'I Love Lucy' co-writer Madelyn Pugh Davis dies at 90

Madelyn Pugh Davis, a pioneering TV writer who helped create countless classic I Love Lucy moments, died April 20 at her Bel Air, Calif., home at the age of 90. She and co-writer Bob Carroll (who died in 2007) penned hundreds of scripts for Lucy and other shows together, boosting star Lucille Ball to legendary status. Davis, an Indiana University graduate, started her career at radio station WIRE in Indianapolis, then moved to television during its early years, becoming the second female staff writer at CBS. She threw herself into her work, literally, even testing Ball’s famous physical-comedy bits to make sure they were safe. ”She was one of the most brilliant writers of all time on television,” says Kaye Ballard, who starred on the 1960s sitcom The Mothers-in-Law, for which Davis also wrote. ”She was a class act in every sense of the word.” Here, three of Davis and Carroll’s greatest Lucy moments.