Madelyn Pugh
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Madelyn Pugh (born 1921), who is sometimes credited as Madelyn Pugh Davis, Madelyn Davis or Madelyn Martin [1], is a television writer who first became well known in the 1950s for her work on the "I Love Lucy" series.
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[edit] Biography
Early in her career, as a staff writer for CBS Radio in Hollywood, she forged a partnership with fellow staffer Bob Carroll, Jr which would last for 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. In an effort to seize that opportunity, they actually paid Allen to write his own show one week so that they could focus their energies on creating a script submission for "My Favorite Husband". The pair wrote for Ball's radio program, which was extremely popular, for its two and 1/2 year duration. [2]
Pugh and Carroll helped develop and create a vaudeville act for Lucille Ball And her husband, Desi Arnez, which became the basis for the pilot episode of the "I Love Lucy" series. Together the team tackled 39 episodes per season for the run of the series. Although they never won, Pugh and Carroll were nominated for three Emmys for their work on the series.[3] They are credited with helping create the famous "Lucy" character, which Lucille Ball played in one form or another for over 40 years. The pair also wrote episodes for The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour, and Ball's final series Life With Lucy (1986).
In 1968 Pugh did a stint without her partner, Carroll, writing for the daytime soap opera "One Life To Live". The pairs' "Non-Lucy" writing credits include work on the television series : "The Paul Lynde Show", "Dorothy", "Those Whiting Girls" and "Kocham Klane". They also worked on the film "Yours, Mine and Ours". They created and wrote the very successful Desilu series "The Mothers In Law", which starred Lucy's longtime MGM pal, Eve Arden and Kay Ballard. The two served as Executive Producers and did some writing for the hit television series "Alice" starring Linda Lavin, for which they won a Golden Globe Award.[4]
Pugh is considered a pioneer who blazed a trail for female writers in television. A native of Indiana, she first became seriously interested in writing while serving as editor of her high school newspaper. She went on to graduate 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. 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 "girl writer" on staff. [5]
In September of 2005, Madelyn Pugh Davis, who lives in California released her memoirs titled Laughing with Lucy. As always, her co-author was Bob Carroll.
[edit] Bibliography
- Pugh Davis, Madelyn; Bob Carroll, Jr. (1 September 2005). Laughing with Lucy: My Life with America's Leading Lady of Comedy. Emmis Book. 1578602475.
[edit] Awards
- Golden Globe for "Alice"
- Writers' Guild of America "Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award" for Television Achievement (1992)
- LA Times "Woman of the Year" Award (1957)
- Women In Film Award (1996)
