''Life with Luigi'' is an American radio situation comedy series which began September 21, 1948, on CBS Radio and broadcast its final episode on March 3, 1953. The action centered on Luigi Basco, an antique shop owner, and his experiences as a newly arrived Italian immigrant in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Many episodes took place at the night school classes that Luigi attended with other immigrants from different countries. Another common theme involved Luigi's landlord/sponsor, Pasquale, scheming to get Luigi to marry his obese daughter. Perennial

character actor A character actor is an actor known for playing unusual, eccentric, or interesting character (arts), characters in supporting roles, rather than leading ones.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrie ...

and two-time Academy Award nominee J. Carrol Naish played Luigi. ''Life with Luigi'' was created by Cy Howard, who had earlier created the hit radio comedy, '' My Friend Irma''. The working title was ''The Little Immigrant'', echoed in the sign-off of each episode, "Your lovin-a son-a, Luigi Basco, the li'l immigrant." Other characters on the show included Pasquale (

Alan Reed Alan Reed (born Herbert Theodore Bergman; August 20, 1907 – June 14, 1977) was an American actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on ''The Flintstones'' and various spinoff series. He also appeared in many films, includin ...

), another Italian immigrant who is always trying to trap Luigi into marrying his daughter Rosa ( Jody Gilbert); Miss Spaulding ( Mary Shipp), Luigi's night school teacher and ideal woman; and Schultz (

Hans Conried Hans Georg Conried Jr. (April 15, 1917 – January 5, 1982) was an American actor and comedian. He was known for providing the voices of George Darling and Captain Hook in Walt Disney's '' Peter Pan'' (1953), Snidely Whiplash in Jay Ward's ...

), a German immigrant and fellow student in Luigi's citizenship class. The other night school classmates were Horowitz (Joe Forte) and the Swedish Olsen (Ken Peters). Native Chicagoan Jimmy ( Gil Stratton), Luigi's young helper at the store, featured in the early episodes. Each episode used the framing device of Luigi narrating a letter to his mother back in Italy. The show was popular, successfully competing with

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian, actor, entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared ...

's '' The Pepsodent Show''. For most of its run, ''Life with Luigi'' aired at 9 pm on Tuesdays. Despite an estimated 30% share of the audience in its timeslot, the show was without a sponsor until Wrigley's Gum bought it in 1950, continuing till the show ended in 1953.

TV version

A live

CBS Television CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

version aired beginning on September 22, 1952, but was short-lived. Naish, Reed, Gilbert, and Shipp all reprised their radio characters on the television show. Originating at KNXT in Hollywood, the program was sponsored by I nstant Maxwell House Coffee. Mac Benoff produced and

Norman Tokar Norman Tokar (November 25, 1919 – April 6, 1979) was an American film director, director, actor and occasionally writer and producer of serial television and feature films, who directed many of the early episodes of ''Leave it to Beaver'', and ...

directed. Benoff and Lou Derman were the writers, and Lud Gluskin directed the music. Although it enjoyed high ratings, the show was pulled because of pressure from the Italian-American community. CBS tried to respond to advertisers' concerns by tinkering with the characters, the writing, and replacing Naish, Reed and Gilbert with Vito Scotti,

Thomas Gomez Thomas Gomez (July 10, 1905 – June 18, 1971) was an American actor. Life and career Spanish on his father (Sabino Tomás Gómez)'s side (Gibraltar and Santander, Spain) and French-Irish on his mother's side (Alsace and County Cork), Gomez's ...

, and Muriel Landers respectively, but the revised show was unsuccessful and was cancelled within weeks.

References

External links

"Citizenship"
1951 ''Life with Luigi'' TV episode, at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

*{{IMDb title, 0044274 1940s American radio programs American comedy radio programs American radio dramas CBS Radio programs Radio programs adapted into television shows 1952 American television series debuts 1952 American television series endings American live television series Italian-American history 1950s American sitcoms Black-and-white American television shows American English-language television shows Television series based on radio series Works about immigration to the United States CBS sitcoms