David Lloyd, writer of 'Chuckles' episode, dies at 75
LOS ANGELES - David Lloyd, an Emmy award-winning television comedy writer who wrote the classic "Chuckles Bites the Dust" episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," has died. He was 75.
Lloyd died of prostate cancer Tuesday at his home in Beverly Hills, said his son, writer-producer Christopher Lloyd.
"I do think he was the pre-eminent writer of television comedy," said Les Charles, co-creator of "Cheers," for which Lloyd wrote numerous episodes.
"If you consider how long his career was and how much he wrote for such really popular shows, he's got to have been responsible for a record number of laughs in this world," Charles said.
In a career that began with writing jokes for Jack Paar on "The Tonight Show" in 1962, Lloyd's sitcom credits include "The Bob Newhart Show," "Phyllis," "Rhoda," "Lou Grant," "Taxi" and "Frasier."
"He was a remarkable writer," said Allan Burns, who created "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" with James L. Brooks. "The word 'wit' doesn't come up an awful lot when you're talking about television comedy, but that's what David was - a genuine wit. And he was just remarkable in his ability to write wonderful stuff very quickly. I would sit at my desk and laugh out loud."
Lloyd's most famous piece of writing is his Emmy award-winning 1975 script "Chuckles Bites the Dust," in which the WJM-TV news staff deals with the death of one of their Minneapolis TV station colleagues: kiddie-show host Chuckles the Clown, who died while serving as grand marshal for a visiting circus.
As Ed Asner's Lou Grant informs the newsroom staff: "It was a freak accident. He went to the parade dressed as Peter Peanut . . . and a rogue elephant tried to shell him." For a man whose clown credo was "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants," the reaction to his being crushed by an elephant quickly generates newsroom quips. Although Mary thinks there is nothing funny about Chuckles' death, even she gets a case of uncontrollable giggles at the funeral.
"I think it was David's sort of mordant take on what is funny and what isn't," Burns said of the episode. " As people say, it's the funniest episode we ever did."
Born July 7, 1934, in Bronxville, Lloyd majored in English at Yale University. After graduating in 1956, he served in the Navy and taught at Rutgers Preparatory School in New Jersey.
Lloyd had been writing plays and while writing jokes for "The Tonight Show" and "The Dick Cavett Show" when he wrote a sample script for "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
Burns said the script was "spot-on. . . . I said, 'Boy, do we need him.' "
