Madelyn Pugh
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| Madelyn Pugh Davis | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 15, 1921 |
Madelyn Pugh (born 15 March 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. that 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". Under head writer Jess Oppenheimer, the pair wrote Ball's radio program 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 Arnaz, which became the basis for the pilot episode of the "I Love Lucy" series. Together, with Oppenheimer and/or Bob Schiller & 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 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 Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show" (aka "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour") and Ball's final series, "Life With Lucy" (1986).
The pairs' "Non-Lucy" writing credits include work on the television series "The Paul Lynde Show", "Dorothy", "Those Whiting Girls," "Kocham Klane"[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 Lucille Ball. They created and wrote the Desi Arnaz Prods.' series "The Mothers-In-Law" (filmed at Desilu), which starred Lucy's longtime MGM pal Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard. The two served as Executive Producers for 7 years which included 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 the Shortridge High School (Indianapolis, Indiana) 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]
She has been married twice, first to TV producer Quinn Martin, with whom she had a son, Michael Quinn Martin, and later was wed to Dr. Richard M. Davis.
In September of 2005, Madelyn Pugh Davis, who lives in California released her memoirs titled Laughing with Lucy. Always a partnership, she includes Bob Caroll, Jr as contributing to her authorship of her memoirs.
[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
- Madelyn Pugh Davis & Bob Caroll,Jr.
- 1955 Emmy nomination for comedy writing, "I Love Lucy"
- 1970 Emmy nomination for "Lucy Meets the Burtons" episode "Here's Lucy"
- 1979 Golden Globe as Producers for "Alice"
- 1990 Television Academy Hall of Fame award "I Love Lucy"
- 1992 Writers' Guild of America "Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award" for Television Achievement
- 1999 "Loving Lucy" award, Lucy Convention
- 2001 UCLA Lifetime Achievement award
- Madelyn Pugh Davis
- 1957 Los Angeles Times "Times Woman of the Year" Award
- 1957 Women in Communications award
- 1960 Kappa Kappa Gamma Outstanding Alumni award
- 1972 Indiana University Distinguished Alumni award
- 1996 Women In Film "Lucy" Award
- 1998 Indiana Broadcasters Award
- 2006 Paley Center for Media "She Made It!" honoree
