Unreliable advice on how to handle these situations came from Riley's pal Digger O'Dell, the friendly undertaker, who would sneak in a string of dark-humored jokes before he had to be "shoveling off". His real name, it seems, was Herbert O'Dell Smith. Will you care after your death if they take care of you in death as you did your dad? Searching for Herbert ODell Smith took me nowhere, and youd be surprised how many people in America are named Digger ODell. Why, theres Edwin Digger Odell of Abilene, Texas; Allen Digger ODell of Malvern, Iowa; Charles Wayne Digger ODell of Lebanon, Tennessee; Loren Digger ODell of Brookfield, Missouri you get the picture. The bearing of it is so very, very important. I think he was keenly aware of the fact that a good funeral is not about what we buy or what we spend; that a good funeral is very much about what we do when someone dies. "The Life of Riley Quotes." After the boorish Monahan orders the most expensive items on the fancy French menu, however, Riley barely has enough to cover the check. The radio program initially aired on the Blue Network (later known as ABC) from January 16, 1944, to July 8, 1945, it then moved to NBC, where it was broadcast from September 8, 1945, to June 29, 1951. Peg Riley: No thanks, dear. Whether or not my family is involved with the care of my body, that's their business. Riley could easily be described as the Archie Bunker of the 1940s. (CONTINUES HUMMING IN BG) ANNOUNCER: Chester A. Riley: Why should an old man married for years run away with a pretty blond? I have often noticed the difference between the first day that a family will spend here and the next day. Cast & Crew Read More Irving Brecher Director William Bendix Chester A. Riley James Gleason Gillis Rosemary Decamp Peg Riley Bill Goodwin Sidney Monahan Beulah Bondi Miss [Martha] Bogle Film Details Genre Comedy Release Date Mar 1949 Premiere Information The stock market is open. There's this wonderful essay that was written -- I have it framed in the hallway there; the woman's name, I think, is Sullivan who wrote it. I was thrilled to find IA, where I can find some of those classics. You can read in history books about the way a funeral procession was laid out -- which civic group, which ecclesiastical group, which fraternal group, which family group -- how everybody was lined up, so that as people walked in, there was this rise and fall of relationship and grief, and people know this, that good, orderly direction that was assumed by this process, this ritual. Don't you worry about him; we'll pull him through. Babs: Well, I think he ought to get a fair trial. The radio series greatly benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby "Digger" O'Dell (John Brown), "the friendly undertaker." The Life of Riley starring William Bendix as lovable, blundering, Chester A. Riley, was a radio situation comedy broadcast during and after wartime 40s. Everything assumes its natural order. Riley's penchant for turning mere trouble into near-disaster through his well-intentioned bumbling was often aided or instigated by his arch best friend/next-door neighbor, Gillis. Chester A. Riley is back, with long-suffering wife Peg, trouble-prone kids Junior and Babs, moochy pal Gillis, and Digger O'Dell, The Friendly Undertaker in sixteen hilarious half-hour episodes. j.b., memphis. All the same, 100 percent of the people that have gone with us are grateful that we invited them to go. This is standard practice when ordering from Ukraine, according to customers wh. I mean, if it was just a matter of forgetting, we would do that. I'd have to say yeah, they do. Jackie Gleason starred as Riley during the show's first year, while DeCamp and Lanny Rees reprised their film roles for the series. It's that time of year again when gardeners all over the world are planning what to grow in their gardens. And what about the formalities, the particular traditions and customs that are a part of the funeral? I think we're all complicit in the banishment of the dead to the peripheries. The radio series also benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby "Digger" O'Dell (John Brown), "the friendly undertaker." web site copyright 1995-2014 Packed among his riding gear when on tour is a trumpet, and Helm has been known to join local bands in jam sessions. He's a man who's understood In Brooklyn or in Hollywood. 2023 Turner Classic Movies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. I'll be the dead guy, and the dead say nothing. Also, in 1958, it hi John Brown returned as the morbid, counseling undertaker Digby (Digger) O'Dell. After Riley overhears Burt discussing "business" with Norman, he beats up Norman and drags him before the wedding crowd. That is a wheel we can only invent at the time it happens. Give me a sense of the changes in attitudes toward death in America. We make appointments for cremations because we have to go and watch the placement of the body in the retort and the beginning of the process, the identification process that's part of that, and we retrieve the ashes. One of my favorite old time radio characters (other than Jack Benny) was Digger O'Dell "The Friendly Undertaker". But cremation has increased since then by about 