Stan Daniels, who found great success in television as a co-creator of "Taxi" and a writer-producer of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," but who nursed a lifelong love of musical comedy, died of heart failure April 6, 2007, at his longtime home in Encino, CA, it was reported. He was 72. Mr. Daniels won eight Emmys for his work on TV, all for his work on the Moore show and "Taxi," sitcoms cherished by viewers for their intelligence, wit and sense of character.

Around the time "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was thriving, Mr. Daniels, a talented pianist, wrote the music and lyrics for So Long, 174th Street, a musical based on the hit play Enter Laughing. Despite boasting the services of Burt Shevelove, the show's director, and stars Robert Morse and George S. Irving, it closed after 16 performances. Mr. Daniels never gave up on the theatre, however. At the time of his death, he left behind nine unproduced musicals.

Stanley Edwin Daniels was born in 1934 in Toronto, the only child of vaudevillian performers Albert and Lillian. He studied philosophy at the University of Toronto and Oxford. A revue he wrote and directed, starring Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett at the Edinburgh Festival, proved a turning point, leading him to leave the his schooling behind.

Other television shows Mr. Daniels worked on include "The Dean Martin Show," "Cindy," "Lily" and "The Bill Cosby Show" and the "Mary Tyler Moore" spinoff series "Phyllis" with Cloris Leachman.

In addition to Alene, his wife of 50 years, Daniels is survived by four children, writers Shelley, Dari and Alan, and Lawrence, a prosecutor for the state attorney general's office; and two grandsons.