Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Laughing with Lucy My Life with America's Leading Lady of Comedy by Madeline Pugh Davis Madelyn Pugh obituary. Madelyn Pugh, who has died aged 90, carved out a place for herself in television history when she co-created, with Bob Carroll Jr, I Love Lucy, which began the comedy actor Lucille Ball's long-running small-screen career – and is widely regarded as the most successful programme of all time, still screened worldwide. Pugh and Carroll began as a writing partnership at CBS radio, where they scripted Ball's sitcom My Favorite Husband (1948-51). They also created a vaudeville act for the star to perform on stage with her new husband, the Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz. The slapstick and the "kookie" Lucy character from that act formed the basis of the subsequent television series (1951-57), which Pugh and Carroll devised with Jess Oppenheimer, the head writer and producer, who also transferred from the radio show. Ball played the stagestruck New York housewife Lucy Ricardo, whose husband, Ricky, was also a bandleader. In the next-door apartment were their landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vivian Vance and William Frawley), who acted as their comic foils. Week in, week out, the "situation slapstick" included antics such as Lucy cramming her face and hat with chocolates, trampling a vat of grapes and setting fire to her nose – a false, putty one she was wearing as a disguise – when she lit a cigarette. Seeking ever more farcical situations, Pugh often tested the slapstick herself. "The worst one was trying out a unicycle," she recalled. "I ran into a wall and hit my head. We decided it was too dangerous." With Carroll, Pugh went on to script episodes of the sequel series, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-60), and – following Ball's divorce from Arnaz – The Lucy Show (1962-68), Here's Lucy (1968-74) and the shortlived, disappointing comeback, Life With Lucy (1986). She also struck a blow for women in television at a time when few were working behind the scenes in creative roles and was named the Los Angeles Times's woman of the year in 1957. Pugh was born in Indianopolis, Indiana, where her father worked in a bank's real estate department. She wrote a three-act play at the age of 10 and at Shortridge high school was an editor of the school newspaper. She graduated from Indiana University's school of journalism in 1942. After writing for newspapers in Indianapolis and continuity scripts for its radio station, WIRE, she moved to California and worked at NBC, then became a staff writer at CBS in 1944. Pugh was teamed with Carroll for the first time on the radio sitcom The Couple Next Door, beginning a 50-year writing partnership. Then, they contributed to the comedian Steve Allen's sketch show It's a Great Life when it began on radio in 1948. "One time, we were reading a script at the table," she recalled of their working methods. "I felt that a joke could be funnier if we added a certain word. I wrote it in the margin of my script and I looked over, and Bob had written the same word. So we thought alike and thought the same things were funny." Although they dated briefly, Pugh and Carroll settled for a working relationship. In addition to their success with Ball, they created the television sitcoms Those Whiting Girls (1955-57), about two sisters living at home with their mother in Los Angeles, The Tom Ewell Show (1960-61), starring the comedian as a real estate agent whose life is dominated by women, and The Mothers-in-Law (1967-69), with Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard. The pair also contributed to programmes such as Sanford and Son (1975) and Alice (1977, 1985). They were less successful with their 1966 sitcom pilot for Carol Channing, which was not turned into a series. In 1992, Pugh and Carroll were presented with the Writers Guild of America's Laurel award for television writing achievement. Pugh's autobiography, Laughing With Lucy: My Life With America's Leading Lady of Comedy, was published in 2005. Her 1955 marriage to the producer Quinn Martin ended in divorce. In 1964, she married Richard Davis, a doctor, who died in 2009. She is survived by Michael, the son of her first marriage. Madelyn Pugh-Davis. Madelyn Pugh-Davis (March 15, 1921 – April 20, 2011), sometimes credited as Madelyn Pugh , Madelyn Davis , or Madelyn Martin , [1] was a television writer who became known in the 1950s for her work on the I Love Lucy television series. Contents. Biography [ edit | edit source ] A native of Indiana, Pugh became interested in writing while serving as editor of the Shortridge High School]] newspaper in Indianapolis, IN. She graduated from the Indiana University School