Prolific, award-winning sitcom writer David Lloyd, whose decades-long career included work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cheers and Frasier, has died of prostate cancer at the age of 75.

Lloyd died at his home in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, according to his son, TV writer and producer Christopher Lloyd.

Lloyd was "the preeminent writer of television comedy," Les Charles, co-creator of the classic sitcom Cheers, told the Los Angeles Times.

"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."

Born in New York, Lloyd studied English and graduated from Yale in 1956. After serving in the Navy, he worked as a schoolteacher in New Jersey but eventually landed gigs writing plays and comedy material for the likes of Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett.

In 1974, Lloyd moved to Hollywood to write for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, where he penned his most famous script: the 1975 episode Chuckles Bites the Dust, which industry peers often cite as one of the funniest episodes in TV sitcom history.

The Emmy Award-winning episode revolves around the show's TV newsroom staff reacting to the ludicrously macabre death of the station's children's show host, a clown named Chuckles. Mary initially chides her co-workers for disrespecting their deceased colleague by cracking endless morbid jokes about his bizarre passing but herself ends up breaking down in fits of embarrassing laughter at his funeral.

Lloyd is regarded as a pioneer creator of workplace comedies that portrayed colleagues as a sort of family. His other writing credits includedTaxi, Rhoda, Lou Grant, The Bob Newhart Show, Dear John, Amen and Wings.

Penning the finale episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1977 garnered Lloyd another Emmy, as did his writing for the sitcom Frasier in 1998. He was honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the Writers Guild of America in 2001.

In addition to his son Christopher, Lloyd is survived by his wife, Arline; his sister, Sally; his other children, Julie, Amy, Douglas and Stephen (several of whom followed him into show business); and two grandchildren.

His funeral is set for Wednesday in Culver City, Calif.