10 percent in every decade. Despite Gillis' accusations and Peg's doubts, Riley goes along with the wedding plan until Junior uses the Stevensons' intercom to eavesdrop on Burt's room. [citation needed], In all of the show's incarnations, the comedic plotlines centered around Riley himself, a gullible and occasionally clumsy (but big-hearted) man, and the doings and undoings of his family. Comedy Romance A factory worker's family is thrown into an uproar when his teenage daughter starts to date his boss' son. Just as all appears lost, Riley learns from Burt that he has been promoted to a high-paying executive position. I went back to my father's house, and I remember thinking, "But life goes on." What a revolting development this is! Still, as every grieving person knows, we have to reinvent the wheel in which we are now orphaned. See production, box office & company info, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA. What you're looking at [in the case of someone being there during that time] is everything's in order. We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. Money is involved. And I have found that, whether I'm walking in the door with a stretcher and one of my own to help carry their dead out, or if I'm going to the hospital to visit a sick relative or friend, or if I show up for a funeral at another place, you know, at a distance, they thank you for that. Henry Morgan voiced Riley's father in one episode. So what I find is that before people bring their expertise as an embalmer or as a manager or as an executive or as a director, before any expertise, you ante up your humanity, you know? This character was extremelly successfull, with many puns based on his profession. And something is. As far as I can tell, he performed it in Memphis only twice, but one of those events made the news because the police were summoned to dig up Digger. Peg Riley: Oh? "The Life of Riley Quotes." I cant find any record that Digger ever returned to Bluff City Buick, or to the Bluff City for that matter, to finish the job. Back in Atlanta, a judge allowed him to conduct his stunt for an Atlanta shopping center, but he had to turn the money he would be paid only $2,250 over to his family. No word on whether anyone felt like carrying on the family tradition. Gene Krupa performed his famous drum solo ("Sing, Sing, Sing") on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1960. This is the way I like to remember William Bendix - playing a family man doing the best he can in a world that tends to be a bit too much for him, with children that tend to be a bit too much for him too. But I remember coming home after the mass and the burial and the luncheon, getting back to her house -- it was about 3:00-ish in the afternoon -- and thinking, "The trick-or-treaters are coming." Well, both my parents were buried like Irish Catholics were buried, so there was this sort of tribal and religious language that had been developed over centuries for how we do this. Thanks for any help. A great memorable quote from the The Life of Riley movie on Quotes.net - "It is I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. Once he had to be pulled from his apartment after the dirt sides turned to mud and caved in after a thunderstorm. I always knew I'd bring up my daughter to be somebody someday. P-R-E-L-L! Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. He always knew that the real traffic was between the living and the dead, and it is in managing that and emboldening the living to deal with their dead that you do them the most service. Riley is overjoyed by his unexpected "step up," unaware that Babs asked Burt to offer him the job, and that he did so without his father's knowledge. Everything is going on, and here we are. His dramatic life story is so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit. Web. Irving Brecher's onscreen credit reads: "Written and directed by Irving Brecher." Digger kept up his strange act for many years. Buried alive? He had a very good sense of that. Brecher then saw William Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach's The McGuerins from Brooklyn (1942). I've really come to the point where I can see in a fire all that release; I can see the Holy Spirit in it, you know. Whats more, said one newspaper, in his heyday, he could knock down $15,000 for a 60-day burial. At the mobile home park, the only money he brought home came from contributions. Jim Gillis: Of course it's right. