David White: The Man Behind McMahon and Tate

April 1, 2024March 29, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month our blog series is Supportive Men. These actors were not the stars of the series, but they contributed a lot of fun to the show. First up is David White who we know best as Larry Tate from Bewitched.

White was born near Denver, Colorado, in 1916. His family moved around a bit. He lived in Pennsylvania and Missouri and graduated from Los Angeles City College. He worked at the Pasadena Playhouse before enlisting in the Marine Corps during WWII. After his four years in the military, he began acting again with the Cleveland Play House.

In 1949, White found himself living in New York where he made his Broadway debut in “Leaf and Bough.” The theater critics were not kind in their reviews, and the show closed after three performances. The following year, he tried the stage again in “The Birdcage” with Maureen Stapleton. He was then given a role in “The Anniversary Waltz,” co-starring Macdonald Carey and Kitty Carlisle which ran for 611 nights. He paid his dues, working in a variety of jobs while trying to establish his acting career. His resume included a farm laborer, a truck driver, a doorman at the Roxy Theater, and working at the J.H. Taylor Management Co.

In the 1950s, David began his long television career. His first appearance was in The Philco Playhouse production of “Rich Boy” with Grace Kelly. While most of his roles were in dramatic shows and westerns, he did a few comedies including Father Knows Best, My Favorite Martian, The Farmer’s Daughter, and My Three Sons. Most of his roles were as corrupt businessmen or arrogant politicians.

In 1952, David married actress Mary Welch. Welch appeared in several successful plays on Broadway. She was a member of Lee Strasberg’s Actor’s Studio before opening her own school called The Welch Workshop. White and Welch worked together in only one production, at a regional theater, in “Tea and Sympathy.” In 1958 she died of complications from their second pregnancy. They had a son Jonathan and sadly, he died in 1988 in the bombing of the Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. (This was a tragic incident when Libyan terrorists planted a bomb on a plane flying from London to New York. It exploded 35 minutes into the trip and killed all 259 people on board and 11 people in the neighborhood where it landed.)

After his wife died, White and his son moved to Hollywood where White launched a big-screen career. His film debut was in 1957 with Tony Curtis, Barbara Nichols and Burt Lancaster in The Sweet Smell of Success. He only had 16 movies in his credits, but they included The Apartment, Sunrise at Campbello, and Brewster’s Millons.

From 1964-1972, he perfected the comedic role of Larry Tate on Bewitched. As president of McMann & Tate, he was constantly firing Darrin for one reason or another, usually related to some circumstance caused by Samantha’s family. White also directed one episode of the series, “Sam’s Double Mother Trouble.”

During an interview with Herbie J. Pilato (author of Bewitched Forever), White said he “got the part because I was an honest man, and that’s how Larry and I were different. I’m not two-faced, and he was. I had more integrity than Larry ever had. I was smarter and had a deeper sense of values. I had to diminish who I was to play Larry, whom I viewed as a very insecure person who only had a certain brilliance in certain areas. He was smart enough to hire people who possessed the skills he did not—like Darrin. I wasn’t born to play Larry. I had to create him. He was a make-believe character of his own truth slated in a comedy series. When playing humor and farce you take that truth and stretch it as far as it will go. But not any farther. When I was playing Larry, though he was a funny character, I never tried to be funny. To me, acting has to do with fulfilling the needs of the character you’re playing, not the actor who’s playing him. Although the one thing the actor and the character have in common is that both have needs. A real heavy is a man who doesn’t have any moral structure whatsoever; one who ends up cheating or even killing someone. Larry was selfish, but he was never that extreme. If anything, he was still a little kid who never matured.”

In that same interview, White said his favorite Bewitched episodes were “Moment of Truth” (Season 3, Episode 2 when Samantha has to tell Darrin Tabitha is also a witch and they try to keep the secret from the Tates), “Bewitched, Bothered and Infuriated” (Season 3, Episode 31 when Clara tells them about a future newspaper article that says Larry broke his leg on their trip, so Darrin and Samantha try to protect him while causing a lot of annoyance to Larry and Louise), and “Toys in Babeland” (Season 4, Episode 2 when Endora brings one of Tabitha’s toys to babysit her while she runs a quick errand which leads Tabitha to bring a lot of toys to life).

After the show ended, White continued both his television and film careers. He also continued in the theater, primarily with Theatre West and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

During the seventies and eighties, he showed up in a variety of popular shows including Adam-12, Cagney and Lacey, Cannon, Columbo, Dallas, Dynasty, Love American Style, Mission Impossible, Qunicy M.E., Room 222, The Odd Couple, The Love Boat, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Rockford Files.

After his son’s death, White became a bit of a recluse. He had just begun working again when he passed away from a heart attack in 1990 at the age of 74. Certainly, David White had a successful career, amidst his personal heartbreaks, appearing on the stage, in films, and on television. It would have been wonderful if he had another chance to be part of the cast of another hit show, maybe a dramatic role. However, if you only costar in one show, the role of Larry Tate and the memories we have of him on Bewitched is a great one to have.

Cesar Romero: Batman’s Most Joy-Filled Villain

March 25, 2024February 17, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are winding up our series: Bam! Pow! Batman Villains. Today it’s all about The Joker: Cesar Romero.

Romero was born in New York City in 1907. His father was an import/export merchant, and his mother was a concert singer. He grew up in Bradley Beach, New Jersey. His father lost most of his money during the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

Romero teamed up with dancer Lisbeth Higgins and they formed a professional dance partnership, appearing in nightclubs and theaters throughout New York City including the Ambassador Roof and the Montmartre Café. Although he had no professional training, he was often compared to Fred Astaire. He also was cast in several off-Broadway productions including “Stella Brady” and “Dinner at Eight.”

Later Romero would refer to himself as the Latin from Manhattan and he provided for his family members who followed him to Hollywood. He played the stereotypical Latin lover during the thirties and forties, including The Devil is a Woman with Marlene Dietrich in 1935. However, he also made westerns and did a bit of dancing during these decades on the big screen.

His friendship with Frank Sinatra brought him roles in Around the World in 80 Days, Pepe, Marriage on the Rocks, and Oceans’ 11.

