Remember - Digger O'Dell ?

[High Miles]

/*The Life of Riley*/, with William Bendix
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bendix> in the title role, is a
popular American radio <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio> situation
comedy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation_comedy> series of the
1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_film>, a long-run 1950s television
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television> series (originally with Jackie
Gleason <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Gleason> as Riley) and a
1958 Dell comic book.

The show began as a proposed Groucho Marx
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. (Groucho went on to
host /Blue Ribbon Town <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ribbon_Town>/
from 1943 to 1944 and then /You Bet Your Life
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Bet_Your_Life>/ from 1947 to 1961.)
Then producer Irving Brecher
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Brecher> saw Bendix as taxicab
company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Roach>'s /The McGuerins from Brooklyn/
(1942). /The Flotsam Family/ was reworked with Bendix cast as blundering
Chester A. Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft
plant in California. His frequent exclamation of indignation became one
of the most famous catch phrases
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_phrase> 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."

[Dan C]

On Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:16:44 -0500, High Miles wrote:

<SNIP>

Don't post HTML garbage in a Usenet newsgroup, you dumb fuck.

[Jim_Higgins]

Post by High Miles
/*The Life of Riley*/, with William Bendix
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bendix> in the title role, is a
popular American radio <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio> situation
comedy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation_comedy> series of the
1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_film>, a long-run 1950s television
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television> series (originally with Jackie
Gleason <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Gleason> as Riley) and a
1958 Dell comic book.
The show began as a proposed Groucho Marx
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. (Groucho went on to
host /Blue Ribbon Town <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ribbon_Town>/
from 1943 to 1944 and then /You Bet Your Life
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Bet_Your_Life>/ from 1947 to 1961.)
Then producer Irving Brecher
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Brecher> saw Bendix as taxicab
company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Roach>'s /The McGuerins from Brooklyn/
(1942). /The Flotsam Family/ was reworked with Bendix cast as blundering
Chester A. Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft
plant in California. His frequent exclamation of indignation became one
of the most famous catch phrases
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_phrase> 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."

Thanks for the post, brought back some good memories :-)