The Life of Riley: A Series of Revoltin’ Developments

January 29, 2024January 28, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

This month we are talking about classic television shows. Because it was early in the history of television, many of these shows began on the radio. Our series today was no different. It had a lot of lives. Like Ozzie and Harriet Nelson or Our Miss Brooks, it went from radio to television to film. However, in addition to those different genres, this show probably has the record for the first reboot. Today we learn all about The Life of Riley.

The Life of Riley began on the radio. Throughout the forties, you could tune in to hear Chester Riley, voiced by William Bendix, getting into a lot of different trouble while his long-suffering wife Peg (Paula Winslow), tried to help him. He had two kids, Babs (Barbara Eller) and Junior (Tommy Cook, Bobby Ellis, Scotty Beckett). His best friend Jim Gillis was often in the middle of the screw-ups with him. Another recurring character favorite was Riley’s friend Digby O’Dell, local undertaker, played by John Brown.

The family lived in California, and Riley was a blue-collar worker; he was a riveter at the Cunningham Aircraft plant. Riley is stubborn and opinionated, and knows his way is the right way. His family and neighbors think otherwise.

The original radio concept was created to star Groucho Marx, but the sponsor could not see Marx in a sitcom role. Gummo Marx who had become an agent, worked with the original sponsors, The American Meat Institute, to develop the show. Later the show was sponsored by Proctor and Gamble and then by Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.

In 1949 in a weird twist, there was a film version coming out as well as an ABC Blue Network television sitcom. Bendix had signed on for the film, so that prevented him from playing Riley on television. The film did well, earning $1.6 million.

📷iamachildoftelevision.com The Jackie Gleason Riley

Jackie Gleason took on that role with Rosemary DeCamp as Peg. Gloria Winters was Babs, Larru Reese was Junior, Sid Tomack was Gillis, and Brown continued to play O’Dell. It only was on the air from October 1949 to March 1950. I’m not sure why it disappeared from the schedule so quickly. Producer Irving Brecher and Pabst Brewing Co. could not agree on extending the series to a 39-episode season. Apparently, the ratings were not high enough for the sponsor to want to continue with the series. It competition was a Feature Theater on Dumont and Suspense on CBS. Suspense also began in 1949 and began as a radio show. It was an anthology series that often featured literature adapted for television. It was on the air until 1954, although the radio show was on the air from 1942-1962. However, it won the first Emmy Award for Best Film Made For and Shown on Television. Six shows were nominated, but the only other show remembered today was The Lone Ranger.

In 1953, a reboot was made for NBC. William Bendix was back as Riley and this series continued on the air for six seasons. In this second, better-known series, Marjorie Reynolds was Peg, Lugene Sanders was Babs, and Wesley Morgan was Junior. Gillis was played by Tom D’Andrea and his wife Honeybee was played by Gloria Blondell. Digger O’Dell was not mentioned. John Brown had been named on the Hollywood Blacklist during the McCarthy debacle years, so he was prevented from taking the role. Many people use Riley’s catch phrase, even if they are not sure where it was originally from: “What a revoltin’ development this is.” Riley made $59 a week, and money was often one of his concerns.

Four of the six seasons found the show in the top 30, and 217 episodes were produced. Oddly, season five was filmed and broadcast in color, while season six was back to black and white. The show was on Friday nights for its entire run. The first three seasons it faced its biggest competition against Topper for two years and Our Miss Brooks for season three.

Dell Comics featured the show in one of its comic books in 1958. It was included in the Four Color series. It has held its value with most editions going for about $200-$300 online.

While I have watched a fair number of episodes of The Life of Riley, I have to admit it was never one of my favorites. Shows from this era are very hit or miss with me. I do like all the versions of Our Miss Brooks, and I love Burns and Allen and Jack Benny, but I got quickly got tired of the circumstances Riley continually found himself in and his mispronunciation of words and his lack of knowledge which he never realized. I am also in the small, small minority of people who felt the same way about I Love Lucy. I can watch one or two episodes here and there but not on a regular basis, although the scripts and acting on I Love Lucy carried it much further than Life of Riley.

However, Life of Riley was popular in the fifties and is still well-known today, so it found its audience of fans. If you want to try it out, there are limited opportunities. Interestingly, there is a DVD of the Gleason episodes and there are several recordings available of the radio show. However, for the Bendix television series, I could only find one option and half the shows are Our Miss Brooks so it is not even an entire season, just two episodes. I could not find any networks currently streaming the show either.