In 1942, Cesar enlisted in the US Coast Guard, serving in the Pacific Theater of Operations. After his military career ended, Romero returned to his acting career.

His television career began in 1948 in the show, Variety. During the fifties he was primarily appearing on dramas, but he did show up on Private Secretary with Ann Sothern and continued his western roles on Wagon Train, Zorro, and Death Valley Days.

The sixties kept him extremely busy on television. He kept people laughing on Pete and Gladys, The Ann Sothern Show, Get Smart, and Here’s Lucy. He rode the range on Stagecoach West, Bonanza, Rawhide, and Daniel Boone. He stayed dramatic on shows including 77 Sunset Strip, Dr. Kildare, and Ben Casey.

However, the show he was best known for in the sixties, is the show that made him part of my blog series this month, Batman. He had to endure a long time in the make-up chair. He refused to shave his mustache for the role, so white face makeup was smeared all over his face until it was hidden.

Romero admitted that this role reinvigorated his career. When he was offered the role of the Joker, he was 59 years old. Romero said the role was “the kind of part where you can do everything you’ve been told not to do as an actor. You can be as hammy as you want.”

He discussed how surprised he was when William Dozier called him about the show. He said Dozier told him that “the important characters were all villains. They had done the first two with the Riddler and the Penguin with Frank Gorshin and Burgess Meredith, and now they were ready to do the third, and the villain was the Joker. He said, ‘I would like you to play the part.’ So, I said I would like to read the script and know what it is all about. He said, ‘Come on over to the studio, and I will show you the film of the first episode.’ Of course, it was great. I said, ‘Let me read this Joker part, and if it is as good as the first one, hell yes, I will do it.’ So I read the script, and I thought it was a gas, and I said, ‘Sure, I’ll do it.’”

No serious villain, the Joker was cheerful and extroverted. He oozed goofiness and always appeared to be having a great time carrying out his nefarious activities. Dressed in his famous purple costume, he had his own automobile that could rival the Batmobile.

While most of the villains saw Batman and Robin as roadblocks in their evil schemes and problems to take care of, the Joker found great joy in taking down the superheroes. In one episode he says “Oh, but I must, I must! Why, outwitting Batman is my sole delight, my heaven on earth, my very paradise!”

You couldn’t miss him if you watched almost any television in the 1970s and 1980s. He appeared on a ton of shows, just a few of which included Bewitched, Nanny and the Professor, Love American Style, The Love Boat, Night Gallery, Mod Squad, Ironside, Medical Center, Charlie’s Angels, and Hart to Hart.

From 1985-88, he was a regular on Falcon Crest. Earl Hamner Jr., the creator of The Waltons, created this show featuring the Gioberti family, owners of Falcon Crest Winery. Romero played the love interest of matriarch Angela Channing, played by Jane Wyman.

He finished his career in the 1990s. He was in his eighties when he appeared on The Golden Girls, and Murder She Wrote, his last television role.

Romero also played a role in politics. As a registered Republican, he was very involved in many campaigns. He worked for Nixon-Lodge in 1960 and later supported Lodge in his run for President. When Lodge did not get the results that he hoped for, Romero turned his support to Barry Goldwater for the general election. He also worked for his friend George Murphy in his run in the California senate race. He later helped Ronald Reagan in his gubernatorial runs in California as well as his presidential campaigns.

It was reported in many articles that Romero had 30 tuxedos and more than 500 suits. That is not surprising because he had a clothing line, Cesar Romero Ltd. He was also a model and spokesperson for Petrocelli suits in the sixties.

Romero stopped acting in 1990. He remained busy though with several ventures including hosting classic movie programs on television. In 1994, Romero died from complications of a blood clot on New Year’s Day. He was being treated for bronchitis and pneumonia.

I enjoyed getting to know a bit more about Cesar Romero, but, I have to admit, that I don’t feel like I know him much better than I did before. He seemed to have been stereotyped as a Latin lover and then again as the Joker. I would like to go back and watch some of his appearances on westerns. It was hard to find much information about Romero beyond his career and political interests.

I know The Joker was not his most challenging role, but he will always have a place in America’s heart for the work he did on Batman as will these fun super villains we got to know this month.

Frank Gorshin: Batman’s Most Puzzling Villain

March 18, 2024March 18, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month, our theme is Bam! Pow! Batman Villains. We have learned a bit about the careers of the Joker and Cat Woman, and today we are spending some time with the Riddler, portrayed by Frank Gorshin.

Gorshin started out as an impressionist and comedian before transitioning into acting.

Frank was born in Pittsburgh in 1933 into a blue-collar, middle-class family. His mom was a seamstress, and his father was a railroad worker. His paternal grandparents arrived in the US from Slovenia and his mother was born in Slovenia, coming to the Pittsburgh area as a young girl; his parents were very involved in the Slovenian community, both singing with the Preseren, a Slovenian singing society.

When he was 15, Gorshin got a part-time job as an usher at the Sheridan Square Theatre. He studied the mannerisms of the actors he watched in those movies and developed an impressionist act. Some of his favorite actors to mimic included James Cagney, Cary Grant, Al Jolson, and Edward Robinson. After entering a talent contest in 1951, he won a week-long engagement at the Carousel nightclub in New York.

Sadly, Gorshin’s older brother was hit by a car two days before and died. His parents convinced him to keep his performance schedule and sent him to New York.

After high school, Gorshin enrolled at the Carnegie Tech School of Drama (now Carnegie Mellon University).

At age 20, Frank was drafted into the US Army and sent to Germany. He was an entertainer in Special Services for a year and a half. When Gorshin left the Army, he began his acting career, appearing in four movies and on television in Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

I can’t imagine the horror Gorshin’s parents felt when getting a call in 1957 that their son had fallen asleep while driving from Pittsburgh to Hollywood, a 39-hour trip for a screen test. With their other son passing away from a car crash six years earlier, now they had to deal with the fact that their other son was in a coma with a fractured skull. Luckily, he made a full recovery.

Another big event occurring in 1957 was his marriage to Christina Randazzo. They had a son and separated later in life, but they never did divorce as far as I could tell.

