Biography

Bob Carroll Jr. was born August 12, 1918, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. At the age of three, Carroll and his family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. His interest in writing was sparked when as a teenager he entered a radio contest, submitting a script he had written while laid up in bed recovering from a hip ailment; his submission won first prize.

In his early twenties he left for Los Angeles, where he landed a job as an usher with CBS radio affiliate KNX. After a stint in the mail room, he was promoted to the writing staff.

In the late 1940s, along with Madelyn Pugh Davis, who became his writing partner for more than 60 years, he was working on comedian Steve Allen's radio show when he learned that Lucille Ball was looking for writers for her radio show, "My Favorite Husband." Conning Allen into writing his own show one week, the writing duo took the time to write a prospective script to submit to Ball. Ball loved the submission, and Carroll and Davis became the first permanent writers on "My Favorite Husband."

When the show moved to television in 1951, Ball took her writers with her, changing the name of the program to "I Love Lucy" and adding real-life husband Desi Arnaz to the cast.

Carroll and Pugh worked on every episode of the long-running show, as well as many episodes of "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour," "The Lucy Show," "Here's Lucy" and "Life With Lucy." "Life With Lucy" would be Ball's last show, and it went off the air in 1986, just three years before her death. Carroll and Davis developed the "Lucy formula" that was the mainstay of all her series and won Ball generations of fans. Each of the shows had the basic premise of Lucy developing a bizarre scheme to achieve what she wanted and having the entire plan turn into a pratfall-filled disaster, but Lucy is normally forgiven because of her well-intentioned motives.

Carroll and Davis also collaborated on several other projects, including the 1968 film "Yours, Mine and Ours" and the short-lived Desi Arnaz-produced sitcom "The Mothers-In-Law."

Carroll also wrote and produced the 1977 television special "Lucy Calls the President." This show has been rarely seen since its original airing and is considered by many Lucy fans a must-see. The show, which had Ball playing a concerned mother who calls then-President Jimmy Carter to complain about a federal housing project that would destroy a children's camp, was used as mini-reunion show that reunited Lucy with her longtime co-stars Vivian Vance and Gale Gordon, and it had a star-studded supporting cast. The special also proved to be the last on-screen appearance for Vance and Ball.

Bob Carroll also had several noted projects outside of working with Lucille Ball. He served as a producer and sometime writer for the successful sitcom "Alice" starring Linda Lavin and the short-lived but Golden Globe-nominated "The Paul Lynde Show."

Bob Carroll died of natural causes on January 27, 2007, at the age of 88. He had been married and divorced twice and he was survived by a daughter.