The Thin Man, Minus the Witty Banter

January 22, 2024December 5, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

This month we are discussing Classic TV Shows. Many of our series this month were adapted from books, movies, or radio. Today’s show is no exception. Join me as we learn about the television series, The Thin Man.

📷rogerebert.com The original Nick and Nora

The Thin Man was introduced in 1933 by Dashiell Hammett. It became a big-screen film feature in 1934 starring Myrna Loy and William Powell. In 1957, it showed up on television where it would air for two years on NBC. The show was a half-hour show scheduled on Friday nights, producing 72 episodes.

Peter Lawford took over Powell’s role of Nick Charles with Phyllis Kirk stepping in for Myrna Loy as Nora. (In the years after this show, Kirk only had five other acting credits; Lawford, on the other hand, was known for his friends, The Rat Pack and would go on to act in more than sixty additional shows during his career.) Their famous dog Asta was played by three different dogs during the run of the show.

Rounding out the cast was Jack Albertson as Lt. Harry Evans of the NYPD, Patricia Donahue played the Charles’ neighbor Hazel, and Nita Talbot was Beatrice Dane, a criminal who often got Nick and Nora involved in awkward or criminal situations. Before he was Chief O’Hara on Batman, Stafford Repp showed up in NY as Lt. Ralph Raines.

Nick was a former private detective who got out of crime and became a mystery editor in Manhattan. He has an eye for the ladies, and the ladies definitely have an eye for him. Hazel and Beatrice both hit on Nick often much to Nora’s chagrin. Nora is heir to a family fortune. The couple seems to get pulled into crimes and can never resist solving the mystery. Both Raines and Evans agree to help the duo out. Unfortunately for Lawford and Kirk, the show just could not compete with the Powell-Loy banter and wit. After two seasons, the show was canceled.

One of the directors on this show was William Asher. Asher would go on to direct many shows, including I Love Lucy and Bewitched.

By the early fifties, most of the movie studios had realized that television was here for good, and they began creating quality shows for the industry. However, MGM refused to believe that television would cause any threat to the film world. In order to prove that, they resisted getting into television until the very last minute. As television continued to grow, and big-screen films lost their domination in the entertainment business, the drowning company finally began searching for a life preserver. However, it was too little too late. By recycling a movie series that had been loved by millions and starred actors who were still alive, and then not putting the quality into the new series that would make it a hit, MGM almost guaranteed that the show would fail. However, the concept would be recycled several times during television history, most notably in Hart to Hart where the glamorous couple solved crimes that seemed to draw them like a magnet.

Apparently, the episodes have never been released on DVD, and I could not find out why. However, even if they existed, I would advise you to watch the Powell-Loy films instead. Most of our television recollections are about shows we love, but there are plenty of shows that did not work, and I like to reflect on those shows as well, and why they did not fare so well. Sometimes it’s just the timing of their introduction; other times, it was just because the shows lacked quality and that seems the case here.

The Gale Storm Show Cruising the World

January 15, 2024December 5, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are celebrating Classic TV Shows. In the fifties, our show today was very popular under two different names: The Gale Storm Show and Oh, Susanna. In 1956, Hal Roach Studios premiered The Gale Storm Show starring Gale Storm. The series would be on the air four years, producing 125 episodes. When it was sold for syndication it was retitled, Oh, Susanna.

Susanna Pomeroy (Storm) is a cruise director on a ship that traveled around the world. A fun fact, Gale had a daughter in 1956 who was named Susanna for this character. A regular group of characters called the ship home including Elvira Nugent (Zasu Pitts) often called Nugie, Captain Huxley (Roy Roberts), and Cedric (James Fairfax).

Zasu Pitts was under contract to Hal Roach Studios in the 1930s where she made about 16 comedy shorts. You might have more curiosity about how Pitts got her name Zasu which truly was her name. Her aunts Eliza and Susan both wanted her named for them, so her mother came up with Zasu for both. Pitts was nominated for supporting actress for the Emmys in 1959. She had some tough competition including Rosemary DeCamp for Love That Bob, Verna Felton for December Bride, Elinor Donahue for Father Knows Best, and Kathy Nolan for The Real McCoys; they all lost to Ann B. Davis for Love That Bob.

Like The Love Boat, which would air decades later, guest stars traveled the seas as well. These stars included Pat Boone, William Frawley, Lorne Greene, and Boris Karloff.