Until his death, Gorshin would appear in more than sixty big-screen films. During the fifties, he only appeared in a handful of television series, but that would change in the 1960s. Some of the most memorable shows included The Defenders, The Munsters, Star Trek, and The High Chapparal. With his comedy act, he visited The Ed Sullivan Show four times. The first time he did his impressionist act on the series, he would be scheduled with this new band called The Beatles.

The sixties also found him on Batman, his reason for being in this month’s blog series. He said that he developed a fiendish laugh at Hollywood parties. “I listened to myself laugh and discovered that the funniest jokes brought out the high-pitched giggle that I use on the show. With further study, I came to realize that it wasn’t so much how I laughed as what I laughed at that created the sense of the menace.”

He did not love the unitards that many of the comic book villains wore, so he asked for a green business suit and bowler hat, covered with question marks since he always left riddles for Batman and Robin to solve. He often said “Riddle me this, Batman” which became a catchphrase of the mid-sixties.

Gorshin said “When I was first approached to play the Riddler, I thought it was a joke. Then I discovered the show had a good script and agreed to do the role. Now I am in love with the character.”

Gorshin was the only villain to be nominated for an Emmy. He got the nod in 1966 for the episode “Hi Diddle Riddle.” He had some tough competition, going against Werner Klemperer as Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes, Morey Amsterdam on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and winner Don Knotts on The Andy Griffith Show.

Gorshin was in ten episodes of the show, but after appearing numerous times, he was unavailable, and the producers replaced him with John Astin. I realized hindsight is 20/20 as they say, so the producers were never considering the effect the show would have on pop culture and the decades it would be a fan favorite, but that switch seems extreme. However, they did it with Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt as well, so maybe they figured if you have to replace a villain, let’s replace them with someone very different from the original. Gorshin, however, was not a fan of being replaced but did get over it enough to accept his tenth episode role in season three and appeared as Riddler in the 1979 made-for-television movie Legends of the Superheroes.

Frank made his Broadway debut in 1969 in the musical biography, “Jimmy” which was about the controversial life of New York mayor Jimmy Walker.

Gorshin was very busy in the seventies and eighties. Among the twenty plus shows he appeared on were The Virginian, Martin and Rowan’s Laugh In, Ironside, Hawaii Five-0, Charlie’s Angels, and Murder She Wrote.

In the last three decades of his life, he spent more time making big-screen films. One thing I found surprising is that Gorshin appeared in three soap operas, all at different times in his career: General Hospital in 1963, The Edge of Night in 1982, and The Bold and the Beautiful in 1999.

In the early 2000s, Gorshin did a one-man Broadway show, portraying George Burns. He was reunited with his Batman cast in a made-for-tv movie, Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt. His last appearance was on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on “Grave Danger” on which he played himself. The episode was directed by Quentin Tarantino and was dedicated to Gorshin.

Unfortunately, Gorshin was a heavy smoker throughout his life. Adam West once said that “Frank could reduce a cigarette to ash with one draw” and his nightclub performances warned patrons they would be exposed to a lot of second-hand smoke if they attended. Not surprisingly, he died from lung cancer, complicated by emphysema and pneumonia.

I enjoyed getting to know Frank Gorshin in this blog. While I was much more familiar with the careers of Burgess Meredith and Julie Newmar, Gorshin and Cesar Romero are actors I knew very little about. I hope you are also enjoying getting to know these fun “villains.”

Julie Newmar: Batman’s Most Beautiful Villain

March 11, 2024February 17, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are learning a bit about the Batman villains and their careers. No study of Batman’s favorite nemesis would be complete without Cat Woman, Julie Newmar. Julie shared the role of Cat Woman with Eartha Kitt who appeared the final television season and Lee Meriwether who was so catty in the Batman movie. What else did Julie Newmar do during her career? Let’s find out.

Born Julia Chalene Newmeyer in 1933, Julie Newmar as she is known in the acting world, was a television and film actress, dancer, singer, and stage performer. But, as they say in the commercials, that’s not all. She also was known for writing, designing lingerie, and managing real estate investments.

Newmar was born in LA. Her father Don was head of the physical education department for the Los Angeles College. Her mother, of both Swedish and French descent, was a fashion designer under the name Chalene and later worked in real estate.

Julie began dancing early in life and performed as a prima ballerina with the Los Angeles Opera when she was only 15. With an IQ of 135, Newmar graduated from John Marshall High School at age 15. She continued dancing in films in the early fifties. At age 19, she was also working as a dancer/choreographer for Universal Studios. In 1954, she appeared in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as Dorcas, one of the seven brides.

In 1955 she got her first Broadway appearance in “Silk Stockings.” She continued her movie and Broadway careers throughout her years in entertainment, appearing in 33 films in all.

Television is where Newmar gained most of her fame. Her first television appearance was on The Phil Silvers Show in 1957 and then Ominbus in 1959. But it was in the sixties that she became a household name. She started the decade in Adventure in Paradise in 1960, followed by a variety of shows including The Defenders, Route 66, and The Twilight Zone in the early sixties.

In 1964 she was offered the role of Rhoda on My Living Doll, where she played a robot. She was not enthralled with the choice of Bob Cummings as her costar and did not seem to enjoy her time on this show. She said that “They originally wanted Efrem Zimbalist Jr. It was not a flip part—it needed a straight actor who could play opposite this bizarre creature so the comedy would come off. That quality was lost when they hired Bob. The show could have been wonderful. I think it would have run for many seasons had they hired Efrem because he had the right qualities.”

After appearing in several comedies including The Beverly Hillbillies and F Troop, she received another recurring role as Cat Woman in Batman. She would appear in the series 13 times, 12 as Cat Woman, the only villain to make Batman question his morals, because we knew he was in love with her, and if she showed any sign of remorse, who knows where things might have gone. Her Cat Woman costume now lives at the Smithsonian Institution.

Newmar lived in Beekman Place in New York in the mid-sixties. One weekend her brother had come to visit her from Harvard. They were sitting around chatting when the phone rang. She was asked if she would like to play Cat Woman on the Batman series. She was a bit miffed because they said they were casting in California, and the role started on Monday. Her comment was “That’s how television is done: they never know what they are doing until yesterday.” When her brother heard Batman, he jumped up and said that was the favorite show at Harvard and they even skipped classes to watch it. He told her to take the role, so she did.

