Writing for I LOVE LUCY and Other Funny Stuff: An Interview with Bob Schiller (Past Times Comedy Writing Series) (2 page)

Davis (1921-2011)
was one of the first female comedy writers, along with Selma Diamond. She began her career in her native Indianapolis writing radio commercials and patter for disc jockeys, teaming with fellow CBS staff writer Bob Carroll Jr. circa 1946. They garnered a pair of Emmy nominations for their efforts on
I Love Lucy
and another for
Here's Lucy;
they won Golden Globes for
Alice
and a UCLA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

BOB WEISKOPF

Weiskopf (1914-2001) worked in advertising before getting his feet wet in radio with Eddie Cantor. He also wrote for Rudy Vallee before moving on to Fred Allen. Weiskopf largely soloed at the typewriter, until teaming up Bob Schiller in 1953. The pair reached the pinnacle of their partnership writing for
I Love Lucy,
before scripting
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, The Red Skelton Show
,
The Carol Burnett Show and The Flip Wilson Show.
Weiskopf and Schiller enjoyed a long tenure writing for Norman Lear on
All in the Family
,
Maude
, and
All’s Fair,
which
they created
.

BOB SCHILLER

Schiller (1918-  ) began his career on
Duffy’s Tavern
with
Ed Gardner
.
After writing for such radio shows as
Abbott and Costello, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
and
The Mel Blanc Show,
he graduated to television, where he wrote for Danny Thomas and Ed Wynn on
Four Star Revue
, and
The Red Buttons Show
before teaming with Bob Weiskopf for
I Love Lucy
. Schiller and Weiskopf earned an Emmy for their efforts on
The Flip Wilson Show,
and a second for
All in the Family
. The team also won two Peabody Awards, a Golden Globe, four Writer’s Guild awards and the WGA Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award during their long collaboration; they retired in 1990.

Writing for
I Love Lucy

HAL KANTER

Kanter (1918-2011) wrote for Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby and
Amos ‘n’ Andy
before turning to television, where he wrote for
The Ed Wynn Show, The George Gobel Show
,
All in the Family,
and creating the ground-breaking
Julia
. Among his films were such diverse credits as the screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams’
The Rose Tattoo,
Frank Capra’s
Pocketful of Miracles
and Elvis Presley’s
Blue Hawaii
.

I believe Lucille Ball made her first TV appearance on The Ed Wynn Show.

That’s right. And the only reason that she went on the show was that she wanted a job for Desi Arnaz. She said, “If you use Desi, I’ll do the show.” She wanted to keep him at home, ‘cause poor Desi was wandering all over the country trying to earn a living.

Any recollection of Lucy’s first appearance, in terms of how she approached it -- did she seem to have a interest in the technical aspect of the medium?

Did she show any signs that she was going to be a big television producer? I don’t think so. Lucy approached the whole job with enthusiasm, the way she did almost everything else. Once she agreed to do something, she went all out with it. I do know that in order to lure her into doing the show, Leo Solomon and I went out to her house in the San Fernando Valley and described what we had in mind. And Lucy said, “That sounds fine. But just make sure Desi has everything possible that he can do.” Once she agreed to do the show, then she showed up and picked up the script and read it and laughed, and enjoyed herself.

Lucy saw the show as sort of an audition for Desi, to show people what he could do?

I think it was really to show Desi himself what he could do. Lucy wanted him to do something musical, she wanted him to do some talk, she wanted him to get some laughs -- she wanted him to look good.

Lucy in her TV debut with Ed Wynn, on his live CBS show.

How did you come to team up with Bob Schiller?

We didn’t know where to send our kids to school. We didn’t know how half-Japanese kids would function out here [in Los Angeles]. We heard about UCLA Elementary School; we asked a friend if there was any way we could find out about the school. She put us in touch with Bob Schiller’s wife -- he happened to be a comedy writer. I was looking for a partner, ‘cause I had a commitment for the Danny Thomas television show. I did a couple of scripts myself, but it was more fun working with a partner.

All of your radio work was done apart from Schiller?

Yeah, virtually all of it. We did a radio script for
Our Miss Brooks,
when Bob and I first started working together. We did only one script for the show. The reason I got out here was on account of television
.
Danny Thomas read something I wrote. I got a deal to do six scripts for
Make Room for Danny.
I did two or three by myself; I really didn’t like working alone. This guy Schiller seemed like a pleasant guy, and he was a comedy writer, so I called him up.

