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Like most areas of the entertainment industry outside of acting, casting and costuming, television writing was generally one big boys club until women began making (incremental) inroads during the 1990s. There were trailblazers like "I Love Lucy" scribe Madelyn Pugh, but that trail was walked far too infrequently for far too many years.

Anyone who possessed a conscience knew this was unacceptable, which is why it's disappointing that a politically progressive (particularly for his era) writer like Rod Serling never made a concerted effort to work at least one female writer into "The Twilight Zone" mix during the series' five seasons (which stretched from 1959 to 1964). To be fair, Serling did adapt the work of women for certain episodes; in fact, a tale that many consider the show's finest half-hour, "Time Enough at Last," was based on a short story by sci-fi/fantasy writer Lynn Venable. But he never managed to...

I Love Lucy is one of the funniest sitcoms of all time. The great writing and performances came together to create a comedy masterpiece that spanned six seasons and 180 episodes. They maintained this high level of quality so consistently that even the bad episodes were good.

Because of this, choosing the funniest episodes is a difficult task. Every episode has at least one or two great scenes. Every episode gets a laugh from the audience. However, there are a few episodes that might be said to be among the best. They hit all the beats just right, they've got great dialogue and one-liners, and the actors are at the top of their game. Even better, some of these episodes were bold enough to try things that television shows haven't tried before.

Updated January 19th by David Giatras: I Love Lucy still lives on to this day as one of the...

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FX/Hulu’s Chicago-set restaurant dramedy The Bear has sizzled its way into the awards conversation as a frontrunner in a variety of fields, including for its lead performances from Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri. But The Bear isn’t the first series to center its narrative around food service: In 1976, Alice premiered on CBS, following its eponymous waitress as she begins a new job at a diner in Phoenix.

The series was based on the 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Robert Getchell, which won a lead actress Oscar for Ellen Burstyn. Getchell spun his story into a sitcom that centers on Linda Lavin’s Alice, an unemployed widow who travels from New Jersey to Los Angeles with her son to pursue a music career, but ends up taking a waitressing job at Mel...

(Original Caption) Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz going over business matters. Picture from Lucy’s personal file.

So here’s the perfect companion to one of the big feature film “docudramas” from the last weeks of 2021. You may even consider it a “super bonus extra” for a proposed home video release. Ah, but it’s so much more than that. It delves into the history and legacy more thoroughly than any “squeezed into a brief timeline” big-screen treatment. Sure there are lots of clips from this duo’s greatest collaboration, which is still being adored by fans all over the planet every day, but there are historical artifacts that many of us have never seen and heard before. And happily, there are the early, early”pre-superstardom” snippets as the careers of these two began to converge and meld. These gems along with archival footage have been assembled by a talented...

The Sopranos was named the best-written show in television history by the Writers Guild of America, edging out an eclectic collection of some of the most beloved and admired series. Members of the Writers Guild of America, West (Wgaw) and the Writers Guild of America, East (Wgae) voted online for the 101 Best Written TV Series, with David Chase’s iconic “family” drama topping Seinfeld, The Twilight Zone, All in the Family, and M*A*S*H*.

“At their core, all of these wonderful series began with the words of the writers who created them and were sustained by the writers...

'Elliot Loves' (Isa:tla Releasing) by Gary Terracino is a true American independent, made completely outside of any system, largely self financed, crowd funded, sponsored even, you name it - by any means necessary. It's a story that anyone from any walk of life can relate to; ultimately when love sucks, it F-in sucks. But when it's beautiful...

'Elliot Loves' had distribution offers on the table by the Friday before it's Sunday world premiere at 2012 The Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival where it would go on to win the Audience Award for Best Feature and Tla would announce worldwide rights to 'Elliot Loves' at Cannes. With screenings lined up across the States and Europe, this is merely the beginning of an illustrious career for Terracino. I had the pleasure (and anxiety attacks) to take the journey with Terracino. So I thought I'd catch up with him as he takes the film globally.

LatinoBuzz:Who introduced you to your earliest memory of film?

Gary Terracino:When I was four years old, my mother saw "Jaws" without taking me (and my two sisters) with her. Even at that age, I can remember being pissed at her. Well, the movie terrified her and for the rest of that summer she would not take us to the beach! Whenever we begged her she said, "But you'll be eaten by sharks!" I distinctly recall a neighbor saying to her, "Rhina, you're crazy! It's only a movie. There are no sharks swimming off of Coney Island!"

So my first memory of a movie is, naturally,of one I wasn't allowed to see!

