What I watched: The eighth episode of The Life of Riley, an early sitcom. The episode starred Jackie Gleason, Rosemary DeCamp, Lanny Rees, Gloria Winters, Sid Tomack and Jimmy Lydon. It was directed by Herbert I. Leeds, and written by Irving Belcher, Reuben Shipp, and Alan Lipscott. “Riley, Gillis and Vanderhopper Inc.” aired on NBC at 9:30 PM on Tuesday, November 22, 1949, and is available to watch on Internet Archive.
What happened: It’s apparently date night for Riley and Peg, as they have just got out of a movie and sit down on a bench to “get romantic.” Thankfully, things stay G-rated, and mostly consist of subtle insults. The bench is sponsored by Digger O’Dell, whose real name is apparently “Digby.” They start worrying that Babs is banging nerdy Simon while she’s been left alone, and quickly rush home, with some prodding from a rubbernecking Gillis.
Simon and Babs are indeed alone together at home, and doing some very erotic consultation of his bank account. (No, really.) Simon hides behind the couch before Riley and Peg get home. This leads to some comedy (loosely defined) with Simon wedged in behind the couch, and Riley coming in and out of the room. Eventually, Riley discovers him and kicks him out of the house.
This pisses off both women of the house, and if you’ve noticed that this is very similar to an episode that aired six weeks ago, you’re right. Peg and Babs give Riley an icy reception as they dress for church in the morning. Riley then discovers a piece of paper Simon left behind the couch, which suggests that he has $7000 in the bank account. We know that this was, improbably, just a practice slip he was filing out for his accounting course and that in reality he has barely $7. Gillis pops up (he’s starting to get kind of creepy), and they come up with a plan to start a business with Simon’s money. Yep, it’s a Sitcom Misunderstanding.
After an awkward cut for syndication, Riley and Gillis are backing Simon in a chair and trying to get him comfortable. There’s some punning off the fact that the adults believe that Simon is making a killing in the stock market, while in reality he’s working part-time in a fish market. They pitch their business plan, which is to buy up an antiques shop and replace its old furniture with metallic “new-age antiques.” After Simon eagerly agrees to the plan, Gillis goads Riley to write a letter of resignation to his boss.
Riley mails the letter, much to the anger of Peg. She immediately expresses skepticism over Simon’s bank statement. He shows up again, and eventually Riley realizes that Simon only has $7. Once again, he tells Simon to get out of the house (it’s a catchphrase, albeit a shitty one.) Peg reminds Riley he’s sent in a letter of resignation, and he supplies his other, somewhat less shitty, catchphrase: “What a revolting development this is.”
On Monday, Riley doesn’t feel like going into work, sure that his insulting letter will result in the loss of his job. Simon pops in with a barracuda from the fish market. He also comes bearing good news: Riley forgot to put a stamp on the letter. But Simon paid for express postage, not knowing the letter’s contents! But there’s another cop-out available: the boss couldn’t read Riley’s letter because he’s an “illiterate moron.” So the status quo is restored. Huzzah!
What I thought: There’s SIXTEEN more episodes of this?
The Eternal Couch Potato 