Everyone loves Lucy! From getting tipsy on “Vitameatavegamin” to the candy factory to brawling in the vineyards in Italy, the shenanigans of Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy (among her other sitcoms) are timeless. Over seven decades later and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, and Vivian Vance and William Frawley as Ethel and Fred Mertz, the ultimate “second bananas,” remain in a class of their own.
Of course, there were numerous unsung heroes behind the scenes of I Love Lucy: writer and producer Bob Carroll, Jr. and his writing partner Madelyn Pugh, who made up the creative team (along with producer Jess Oppenheimer). In honor of one of those legends, The National Comedy Center’s Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum (both located in Lucy’s hometown – Jamestown, New York) announced that it will be preserving the archive of Bob Carroll, Jr.
Launched in 1996, The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum, operated by the National Comedy Center, explores the lives, careers, and legacy of the famous pair, as well as the pioneering role and remarkable influence that I Love Lucy and Desilu Studios had on the entertainment industry
The announcement coincides with the anniversary week of Bob Carroll, Jr.’s passing in 2007, as the museum honors and commemorates his enduring legacy in comedy.
The preservation of this collection – donated by Bob Carroll, Jr.’s daughter Christina – features thousands of creative papers and scripts written by Carroll and Pugh over five decades of radio and television, from Steve Allen’s radio shows and Lucille Ball’s My Favorite Husband radio program (the precursor to I Love Lucy) to multiple drafts of I Love Lucy scripts annotated by Carroll to scripts of Ball’s subsequent series: The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy and Life with Lucy, representing a career-long creative collaboration between Ball, Carroll, and Pugh that spanned four decades.
“At the National Comedy Center, scholars and interested fans now have the opportunity to learn how this comedy writer thought and worked with his career-long partner, Madelyn Pugh. Quite the creative realm was my father’s mind. Hers too. Funny, of course, but also playful, curious and observant. And they knew the value of timing,” said Christina Carroll in a statement. “My father loved to learn and help those coming up. I am certain this opportunity to share his life’s work would fill him with tremendous pride and appreciation as it does me.”
Additional highlights include annotated scripts for Desilu projects written by Carroll and Pugh, including sitcoms The Mothers-In-Law and The Carol Channing Show, and feature films like Yours, Mine and Ours, as well as scripts for the Warner Bros./CBS sitcom Alice, starring Linda Lavin, produced and written by Carroll and Pugh.
Included are Pugh and Carroll’s personal correspondences, including concepts for unaired TV shows, many of which were possible vehicles for Lucille Ball, but also conceived for artists like Joan Rivers, Lily Tomlin, Diahann Carroll, Eva Gabor, and Suzanne Pleshette.
“Bob Carroll, Jr. was a key architect of the situation comedy’s narrative structure, character formations, and comedic rhythms,” said Dr. Laura LaPlaca, Vice President and head of the Carl Reiner Department of Archives and Preservation at the National Comedy Center in a statement. “Every television sitcom can trace ancestry to his foundational contributions. Together with Madelyn Pugh, he built a body of work with impacts that resound throughout comedy history.”
“There was no one who Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz championed more passionately and more often than her writers – Bob Carroll, Jr. and his writing partner Madelyn Pugh,” noted National Comedy Center and Lucy Desi Museum Executive Director Journey Gunderson in a statement. “Our work at the National Comedy Center and Lucy Desi Museum is based on Lucille Ball’s vision to honor and preserve the art form of comedy and rooted in her belief in the importance of comedy’s innovators and creators, like Bob Carroll, Jr. We are honored to preserve his significant artistic legacy for generations to come, here in Lucille Ball’s hometown.”
