July
23, 1997
Page
8
PERSPECTIVES (Column)
'Life of Riley' Gets Network Airing 25 Years
After Appeals Court Authorized Broadcasts
By ROGER M. GRACE
Twenty five years after the Court of Appeal gave a green light to the rebroadcasting of episodes from the 1949-50 "Life of Riley"; television series starring Jackie Gleason, that series has returned to national television.
This was the show that gave Gleason, then a struggling young comedian, his start in broadcasting and it's the show that Gleason and his lawyers tried in later years to keep off the air permanently.
Though it's back, "from coast to coast," it's hardly a prime-time show, being relegated to the 8 a.m. time slot on Saturdays and Sundays on Nick at Nite's TV-Land cable network. Yet, the viewership nowadays, even at that hour (and at all other hours via home-videotaping) undoubtedly is considerably greater than it was when the show was originally broadcast on Tuesday nights at 9:30 on NBC.
There just weren't many TV stations in the U.S. then less than five dozen NBC outlets across the nation and television sets were still ranked a luxury.
When it debuted on Oct. 4, 1949, "Life of Riley" became the first show filmed especially for broadcasting. Shot with a single camera on 35mm film, reduced to 16mm, the visual quality of the prints is not impressive, but the historic and nostalgic value of the series, as well as the top-notch performances and scripts, render the show well worth watching.
By the time the 1950 Emmys were handed out, there were other shows on the air filmed for television. "Life of Riley" won the prize for the best filmed series, but, creator/writer/producer Irving Brecher reflected in an interview a few days ago, "there wasn't much competition then."
There were 26 episodeseach, Brecher recounts, filmed in a day. Gleason was paid $500 per episode, he notes. That was $200 less than the amount recited in a Court of Appeal opinion handed down 22 years after the show went off the air.
The show ended its brief run on March 28, 1950, each of the episodes having been aired only once. At the time, Brecher says, he and Gleason "parted on the friendliest of bases."
As Brecher tells it, Gleason was "out of work," was trying to line up night club engagements, and "was not a big star" then. So, he agreed to give him 10 percent of the gross proceeds on any reruns of the series, after expenses were deducted.
That agreement was not part of the star's contract. In fact, incredible as it would seem to entertainment lawyers today, there was no contract. An option agreement had recited that if Brecher were to hire Gleason for the series, "we shall enter into a formal contract embodying the provisions herein contained and such other terms and provisions as are usual and customary in contracts of this character...." But, as of early 1950, representatives of Brecher and Gleason were still working out the contract.
After the series ended, an attorney appearing to be representing Gleason exchanged correspondence both with Brecher's agent and with Brecher's lawyer concerning Brecher's promise to pay Gleason 10 percent of the proceeds from reruns after deduction of expenses. Differences were expressed as to what deductions would be considered reasonable. No resolution was reached.
In 1952, NBC sought an assignment of rights to "Life of Riley," intending to give it another go since William Bendix had become available to play the lead character, riveter Chester A. Riley. Bendix, who had been Brecher's first choice to portray Riley on television, had that part on radio since Brecher launched the series on Jan. 16, 1944, and had undertaken the role in the 1949 "Life of Ruley"movie. Brecher made a deal with NBC under which the network would air the new series, then retain syndication rights for 10 years after it was dropped from the network lineup. The series lasted on NBC from 1953-58.
In case you don't remember watching the new "Life With Riley" series in Los Angeles on the NBC owned-and-operated station, Channel 4 (then bearing the call letters KNBH), your memory isn't failing you. Early seasons of the show were beamed on the independent KTTV, "that good looking Channel 11." It started out on Wednesday nights, sponsored by H.J. Caruso, the car dealer with the jingle that proclaimed, "He's the Greatest." Then it was seen on Saturday nights, teamed with "Badge 714" (reruns of Dragnet), with Art Baker, of "You Asked for It" fame, serving as host for the hour.
Meanwhile, Gleason was at CBS portraying bus driver Ralph Kramden, the most popular of his characters, as well as Reginald Van Gleason III, Joe the Bartender, and the Poor Soul.
On March 4, 1968, Brecher wrote to Gleason:
"Happily, NBC's rights in 'Riley' under a license I granted in 1952, have just expired. The TV series we made is now cleared for reruns."
He went on to say:
"You may recall that you will share, according to our agreement, in the proceeds. It seems to me those proceeds might be greatly increased if your organization was actively involved in exploiting the films to our joint benefit, resulting in an ultimate capital gains consequence for both of us...."
Brecher assured Gleason that even if he did not join in promoting the reruns, he would "still share in the re-runs, as agreed: 10% of the gross proceeds received by me after first deducting distribution charges, agency commissions and payments required to be paid to personnel by recognized unions or guilds."
If the vintage shows had been promoted as Brecher urged, perhaps billed as "lost episodes" a tag Gleason was later to use in successfully marketing "Honeymooners" segments stored in his vault for decades the vintage "Riley" shows might have gained substantial commercial value. But such was not to be. Gleason responded to Brecher, through an attorney, that exhibition of the episodes was precluded because no agreement was ever reached over compensation for the star in the event the shows were rerun.
Brecher says he learned that the real reason Gleason didn't want the shows exhibited was the contrast between his appearance in 1949-50 and later countenance.
"In my films, he was 170 pounds and good-looking," Brecher remarks, adding that Gleason was to become "a big, fat slob."
