I listened to Radio Showtime with Bill Eberle on WVKR off of steaming radio from ITunes. I listened to "The Life of Riley" with William Bendix and it was great.:) It was fun to listen to it on radio.:) I've been an old time radio fan since the early 90's. But now, I'm still listening to old time radio.:) I hope that it will be on radio soon for more episode from "The Life of Riley".

Hi! Glad to meet another LIFE OF RILEY fan. As a matter of fact, right now I
am listening to an audio cassette of the radio version of THE LIFE OF RILEY.
William Bendix was a great comedic actor. I have two episodes of the radio
show (the Father's Day episode on tape and the Thanksgiving episode on a
record album that I transferred to tape) and four episodes on video of the TV series. I also have one episode ("Babs' School Election") on DVD. I have one other piece of memorabilia from
the show: the one Dell comic book that was published (Mike Sekowsky, who drew DC's
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA was the artist). As you probably know, Mr. Bendix succumbed to pneumonia in 1964, at age 58 (the same age that I am now). Much too soon.

Trivia note: Tom D'Andrea (who was great as TV's Jim Gillis) was one of the
inspirations for Daws Butler's cartoon voice Super Snooper (on the QUICK DRAW
McGRAW show). The other one was Ed Gardner's Archie on DUFFY'S TAVERN.
He combined the two voices to create one of the "most sly and subtle characters to ever appear in animated cartoons" (quoting Ben Ohmart's biography, DAWS BUTLER: CHARACTERS ACTOR).

Thanx for all the info. WOW I never knew all that! I saw part of one of the Jackie Gleason episodes on late night TV once, YEARS ago, in 1977. (yes, I'm THAT old!) I remember, I didn't think it was Jackie Gleason, and I was telling my father that when he asked if it was. But then, when I saw his name in the closing credits, I was surprised!

I have never seen Jackie Gleason's version of THE LIFE OF RILEY. But I do know
from photographs that Gleason looked very different in his younger days (much
slimmer).

....'TV Star Collector'. No matter how primitive or cheap the show looked, Jackie was always front and center. Irving Brecher KNEW he hired a "star in the making", even if Jackie's interpretation of Riley was slightly different than William Bendix's. One line Gleason said that always made me laugh was when, in a January 1950 episode, Babs Riley's boyfriend Simon is reading a play he wrote that Riley overhears, and naturally jumps to the conclusion that Babs and Simon are going to run off together and leave him "rotting in a dungeon"...

SIMON: (reading from maunscript) "I am Thor! I come from a long and noble line!"
RILEY: (enters, blood in his eye, roaring) ALL RIGHT, THOR, THIS IS THE END OF THE LINE!!!
BABS: Daddy!
PEG: You're early...
RILEY: SIMON, GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE!
SIMON: Gee, what did I do?
RILEY: Taking innocent girls to Coney Island, while their fathers rot in a dungeon...!
PEG: That's just a play they're rehearsing!!
RILEY: A play? (sheepishly) Oh......
GILLIS: Well, personally, I hate theater! 'Night! [he leaves]

:)

I have some episodes of the radio show on cassette. I recorded them back in the 80s when some radio stations (including one in my area) used to play radio shows from the 30s, 40s, and 50s.