History YMMV / TheIcemanCometh

** Tom Pedi and Sorrell Booke appeared in both the 1960 TV production and the 1973 American Film Theater production as Rocky and Hugo, respectively. Pedi would become a familiar sight to television audiences as the repairman in early Maytag appliance commercials, while Booke became a familiar face to many a decade later as Boss Hogg in ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard''.

** Jimmy Tomorrow's final monologue about how he lost his job and his wife due to his drunkenness is very sad, even though he brought much of it on himself. Rocky mentions that a policeman found Jimmy standing at the edge of a dock contemplating suicide by drowning.

** Willie is still a young man (in his late 30's), and his alcoholism is the most severe of the whole lot, most of whom are in their 50s or 60s. He came from wealth and was educated in Harvard Law School, and he basically took up drinking and being a bum to spite his corrupt stockbroker father (who wound up in prison for wire fraud).

** Tom Pedi and Sorrel Booke appeared in both the 1960 TV production and the 1973 American Film Theater production as Rocky and Hugo, respectively. Pedi would become a familiar sight to television audiences as the repairman in early Maytag appliance commercials, while Booke became a familiar face to many a decade later as Boss Hogg in ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard''.

* JerkassWoobie: Hickey, bordering on WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds when it's revealed that [[spoiler: he murdered his wife]]. His Jerkass side shows itself when he torments his friends by forcing them to face intolerable realities about their own lives. He kids himself that he's doing it for their own good, when in reality he's doing it because misery loves company. On the other hand, years of alcoholism and guilt over his lack of self-control have slowly lead a man who was once a joy to be around into insanity and [[spoiler: murder]].

** Larry can't even escape into his happy, drunken delusions anymore after Hickey's visit.

** Tom Pedi and Sorrel Booke appeared in both the 1960 TV production and the 1973 American Film Theater production as Rocky and Hugo, respectively. Pedi would become a familiar sight (though not a name) to television audiences as the repairman in early Maytag commercials, while Booke became a familiar face to many a decade later as Boss Hogg in ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard''.

** Jimmy Tomorrow's final monologue about how he lost his job and his wife is very sad, even though he brought much of it on himself.

* TheWoobie: While most of the characters ruined their own lives through drinking, it's hard not to feel sympathy for many of them. Some examples:
** Regardless of what you think of Hugo's radical politics, it's hard not to have sympathy for a man who spent years locked in solitary confinement in an eastern European prison for his political beliefs, eventually losing most of his eyesight and his sanity.
** It's not hard to understand why Don despised his mother - who put her radical politics and her sexual promiscuity ahead of being a good parent to her son. He describes his home life as like living in a whorehouse, only worse because she didn't have to do it for money. Years of resentment [[spoiler: cause him to turn her in to the authorities for her terrorist activities. He later commits suicide because of his sense of guilt for betraying her.]]

** It's not hard to understand why Don despised his mother - who put her radical politics and her sexual promiscuity ahead of being a decent mother. He describes his home life as like living in a whorehouse, only worse because she didn't have to do it for money. Years of resentment [[spoiler: cause him to turn her in to the authorities for her terrorist activities. He later commits suicide because of his sense of guilt for betraying her.]]

** It's not hard to understand why Don despised his mother - who put her radical politics and her sexual promiscuity ahead of being a decent mother. He describes his home life as like living in a whorehouse, only worse because she didn't have to do it for money. His torment over years of resenting here [[spoiler: cause him to turn her in to the authorities for her terrorist activities. He later commits suicide because of his sense of guilt for betraying her.]]

** Even if you revile Hugo's radical politics, it's hard not to have sympathy for a man who spent years locked in solitary confinement in an eastern European prison for his political beliefs, eventually losing most of his eyesight and his sanity.

** Even if you revile Hugo's radical politics, he spent years locked in solitary confinement in an eastern European prison where he lost most of his eyesight and his sanity.

** It's not hard to understand why Don despised his mother - who put her radical politics and her sexual promiscuity ahead of being a decent mother. He describes his home life as like living in a whorehouse, only worse because she didn't have to do it for money.