Stan Daniels, 72, ‘Taxi’ Producer
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Stan Daniels, an Emmy-winning TV writer and producer who worked on two of the most acclaimed comedies of the 1970s, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and “Taxi,” died April 6 in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 72.
Daniels won eight Emmys including three as co-creator and executive producer of “Taxi” and three as a writer on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
He wrote for “The Dean Martin Show” and the first “The Bill Cosby Show,” before joining “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which ran from 1970 to 1977. He also wrote for the Cloris Leachman spinoff series, “Phyllis.”
He and three MTM Productions colleagues, James L. Brooks, David Davis and Ed. Weinberger, left in 1977 to set up a production unit at Paramount Pictures. Their show “Taxi,” starring Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner and Danny DeVito, debuted the following year and ran through 1983.
Daniels also co-wrote, with Brooks the 1978 TV movie “Cindy,” a retelling of the Cinderella story with a black cast.
On Broadway, he composed music and lyrics for “So Long 174th Street,” a 1976 musical version of the play “Enter Laughing.”
Born in Toronto, Daniels attended the University of Toronto and a fellowship to study at Oxford.
