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| Two people who live together, and like it.
While producing films for Columbia Pictures, CBS offered Lucy a Radio show based upon the book, Mr. and Mrs. Cugat by Isabelle Scott Rorick. Lucy was interested, and she was soon teamed with Richard Denning in My Favorite Husband. This half-hour weekly show revolved around the travails of Liz and George Cugat, a very normal, middle-class couple from Minneapolis. Liz is a dizzy, scheming wife who gets into relatively minor but vexing scrapes that makes life challenging for her long-suffering husband, a banker played by Richard Denning. Gale Gordon was the bank president, the same role that was to be his on The Lucy Show. The characters of Liz and George Cugat soon had their names changed to Liz and George Cooper. Her writers for the show were Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. and the producer-director was Jess Oppenheimer, a connection that would become particularly fruitful in the years to come. In addition to taking charge, Jess Oppenheimer gradually began to revamp the program. He also reworked Lucy's role into a daffier, broader character, much closer to the Lucy Ricardo who would soon appear on television. The show was performed in front of a live studio audience, not just actors in front of microphones reading their lines. The performers were in costume as well and it was much like theater. It provided Lucy with her first regular gig that involved feedback from a live audience. She found the experience exhilarating as did the audience. Something magical happened when Lucille began to work in front of them and she began hitting performance levels that were missing from any of her previous film work. She absolutely bloomed in front of an audience. With that, one of the greatest sitcoms of all time had been formed. The world will never be without Lucy. She was not merely an actress or a comedian. She was "Lucy" and she was loved. |
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| My Favorite Husband |
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| Bea Benaderet and Gale Gordon clown around during a 1949 read through of My Favorite Husband. |
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| Scriptwriters BobCarroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh and Producer Jess Oppenheimer |