Remembering a Writer

David Lloyd has passed away. A friend of David's and colleague Ken Levine has written a wonderful memory of him in his blog. My friend Sinkler sent Ken's blog address to me. It is fitting that it get sent around and read. It is funny and touching. You can read it by clicking on Ken's name above.

I was a huge fan of David Lloyds work which included most of the great sitcoms of this generation. David Lloyd wrote The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Taxi, Cheers, Frasier and Wings. And he is the father of screenwriter Christopher Lloyd.

There is no doubt that he will be remembered for writing one of the top ten funniest moments on television by anybody's list. The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode of "Chuckles Bites the Dust". It is perfectly written and perfectly acted. I found the final scene of that story on YouTube.

Just to set it up if you do not know or do not remember, Chuckles the Clown, the kids show entertainer on WJM, has died accidentally. He was leading a parade dressed in his Peter Peanut costume and a rogue elephant, as Murray puts it, " tried to shell him". For days leading up to the funeral everyone is laughing and making gallows jokes about the peanut clown being killed by the elephant. Mary is horrified that they would make fun of a man's death and tries to get them to stop. This scene is the memorial service for Chuckles. It is perhaps the most fitting funeral remembrance for the man who wrote it.

David Lloyd died last Tuesday at the age of 75.

As you were,
Jay