After Batman, she finished out the sixties in The Monkees, Star Trek, Get Smart and It Takes a Thief. With 11 seventies offers, you can see her in shows such as Bewitched, Columbo, McMillan and Wife, Love American Style, The Bionic Woman, and The Love Boat. One of my favorite made-for-tv movies was The Feminist and the Fuzz. It had an exceptional cast, including Newmar who appeared in the movie along with Barbara Eden, David Hartman, Jo Anne Worley, Farrah Fawcett, Harry Morgan, Herb Edelman, Penny Marshall, and John McGiver. This ensemble was directed by Jerry Paris, who directed so many great shows from The Dick Van Dyke Show to Happy Days.

Her other starring role in the seventies was a marriage to J. Holt Smith, an attorney. After the wedding, Newmar moved to Forth Worth, Texas until 1984 when they divorced.

The eighties was a more quiet decade for the actress but she did accept roles on CHiPs, Fantasy Island, and Hart to Hart. In 1992, she appeared in George Michael’s music video, “Too Funky,” She was still working in 2016 and 2017 in Batman animation features.

If you were a fan of Batman and Dark Shadows in the sixties, you were in luck when Newmar took on the role of Dr. Julia Hoffman (played in the original series by Grayson Hall) in Dark Shadows: Bloodline, the audio drama miniseries.

She was not just a pretty face, however. She received two US patents for pantyhose and one for a bra, under the name Nudemar. She also began investing in LA real estate and was credited with helping to improve the neighborhoods of La Brea Avenue and Fairfax Avenue. In one episode of My Living Doll, Rhoda is asked to play Chopin’s “Fantasie Impromptu” on the piano. Newmar played the piece herself. She had studied under concert pianist Dr. MacIntyre, and she said that scene is the only one she’s done with her playing the piano which had been her career choice before acting. One of Julie’s comments about herself was “Tell me I’m beautiful, it’s nothing. Tell me I’m intellectual—I know it. Tell me I’m funny, and it’s the greatest compliment in the world anyone could give me.”

Julie also enjoys art and gardening. She has a rose, a day lily, and an orchid named for her. Her gardens are often chosen as a spot for holding charity events.

Like Barbara Feldon from Get Smart, Julie Newmar is beautiful, bright, and funny. I hope she enjoyed her career. Obviously, she could have been a brain surgeon or any other profession of her choice. She seems like she would be a fun person to just hang out with and the conversation would never run out. Thank you, Julie Newmar for choosing the entertainment business over medical science for our sakes.

Burgess Meredith: America’s Favorite Villain

March 4, 2024March 4, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

Bam! Pow! It’s Batman Villain Month. We will be looking at the career of an actor who played a Batman baddie every week this month. We are beginning with my favorite, The Penguin, played by Burgess Meredith.

Oliver Burgess Meredith was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1907. His father was a physician, and his mother was born into a family of Methodist revivalists. Burgess followed his Methodist faith for his entire life. After high school, he enrolled at Amherst College, until 1932 when he became a reporter for the Stamford Advocate. He worked in a variety of jobs while getting started in acting including retail, an editor, a merchant marine, and a runner on Wall Street.

He joined Eva Le Gallienne’s Civic Repertory Theatre in New York City. His Broadway debut was in this company’s “Romeo and Juliet” in 1930. His film debut came in 1935 in Winterset. Later in his career, he would return to Broadway as a director. He shared a Tony Award with James Thurber for their collaboration on “A Thurber Carnival” in 1960, and he earned a Tony nomination for his staging of “Ulysses in Nighttown” in 1974. In the late seventies, he directed Fionnula Flanagan’s one-woman play, “James Joyce’s Women” which toured for several years.

Meredith had more success in acting than marriage. Helen Derby Merrien Burgess was his wife from 1932-1935. His marriage to actress Margaret Perry only lasted two years, ending in 1938.

In 1942, Burgess enlisted in the US Army Air Forces for WWII, reaching the rank of captain. He was discharged in 1945. Meredith married another actress, Paulette Goddard, and they were together from 1944-1949. However, in 1951 he married Kaja Sundsten and they were together until his death.

Meredith would appear in 80 movies during his career, as well as a number of made-for-television movies. He might be best known in the past few decades for Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men in the 1990s.

However, it was television where he found the most acclaim. His first appearances came in 1949 on the Ford Theater Hour and The Silver Theater. Throughout the fifties he continued receiving offers for theatric roles on these types of programs. During the early sixties, he was everywhere. You could catch his appearances on dramas such as The Naked City, Ben Casey, The Twilight Zone, The Bold Ones, Room 222, Ironside, and Mannix. He rode onto many western sets including Wagon Train, Rawhide, The Wild, Wild West, Bonanza, Daniel Boone, and The Virginian. He found his way onto several comedies such as Please Don’t Eat the Daisies and The Monkees.

Given the astounding number of drama shows that he chose roles on, it is a bit surprising that one of his best-known roles was the campy, humorous 1960s series Batman. From 1966-1968, he made 21 appearances as the Penguin. When he appeared on The Monkees, it was also as the Penguin. Originally the producers wanted Spencer Tracy for the role of Penguin. Tracy said he would not accept the offer unless his character was allowed to kill Batman. So, Meredith got the role. The cast loved him, and the producers made sure there was always a Penguin script waiting so whenever Burgess was free, it could be filmed.

He was perfect for the role with his raspy voice and that iconic Penguin laugh. The laugh came about because Burgess had given up smoking but had to smoke for his role on Batman. When he coughed, he covered it up with his trademark laugh. When asked why he did Batman, he replied that he did it “for two reasons, one of which was the salary. The other was that, after the first few episodes, Batman became the in-thing to do. Everybody would either play a villain or appear as himself in that cameo showcase where a celebrity would poke his head through the window of a building that Batman and Robin were climbing. Actually, we didn’t get as much money from the show as you might think, although we were paid decent money for the feature film version. The main impetus to continue appearing on Batman—beyond the desire to get some TV work—was that it was fashionable.”