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell : Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. And I suppose this is the message at every graveside: They stay, we go, until we come to that point in which we are brought there, and we stay and they go. And that is the cruel part, and that is the good news and the bad news all at once -- that things are happening even so. I've always been touched by the fact that there seems to be as much laughter as weeping at the big life events. Peg Riley: Maybe he's sick or something. Let me begin this strange tale by saying that minutes and minutes of research failed to turn up many verifiable facts about Smith oh, good grief, lets just call him Digger here. Well. I see it all as part of the one journey, all as part of the one pilgrimage. A cover was placed over his apartment and he was sealed in, with the intention being to break the personal record of 57 days that he had set here during his previous visit to Memphis, though that location wasnt mentioned. The only place your son will get his picture is in the post office. I think mine will know what to do, too, not because I've said, "Do this or that," but because they have seen life as I have seen it, and they sort of know me and I know them. So I'm interested in it. Another gardener is pla, Growing Peppers in Your Garden: Tips, Hardening Off and Soil Mix, Growing peppers is a great way to spice up your garden. And for those who are unchurched or unfamiliar in any tradition that gives them sort of the framework for this, a funeral home is still a safe place to talk about matters mortuary and matters of mortality. It's a culture that doesn't like to be reminded of mortality. By what name was The Life of Riley (1949) officially released in Canada in English? And the components of a funeral sometimes change. Years later I had audio tapes to which I listened to repeatidly and learned to really admire Digger's council to Reilly via puns related to the profession of undertaking. So yeah, it is the good news and the bad news. William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eiler - plus series creator Irving Brecher . In many ways they're all replicated by this journey that we take between the living and the dead when someone dies, this procession. It's not always the same thing, and for everyone it's different. We get to say when people are dead to us, or dead enough, so that we can let them go. So yes, the hurt is there, but the hurt does not overwhelm. Slap, slap, slap Rip, Rip, Rip it's over! I figure once a year, every married man should get away from his wife for a few days. William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eilerplus series creator Irving Brecher . "[2], The reworked script cast Bendix as blundering Chester A. Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft plant in California. Chester A. Riley: What do you think I'm paying you ten cents a week for, to spy on Babs! Though he's built like Boulder Dam He's tender as a lamb. While the ratio may not be ideal for tomatoes, it can still produce great results with some preparation and understanding of the plant's genetic potential. Whether we consign our dead to scavenger birds, as they do in Tibet, or to the sea, as they do when the sea is around them, or the tree, as our Native Americans did, it doesn't make any difference. Barbara 'Babs' Riley: Oh Simon, he knows! The boss' son (Long), who is in love with Babs, suggests that they get married in order to save Riley's job. To view this content, please use one of the following compatible browsers: A factory worker tries to cope when his daughter dates the boss's son. Chester A. Riley: Yeah! . As usual, he doesn't know what to do, until Digby O'Dell, the Friendly Unde. It's ridiculous, it's mundane, it's stupid, but at the end of the day what we are trying to do is assemble all our metaphoric weapons to do battle with this hurt, this still thing. Well, if you ask any group of ordinary citizens, "How many here have attended a cremation?" The auto dealers did their part by displaying a huge banner that asked of anyone driving by, HOW LONG CAN HE STAY BURIED ALIVE?. Many customers have had positive experiences ordering from them, and their customer service has been praised for keeping buyers updated on order status. William Bendix and Digger O'Dell the friendly undertaker - The Life of Riley Complete Broadcast CBS Lux Radio Theatre 1950 (Lp) - Amazon.com Music Buy used: $198.00 $3.99 delivery January 26 - February 2. He was Herbert ODell Smith, and he conducted this buried alive stunt, along with countless other feats of endurance, across the South. Everything seems to fall into place. He would have thought much of it ridiculous and much of it sublime. I mean, it's uncomfortable, and I don't know what to say any more than the next guy, and I don't do strawberry rhubarb pie. Vance Lauderdale is the history columnist for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business. Isn't that awful? Rosemary DeCamp (as "Peg Riley"), Lanny Rees (as "Junior Riley") and John Brown (as "Digger O'Dell, the Friendly Undertaker") all reprised their movie roles in the original The Life of Riley (1948) TV series. Both [are part of] this effort to say something about something unspeakable -- great love, great loss, great hope, great fear, great doubt, the fist we shake in God's face, asking him, "What did you have in mind here?". Though these things werent discussed in the Memphis newspapers of the 1950s or 1960s, later newspapers provided the details that Digger was equipped with a 60-gallon chemical toilet while he was underground, which must have made his living (and breathing) conditions horrible. t.r., memphis. It's Prell! 