What if I told you there was a woman who in the early days of television wrote 11,000 scripts, and starred in her own TV network hit sitcom for six years and no one has ever heard of her? Meet Peg Lynch. This is a remarkable true story you will not believe.
More podcasts at WAVE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/artist/wave-podcast-network/1437831426
Peg Lynch's radio shows are a favorite of mine. Radio was her forte, moreso than television, and most of those 11,000 scripts were written for that medium. I've got the entire run of THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR, the late '50s incarnation of her ETHEL AND ALBERT 1940s radio/early-mid '50s television series, and find it highly amusing. She preferred radio to television. Producers insisted her television series have a live audience, something her various radio series never had, and she said she never really adjusted to it. She felt that having to work around audience laughter ruined the natural rhythms of the characters' speech.
ReplyDeleteAs a Fifties Kid, I remember Ethel And Albert from early TV; they always seemed to turn up somewhere.
ReplyDeleteIn the early '60s, they turned up doing commercials for Wisk detergent, mainly in the daytime hours; I recall that the hosts of the game shows would announce the spots: "And now, let's visit with our old friends Ethel and Albert!"
Occasionally, the spots would get applause from the studio audience.
As memory serves, they only came to an end when Alan Bunce died in 1965.
Alan Bunce had a whole acting career apart from Ethel And Albert, often in very serious roles, quite removed from amiable Albert; these could often throw people like my parents, such as when Bunce appeared in Homicidal!, from William Castle, with Ethel nowhere in sight.
They often wondered why Peg Lynch didn't have an acting career of her own, in various roles; I'll guess that it was her choice not to.
Anyway, you can find a whole bunch of Ethel And Albert, in all media, at YouTube.
Do that, first chance you get.
You're welcome.
Thanks so much. I had never heard of Peg Lynch. After listening to this podcast, I went to YouTube and there she was- I watched the "Two times Nothing" sketch and it's funny.
ReplyDeleteThere's tons of info on her at https://www.peglynch.com
ReplyDeleteAnd don’t forget Gertrude Berg who created, wrote, produced and starred in the original Goldberg TV show. We watched the show regularly and I wish I knew more about how she did it.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goldbergs_(broadcast_series)
ReplyDelete“a comedy-drama broadcast from 1929 to 1946 on American radio, and from 1949 to 1956 on American television. It was adapted into a 1948 play, Me and Molly; a 1950 film The Goldbergs, and a 1973 Broadway musical, Molly.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Berg
started as writer - star in 1929
She won a Tony and Emmy
Minneapolis Star-Tribune writer James Lileks has written extensively about Peg Lynch. Has been to her hometown, met her daughter and even performed some of her radio plays.
ReplyDeleteWow.I pride myself on my knowledge of history and of writers, especially prolific tv writers like Leonard Stern, Ken Pettus, Arthur Julian, Margaret Armen but I never heard of Peg Lynch. Thanks for introducing us to her, Ken.
ReplyDeleteSsomewhere in what I was reading online today about her, there was a comment she made that she used to get complaints from the networks and sponsors when she was doing television that her show was too talky and too short on action, and why couldn't she do more of a Lucy thing, with emphasis on slapstick and sight gags. But, she said, hers wasn't an "Ethel tries to wallpaper the living room" style of comedy. She said that was why she preferred working in radio. They left her alone.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting about the show she created is that it was a situation comedy that spoke to a generation or two about how married life went on, but she grew up without a father from age two and didn't marry until the show had been on the air and quite successful for a long time. She was clearly someone who observed life quite well without necessarily experiencing parts of it herself. That's the mark of true genius (and why the various claims that Shakespeare couldn't have written Shakespeare ring false to me: there aren't any nobles who experienced all that stuff who also wrote so well).
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely floored! I'd never heard of the radio show or the TV show, and I'm saying that as a fellow who has done a lot of radio theater.
ReplyDeleteJeff Bolce: The "Two times Nothing" sketch has an interesting feature. The theme music is "Love Nest", which is what the "Burns and Allen" TV show used.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be that guy who will say I've heard of Peg Lynch, due to Radio Classics on Sirius and The Couple Next Door, but I just don't like that show. I find the characters wholly unlikable. They talk over each other, sometimes too fast at that and the "real life" situations created for them seem too contrived. Granted, they only had 15 minutes to do everything, but the manner of speaking makes it unlistenable. Alan Bunce's character comes across as whiny and spineless. There are many shows on Radio Classics that took several programs to understand the appeal, but I've haven't been able to grasp The Couple Next Door at all. When it's announced as coming up next I move on to something else.
ReplyDeleteThis is why Desi Arnaz is a genius. If not for his foresight, we wouldn't still love Lucy all these many years later, while most of the pre-Lucy television history is but a mere memory.
ReplyDeleteRe: Desi Arnaz
ReplyDeleteOne area where Desi did lack foresight was in seeing any long-term value in those I LOVE LUCY shows. When it ended, he sold the series outright to CBS for a figure in the neighborhood of five million dollars. "Brilliant move!" everybody said. CBS has, of course, made back their investment many times over, and continues to do so, while Desi and Lucy never made another nickel off the show.
Lucy said, in his defense, that they figured the show would be good for five, maybe ten years in reruns, then would disappear. They never anticipated its continued popularity.
Such a nice interview and story. Makes me wonder about all of the unsung people who contributed to the media we love. Thanks, Ken!
ReplyDeleteThis is appearing too late for anyone to see it, but I'll post it, anyway. Regarding Desi Arnaz and his decision to sell I LOVE LUCY to CBS, that wasn't so much short-sightedness on Desi's part as it was a need for money. Desi was in the process of buying the RKO lot and had to have a quick influx of cash. So Desi got RKO and CBS got LUCY, OUR MISS BROOKS, DECEMBER BRIDE and some other short-run odds and ends. Not that Desi didn't regret the sale, something he'd make clear if the subject ever came up in conversation. But who would have expected the show to hold up the way it did? LUCY didn't hit the syndication market until 1967, and there were those who didn't expect it to do well, partly because it was "old" and partly because it was black-and-white. Not to mention that CBS had run it to death. Almost eight years on weekday mornings. A go-to when the network needed a summer replacement. Plugged into various late afternoon/early evening slots. As late as the summer of 1967, CBS was running it on Sunday afternoons, right before TED MACK'S AMATEUR HOUR. There were a lot of people who thought LUCY too over-exposed. But what happened? In September 1967 local stations finally got their hands on it, and LUCY became the syndication hit of the year. Lucille Ball used to say that she and Desi expected the show to be good for maybe five years or so in reruns. Who would have ever imagined otherwise?
ReplyDelete