Writing for I LOVE LUCY and Other Funny Stuff: An Interview with Bob Schiller (Past Times Comedy Writing Series)

Writing
I Love Lucy
and Other Funny Stuff

An Interview with Bob Schiller

Past Times

Comedy Writing Series, Vol. 1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.

Copyright © 2013 by Jordan R. Young

Cover: Lucille Ball with Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll Jr. (CBS); Lucy and Desi Arnaz as seen on a poster for
The Long, Long Trailer
(MGM).

Contents

Preface

The Show

The Writers

Writing
I Love Lucy


        
Hal Kanter


        
Bob Weiskopf


        
Bob Schiller

Other Funny Stuff


        
Bob Schiller

Notes

Recommended Reading

Bibliography

About the Author

New from the Author / Connect with the Author

Writing for Groucho Marx and Fred Allen

Directing Laurel and Hardy

Preface

Remember when Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz swiped John Wayne’s footprints from the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre? More than likely. It’s one of the funniest moments in the history of television, indelibly etched into the pop culture of the 20
th
century.

Bob Schiller had his handprints on that show. In fact, it was the first episode he and his longtime partner, Bob Weiskopf—collectively known as The Two Bobs—wrote for
I Love Lucy
. “Come on down to the set and watch Lucy perform your material,” invited Jess Oppenheimer, the show’s creator. “She’ll make you think you’re writers.”

Five individuals wrote all six seasons of the landmark TV sitcom, a feat that seems virtually impossible today when platoons of scribes and gagsters people the writing rooms of network shows. Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll Jr., imported by Lucille Ball from her radio program, formed the nucleus of the staff with Oppenheimer.

Weiskopf and Schiller joined the trio for the two final seasons of the sitcom. Though he and his partner co-wrote many of  “the so-called classics,” including the much celebrated grape-stomping episode, “I pay homage to Jess, Madelyn and Bob,” observed Schiller. “They are really responsible for the success of the show. I’m not… They did a remarkable job.”

The interviews presented here are excerpted from my 1998 book,
The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio and TV’s Golden Age,
which
features a dozen writers discussing their work in the prehistoric days of broadcasting—the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s—a decidedly different era of popular culture that has been largely forgotten.

Special thanks to Randy Skretvedt, my collaborator on a forthcoming oral history of radio, for joining me on the Hal Kanter interview; John and Larry Gassman, the twin encyclopedias of old-time radio, upon whose computerized brains I’ve often relied; and Kathy O’Connell, my eagle-eyed editor on
The Laugh Crafters
, for advice, corrections and other favors. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to the interviewees, without whose enthusiastic cooperation there would have been no book.

Thanks are due also to Jeff Abraham, Norman Corwin, John Dunning, Leonard Maltin, Gregg Oppenheimer, Sabrina Schiller, Pam Young; ABC; Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library; BMG Music; CBS Entertainment; Dell Publishing; Dudley Television Corp.; Friends of Old-Time Radio;
The Los Angeles Times;
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Miller Music Corporation; NBC; New York Public Library at Lincoln Center; Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters; SPERDVAC (Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy); Writer’s Guild of America, West.

Jordan R. Young

April 2013

THE SHOW

Lucille Ball was the star of a popular radio show when she decided to give television a try.
My Favorite Husband
, which made its debut on CBS in 1948, was based on characters in Isabel Rorick’s novel,
Mr. and Mrs. Cugat.
Despite its success, she didn’t want to transfer it to TV; she wanted to “divorce” her then on-air husband, Richard Denning, and perform with her real-life husband instead—to save their marriage, if for no other reason.

CBS rejected the idea of casting Desi Arnaz opposite Lucille Ball; the Cuban bandleader was the wrong color for TV in those white-bread days of the American entertainment industry, just as the Cugats of Rorick’s novel were too ethnic for radio (Ball and Denning played Liz and Dick Cooper on the show). The network almost lost Ball to NBC before they smartened up and took a chance.

Ball & Arnaz’s much celebrated sitcom, created and produced by Jess Oppenheimer, was one of many shows pitched to the couple. “When Lucy left
My Favorite Husband
I sent her a script called
Cinderella O’Toole,
about a girl who had daydreams,” recalled writer Sol Saks. “Don Sharpe, who was connected with Lucy, later said to me, ‘You know, Lucille Ball loved your script, wanted to do it. And I talked her out of it. I talked her into
I Love Lucy.
’ I thought to myself, ‘Thanks a lot.’ ” (Saks didn’t end up too badly—he came up for the idea for another sitcom about a girl who could get her way by twitching her nose, called
Bewitched
.)

I Love Lucy
debuted on CBS October 15, 1951.
The rest is history—but
what made it the legendary show it became, ranking No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for four of its six seasons, apart from the extraordinary chemistry of the cast members? Ball herself had a stock answer: “The writers.” Noted Lucie Arnaz: “My mother never accepted an award where she didn't immediately say, 'I could not have done this without my writers.' She always put them first.”

Would that such regard was reflected in a just reward for their labors. Not only did five people write all 180 episodes of the sitcom, they did it for a pittance. “People say, ‘I saw
I Love Lucy
last night.’ I say, ‘Give me a dime.’ We got no residuals other than four runs,” noted Bob Schiller. “Four residuals at 125 bucks apiece.”

Jess Oppenheimer, Lucy, Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll Jr.

THE WRITERS

Jess Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer
(1913-1988) is best known for creating
I Love Lucy.
The prolific writer-producer began his career in radio as a gofer for KFRC in San Francisco, prior to moving to Hollywood in 1936 and scripting
The Packard Hour
with Fred Astaire. He also wrote for Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen (
The Chase and Sanborn Program
), Fanny Brice (
The Baby Snooks Show
) and Rudy Vallee before becoming head writer and producer for radio’s
My Favorite Husband
with Lucille Ball. Following his five-year tenure with
I Love Lucy,
he created
Glynis
and
The Debbie Reynolds Show
for TV.

Bob Carroll Jr.

Carroll
(1918-2007) started out as an usher at CBS Radio and progressed to staff writer. He and longtime collaborator Madelyn Pugh Davis co-scripted radio’s
It’s a Great Life
with Steve Allen, and
My Favorite Husband
with Lucille Ball. They moved into TV with
I Love Lucy.
Carroll and Davis also worked on
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,
The Lucy Show
,
Here’s Lucy
and the short-lived comeback vehicle
Life With Lucy.
They later wrote for
The Mothers-In-Law
and served as producers for TV’s
Alice
series; they also provided the story for the Lucille Ball-Henry Fonda movie
Yours, Mine and Ours.

Madelyn Pugh Davis