Comments on: The woman behind the Vitameatavegamin Girl

The woman behind the Vitameatavegamin Girl

scody — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:53:51 -0800

Madelyn Pugh Davis, one of the three masterminds behind I Love Lucy and a pioneer for women writers in radio and television, has gone on to the great Vitameatavegamin commercial in the sky. She was 90.

Hired during WWII in her mid-20s by CBS Radio as one of the first "girl writers" in the industry, Pugh formed what would be a 50-year writing partnership with Bob Carroll Jr. while they were working on Steve Allen's radio show; together they ultimately wrote about 900 radio and television scripts. Through their work (along with Jess Oppenheimer) on Lucille Ball's My Favorite Husband radio show, they developed the basis for what would become I Love Lucy's pilot episode in 1951. Pugh and Carroll (often in collaboration with Oppenheimer, who also produced the show) went on to write all 180 I Love Lucy episodes over six seasons, as well as episodes of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (aka The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show), The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and (the perhaps better-forgotten) Life With Lucy. Non-Lucy credits include The Paul Lynde Show, Those Whiting Girls, and The Tom Ewell Show, the films Forever, Darling and Yours, Mine, and Ours, and serving as executive producers for Alice. Lengthy interview about her career from the Archive of American Television here.

By: clarknova

clarknova — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:03:50 -0800

And Sol Saks, creator of Bewitched, has died at 100.

By: scody

scody — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:04:40 -0800

(Oh, that second link is to the NY Times, which I think might pose problems for some folks. If so, here's a shorter obit from The Hollywood Reporter.)

By: quazichimp

quazichimp — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:31:22 -0800

My mother was pregnant with me at the same time Lucy was pregnant with Desi Arnas Jr. and we were both born at the same time. The first thing I remember about my early life was watching I love Lucy with my mother when 2 years old. Madelyn Pugh Davis had a lot of input on my development. So goodbye Madelyn, you have marked my brain forever. .

By: briank

briank — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:33:00 -0800

Part of their writing process frequently involved Pugh trying out the physical bits they came up with for Lucy to see what worked and what didn't, and often demonstrating the bits for Lucy to help her understand what the script was calling for. Pugh must have been a pretty good comedian in her own right to be Lucille Ball's test pilot.

By: alaijmw

alaijmw — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:37:33 -0800

I love Seinfeld, but for me I Love Lucy will also be the greatest sitcom in history. .

By: jonmc

jonmc — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:40:35 -0800

. (for madelyn) . (For sol) Bad day for old school TV.

By: IndigoRain

IndigoRain — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:11:03 -0800

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:25:01 -0800

God damn, that is a lot of quality writing.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:11:11 -0800

Honey! I'm hooome! .

By: eriko

eriko — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:31:19 -0800

. (sigh)

By: -t

-t — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:44:29 -0800

. Hey, great post scody.

By: Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey

Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:32:19 -0800

. I was born in 1969. My first memories of what funny was was I Love Lucy in B&W. MASHEE!

By: inturnaround

inturnaround — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 22:22:05 -0800

By: MCMikeNamara

MCMikeNamara — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:37:40 -0800

By: infini

infini — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:33:41 -0800

My father loved both these shows very much. My memories of growing up are family hours watching Bewitched and Lucy in B&W with papa . .

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 01:12:58 -0800

Bad day for old school TV I have to disagree with this. When one of them dies at 90 and the other at 100 you've got to admit that old school TV sitcom writers possessed some kind of secret of longevity. The secret to long life is probably just that simple. My husband seems to be cheating on me, but eventually I will learn that it was all a simple mistake. I want to be a star, and I might do tricky things to get into the show, but eventually it will all come out as something silly that happened, and we'll laugh at how my ambitions got thwarted. Friends sometimes appear to be enemies, but that's usually because there was a misunderstanding. The stress just rolls off my back. Life is pretty funny if you look at it right.

By: sonascope

sonascope — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:21:01 -0800

While we're celebrating the power team that produced I Love Lucy, it's worth adding that the visual look, lighting, and composition of the show were the product of Karl Freund, who, aside from directing Mad Love, doing a bit part in one of the earliest queer films, and winning an Oscar for his cinematography in The Good Earth, had a big role in creating the look of a little film that had just a wee bit of influence on the way film's looked ever since. Whenever the uninitiated scratch their heads of why Lucy is considered to be such an enduring cultural moment, you just have to point out there's seldom been such a perfect storm of talent in television, before or after.

By: kuppajava

kuppajava — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:43:55 -0800

By: kinnakeet

kinnakeet — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 09:01:05 -0800

I didn't know that about Freund. What scope--the guy went from The Last Laugh to Lucy? Amazing. Though I'm sorry to see the old guard disappearing, they surely did have a long run. I'd like to think it's due to all the laughter. .

By: sharkfu

sharkfu — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:43:40 -0800