Bob Carroll Jr

Bob Carroll Jr. (August 12, 1918 – January 27, 2007)

He was a television writer notable for his creative role in the series I Love Lucy, the first four seasons of which he wrote with his professional partner Madelyn Pugh, and collaborator Jess Oppenheimer. While writing for Steve Allen's early local radio program on CBS Radio station KNX in Los Angeles the duo became interested in writing for Lucille Ball's new radio series My Favorite Husband. In an effort to seize that opportunity, they paid Allen to write his own show one week so that they could focus their energies on creating a script submission for My Favorite Husband. Successful, the pair wrote for Ball's popular program for its 2½-year duration. Carroll and Pugh helped develop and create a vaudeville act for Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, which became the basis for the pilot episode of the I Love Lucy series. Pugh and Carroll were nominated for three Emmys for their work on it; that total would likely have been considerably higher, but the Academy did not award Emmys to writers until 1954. The pair also wrote episodes of Ball's subsequent series, The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and, in 1986, her final sitcom, Life With Lucy. The duo's non-Lucy credits include work on the television series The Paul Lynde Show, Dorothy, Those Whiting Girls and Kocham Klane. They created and wrote the successful Desilu series The Mothers-in-Law, which starred Lucille Ball's longtime MGM pals Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard. Carroll and Pugh served as executive producers and did some writing for the hit television series Alice, starring Linda Lavin, for which the duo won a Golden Globe Award. They also wrote the story basis for the film Yours, Mine and Ours (1968). Carroll died in Los Angeles at age 88 after a brief illness. Divorced twice, he was survived by a daughter, Christina Carroll.