Does anyone know which episodes Gleason was in? I remember watching this about 15 years ago and not liking it much. I guess I thought the character was to much of a sissy, compared to Ralph Kramden. i'm gonna watch it again to see if I still feel the same way.

They were 2 different shows and weren't syndicated together.. The ones you saw were probably the William Bendix episodes.

Twenty-five years ago on CBN they only ran the second series--and not all eps of it at that--but the Jackie Gleason episodes (1949-50) and Wm Bendix episodes (1953-58) have been syndicated together as one package more recently.

Gleason's season as Riley was in 1949, if I remember correctly. It's not his signature role, but it is fun to watch and try to see glimpses of his other characters in his performance, though.

I watched the series when WPIX aired it in the 1980s, and recently discovered a couple episodes I recorded on Betamax. The series with Gleason was ok, nothing special, and he wasn't even fat then!

I hated the theme song. It was just someone whistling with no instruments or anything.

I do remember Jackie being the father. I think it was part of a 2 tape box set that I bought in the early 90's on VHS. I see that ebay has several volumes of this show and they are showing volumes 1-6 as having Jackie on them in 1949. I guess he played on about 24 episodes....This seams a little over priced to me. About 55 bucks plus shipping to get all of these. Sheesh! That's a lot more than the classic 39!!! Supply and demand I guess, being it's kinda rare...
http://search.stores.ebay.com/the-life-of-riley-jackie-gleason_DVD-HD-DVD-Blu-ray_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQfobfmtZ1QQfposZ32907QQfromZR10QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsabfmtsZ2QQsacatZ617QQsadisZ200QQsaobfmtsZsifonlyQQsargnZQ2d1QQsaslcZ2QQsbrftogZ1QQsofocusZbsQQsofpZ4