Life of Riley - Jackie Gleason and William Bendix



Television

Jackie Gleason

John Brown as Digger with Jackie Gleason as Riley.

The show was adapted for television on NBC by the producer of the 
radio series, Irving Brecher. It was seen for single season telecast from 
October 4, 1949 to March 28, 1950.

Originally, William Bendix was to have appeared on both radio and television, 
but Bendix's RKO Radio Pictures movie contract prevented him from 
appearing on the television version. Instead, Jackie Gleason starred, along 
with Rosemary DeCamp, replacing Paula Winslowe, as wife Peg, Gloria Winters 
as daughter Barbara (Babs), Lanny Rees as son Chester Jr. (Junior), and 
Sid Tomack as Jim Gillis, Riley's manipulative best buddy and next-door neighbor. 
John Brown returned as the morbid counseling undertaker Digby (Digger) O'Dell 
("Cheerio, I'd better be... shoveling off"; "Business is a little dead tonight"). 
Television's first Life of Riley won television's first Emmy (for "Best Film Made 
For and Shown on Television"). However, it came to an end after 26 episodes, 
not because of low ratings or a desire by Gleason to leave the series, but because 
Irving Brecher and sponsor Pabst Brewing Company reached an impasse on 
extending the series for a full 39-week season. Groucho Marx received a credit 


William Bendix

The second TV series ran for six seasons, from January 2, 1953 – May 23, 1958. 
It was produced by Tom McKnight for NBC, and featured William Bendix. He was 
supported by Marjorie Reynolds, replacing both Paula Winslowe and Rosemary DeCamp, 
as wife Peg, Tom D'Andrea as schemer buddy Gillis, Gloria Blondell as Gillis' wife, 
Honeybee, Lugene Sanders as daughter Babs, and Wesley Morgan as son Junior.

In all of the show's incarnations, the comedic plotlines centered around Riley himself, 
a gullible and occasionally clumsy (but big-hearted) lug, and the doings and undoings 
of his family. Riley's penchant for turning mere trouble into near-disaster through his 
well-intentioned bumbling was often aided or instigated by his arch best 
friend/next-door neighbor, Gillis.

In several ways, Riley was a prototype for later blue-collar sitcom protagonists 
such as blustery, get-rich-quick schemer Ralph Kramden and his animated stone-age 
counterpart Fred Flintstone; blustery bigot Archie Bunker; benign, bighearted 
Dan Conner; and King of Queens Doug Heffernan. Perhaps the greatest tribute to 
The Life of Riley was paid by Married... with Children: Ed O'Neill's language and manner 
of speaking as Al Bundy are remarkably similar to Bendix's, and Al's wife, like Riley's,
is named Peg. Bendix's Riley, especially, was perhaps too guileless to be the true prototype for this group, but for making blue-collar characters as operable on television as on radio or in film, Chester Riley earned his place in broadcasting history.

Radio

William Bendix as Chester A. Riley

The radio program starring William Bendix as Riley initially aired on the 
Blue Network, later known as ABC, from January 16, 1944 to June 8, 1945. 
Then it moved to NBC, where it was broadcast from 
September 8, 1945 to June 29, 1951.

13 DVD's 60 Episodes 8-10 Quality Set Plus Bonus DVD of Radio shows in MP3.





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