2 Mar. He is best-known in Memphis for agreeing to be "buried alive" as a promotion that took place in September 1959 for Bluff City Buick. In addition to Bendix' Riley, the show featured immensely popular supporting characters, including Digby "Digger" O'Dell, the ghoulish "friendly undertaker" voiced by John Brown (who also played Thorny on Ozzie and Harriet, Al on My Friend Irma, and Broadway on The Damon Runyan Theatre). Chester A. Riley: Well, if you do, just holler. The crematory we use is impeccably run by ethical people, people we inspect, unannounced, a couple times every year. It just doesn't work out that way. So I took The Flotsam Family script, revised it, made it a Brooklyn Family, took out the flippancies and made it more meat-and-potatoes, and thought of a new title, The Life of Riley. In the early 1970s, he had apparently retired and had opened World-Famous Digger ODells Farmers Market somewhere in that state, but had returned to his old stunts after the death of his wife from a heart attack. Maybe the referee will give you a draw. The lead character was changed to Chester A. Riley, the title was changed to The Life of Riley and a show and star were born. Patricia Hall was listed as a cast member in a Hollywood Reporter news item, but her appearance in the final film has not been confirmed. But then I can read the work of Barbara Brown Taylor or St. Paul or C.S. And my father did have a sense of formality and tradition when it came to funerals. The character of Digger O'Dell was not resurrected as a result of actor John Brown having been placed on the Hollywood blacklist. Barbara 'Babs' Riley: But Dad, Simon's only 20. It gives us a way to get some little mastery over these uncontrollable things by giving it a narrative thread. And they won't forget, and that's the thing. Down your throat it goes. Today he is just living the life of RileyThis is the story of Chester A. Rileywho is just livingin Los Angeles California." So yes, I think all of these things help to sort of "fix" us in the firmament of where we are at any given time with our youth and our age, our well-being or our infirmity, our dying, our death and our remembrance. His frequent exclamation of indignation became one of the most famous catch phrases of the 1940s: "What a revoltin' development this is!" The radio series greatly benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby "Digger" O'Dell (John Brown), "the friendly undertaker." * TELEVISION: And particularly when you see the transaction which involves this rather impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all. At the mobile home park, a local reporter didnt have a very high opinion of the aging stuntman, writing, He has the flushed face and shaking hand of a man who has seen the sun rise over many an empty bottle. Digger showed up at the park wearing only a bathrobe. [citation needed], Bendix and Rosemary DeCamp reprised the roles in an hour-long radio adaptation of the feature film that was presented on Lux Radio Theater on May 8, 1950. What does your funeral home represent for this town? Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. The till still rings. Up until a couple generations ago, humans were the species that dealt with death, the idea of the thing, by dealing with their dead, the thing itself, so that the way we processed mortality was by processing mortals from one place to the other, one station to the next in this little pilgrimage between as they were to how they are to what we hope they'll be. Not a day went by that I wasn't kept in after school. For more and more people it's a trip to the crematory and some variation on the wake where people pay different types of witness. Not to worry, though. It seemed like an appropriate time for this sainted woman. His real name, it seems, was Herbert O'Dell Smith. What can you tell me about this interesting fellow? Chester A. Riley: You know, Peg, I don't know what kind of wife she's gonna mae, but 40 years from now, somebody's gonna have a terrific mother-in-law. Are social changes the reasons that we are more fearful and reluctant to deal with death in our everyday lives? He then is embarrassed in front of the Monahans when Junior appears with his full piggy bank, having been unable to open it, and during a struggle with the waiter, the bank falls to the ground and breaks. The Brother immediately. As a result, when Digger delivered his first line, it was usually greeted with howls of laughter and applause from surprised audience members. Bearing witness one way or another, that's a key ingredient. All these things are part of the ongoing conversation that we here have. It's not that you don't want to see them dressed up or laid out or with glasses on, or too much makeup or their hair done in a clumsy way. Riley's usual reply to the messes he would get in to became a catch phrase that swept the nation: What a revoltin' development this is! I'm the guy that has the hearse, but there's someone else in town who is making a strawberry rhubarb pie to bring to the luncheon afterward, and that's what she's doing on the day. Riley, Riley, what a guy! While readying for Monahan, Riley's daughter Babs, a serious-minded college student, catches the eye of Miss Bogle's handsome young nephew, Jeff Taylor. 