LatinoBuzz:You are an independent filmmaker in it's truest form, making Elliot Loves by hook and crook - what's the most beautiful moment you took away from making the film in this manner?

Gary Terracino: My producing partner (Juan Caceres) and I had tried to make "Elliot Loves" for Six years: companies optioned our rights -- then went under (happened twice); experienced producers lectured us that "Elliot" was too complicated and too ambitious to ever happen; and various production companies dangled large budgets in front of me if only I made huge compromises -- as in, shoot in La, not New York; make it less Latino -- a little more white; lose the scenes of violence with the child; make it less gay; make it gayer... On our very first day of shooting, we were shooting the scene when 11 year-old Quentin Davis Araujo (playing 9-year-old "Elliot") is sitting in a bubble bath with a cigarette in his mouth and a turban on his head as he talks to the camera and narrates his life. Standing there, holding the cigarette and turban, I froze. I thought, "He's never going to do this; he'll panic and flip out." All of a sudden, Quentin reached out from the tub, grabbed the cig and the turban from me and said, "Let's get started. I'm ready and this water is cold!" At that moment, I knew from there on in, we'd be fine. And might I add that at 11 years old, Quentin Davis Araujo had bigger balls and greater vision than all the "experienced" producers and production companies who failed to come though for us?!

LatinoBuzz:The film that closely resembles the world you would like to live in?

Gary Terracino:I would marry "The Wizard of Oz" with "The 400 Blows." If I were God, I would mandate that all films be made in black and white -- and in French! And have one Technicolor flying sequence. That's what my ideal world looks and sounds like.

Time Machines are on sale at Sears next to the AC's; as a Director, If you could bring two actors together to make the perfect love story who are they? Who wrote the screenplay? What's the plot and who's the Dp? (everyone has to be dead)

Marilyn Monroe is the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. She falls for rich, dashing Cary Grant. Her brother is a young, starving artist played by River Phoenix. He's in love with a painter, played by Johnny Sheffield ("Boy" from the 1930's "Tarzan" films). Their wacky and overbearing mother is played by Ruth Gordan. Marilyn's best friend is a showgirl, played by Lucille Ball. River's sidekick is wisecracking Eve Arden. The script is written by Francois Truffaut, Madelyn Davis and Bob Caroll, Jr. Nestor Almendros is the Dp. It's in black and white but there is one Technicolor dream sequence in which River Phoenix and Johnny Sheffield fly in the sky and speak French. The ending is sad yet uplifting. May I add that Pauline Kael comes back from the dead and gives it a rave review?

LatinoBuzz:If you were given a song to write the screenplay to; which song is it?

Gary Terracino:The day I first heard Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under The bridge" I started to scribble notes for "Elliot Loves." There you have it!

LatinoBuzz:  What are the most striking differences between American Latinos and Latin American filmmakers for you?

Gary Terracino: Latin American filmmakers tend to have greater resources, whereas American Latino filmmakers have to be scrappier. Latin American filmmakers, however, work with a greater scope and vision; they're less self-absorbed and more expansive in their subject matter.

LatinoBuzz:Anything you deplore in filmmaker?

Gary Terracino:Dishonesty of any kind, on or off screen.

Follow 'Elliot Loves' at on.fb.me/MxsZRg for screenings, reviews and news!

Welcome to the 286th Edition of my long-running series. This week, I pay tribute to writer Madelyn Davis who recently left us. I did not get a part in the Anderson version of A Few Good Men but I will just move on and see what is next. As of right now I am ring announcing for Action Packed Wrestling on June 11th in Muncie.Lord of War (2005): This is part 26 of The Chain and this link goes to...

Comedy writer Madelyn Pugh Davis has died at the age of 90.

The Emmy-nominated star passed away at her California home on Wednesday after a brief illness, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Davis had been legendary actress Lucille Ball's scriptwriter for nearly four decades, penning over 125 episodes of the iconic U.S. TV sitcom I Love Lucy during the 1950s.

She is survived by her son Michael Quinn Martin and four stepchildren, Brian, Charlotte, Lisa, and Ned Davis.

Madelyn Pugh-Davis, co-founder of I Love Lucy (1951 - 1957) and quiet 1950s pioneer for women in the TV industry, has passed away at the age of 90. Pugh-Davis, along with a slim staff that consisted of longtime professional partner Bob Carroll Jr. and third writer Jess Oppenheimer, penned nearly 200 episodes of the iconic Lucille Ball series, often in spite of discord and b*tching from the series' difficult (and, in William Frawley's case, hammered) stars.

