Remember Lucy wanting to tell Ricky she was going to have a baby? Remember them going to the hospital and Ricky being a nervous wreck. He needed more attention that Lucy? It was all in a "Life of Riley" episode.
Remember Ricky bringing home a fur coat and Lucy thinking it was a gift for her? He didn't know how to tell her it wasn't a gift for her? It was all in a "Life of Riley" episode.Funny how we think that "I Love Lucy" was so inventive. It was, but they were already "borrowing" plots from other shows even in television's infancy.
Pretty cool that we can watch these old shows on Roku or Youtube. Gleason was only on for one season as Chester Riley. William Bendix took over as he played the role on the radio version and in the movies. Gleason went on to bigger and better things. He never forgot his role of Riley apparently as on that show he used the line "You are a mental case," which of course Ralph Kramden on "The Honeymooners" was also heard to have uttered!
Jackie Gleason went on to major stardom in "The Honeymooners" and put Miami on the map with his shows from there. I read somewhere that his theater in Miami is in trouble. Apparently he isn't remembered as "The Great One" anymore. Wow. To those who don't remember him, YOU are a mental case!
