it is, and it isn't even that, frankly ...

Theme answers:

• "TWO THUMBS UP!" (18A: "Siskel & Ebert & The Movies" catchphrase)
• "NO SOUP FOR YOU!" (25A: "Seinfeld" catchphrase)
• "JUST ONE MORE THING..." (39A: "Columbo" catchphrase)
• "HOW SWEET IT IS!" (49A: "The Jackie Gleason Show" catchphrase)
• "FINAL ANSWER" (61A: "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" catchphrase)

Word of the Day:"The Jackie Gleason Show" (49A) —

The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970, in various forms. [...] The show typically opened with a monologue from Gleason, followed by sketch comedy involving Gleason and a number of regular performers (including Art Carney) and a musical interlude featuring the June Taylor Dancers. (Taylor later became Gleason's sister-in-law; he married her sister Marilyn in 1975.) [...] The series was a big hit for CBS, finishing at #8 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1953–1954 season and #2 in 1954–1955. The Jackie Gleason Show also earned Emmy nominations for best variety series in 1953, 1954 and 1955, for Gleason as best star in 1954 and 1955, for Audrey Meadows as best supporting actress in 1954 and 1957, Art Carney for best supporting actor in 1957, June Taylor for best choreography in 1956, and best writing and best engineering effects in 1955. The series won Emmys for Meadows as best supporting actress in 1955, Carney as best supporting actor in 1954 and 1955, and Taylor for choreography in 1955. Gleason never received an Emmy. // By far the most memorable and popular of Gleason's characters was blowhard Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden, featured originally in a series of Cavalcade skits known as "The Honeymooners", with Pert Kelton as his wife Alice, and Art Carney as his upstairs neighbor Ed Norton. These were so popular that in 1955 Gleason suspended the variety format and filmed The Honeymooners as a regular half-hour sitcom (television's first spin-off), co-starring Carney, Audrey Meadows (who had replaced the blacklisted Kelton after the earlier move to CBS), and Joyce Randolph. Finishing 19th in the ratings, these 39 episodes were subsequently rerun constantly in syndication, often five nights a week, with the cycle repeating every two months for decades. They are probably the most familiar body of work from 1950s television with the exception of I Love Lucy starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. (wikipedia)

Gonna make this short, as I have a thing to do in one hour and also I don't have anything to say about this puzzle besides "what the hell?" Catchphrases. That's it. Just TV catchphrases. That's almost thinner than yesterday's similarly "we are out of ideas" theme. What's worse, much worse, is that most of these aren't proper "catchphrases" at all. Only "JUST ONE MORE THING..." and "HOW SWEET IT IS!" really qualify. People know "NO SOUP FOR YOU" but that's a phrase that occurs on a single episode. If you are a non-recurring character, no, you don't have a catchphrase. You just have a thing you say a lot in that episode. "FINAL ANSWER" is not a catchphrase either. It's something any number of actual human beings (as opposed to characters) say at the end of each question. It's absolutely not a catchphrase, any more than "I'D LIKE TO BUY A VOWEL" or "SURVEY SAYS..." is a catchphrase. Siskel & Ebert might give a movie TWO THUMBS UP or TWO THUMBS DOWN or they might split, but once again, not a "catchphrase." Urkel's "DID I DO THAT?" Squiggy's "HELLO!" Mork's "NANU NANU," Bart's "EAT MY SHORTS," all plausible "catchphrases." But only two of these here answers qualify. And they come from the oldest shows. I adore "Columbo," but wow, when it's the more youthful of the two "catchphrases" you managed to work into your grid, you might have a slight demographic bias on your hands. (Note: the grid is oversized at 16x15, so if you felt a little slow, that might be part of the problem; but TV shows you've never heard of or seen might also be part of the problem) I didn't have any actual trouble with *any* of the themers. I just don't think most of them are what they say they are.