of Journalism in 1942. Her first professional writing job was writing short radio spots for WIRE, an Indianapolis radio station. Early career [ edit | edit source ] When her family moved to California, she got work as a radio writer, first for NBC and then CBS, where she met Bob Carroll. Pugh credits some of her breakthrough as "the girl writer" to the war effort, which limited the pool of qualified male writers. Early in her career, she was frequently the only female writer on staff. Early in her career, as a staff writer for CBS Radio in Hollywood, Pugh forged a partnership with Bob Carroll, Jr. which lasted more than 50 years. Together they wrote some 400 television programs and roughly 500 radio shows. While the team was writing for The Steve Allen Show , they became interested in writing for Lucille Ball's new radio show, My Favorite Husband . They paid Allen to write his own show one week so they could focus on creating a script submission for My Favorite Husband . Under the supervision of head writer Jess Oppenheimer, the pair wrote Ball's radio program for its 2½ years. [2] Madelyn with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz on the set of "I Love Lucy". Work on I Love Lucy and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour [ edit | edit source ] Pugh and Carroll helped create a vaudeville act for Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, which became the basis for the pilot episode of I Love Lucy . Together with Oppenheimer and/or Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf, who joined the show at the beginning of the fifth year, the team tackled 39 episodes per season for the run of the series. Although they never won, Pugh and Carroll were nominated for three Emmy Awards for their work on the series. [3] Pugh and Carroll are credited with helping create the 'Lucy' character, which Ball played in one form or another for over 40 years. The pair also wrote episodes for The Lucy Show , Here's Lucy , The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show (aka The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour ) and Ball's final series, the unsuccessful Life With Lucy (1986). The pair's other writing credits include work on the television series The Paul Lynde Show , Dorothy , Those Whiting Girls , Kocham Klane (an I Love Lucy series remake in Poland) and The Tom Ewell Show . They also worked on the films Forever, Darling and Yours, Mine and Ours , starring Ball. They created and wrote the Desi Arnaz Productions series The Mothers-in-Law (filmed at Desilu), which starred actresses Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden. The two served for seven years as Executive Producers of the long-running television series Alice and occasionally contributed scripts, one of which was awarded a Golden Globe Award. [4] In September 2005, Madelyn Pugh Davis, who lived in California, released her memoirs titled Laughing with Lucy . She included Bob Carroll, Jr. as a contributor to the authorship of her memoirs. Private life [ edit | edit source ] Pugh was married twice, first to TV producer Quinn Martin, who she married on December 24, 1955, and with whom she had a son, Michael Quinn Martin. They divorced on November 21, 1960. Madelyn then married Dr. Richard Merrill Davis on May 30, 1964; they remained together until his death on May 6, 2009. [5] Madelyn died on April 20, 2011, aged 90, in Bel Air, California. Laughing with Lucy: My Life with America's Leading Lady of Comedy. Lucille Ball's comic genius made them famous, but many of the unforgettable plot lines for I Love Lucy came from the life of their writer, Madelyn Pugh Davis. In Laughing with Lucy, Davis and her long-time writing partner, Bob Carroll Jr., recount her rise in television and her many years working on the set and behind the scenes with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Lighthearted and witty, this book offers a trip back in time to the tumultuous early days of television. Bob Carroll Jr., 88, a Writer of the Zany ‘I Love Lucy,’ Dies. Bob Carroll Jr., a founding writer of “I Love Lucy” who helped introduce millions of viewers to the joys of frenzied grape stomping, warp-speed chocolate-stuffing and the increasingly tasty 46-proof patent medicine Vitameatavegamin, died on Jan. 27 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 88. Mr. Carroll died after a short illness, said Madelyn Pugh Davis, his writing partner of more than 50 years. With Ms. Davis and others, Mr. Carroll wrote every episode — 179 half-hour shows, and a pilot — of the original show, broadcast on CBS from 1951 to 1957. He and Ms. Davis were also involved with all of the show’s later incarnations. The two writers joined forces in the 1940s, when both worked for CBS Radio in Hollywood.