Sherry Coben, a writer-producer greatest often called the creator of Kate & Allie, has died. She was 71.

Coben died on Oct. 16 in her residence in New Milford, New Jersey after a battle with most cancers, her household advised The Hollywood Reporter.

Kate & Allie aired for six seasons on CBS from 1984 to 1989 and was shot within the legendary Ed Sullivan Theater in New York Metropolis, which now homes The Late Present. The present, created by Coben, starred Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin as two divorced moms who reside collectively and lift their kids in the identical residence.

Earlier than Kate & Allie, Coben wrote for the ABC cleaning soap opera Ryan’s Hope. She started her profession within the artwork division at KYW-TV in Philadelphia, doing graphics, units, illustration and animation for native programming and The Mike Douglas Present. She then labored as a contract artist for tv reveals and magazines in New York Metropolis, together with NBC kids’s program Sizzling Hero Sandwich.

Coben additionally served as a writer-producer on the CBS tv collection Bailey Kipper’s P.O.V. and creator-writer of the online collection Little Ladies, Massive Vehicles.

Exterior of labor, Coben usually mentored younger writers, performers and artists. She is survived by her husband, movie editor Patrick McMahon, and her daughters, Kaley McMahon and Jama McMahon.