The Life of Riley starring Jackie Gleason (1949)

This is a fascinating and awful sitcom. There have been a lot of things on the site recently that could be categorized as such, and the steady stream isn't about to slow down any time soon. Anyway, in 1949 William Bendix was busy making movies for Universal and wasn't able to appear in the initial television version of his popular radio series. Instead the producers went with some B-movie bum named Jackie Gleason - making his television debut. Three years after this failed run, a revamped television version of The Life of Riley came to the airwaves with Bendix back in the starring role. Gleason of course was busy on a different TV series.