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Madelyn Pugh Davis, a prolific television writer who helped create the hugely influential 1951-57 sitcom "I Love Lucy" and was one of the first successful women working in the medium, died from undisclosed causes in Los Angeles on Wednesday, April 20, at the age of 90. Along with a skeleton staff, including her long-time professional partner, Bob Carroll Jr. (pictured, with Davis), she churned out nearly 200 scripts for the series, and helped set a new bar for small-screen hilarity that still resonates today. Many of the classic sketches that she helped...

Madelyn Pugh Davis has died, aged 90. The Hollywood screenwriter, who was best known for co-creating Lucille Ball comedy I Love Lucy, passed away at her Los Angeles home after a brief illness. Her son Michael Quinn Martin told the La Times that he and Davis used to often watch re-runs of the classic sitcom together and said: "She was always kind of flabbergasted that people were still interested in it after all these years." Lucille Ball's daughter Lucie Arnaz paid tribute to Davis, describing (more)...

One of the female pioneers of the sitcom world has died. Madelyn Pugh Davis, one of the few main writers of I Love Lucy, died last night at the age of 90 years old. She passed away in her Bel Air home following a brief illness.

Born in 1921, Davis was the editor of the Shortridge High School newspaper in Indianapolis, Indiana. She went on to graduate from the Indiana University School of Journalism in 1942. Her first professional writing job was writing radio spots for Wire, a local radio station. After her family moved to California, she got regular jobs writing for radio, first for NBC and then CBS. In the early days of her career, Davis was often the only female writer for a show.

Davis was working as a staff writer for CBS Radio in Hollywood when she met her writing partner,...

The Mother’s In Law was produced by Desi Arnaz and lasted for 2 seasons and 56 episodes from 1967-69. Arnaz brought in writers from I Love Lucy for this series, Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr., as evidenced by the feel good slapstick comedy that’s present throughout. The Hubbards and the Buells are next door neighbors who consistently annoy one another, and whose lives change forever when their children suddenly get engaged. Eve Arden (recognized as the principal of Rydell High in Grease) plays Eve Hubbard, the sophisticated, proper wife of Herbert Hubbard, a lawyer. They clash with Roy and Kay Buell. Roy is a television writer and Kay is an outspoken Italian woman.

Although Kaye and Eve are quite different, and their husbands are as well, the comedy of the series comes from the four of them being placed in similar situations and in actuality, acting quite similar to one another.

The Mother’s In Law was produced by Desi Arnaz and lasted for 2 seasons and 56 episodes from 1967-69. Arnaz brought in writers from I Love Lucy for this series, Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr., as evidenced by the feel good slapstick comedy that’s present throughout. The Hubbards and the Buells are next door neighbors who consistently annoy one another, and whose lives change forever when their children suddenly get engaged. Eve Arden (recognized as the principal of Rydell High in Grease) plays Eve Hubbard, the sophisticated, proper wife of Herbert Hubbard, a lawyer. They clash with Roy and Kay Buell. Roy is a television writer and Kay is an outspoken Italian woman.

Although Kaye and Eve are quite different, and their husbands are as well, the comedy of the series comes from the four of them being placed in similar situations and in actuality, acting quite similar to one another.

Bob Carroll Jr., a pioneering television writer who worked for three decades on many of Lucille Ball's TV shows, including every episode of I Love Lucy, has died. He was 87.

Carroll died Saturday at his Laurel Canyon home in Los Angeles. He had been suffering health reversals due to old age for the past month, Madelyn Pugh Davis, his writing partner of more than 50 years, said Monday.

With Davis, Carroll also wrote and produced Alice, which ran from 1976-85 on CBS, and won a Golden Globe. The duo also collaborated on the 1968 film Yours, Mine and Ours, starring Ball and Henry Fonda; the Desi Arnaz-produced late-'60s sitcom The Mothers-in-Law; and TV specials that starred Dinah Shore and Debbie Reynolds.

Carroll was nominated twice for Emmy Awards.

"Working with Bob was great fun because we shared the same sense of humor," Davis said. "We never got into an argument about what we were going to do. All the pictures I have of us, I'm always laughing."

Carroll and Davis were working on comedian Steve Allen's radio show in the 1940s when they learned Ball was looking for writers for her radio show, My Favorite Husband.

"They actually conned Steve Allen into writing his own show one week and took the time off to write a spec script for Lucy," longtime family friend and fellow TV writer Thomas Watson told the Associated Press.