David Lloyd: Veteran sitcom writer

July 7, 1934-Nov. 10, 2009

The most intractable challenge my dad faced in a 43-year career may have been finding parts for the manual typewriter he used until the end. He wrote over 150 scripts, 84 for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Cheers, and Frasier alone. He brought us Chuckles the Clown’s funeral, Alex Rieger’s trip to a gay bar on Taxi, Frasier’s disastrous radio play, Woody’s wedding on Cheers, among many others. It’s a sound that will forever echo through our home: my dad typing and stopping occasionally to laugh at something he’d written?he was the first to do so, but far from the last.

David Lloyd died of prostate cancer in L.A. His son Christopher created ABC’s Modern Family.