A Yiddish “Old Man River” — Pure Comedy Genius

Stan Daniels, was a Canadian-American screenwriter, producer and director, who won eight Emmy Awards for his work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi. I ran across this piece in a series of MTM bloopers and best of compilations. I cry whenever I see this. This appears to be either an audience warm-up or just a moment of sheer comic genius recorded for posterity.

[NYT Obituary] Stan Daniels, a television writer who won Emmy Awards for his work on the groundbreaking situation comedies “Taxi” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” died April 6 [2007] at his home in Encino, Calif. He was 72.

The cause was a heart attack, said Ed Weinberger, his former writing partner.

Mr. Daniels, a fan of musicals who also wrote a musical satire about televangelists, died playing show tunes on his piano, Mr. Weinberger said on Wednesday in a telephone interview.

Mr. Daniels won eight Emmys for his television work, two for writing on “Mary Tyler Moore” and six, shared with fellow producers, for outstanding comedy series. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which was on CBS from 1970 to 1977, won that award three times, as did “Taxi,” which was on ABC and then NBC from 1978 to 1983.

Mr. Daniels worked with James L. Brooks, a creator of “Mary Tyler Moore,” on many of its episodes before joining Mr. Brooks and others to develop “Taxi.”

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