#RILEY STEELE LIFE ON TOP SERIES#

#RILEY STEELE LIFE ON TOP SERIES#

Riley Farnsworth and had no real connection with the more famous series that followed a few years later. The CBS program starred Lionel Stander as J. The first Life of Riley radio show was a summer replacement show heard on CBS from Apto September 6, 1941. These coins, called вЂњO'ReillysвЂќ and вЂњReilly's,вЂќ became synonymous with a monied person, and a gentleman freely spending was вЂњliving on his Reillys.вЂќ The expression was popular in the 1880s, a time when James Whitcomb Riley's poems depicted the comforts of a prosperous home life, but it could have an Irish origin: After the Reilly clan consolidated its hold on County Cavan, they minted their own money, accepted as legal tender even in England. Rather than a negative freeloading or golddigging aspect, it instead implies that someone is kept or advantaged. The expression, 'Living the life of Riley' suggests an ideal contented life, possibly living on someone else's money, time or work. His frequent exclamation of indignation became one of the most famous catchphrases of the 1940s: 'What a revoltin' development this is!' The radio series benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby 'Digger' O'Dell (John Brown), 'the friendly undertaker.' Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft plant in California.

The Flotsam Family was reworked with Bendix cast as blundering Chester A. (Groucho went on to host Blue Ribbon Town from 1943 to 1944 and then You Bet Your Life from 1947 to 1961.) Then producer Irving Brecher saw Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach's The McGuerins from Brooklyn (1942).

The show began as a proposed Groucho Marx radio series, The Flotsam Family, but the sponsor balked at what would have been essentially a straight head-of-household role for the comedian. Cooper even filled in for Bendix on 11/11/49 due to illness. The Life of Riley, with William Bendix in the title role, is a popular American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, a long-run 1950s television series (originally with Jackie Cooper as Riley for 1 truncated season, then with Bendix for 6 seasons), and a 1958 Dell comic book.

Riley steele life on top