Allan Burns, best known as the co-creator of “The Munsters” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” has died.
He was 85.
No cause of death was given for the producer and television writer, who also wrote for the “Mary Tyler Moore” spinoff “Rhoda,” and several other shows. Burns teamed up with James L. Brooks to create “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” after Grant Tinker saw their work on “Room 222,” which Burns and Brooks wrote for and Burns produced, according to Deadline.
He also worked as a writer on “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” and “Dudley Do-Right,” according to Comicbook.com.
Burns also had screenwriting on his resume, with “A Little Romance” getting him nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award.
Both Ed Asner, who played the curmudgeonly Mr. Grant on “Mary Tyler Moore,” and Brooks issued heartfelt tributes to their friend and departed colleague, whose death follows that of Cloris Leachman, who also starred in that show, last week.
“He was simply the finest man I have ever known,” Brooks tweeted. “A beauty of a human.”
More Top Picks Best Large Capacity Wheelchairs Ramps
“A mensch like no other, a friend and so incredibly talented,” Asner tweeted. “Say hello to the gang Allan.”
That gang consists of, by now, Moore herself, Valerie Harper, Ted Knight, Georgia Engel, and as of last week, Cloris Leachman.
No information was available about Burns’ funeral arrangements or survivors.