Madelyn Pugh Davis, R.I.P.

Madelyn Davis wrote an awful lot of things for television besides all the things she wrote (or co-wrote with partner Bob Carroll Jr.) for Lucille Ball. She wrote and sometimes produced Alice and The Mothers-in-Law and many, many other popular programs. But just the episodes she and Bob and (usually) Jess Oppenheimer wrote for I Love Lucy were enough to get her into anyone's Hall of Fame. People give Lucy all or most of the credit…but Lucy didn't ad-lib those shows. The writers knew how to make them funny and to give her what she needed to be funny.

I met Madelyn a few times and helped out in the writing room of one of her shows for a few days. She was gracious and modest and very good at what she did. And what she did was to help entertain an awful lot of people for an awfully long time.