That rationale behind Gleason's effort to suppress the rebroadcasting of the first "Life of Riley" series was confirmed by a knowledgeable person I talked to who had been close to Gleason.
Brecher brought a declaratory relief action in the Los Angeles Superior Court. It was tried before then-Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Feinerman (later a presiding justice of the Court of Appeal, and now retired).
Feinerman found, based on testimony, that what was "usual and customary in contracts" for the use of an actor's services in films of the era in which the "Life of Riley" was aired was unrestricted continued use of that actor's likeness without additional compensation no residuals, no share in the proceeds. He held that Brecher could syndicate the films without further payment to Gleason.
For Gleason, it was "And away we go" to the Court of Appeal. That court, in an opinion by then-Justice Macklin Fleming (now serving on assignment on the Los Angeles Superior Court) rejected the comedian's bid to keep the old films off the air. It held in 1972's Brecher v. Gleason, 27 Cal.App.3d 496, that it was within the contemplation of the parties that the show would be rerun.
However, it also held that an agreement was reached (through the exchange of letters) as to Gleason's share of the proceeds unless it were shown on remand that, as alleged by Gleason, the lawyer who purported to represent him lacked the authority to do so; and that, if there was a lack of authority, the trial court would fix the sum at one reasonable under the conditions prevailing in 1949.
The fallacy of the opinion is that a binding contract was formed by the letters. They were written after Gleason had fully performed.
Gleason's attorney, Christian E. Markey Jr. (who went on to become a member of the Los Angeles Superior Court and is now retired from the bench), is not able to shed much light on the case. He says that as far as he recalls, the case just "went away" after the Court of Appeal opinion. Actually, there were further proceedings; Feinerman issued a memorandum of decision on June 26, 1973 specifying what deductions were reasonable, and a judgment was signed and filed Sept. 20, 1973.
Assisting Markey in the Court of Appeal was a young lawyer in the firm, Dennis C. Brown. Brown is still with the firm, now known as Munger, Tolles & Olson. He says he has no recollection of the case, at all.
Gleason died in 1987. While he had attained "show business immortality," his characterization of Riley is largely forgotten.
The
scripting of "Life of Riley" for radio, television and the cinema was not
one of Brecher's most prominent accomplishments. He's better known as an Academy
Award nominee, for his writing of Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and as the
screenwriter of two Marx Brothers classics, At the Circus (1939) and Go West
(1940). And there were various memorable hits of his such as For Me and My
Gal (1942), DuBarry Was a Lady (1943), 
Ziegfeld Follies (1946), and Bye Bye
Birdie (1963). Brecher also wrote the television series, "The People's Choice"
(featuring the later-copied technique of a dog's thoughts expressed in voice-overs).
In the years following the litigation, episodes of the original "Life of Riley" series were aired in syndication, though not here. Four of the 26 episodes were released in 1984 on videotape.
The shows are pleasant and unpretentious. A trim Gleason was "the great one" even then. Rosemary DeCamp, playing Peg Riley, was even more ingratiating in that role than the late Marjorie Reynolds in the later version.
(DeCamp went on to portray Bob Cummins' sister, Margaret, in the comedy series, "Love That Bob," and later was cast as Marlo Thomas' mother in "That Girl." Gloria Winters, the pert ingenue who portrayed daughter Babs Riley, was later to become the niece in "Sky King.")
The "Life of Riley" shows were smut-free. Nowadays, by contrast, the formula for sitcoms is that characters are foul-mouthed, families are dysfunctional, and topics once taboo are the themes. As Riley would so adroitly phrase it: "What a revoltin' development this is!"
The opening of the shows featured a still graphic a painting of the Rileys' tree-shaded house at 1313 Blue View Terrace in Los Angeles and the sound of melodious whistling.
While this had simplistic charm and distinctiveness, it was based not on artistry but on the need to save money. Brecher couldn't afford an orchestra. "I hired a girl for a hundred bucks" to whistle the recorded theme, he recounts.
(If a producer of today were to start off a show with an unaccompanied whistled theme, he or she would be bound to be hailed as an innovative genius.)
The episodes, as seen on TV Land, have a laugh track. (It isn't noticeable; you only notice laugh tracks when, as on Bob Newhart's ill-starred third series, lines that aren't funny are met with chuckles.) However, when Brecher made the films, a laugh track was outside his budget, and he added it subsequent to the original run.
The budget was small and yet, according to the Court of Appeal opinion, production was halted because Brecher lost $52,000 on the project.
Brecher explains that the sponsor, Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer (which also sponsored the radio series), paid him only $8,200 per episode, while his average cost was $10,200 for each installment. He says he filmed the episodes here, at a small studio on Melrose, because the live weekly radio series originated here and flying each week to New York, from whence live TV productions then came, would have rendered his life a "wreck."
Revenues from scriptwriting at MGM allowed him to operate the TV series at a loss, Brecher says, adding that he was willing to incur losses for another 13 weeks. In those days, and into the late 1950s, a series had 39 weekly episodes a year, followed by 13 weeks of reruns or a summer replacement.
Brecher says that when NBC offered to air another six episodes, but wouldn't commit to 13, he said no thanks.
So, the series ended. Now 38 years later, legal efforts to block it from ever being aired again having failed, it is being rebroadcast on a network for the first time.
Copyright 1997, Metropolitan News Company