Later in his career, Burgess continued appearing on the big screen and provided voice-over work and a bit of animation. Unfortunately, he was named as an unfriendly witness by the House Un-American Activities Commission which ended his studio work for several decades. Burgess also did commercial work and was known for his roles for Skippy Peanut Butter and United Air Lines.

Meredith was a life-long Democrat and was generous to the Democratic party. He was an environmentalist and tried to end pollution. He was also fascinated by intelligent animals, especially dolphins. One night he said he felt a dolphin needed help while staying at a friend’s beach house. He ran out to the beach and found a dolphin caught in a net under a dock and was able to save its life. He was nominated for two Academy Awards, both for Supporting Actor in Rocky and The Day of the Locust. A 21-acre park in Pomona, New York was named for him; he provided the funding to incorporate the village.

In 1997, Meredith died from complications of Alzheimer’s. His former Batman costar, Adam West, spoke at his memorial service.

While almost all of the bad guys on Batman were memorable, the Penguin and Cat Woman were by far my favorites. We will look at the career of Julie Newmar next week.

The Simpsons: No One Grow Up in Springfield Here

February 26, 2024February 26, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are looking at several of our favorite TV families. Last week we talked about the Andersons from Springfield, and I can’t help comparing our show today to that one: The Simpsons are also from Springfield. They both have three children. While you could make some comparisons between Marge and Margaret, Homer and Jim would not have much in common.

Right off the bat, I want to admit that if you are looking for a comprehensive reflection on the show, this blog entry will not be that. I could write about this show for volumes and not cover it truly well. That said, I thought it was an important show in television history and family series that we should still talk about it, even if it is briefly. This show has been on the air so long it is hard to imagine: 2024 is the 37th year the show has been on the air. I got married the year it began, and I now have a teenage grandson. We are looking at almost 800 episodes.

So, let’s go back to the beginning. In 1987, Matt Groening developed an American animated series called The Simpsons to air on Fox Broadcasting Co. It was written as a satire of the Simpson family: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. It was set in Springfield and has caricatured any and everything you can possibly think of.

📷thebounce.com James L. Brooks and Matt Groening

James L. Brooks, of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi fame, was the producer. The first animation shorts appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show and it eventually became its own series. It holds the record for longest-running American animated series and longest-running American sitcom. In 2007 The Simpsons Movie grossed over $527 million dollars. In 2023 it was renewed for its 35^th and 36^th seasons, ensuring it goes through 2025.

I will say that many fans consider the golden age of the show to be from 1989-1995 and feel that the quality has not held up as well; however, the show has won 35 Emmys.

The show is about the Simpson family. Homer, the father, works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant as a safety inspector. Marge, his wife, has beautiful blue hair. (The blue hair was a thing before having blue hair was a thing, and the characters have yellow skin colors, so it would catch the attention of viewers flashing through the channels for something to watch.) They have three children: Bart, a very mischievous ten-year-old; Lisa, a precocious eight-year-old; and baby Maggie. Grandpa Simpson lives nearby in the Springfield Retirement Home. Luckily, they never age, or Bart would be a 47-year-old mischievous son and grandpa would be well over 120. Santa’s Little Helper is their dog and Snowball II (after Snowball I died) is their cat.

In addition to the family, we have met many community members during the three decades plus that the show has been on. Just to name a few, we have Homer’s coworkers Lenny and Carl; Seymour Skinner the school principal; teachers Edna Krabappel and Elizabeth Hoover; neighbor Ed Flanders; Mayor Quimby; reporter Kent Brockman; tycoon Charles Montgomery Burns; Burns’ executive assistant Waylon Smithers; and Krusty the Clown.

Throughout the entire run, Groening and Brooks remained executive producers. There have been oodles of writers on the show. Typically, they are a group of sixteen writers who propose ideas and then turn the best into scripts.

I bet none of the voice actors in the late eighties thought they would still be employed on this show in 2024. Dan Castellaneta is Homer, Grandpa, and Krusty the Clown. Julie Kavner is Marge. Nancy Cartwright is Bart and Maggie. Yeardley Smith is Lisa. It has been a lucrative career. Until 1998, they were paid $30,000 an episode. From 1998 until 2004, they earned $125,000 an episode. A strike ensued in 2004. and after negotiations, we know that they make somewhere between $250,000 to $360,000 an episode. It has been up and down since, but right now hovers around $300,000.

I did not have time to get into all the differences in the animation studios that have been part of the show, but Klasky Csupo, AKOM, Anivision, Rough Draft Studios, and USAnimation, and Toonzone Entertainment have all worked on the show.

As I mentioned, everything and anything is up for being satirized on the show: nuclear power plants, education, middle-class Americans, wealthy Americans, conservatives, liberals, religion, atheists, sexuality, homosexuality. If you can name a theme, you can find an episode to fit it.

The show tries to appeal to a variety of generations. I guess they need to, to keep their original viewers which may have switched from 20 somethings then to retired somethings now.

Whether they have ever seen the show or not, many Americans recognize the catchphrases from the show, including Bart’s “Ay caramba!,” “Eat my shorts,” and “Don’t have a cow, man.” Homer’s quip “D’oh” is another as is Mr. Burn’s “Excellent” and Krusty’s “I didn’t do it.”

As you can imagine, critics of the show are legion and from every part of American life. At least they offend everyone. They even make fun of Fox TV.

And with more than three decades of episodes, the merchandising has been over the top; it currently is a billion-dollar industry. There are comic books, board games galore, figurines, t-shirts, etc., etc.

Almost every season is now available on DVD, just in case you have a decade to catch up.

Let’s end with a few fun facts. Several people are banned for life from the comic book store, including Bart, Milhouse Van Houten, Sideshow Bob Terwilliger, Nelson Muntz, George Lucas, and Matt Groening. The most-often parodied films are Citizen Kane, The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange. Like Batman, celebrities are so eager to make a guest appearance they are willing to be bad guys. Jasper Johns was portrayed as a kleptomaniac, Gary Coleman was a pathetic has-been, and Tom Arnold was an obnoxious nontalent who gets fired for being a bad actor.

