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by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author's note: To get in the mood for this article, search any search engine for the "I Love Lucy" theme song (written by Eliot Daniel). Make sure you get the version with the lyrics!
How many laughs has "I Love Lucy" given you over the years? More than you can even remember, I bet. And it's the best kind of laugher; deep, belly laughs, the kind that take over your body, as you howl, unable to stop. Such laughter is good for the spirit and the soul; it literally washes away cares and troubles.
Madelyn Pugh Davis was the presiding genius who delivered these laughs week after week, to the delight of the nation. Her name appeared as co-writer for every single episode of the series which ran from October 15, 1951 to May 6, 1957. It was a staggering achievement. Not least because Davis was a very successful woman writer in the male-dominated medium of network television.
** Remember the episode where Lucy battles a giant loaf of bread that emerges from the oven and pins her to the wall? A classic...
Madelyn Pugh Davis knew how to work the premise of the show and its 4 main characters for maximum comedic effect.
"I Love Lucy" was not particularly innovative -- the wacky housewife, the irritated husband, the oddball friends. What made the program innovative was the commitment of the 4 principal characters to do anything for a laugh...and the irrepressible inventiveness of the script. In other words, Madelyn Pugh Davis and the other key members of the team: Her longtime writing partner, Bob Carroll Jr; their producer Jess Oppenheimer. Writers Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf later joined the team.
** What about this classic? Remember Lucy slipping and sliding in a vat while mashing grapes? It was hysterical.
The four main characters.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, married in real life, were married in the program, too, as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Their friends are Fred and Ethel Mertz.
Lucy was a scatterbrained housewife mad keen on a career in the entertainment business, for all that she had no talent. Ricky was a Cuban band leader, as he was in real life; a typical quick to boil Latin, occasionally misunderstood but always faithful to the Lucy he loves (not the case for this roaming Latin lover in real life.)
Fred (William Frawley) was a grump, ultra tight with the penny, but a man of the theater himself having played vaudeville along with wife Ethel (Vivian Vance.)
The job of the writing team was to keep characters (known to virtually every single American) fresh by putting them in the middle of one side-splitting funny situation after another. These situations, particularly for Lucy, involved some very tricky slapstick comedy. Lucille Ball, an international star, might have been expected to make heavy weather about some of these scenes ("are they right for my image?"), but in fact what Madelyn Pugh Davis wrote, Lucille Ball did... no matter how difficult... as a matter of professional pride. That attitude permeated all the actors and their incomparable team.
**What about the episode from 1955? It centered on Lucy's mortifying encounter with handsome Hollywood actor William Holden. Holden accidentally sets her fake nose on fire... and puts in out by dipping her nose in his teacup.
The most watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons.
"I Love Lucy," resting as did on Davis and team's just plain funny scripts, was hugely popular right from the start. What's more, unlike other series that started hot and fizzled because of weak scripts, the quality of the scripts never diminished. They were good in the first episode; they were good in the last.
The problem with "I Love Lucy" was the seething personal relationships, always likely to burst into flame. Desi Arnaz liked the ladies, the more the merrier. He was Cuban and thought rampant, careless infidelity his birth right. Lucille Ball disagreed.
The relationship between William Frawley and Vivian Vance was also poisonous; they could hardly stand to be in the same room together, not least because Frawley was master of the all too accurate put-down. He once said Vance's body was like a "sack of doorknobs." It was crude... it was memorable... it was funny. No doubt some of this (funny to onlookers) tension was slipped into the script to heighten the effect. Davis would have seen the humorous aspect and run with it... increasing the laughter.
** Must remind you of this one... an all-time favorite: Lucy and Ethel in this 1952 show land jobs in a chocolate factory, only to have the conveyor belt kick into overdrive.
Madelyn Pugh wrote and wrote... ascending the ladder one (usually funny) word at a time.
Pugh (her maiden name) was born in Indianapolis and graduated in 1942 from Indiana University. Because of World War II women had a crack at jobs ordinarily reserved for men, like the radio staff writer position she landed. It's important to recall the primacy of radio in those days. It was the primary mode of communication; virtually every family had one. Pugh was talented, hard-working and ambitious. She soon moved up to a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles.
"My Favorite Husband".
At CBS she met longtime writing partner Bob Carroll, Jr. Together they worked on several shows, including "It's a Great Life," starring Steve Allen... and "My Favorite Husband", starring...... Lucille Ball. The pieces that were soon to make America laugh were beginning to emerge and get together. "I Love Lucy" was the result... the program America took to its heart immediately and whose unique use of three cameras changed an industry and launched a thousand sit-coms, many through Desilu Productions.
And remember... there was never, ever a vulgar word, a cruel put-down, a bigoted, biased, or racist comment. It was literally and gratefully good clean fun.
Madelyn Pugh Davis, as she became upon her marriage, was widely recognized, honored, lauded.
In 2007, the publication Television Week named her one of the 25 most influential people who shaped the industry, noting that she was a principal writer on all 180 "I Love Lucy" episodes and 13 specials on CBS from 1951 to 1961.
She was a lucky woman no doubt, luck being defined as setting the desired objective and working one's tail off to achieve it. A woman of mirth,laughter, high hilarity she was deadly serious about that. And we, in our often bitter times which cry out for some good humor, are the better for this lady.
** Just one more. Who can forget the Vitameatavegamin episode where Lucy gets drunk filming a commercial for this alcohol-laced patent medicine? One of the best... but then that's the only thing Madelyn Pugh Davis delivered.That's why after 6 seasons, "I Love Lucy" finished its run at the top of the Nielsen ratings, the first program to do so.
++ Mrs. Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr. co-authors "Laughing With Lucy: My Life With America's Leading Lady of Comedy." (2005). Check it out.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. , providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also a marketer, consultant and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
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