Sitcom writer Lloyd dies at 75

Sitcom writer David Lloyd, whose credits include Taxi, Cheers and Frasier has died of prostate cancer at the age of 75.

He also wrote for Johnny Carson, Bob Newhart and 31 episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore Show – including the Emmy-award-winning Chuckles Bites The Dust script, in which Mary and her friends fail to keep a straight face during the funeral of a children's clown who was crushed to death by an elephant.

He won two more Emmys, for The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Frasier, and in 2001 received a lifetime achievement award from the Writers Guild of America.

Les Charles, co-creator of Cheers, said of his former colleague: ‘He's got to have been responsible for a record number of laughs in this world.’

Lloyd’s son Christopher is the creator of ABC’s current top-rated sitcom, Modern Family.

Here is an extract from Chuckles Bites The Dust

Published: 13 Nov 2009