The fact that so many celebrities are enthusiastic to appear on the show probably sums up how popular and how embedded The Simpsons is in our culture. It’s hard to think of another show with such lasting appeal. There are a few Sunday news shows that might have been on the air as long, but their popularity is not comparable. Actually, because the show has been on the air for so many decades, it may have

curtailed its viewers somewhat. I have never been able to become a dedicated fan because I could not devote the weekly time for so many years to watch the show. I will say that whenever I watch an episode, I always find something valuable in it. Even if the show is not one of their better episodes, and with 800 episodes, you know there are a few “klinkers,” there are always some great one-liners.

If you are one of those people who have lived under a rock or been a hermit without a television for more than 30 years, you might want to watch at least a few episodes to see what all the fuss is about. You won’t be disappointed.

Father Knows Best: We All Grew Up in Springfield

February 19, 2024February 19, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

Our last two shows are both set in Springfield, and we might do a bit of comparison and contrast next week. This week we are checking out the Anderson family on Father Knows Best.

The show debuted on NBC radio in 1949. For five years it was sponsored primarily by General Foods. None of the television cast members were part of the radio show, but you would recognize the voice of Jean Vander Pyl from The Flintstones.

A couple of months before the show ended on radio, it made its move to television. This was not all that unusual in the early days of television, but the show began on CBS for a year, then it was picked up by NBC for three years, and then it returned to CBS for two years.

The pilot aired on an episode of The Ford Television Theatre and was called “Keep It in the Family.” While the show was picked up, only Robert Young was retained from the original cast. Joining him were Jane Wyatt as Margaret, Elinor Donahue as Betty, Bill Gray as Bud, and Lauren Chapin as Kathy.

I think we all have this stereotyped vision of the Anderson family in our memories. In fact, the US Department of the Treasury requested a 30-minute episode of the show that was never aired on television. It was distributed to schools, churches, and civic groups to promote the sale of savings bonds. However, when I watch the show today, I think it got some unfair criticism. There are several episodes when Margaret has just had it with cleaning and cooking for an ungrateful family. The kids are sometimes portrayed as thoughtless and self-absorbed. The three children often disappoint their parents and sometimes the parents are not good role models. I don’t say that in a negative way—it’s a realistic description of a lot of us as teenagers and parents at times.

Robert Young and his business partner Eugene B. Rodney developed the show with Screen Gems. Casting was not an easy task. One of the things they were trying to avoid was stereotyping. They wanted Bud to be absorbed but not flip. Young and Rodney mentioned that it was not easy to do the gags in the right tone, but they knew they had their Bud in Gray in a scene where Jim is worried about Betty getting too serious. Rodney relayed the following story: “As an example”, said Mr. Rodney, “when Jim, worried about Betty’s going steady, reads aloud a newspaper story about a girl eloping and taking $200 with which her aunt was to buy a TV set, our Bud had to be able to look up and ask seriously, ‘What size screen, dad?’ Billy Gray was the only actor that could do it the way we wanted.”

Kathy was a bit harder to cast for; seventy-eight girls auditioned for the role. Chapin had no acting experience before the show, but she seemed more like a regular kid. They wanted Betty to be attractive but not sophisticated. Donahue talked about her auditions in a Television Academy interview. She auditioned once and had to hop out of the tub and run to the audition with her hair a bit of a mess, and they told her she was too young for the part. Her agent got her hair cut, dressed her in a suit with heels and got another tryout for her, but they said she was too old. Her agent kept pestering them to give her one more shot and they did not want to, but finally Rodney agreed if her agent would quit calling him, so they brought her in again. She was all nerves and very anxious and Young tried to calm her down and she auditioned again and felt that she had embarrassed herself and that she had made a terrible impression. However, they called a month later to say that she had been hired.

Jane Wyatt was offered the role of Margaret and rejected it. She wanted to do a show in New York, but when they sent her the script and she read it, she loved it and agreed to the part.

The show began on Sunday nights. It seems a bit odd today that this wholesome family show on Sunday nights was sponsored by Lorillard’s Kent cigarettes. The show became popular with America, but the ratings were not high enough for Kent Cigarettes, and they decided not to extend the 26-episode contract. Fans sent letters, and television columnists got in on the action, encouraging fans to write the president of the CBS network. Kent canceled and Scott Paper then picked it up. Scott moved the show to NBC. By the second season, more than 19 million households watched the show on Wednesday evenings. In 1958 NBC decided to cancel the show, but CBS took it up again for two more years. In 1960 there was a writers’ strike and it lasted long enough that Robert Young decided he was ready to move on in his career. Jane Wyatt was also ready to retire and enjoy her family. The sad thing was that they were never able to say goodbye to each other or wind up the show.

Good scripts were critical for both Rodney and Young. They wanted character motivation. Roswell Rogers and Paul West, the primary writers for the show, took a lot of their material from their own lives. The two writers had seven children between them and included moral lessons built in.

The two major directors were Peter Tewksbury and William D. Russell. As co-owner of the show, Rodney served as producer. He knew everything about the characters. Jane Wyatt related an incident when she asked Rodney what she could do to improve her characterization of Margaret. Rodney told her to love her children as much as her husband. Wyatt realized at that moment that she had been concentrating on the relationship between Jim and Margaret more than her motherly feelings.

If you are a pop culture fan, you will recognize the house as the home of Mr. Wilson on Dennis the Menace and Major Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie. If you pay close attention, sometimes you can see the house in episodes of Bewitched, Hazel, The Monkees, and The Partridge Family. Gracie Allen would have approved of the show’s interior. She liked to do the activity that she was supposed to be doing on the show, and the Andersons had working appliances in their kitchen. While the bedrooms were interchangeable so they could film any of the characters’ rooms, the kitchen had red wallpaper, white cabinets, and blue countertops. Every morning, coffee and sweet rolls were served, and lunches were kept in the refrigerator.

The theme song was titled “Waiting.” It had lyrics but they were never used on the show. It was written by Don A. Ferris and Irving Friedman.