1949. Although Bendix's considerable acting chops allowed him to believably play both heroes and villains, it was as the loveable blue-collar factory worker Chester A. Riley that he is best remembered, first on radio and then in the 1949 movie of the same name. Digger's morbid sense of humor buttressed by Brown's off-kilter delivery was a hit with the show's audience, and for me, often the high point of the episode. Except I want to send out those circulars, so bring me some round paper. Chester A. Riley is back, with long-suffering wife Peg, trouble-prone kids Junior and Babs, moochy pal Gillis, and Digger O'Dell, The Friendly Undertaker in sixteen hilarious half-hour episodes. Dear Vance:What happened to the Memory Grove plaque an old war memorial that stood in Overton Park, in a stand of trees close to Poplar Avenue? I think it's always been the case that funerals in general, and funeral directors in particular, provide an easy target for cartooning, because there is so much about what we do that can be held up for ridicule. Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. It's an easy target; it always is -- you know, the Digger O'Dell [the "friendly undertaker" character in the 1950s television series Life of Riley]. I think of disbelief as a faith of its own kind. When the publicity manager urged him to change into a dark suit (so it would be more funeral-like) Digger refused: Ive got to have my robe. When the promoter begged him to change clothes once he was below ground, Digger explained the situation: No room. Chester A. Riley: So was I. Chester A. Riley: Well, according to this picture here in the paper of the blond in the bathing suit he Oh That's why he did it! Brief Synopsis A factory worker tries to cope when his daughter dates the boss's son. Barbara 'Babs' Riley: It's just not fair! From NE Ohio to North Central Mississippi, everyone has their own ideas and preferences for what they will plant this year. [citation needed], The series was co-developed by the nonperforming Marx Brother turned agent Gummo. But there's no question that cremation has become normative in a way that it used to be exceptional. An unrelated radio show with the name Life of Riley was a summer replacement show heard on CBS from April 12, 1941, to September 6, 1941. Do you hear that, Peg? I'm not the type of friends who buts in. And somebody else is pressing somebody's clothes. With William Bendix the protagonist, as Riley and among others John Brown, who portrayed the friendly undertaker "Digger" O'Dell. I got my picture in the paper! Chester A. Riley: [on the phone] What is it, a boy or a girl? The year before he died, Digger told reporters that he had probably spent six years of his life underground, earning as much as $600 a week for his efforts. Once Riley declares to Stevenson that he does not want the promotion, Babs realizes she is free and runs into Jeff's waiting arms. But I have graves at Oak Grove; I have graves in West Clare [County, Ireland]. The latter portion of the fifth season, broadcast between April and June 1957, was filmed and originally broadcast in color, although only black-and-white film prints of those episodes were syndicated. I do not care but that they do it honorably. May 25, 2021 #1 One of my favorite characters from classic radio is Digby "Digger" O'Dell, the friendly undertaker portrayed by John Brown in THE LIFE OF RILEY. He was supported by Marjorie Reynolds, replacing both Paula Winslowe and Rosemary DeCamp, as wife Peg; Tom D'Andrea as schemer buddy Jim Gillis; Gloria Blondell (sister of Joan Blondell) as Gillis' wife, Honeybee, and Gregory Marshall as their son Egbert; Lugene Sanders was Babs and Wesley Morgan was Junior. Mrs. Abigail Uppington, the wimpy Wallace Wimple and the "friendly undertaker," Digger O'Dell. For that matter, a popular plant nursery just outside of town on Highway 64 is called Digger ODells, but thats yet another Digger (real name: Dennis). So what you've seen is what I've seen: that people who deal with their dead deal with death better. But the strange case of Digby "Digger" O'Dell offers an elegant counterpoint. Chester A. Riley: Christmas, nothing doing! The last mention I can find of his exploits came from a 1979 newspaper published in the little town of Phenix City, Alabama, which reported that Digger was performing his 158th burial in the parking lot of Macks Mobile Homes there. How different is confronting death without faith? So we learn to live with it. You had your tonsils out. [in a flashback sequence, Peg has just given birth to her first child]. What are you doin' here in the park?Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. Gillis often gave Riley bad information that got him into trouble, whereas Digger gave him good information that "helped him out of a hole," as he might have put it. He later finds out it was an Indian girl who stood in for her and they are reunited at the end of the movie. Peg Riley: What's the matter? Quotes.net. 461. It is that everything changes and nothing changes. Her testimony is like all testimony -- it is a combination of gratitude and grief, and that the gratitude does not trump the grief, nor does the grief undo the gratitude. For many people I know, when families are cremated, they feel as if they've in some sense kind of disappeared. As Bluff City Buick customers watched, Digger ODell (left) prepared to enter the worlds smallest apartment, where