Madelyn Pugh
| Madelyn Pugh | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 15, 1921 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | April 20, 2011 (aged 90) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Madelyn Pugh Davis, Madelyn Davis, Madelyn Martin |
| Occupation | Television producer and writer |
| Years active | 1951–2009 |
| Spouse(s) |
Quinn Martin (1 child) Richard Davis |
Madelyn Pugh (March 15, 1921 – April 20, 2011), sometimes credited as Madelyn Pugh Davis, Madelyn Davis, or Madelyn Martin, was a television writer who became known in the 1950s for her work on the I Love Lucy television series.
A native of Indiana, Pugh became interested in writing while serving as co-editor of the Shortridge High School newspaper in Indianapolis, Indiana with classmate Kurt Vonnegut. 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.
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.
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.
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