The show was nominated for an Emmy 20 times with 6 wins: Robert Young won for Best Actor in 1957 and 1958, Jane Wyatt won for Best Actress in 1958, 1959 and 1960, and the show received Best Direction for A Single Episode in 1959.

The Andersons had a special place in the heart of many kids growing up during the fifties and in 1977, two reunion movies were made: Father Knows Best Reunion in May and Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas in December. We learn that Betty is a widow with two daughters, Bud is married with one son, and Kathy is recently engaged to a doctor.

Despite the abrupt ending of the show, the cast kept in touch. Donahue said that she really loved Robert Young and considered him her father figure. She, Chapin, and Gray all were in families without a father, although Gray saw his occasionally, so Robert did become a father for them. She said he never had a cross word for any of them and if they were behaving unprofessionally or causing trouble, he would take off his glasses and look down and that was their cue to do better. Perhaps that is why the show rings true for so many people. On the set, their “father” truly did know best.

Little House on the Prairie: Drama On and Off the Set

February 12, 2024December 5, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

This month we are visiting with some of our favorite families. I absolutely would have included The Waltons this month if we had not covered the show recently. However, another historic family, the Ingalls, is on the schedule. Little House on the Prairie was on the air for nine seasons. Many of us got to know the family through Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books.

Television producer Ed Friendly acquired the film and television rights from the books. Oddly enough, the other show Friendly is known for as producer is Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In. He decided to make Little House a two-hour pilot and asked Michael Landon to direct it. Landon agreed to do so if he could also play Pa, Charles Ingalls. The pilot aired in March of 1974, and in September the series began.

Along with starring in the show, Landon continued to direct as well; he directed 87 of the 204 episodes. The other directors included William F. Claxton, Victor French, Maury Dexter, and Leo Penn.

Landon also got in on the writing of several episodes. He had written several scripts for Bonanza when he appeared on that show, and several of them were recycled for Little House.

Like The Waltons, while this series was often happy with comedic notes, it dealt with many serious issues as well, including alcoholism, drug addiction, poverty, racism, child abuse, and rape. The show focused on the struggles and joys of a pioneer family living in the late 1800s.

Along with Landon, Karen Grassle played Ma, Melissa Gilbert played Laura, Melissa Sue Anderson was Mary, with Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush alternating as Carrie. In addition to the Ingalls family, other town folk on the show included Nellie Oleson (Alison Arngrim), Nels Oleson (Richard Bull), Harriet Oleson (Katherine “Scottie” MacGregor, and Miss Beadle (Charlotte Stewart).

Some of the guest stars included Willie Aames, Anne Archer, Lew Ayres, Hermione Baddeley, Ken Berry, Ray Bolger, Ernest Borgnine, Johnny and June Carter Cash, Burl Ives, Charles Lane, Vera Miles, Sean Penn, and Ray Walston.

The theme song, “The Little House,” was written and conducted by David Rose. Rose won two Emmys for his work on the show.Although the pilot ranked #3 for the 1974 ratings, the first two seasons were much lower. Season 3 found the show on Monday nights where it remained one of the highest-ranking series through season 7. Season 8 had a significant decline and season 9, with the loss of most of the family members, never really caught on with viewers. However, season two is the only year the show was not in the top 30. The schedule was a bit crazy when you analyze it. Although, this show did have to compete with The Jeffersons and WKRP in Cincinnati, because they were half-hour shows and this was an hour show, many people probably continued watching the second half. For many of these years, there were up to six different shows in this time spot on CBS and many of them changed from year to year, so there were rarely shows in this spot against Little House for more than a month or two.

After eight seasons, both Michael Landon and Karen Grassle were ready to move on; however, Landon did stay on as a director and writer. The show focused on Laura Almanzo and the younger generation for the ninth and final season.

The show was loved by critics as well as viewers and received sixteen Emmy nominations. The series won four of them, all for music and cinematography. The only cast member nominated was Melissa Sue Anderson; she lost to Sada Thompson for Family.

Viewers were not ready to leave the Ingalls for good. Three made-for-tv movies were written: Little House: Look Back to Yesterday in 1983, Little House: The Last Farewell and Little House: Bless All the Dear Children, both in 1984. In 2008 the Ingalls’ lives also became a musical at the Guthrie Theater.

One fun story is when the show moved from Paramount to MGM Studios in the late seventies, they were uncovering sets so they could build new ones and found the yellow brick road from the Wizard of Oz which delighted the kids in the cast; I’m guessing it delighted many of the adults as well.

Another fun story was learning what the cast ate on the show. Since beef stew was a popular meal in the 1800s, the family often had that for its meal and when they did, they were actually eating Dinty Moore Beef Stew. When they had chicken, it was KFC that appeared on their plates.

The kids must have been troopers because each episode took about seven days to shoot. They were on location at Big Sky Ranch for four days and in the studio for interior shots about three days. In addition, they were probably witnesses to off-air scenes that were not the best. Grassle and Landon were not close, probably because his role seemed much bigger than hers and he was directing as well. Unfortunately, both Grassle and Landon were alcoholics, and alcohol was part of their life on set. During season four, Grassle quit when she realized the seriousness of her problem. Landon was never able to kick his dependence and died from pancreatitis.

Gilbert said that Michael Landon had interesting ways to inspire his kids to get emotional on the set. He worked himself up to become very emotional and with eyes full of tears would ask her “Do you know how much I love you?” which would bring tears to her eyes as well.

It might have been a way to get her to cry, but it was not a lie. Gilbert lost her own father when she was eleven, and Landon became a second father to her. He often had Gilbert at his house on the weekends. She said it was a huge house and the kids ran through the house at will. Often Landon would hide behind doorways and jump out and scare them. Gilbert said Landon provided her with a lot of great advice. The most memorable for her was that nothing is more of a priority than home and family, and no success is as important as loving your people and contributing to a community. And to have fun above all in your career.

That is sage fatherly advice for us all to remember.

We Never Really Left Leave It to Beaver

February 5, 2024December 5, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are learning about America’s favorite families. Today we are spending some time with the Cleaver family. In the past we have talked quite a bit about The Brady Bunch, and in some ways, Leave It to Beaver is like that show. The Brady Bunch portrayed the 1970s and although they have been on the air since that first episode debuted, the show never cracked the top twenty. The Cleavers taught us about the 1950s. That show also never got into the top thirty during its six-season run but has been on the air most of the past 65 years.