The show started its life on CBS and ended it at ABC. Some of the plots include Nugey gives a boring passenger a glamour treatment and then spreads a rumor she is a countess to give her more excitement. However, two detectives hear this and assume she is an international jewel thief they have been searching for; Nugey finds herself the victim of some con men in Naples and Susanna has to recover her life savings from the bad guys; and Susanna tries to impress a passenger who was the friend of one of her former classmates, and she claims to be married to wealthy passenger Charles Martingale and then has to keep the mother from meeting Martingale.

Storm had a successful movie career, but it was almost nonexistent by the early 1950s. She was also a recording artist who had several top twenty hits. On this show, she sings on almost every episode.

The Gale Storm Show was one of the most popular sitcoms on television in the late fifties and set the stage for what was to come into the sixties.

Life with Luigi: To Be or Not To Be

January 8, 2024December 5, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we take a look back at some Classic TV Shows this month, one of the shows I chose I hesitated about. As we all know, some shows included many stereotyped characters and oftentimes inappropriate portrayals. These shows include series like Amos n Andy, Beulah, and Lum and Abner which I just never write about.

I also think it is important to remember some of the shows from the past that make us wince or just turn off the dial now because it reminds us that we have a lot to learn but that we have made improvements in the current series on television. It’s a very complicated subject. If you read the differences of opinions Jimmie Walker had about his character JJ on Good Times compared to John Amos and Esther Rolle’s opinions of the character, you can see just how complex the issue is.

Life with Luigi could fall into this category for sure. However, it has a lot of fans and is still a big draw on Sirius Classic Radio. So, I decided to delve in and learn more about it. It was one of the earliest classic sitcoms transferred from the radio where it was aired from 1948-1953 to television. The show was created by Cy Howard who was the talent behind My Friend Irma. J. Carrol Naish voiced Luigi, and Alan Reed gave life to Pasquale in Life with Luigi.

Luigi Basco arrives in Chicago from Italy and has to make a new life for himself. He attends night school to learn English. His friend Pasquale is always trying to marry his daughter Rosa, played by Jody Gilbert, off to Luigi, who had no intention of being wed to her. Each episode began and ended with news in a letter to Luigi’s mom about his life in America.

In 1952 CBS decided to air the show on television with Naish and Reed continuing their roles on the small screen. The program was sponsored by Instant Maxwell House Coffee. Norman Tokar was the director along with Mac Benoff who also wrote for the series with Lou Derman. Tokar would go on to direct many of the episodes of Leave It to Beaver and The Donna Reed Show. Benoff became a writer for The Danny Thomas Show while Derman wrote most of the Mister Ed scripts as well as writing for Here’s Lucy and All in the Family. The show followed I Love Lucy, so it had a great lead-in for a new show.

The series had good ratings, but the Italian American community was offended by the stereotyping of Italian immigrants even though (and perhaps more offensive) Naish was actually Irish. Because Luigi did not always understand English phrases, he took things too literally at times which I’m guessing was the problem for fellow Italians. CBS replaced the leads with Vito Scotti as Luigi, Thomas Gomez as Pasquale, and Murial Landers as Rosa. The revisions did not make anyone happy, and the show was finally canceled. The show ran its final episode in December of 1952.

Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish was a very versatile character actor who was born in New York City in 1896. He attended Catholic schools until he ran away from school at age 14 to become a song plugger. At 15 he enlisted in the Navy and after being asked to leave due to his age, re-enlisted during the war and was with the Army-Signals Corps in France. He learned eight languages during this time. He also spent some time in Paris singing and dancing with a group of performers.

While he was in California on the way to China, he was spotted by a Fox studio talent scout and landed a few roles. In 1929, he married another Irish actor, Gladys Heaney. With the dialects he had acquired in the Army, he easily portrayed Asians, Middle Easterners, Hispanics, Frenchmen, Germans, Native Americans, Italians, and East Indians. Time Magazine referred to him as “Hollywood’s one-man United Nations.” Ironically one of the parts he had a hard time obtaining was an Irishman because of his black hair and mustache.

In 1943, Batman was introduced in his first big-screen feature. The first evil villain he had to face was Naish as Prince Daka, a Japanese super spy. Daka had an atomic death ray, an alligator pit, and the ability to turn American scientists into zombies.

During his career, he would obtain almost 225 credits. In 1973, both Naish and his wife passed away. The couple had one child. When he was not acting, he spent time writing, singing, cooking, playing tennis, and playing golf.

Much of the late forties and early fifties were learning curves for television which led to the golden age. Life with Luigi was part of that learning curve. While many people felt the show was honest and well written, it offended a large part of the American population. It would not be the last show to do so. You might want to check out an episode or two for yourself and see how you feel about the show and its portrayals.

