Legendary sitcom writer dies

David Lloyd, the writer of ‘Taxi’, ‘Cheers’ and ‘Fraiser’, died at...

13:45 13 November 2009

David Lloyd, the Emmy award winner whose prolific writing credits include 'Taxi', 'Cheers' and 'Frasier', has died of prostate cancer aged 75.

In America he was best known for writing the 'Chuckles Bites the Dust' episode of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show', which was voted as TV Guide's third greatest television episode of all time.

The episode - once voted the greatest in TV history - involved a children's host dressed a peanut being crushed by an elephant causing the titular character to burst out laughing during his funeral eulogy.

The 1975 show won Lloyd an individual Emmy for outstanding writing in a comedy series. He was nominated in that category another seven times.

Lloyd won a second Emmy in 1977 as one of the writers behind the final episode of long-running 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'. His third Emmy came in 1998, after 'Frasier' was named best comedy series.

To add to his accolades, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Writers Guild of America in 2001.

Les Charles, co-creator of 'Cheers', described Lloyd as "the preeminent writer of television comedy

"He's got to have been responsible for a record number of laughs in this world."