Why only one script for
Our Miss Brooks
?

There was not much left in radio. After I started working with Bob Schiller we kicked around a lot. Bob and wrote one or two left over from my assignment with Danny Thomas. The first real show we had together of any consequence was
I Love Lucy.

How did you get the job?

A friend of ours, a writer, got his own show; he liked our work, we had three or four scripts with him. He was very honest; he said, “Look, guys, I’ve got my 13 scripts, now I’m going to be tough.” And by Christ he was; we couldn’t clear a premise with him after that. It was so easy before. We were in his office at General Service Studios -- we weren’t getting anywhere -- I looked out the window, I saw Jess Oppenheimer coming in. He says, “Hey, I’m looking for two writers for
I Love Lucy
but I read in the trades you were working for so-and-so.” I said, “That was a mistake. Get us off this thing; it’s a pain in the ass.” “Who’s your agent?” “The Morris office.” We called the Morris office; Jess had already called them.

You had worked with Jess Oppenheimer on
The Rudy Vallee Show.

Yeah, Jess and I worked together for six or seven months. When I took my wife to Chicago to be with her parents [in 1942], Jess was single at the time -- so we took an apartment together in Hollywood and became very friendly. When Jess saw me at the studio [in 1953], he was looking for a couple of writers -- he thought Schiller and I were busy because
Variety
had mistakenly printed something about us. I said, “No, we’re available.” That’s how we got with Lucy -- and it worked out great.

How did you adapt to writing for a visual medium?

It really wasn’t that different. It’s somewhat different. Because even when you write radio, and you do sketches and things, you think in your mind -- you have a picture. So you get the picture anyway, and you put it down in the direction.

Did you find television more difficult to write for than radio?

They’re both tough. To get people to laugh is tough. Writing’s hard -- which is why nobody’s there when the paper’s blank.

Was it more difficult writing comedy by yourself, as opposed to collaborating?

Yeah, I think so. ‘Cause you bounce off each other, back and forth. By and large, the most successful comedy writers have been the teams, but they’re been a lot of individuals who have been successful. I like working with a partner better. Most of the time on
The Fred Allen Show,
we worked alone -- our own spots -- and then with Fred. One year I worked with Nat Hiken. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great, so we didn’t do it after that.

Did you enjoy writing for radio more so than TV?

Well, when you wrote for Lucille Ball, who was a very visual comedienne, you got satisfaction. But I’ve gotten great satisfaction out of my career, making people laugh. And Lucille Ball gave me a lot of satisfaction. Carroll O’Connor gave me a lot of satisfaction, and Jean Stapleton -- they’re good performers, even though they’re not comics. Carroll knew how to play that part [Archie Bunker on
All in the Family
]. I gotta give him credit, ‘cause he’s not a comedian. But when you were in radio, you worked for a comic -- Fred Allen, George Burns, Jack Benny. And the funnier the people, the better off you are for the writing.

You teamed up with Bob Weiskopf after
The Red Buttons Show.
How did your collaboration come about?

I got canned from that show, and I was coming back after eight weeks -- in those days they had teletypes, they didn’t have anything like faxes -- the William Morris office teletyped from New York that I was coming back, and looking for work. And by coincidence at that moment, Weiskopf was in the Morris office; we had the same agent. Bob had a deal to do
Make Room for Daddy,
to do four of them; he had done three and he was tired of working alone. He was used to working with a partner. He called the agent and wondered if there was anybody available -- and almost at that moment the teletype came through, and he said, “How about Schiller?” We had met prior to my going to New York on the Buttons show; he came over to my house and we spent an evening together. So that was the good thing that came out of the Buttons show -- I got fired. And that’s how we got together. I came back and we did a
Make Room for Daddy.
We did one show for
Our Miss Brooks.
We struggled for a year.

But you preferred working with a partner to working alone?

Much. It was strange -- most partnerships are opposites. We’re very much alike, so we understand each other. We’re both kind of lazy -- we worked like dogs, and we’re both still kind of lazy. Somebody said, “How do you become a successful comedy writer?” I said, “It’s very simple. You learn how to type and find a funny partner.”

And that’s what you did.