Give Me a Sarsaparilla: Hopalong Cassidy

January 1, 2024December 30, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are celebrating Classic TV for the first month of 2024. Our first choice is a western many kids never missed: Hopalong Cassidy.

📷wideopencountry.com Bill Boyd with Topper

Hopalong Cassidy was introduced to the world by Clarence E. Mulford in 1904 in short stories, and a book was released in 1906. Originally the character had a wooden leg which resulted in his nickname. The first big-screen Hopalong Cassidy film aired in 1935. His nickname was now attributed to a gunshot wound. It starred Bill Boyd, a forty-year-old actor. Boyd’s Hopalong was quite different from the book character. This film Hopalong was a clean-cut hero who drank only sarsaparilla and never took the first shot. By 1948, 66 original movies had been made with ten different sidekicks. That seems like a lot, but from just 1950-1959, about 700 western films were made.

Producer Harry Sherman had become tired of the films. So Boyd invested all of this money buying the rights to the character from Mulford and the rights to the earlier films from Sherman.

In 1949, NBC began showing the older movies on television. Westerns were huge on television, in movies, and in literature in the fifties, and Hopalong became very popular again. Boyd received all the revenue from the merchandise being sold.

Boyd was offered another show in 1952. From 1952-1955, the show was on the air. There was a different format for the new show. Instead of the typical two companions from the films, Edgar Buchanan took on the role of Red Connors. It was Buchanan’s first television role, but it would not be his last. Boyd provided voiceover for the series. He was now a US Marshal instead of foreman of the Bar 20 ranch. Hopalong still fought crime riding his horse, Topper.

The new series was composed of 40 new episodes, along with 12 older theatrical features that were cut down to 30-minute episodes.

One of the reviewers on imdb discussed the show as “being a couple of notches above most of the contemporaries in quality.” He said outdoor scenes were actually filmed outside. He acknowledged that both Boyd and Buchanan were good actors, and Edgar provided both comic relief and dramatic support. The relationship the actors had, along with good writing, produced several really good episodes. He went on to provide information about three of his favorite shows:

“1. Grubstake–A terrific half-hour mystery. Prospector Percy Helton has struck gold. He was grubstaked by five partners. Two have been murdered. A third is Red. Who is the murderer? There is a slew of suspects in a movie-level cast–Christopher Dark, Michael Fox, Robert Paquin, and Timothy Carey(!). Gladys George steals the show as a flighty landlady engaged in a humorous romance with old codger Helton. The solution to the mystery is first rate.

2. The Feud–Two ranchers are bitter enemies. The son of one is murdered from ambush. Suspician naturally falls on his old enemy, B stalwart Steve Darrell, but foreman Hugh Beaumont, soon to become Beaver’s dad, is the culprit. He is having an affair with Darrell’s wife and hopes to get both her and the ranch when Darrell is lynched for the murder. There are some bitter scenes between the jealous Darrell and his unfaithful wife, and even a hot and heavy one between the woman and Beaumont. Perhaps not original, but certainly an adult slant compared to a typical Lone Ranger or Gene or Roy plot.

3. Lawless Legacy–An ordinary plot but given a big lift by Lone Ranger on vacation Clayton Moore as a vicious murderer.”

The series propelled Boyd back into stardom, and he became a famous celebrity, giving talks around the world. Although Hopalong is not as well known today as The Lone Ranger or the Cartwright Boys, his television show is still considered a classic. In 2009, the US Postal Service issued twenty postage stamps honoring early television programs. In this series, which included The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Dragnet, I Love Lucy, Lassie, The Lone Ranger, Perry Mason, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Boyd was pictured sitting on his horse Topper.

In addition to the films and television series, there were 104 radio shows and hundreds of comic books.

By 1955, Boyd was tired of his role and ready to retire. While he was ready to step out of the entertainment business, he wanted to ensure that his staff would continue to have jobs. CBS was getting ready to air a little show they thought might be successful, and his entire crew moved to that series, Gunsmoke, which continued to provide employment for another two decades.

Hopalong Cassidy’s films on television introduced westerns to an entirely new generation and kept westerns in the spotlight for the decade. By March of 1959, eight of the top ten shows were westerns and the television schedule featured thirty different western shows.

I think Boyd was smart to purchase the rights and he was definitely in the right place at the right time to benefit during the fifties. And kudos to him for taking care of his cast and crew.

thewritelife61

How pop culture influences us

Month: January 2024