Stan Daniels

Stanley Edwin Daniels (* 31 July 1934 in Toronto , Ontario , † 6. April 2007 in Encino , California , USA ) was a Canadian sitcom - author , television director and producer. As author or co-writer of the well-known American television series The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi (together with James L. Brooks and David Davis ), he won eight Emmy Awards and was nominated six more times for Emmy.

Life

Stan Daniels was born in Toronto in 1934 as the only child of vaudeville actors Lilian and Albert Daniels. When his parents opened a cinema, little Stan often mingled with the audience and, at the early age of three, was able to list all the names of the then famous film greats. Daniels was extraordinarily talented in music, won piano competitions as a child and at times considered a career as a pianist .

After graduating from school, however, he initially took up a philosophy degree at the University of Toronto . In 1956 he completed his studies here with a Bachelor of Arts and received an MA ( Master of Arts ) in the following year . In Toronto he also met his wife Alene (née Kamins), a former child star on Canadian radio, and married her in 1957. The couple had four children.

In 1958 Stan Daniels received a scholarship to the University of Oxford and moved with his family to England. He began studying for a doctorate at Magdalen College in Oxford, but did not complete his studies, because during this time he was already beginning to write or stage plays, musicals and revues - a. a. Better Never for the Edinburgh Festival or Beyond The Fringe, which made Alan Bennett famous.

From the mid-1960s he switched to television and began writing series such as The Dean Martin Show and The Bill Cosby Show . From 1970 he worked with Ed Weinberger and James L. Brooks ( The Simpsons ) at MTM Enterprises as a writer and producer for the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show , which is considered one of the milestones in American comedy history and from 1970 to 1977 from CBS aired. In 1975 Daniels and Weinberger created the well-known sitcom Phyllis (1975-77) with Cloris Leachman in the lead role.

In 1977 Daniels left MTV Productions with Ed Weinberger, James L. Brooks and David Davis to set up a largely independent production unit at Paramount Pictures . In 1978 this team created the well-known sitcom Taxi with the main actors Danny DeVito , Judd Hirsch and Marilu Henner . This television series was broadcast by ABC and NBC until 1983 and made a. a. Danny DeVito to star. Daniels also made his debut as a director behind the camera at Taxi , which later became an important pillar of his career, especially in the 1990s (for example at Almost Famous ). Also in 1978 Daniels wrote - together with James L. Brooks - the series Cindy , which was broadcast by ABC in 1978 and tells the Cinderella theme in an African-American version.

In later years Daniels worked predominantly as a writer, producer or director of TV films such as Glory! Glory! (1989), For Richter, For Poorer (1992), The Substitute Wife (1994) and The Kid (2001). For his work, Daniels received a total of eight Emmy Awards and another six Emmy nominations.

As a talented composer, he also created music and lyrics for the Broadway musical So Long 174th Street , the musical version of the play Enter Laughing . His musical version of Bernhard Slade's play Same Time, Next Year premiered in 2001 in Budapest .

In the past five years his work has been severely impaired by dementia . On April 6, 2007, Stan Daniels died of heart failure. He left behind Mrs. Alene and four children.

Web links

• Stan Daniels in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Obituary in the Telegraph (english)