Madelyn Pugh on the set of I Love Lucy with the actors Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz
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, writer, born 15 March 1921; died 20 April 2011
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, writer, born 15 March 1921; died 20 April 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment