Laughing with Lucy

Read along as Lucille Ball’s staff writer Madelyn Pugh Davis shares priceless moments behind the scenes of I Love Lucy.

I love Lucy. You love Lucy. We all love Lucy. At any time, day or night, I Love Lucy is on TV somewhere in the world—which means that, 24 hours a day, Lucille Ball is speaking the words that Madelyn Pugh Davis wrote.

One of television’s groundbreaking female writers, Madelyn helped shape the landscape of American comedy. As Lucille Ball’s staff writer for nearly 50 years—spanning I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy, and Life with Lucy—Madelyn was responsible for thousands of hours of classic TV. Many of the story elements used on the shows were, in fact, taken from Madelyn’s own life and immortalized by Ball’s comic genius.

This compelling memoir offers an unprecedented glimpse into the golden age of television comedy, celebrating the power of laughter, creativity, and perseverance in shaping American entertainment. Madelyn and her long-time writing partner, Bob Carroll Jr., share with you their favorite memories from crafting the stories for Lucy, Desi, and cast. In Laughing with Lucy, you’ll learn about

• the scramble to address Ball’s real-life pregnancy on the show without using the “p” word
• behind-the-scenes, painstaking work to create “spontaneous” jokes
• how, whenever an elaborate physical comedy gag was devised, Madelyn had to act it out first to be sure that a woman could perform it
• Madelyn’s and Bob’s fond memories of the partnership between Lucille Ball, the consummate perfectionist, and Desi Arnaz, the charmer

Experience television’s greatest era through the eyes of a pioneering woman writer. In Laughing with Lucy, Madelyn looks back with wit and affection on her many years working with Lucy, Desi, and other entertainment legends—and the adventures that came her way.