The show was originally written to feature Theodore or Beaver played by Jerry Mathers. Beaver gets into a lot of mischief, but he is a good kid and always means well. He has an older brother Wally, played by Tony Dow. His parents are Ward (Hugh Beaumont) and June (Barbara Billingsley). I thought it was interesting that all four of the stars appeared in every single episode of the show, 234 of them.

We also got to know some of the boys’ best friends as well. Beaver hangs out with Larry Mondello (Rusty Stevens) and Gilbert Bates (Stephen Talbot). He also spends time with Gus an old fireman played by Burt Mustin who seemed old even then. Wally is often with Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford (Frank Bank) whose father is friends with Ward and Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond). Eddie is overly polite to Ward and June who are never fooled by his manners; he often picks on Beaver.

Mathers said that when he went to the audition, he went in his Cub Scout uniform because he didn’t want to be late for the den meeting. He was so honest and innocent about wanting to get to his Scout meeting that the producers hired him.

Tony Dow never planned on getting a part. He had been in one commercial but no television series. He was an athlete and a diving champion and great swimmer. He had been working out at the Hollywood athletic club and a lifeguard there asked Dow’s mom if Tony could go with him to the audition. Dow ended up getting the part. Mathers later corroborated the story in his blog, saying that the actor who was in the pilot grew five inches the following year and was as tall as Beaumont, so they decided to hire another kid for the role. They wanted someone who looked like an athlete, so they chose Dow.

Beaumont took some inspiration from his studies to be a wise and caring father. He held a Master of Theology degree from USC and was an ordained minister. In addition to acting, Beaumont wrote one entire episode, contributed to several others, and directed 23 episodes.

While Beaumont contributed to the scripts, the show was primarily created by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, and many of the plots were based on their children.

CBS put Leave It to Beaver on the air Wednesday nights in 1957. I can see where the ratings might suffer because the show was on during the last half of both Wagon Train and Disneyland, so a lot of viewers were watching another show at the time.

The network decided to drop the show at the end of the year, but ABC picked it up and extended its run for five more years. The new network aired it Thursday nights up against repeats of I Love Lucy and a show I know nothing about called Jefferson Drum. The description is that a widowed father starts a newspaper in a western town. The next season the show appeared on Friday nights with another move the following year to Saturday nights. In its fifth season it stayed on Saturday nights but switched times and the sixth season found it on Thursday nights against Perry Mason and Dr. Kildare. At that point, Jerry Mathers wanted to have a normal high school life, and the show ended.

The theme of the show is probably one of the best-known television themes. It was “The Toy Parade” composed by David Kahn, Melvyn Leonard, and Mort Greene.

In 1983, “Still the Beaver” aired to catch us up on the Cleaver family. Beaumont had passed away, but the rest of the cast showed up for the reunion. It led to a reboot that ran for four years from 1985-89 called The New Leave It to Beaver. Beaver and Lumpy run Ward’s business. Beaver lives in their family home. June is still living there, taking care of Beaver’s two boys. Eddie Haskell is still in Mayfield with his son Freddie. Wally is now a lawyer living in town, married and expecting his first child.

Ward and June took a lot of heat for being stereotypical parents in the show. While there was definitely some unrealistic behavior, fans continued to flock to the show for decades and now, almost 70 years after the first airing, it is still on the air and gaining new generations of viewers. June gets made fun of for wearing pearls and high heels, but when she was asked about that, she admitted that she wore the pearls because she had an indentation on her neck that she thought did not look good on film and the pearls covered it up. She said she wore heels because she had to be taller than the boys.

Mathers is the only remaining primary cast member; the rest of the crew has passed away. He has admitted that the family on television was also close off the air. Mathers became good friends with Ken Osmond. When Dow passed away, Matters wrote, “It is with the utmost sadness I learned this morning of my costar and lifelong friend Tony Dow’s passing. He was not only my brother on tv but in many ways in life as well. Tony leaves an empty place in my heart that won’t be filled. He was always the kindest, most generous, gentle, loving, sincere, and humble man, that it was my honor and privilege to know. Of Beaumont, he said, “we had a good chemistry and . . . I was very glad that he was picked for the role and we had a wonderful friendship for his entire life until he passed away from a heart attack. Hugh and my dad had become friends and he occasionally came to our house to play cards with my father and his friends.” He also had fond words for Billingsley, that she was “a good friend and an even better mentor. . . I was lucky enough to work with her for six years and have a life-long relationship with her. She was a very kind woman and a generous philanthropist who supported many charities.”

Like some of the Brady kids, Mathers thought once he left the show, he left show business behind him. He attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California and had a typical teenage life. He enlisted in the US Air Force Reserves, attaining the rank of sergeant. He also was in a band called Beaver and the Trappers. After graduation, he worked as a loan officer at a bank and got involved in real estate. At the end of the 1970s, he decided to star with Dow in a stage production of “Boeing, Boeing” in Kansas City and afterward, the two of them toured in “So Long, Stanley” for 18 months. In 1981, Mathers began working as a DJ and, not long after, the reunion movie and reboot of the tv show was offered to him.

I will admit that I have never been a huge fan of Leave It to Beaver. I never thought of it as a bad show, but I was just interested in other shows more. It is pretty incredible that it has been on the air for so many decades and still finds new viewers. I think I gravitate more to The Brady Bunch because it reflects the decade that I grew up in. It must be very strange for a person to live a role for six years, walk away at age 15 or so and then come back to it two decades later. From everything I read, both Mathers and Dow came away from their acting careers unscathed from so much of what you read other child actors had to endure. Along with Ron Howard, they seem to have been able to have a fairly normal life off the set. I think it’s great that Hugh Beaumont became friends with Mather’s father. They seem to have experienced the same great relationships with their tv parents that Patty Duke, Shelley Fabares, and Paul Petersen did. It’s always nice to hear that a show about a favorite American family in pop culture is also a great family away from the set.

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.

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