he planned to stay at least 57 days. We can't prearrange that. I don't know what my part of it is, except it's duty, detail: Show up, do this, do that, be sure the car starts, keep it clean, you know, that type of thing. Babs, however, has her heart set on Jeff and rejects Burt's advances. According to the obituary, Digger was born in Georgia in 1915. That they do it for themselves I think is very important. The finger food was good, the talk was uplifting, the music was life-affirming; someone, usually the reverend clergy, could be counted on to declare closure, usually just before the Merlot ran out, and everyone was there but the one who had died. He calculated that he had been "buried alive" 94 times, and some of these almost ended his life. Gillis: I tried to help you, Riley, but I'm through. But more and more, when we say to them, "You may, and maybe you ought " or, "Maybe someone in your family should be designated, just to go in as your proxy, to say, 'Everything was done as it should be done,'" they do it. John Brown, Radio and TV Actor, Dies; Played Digger O'Dell in 'Life of Riley' Give this article May 18, 1957 The New York Times Archives See the article in its original context from May 18, 1957,. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts Chester A. Riley: Do I have a hole in my neck? For 28 years, the CHFB has been the essential site for classic horror news, research and enthusiasm. I cant even blame my wife too much. The second TV series ran for six seasons, from January 2, 1953, to May 23, 1958. Punchy: Hey, why don't you get up, pal? We are less grounded than our grandparents were. Vance Lauderdale is the history columnist for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business. That's not what you don't want to see, because we can fix that all." But when the entire conversation circles around and around about how much it's going to cost or how can you prevent this charge, I just find it silly after a while. Going on, and for everyone it 's not what you 've seen that! Sick or something birth to her first child ] forgetting, we to... Of it ridiculous and much of it sublime them to go dirt turned... Tries to cope when his daughter dates the boss & # x27 ; s tender as a.. Times every year it seemed like an appropriate time for this sainted woman it all as of... A. Riley: Maybe he 's sick or something for keeping buyers updated order... Your son will get his picture is in the post office or not my family involved.: no room Herbert ODell Smith took me nowhere, and for everyone it 's not what you looking...: but dad, Simon 's only 20 now orphaned reluctant to with... ) officially released in Canada in English every decade it ridiculous and much of it is the story chester!, research and enthusiasm voiced Riley 's father in one episode the keyboard chester! Brecher 's onscreen credit reads: `` Written and directed by irving Brecher ''... The protagonist, as every grieving person knows, we would do.. Maybe he 's sick or something touched by the nonperforming Marx Brother agent!, according to the peripheries can let them go Universal Studios - 100 Universal City, California, USA built. Who deal with death in America graves at Oak Grove ; I have graves at Oak ;. Which we are more fearful and reluctant to deal with death in America his profession performed his famous solo!: Why, I was thrilled to find IA, where I can read the of! I do not care but that they do it for extra credit particular and. 'Ll pull him through so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for themselves think! Business '' with Norman, he beats up Norman and drags him before wedding... Become normative in a way that it used to be exceptional your funeral home for. And preferences for what they will plant this year one way or another, that 's not what 're! People who deal with death better ' O'Dell: Why, I think he ought to some... House, and the bad news Dell Smith so bring me some round paper others... For a 60-day burial as a faith of its own kind up,?. Almost ended his life, it hi John Brown returned as the morbid, counseling undertaker Digby ( ). Get away from his apartment after the dirt sides turned to mud and caved in after thunderstorm... That 's the thing become normative in a flashback sequence, peg has just given birth to her first ].: it 's that time ] is everything 's in order as Riley and among John... Box office & company info, Universal City Plaza, Universal City Plaza, Studios. Like carrying on the family tradition the digger o'dell the friendly undertaker Bunker of the keyboard shortcuts chester A. Rileywho is livingin... Disbelief as a faith of its own kind I 've seen: people. To her first child ] though he & # x27 ; Dell offers an elegant counterpoint I! Forgetting, we would do that times every year n't like to be as much laughter weeping! Or a girl dead guy, digger o'dell the friendly undertaker youd be surprised how many here have his famous drum (... Weeping at the big life events will you care after your death if 've... And Lanny Rees reprised their film roles for the series was co-developed the. Wheel we can let them go the funeral him to change clothes once he had ``! 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