Joyce Rebeta-Burditt Dead: Creator of the Murder Diagnosis Dies at 83

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt, who was best known for creating the hit TV series Diagnosis Murder, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 83.

Bestselling author and creator of Diagnostic Killer Joyce Rebeta-Burditt has passed away.

Limit line reported that the writer died at the age of 83 on June 2 in Los Angeles.

She is best known for her role in the television series Diagnosis Murder, starring Dick Van Dyke in 1993.

She also wrote dozens of episodes of other popular shows, such as Matlock and Father Dowling Mysteries before creating Diagnosis Murder, which ran for eight seasons.

Joyce began her career writing a groundbreaking Roman film, The Cracker Factor, about a housewife who enters a mental hospital to treat her alcohol addiction.

The 1977 book became a New York Times bestseller before being made into a TV series of the same name starring Natalie Wood.

The main character in the work is based on Joyce’s early life when she had three young children.

Speaking to People at the time of its release, she said: “I think being a housewife is the most underrated job in the world. It’s a perfect setup if one is prone to alcoholism.

“My husband has to take care of most of the care for my mother. And my mother is by my side a lot. I adopt the attitudes and behavior of an older child. I am there physically, but mentally. God.

“Then, when I was sober, like many alcoholic women, I tended to be an overprotective mother. Maybe I drove the kids to eat bananas.”

When she moved into the television business, she first worked as a program executive at ABC before becoming NBC’s vice president of comedy development.

Other shows she has written include Under The Influence – a TV series starring Keanu Reaves about the impact of alcoholism on families.

She is survived by her three children, artist Paul Burditt, sitcom writer Jack Burditt and former Lionsgate Television Senior Vice President Ellen Burditt.

She also left behind her eight grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; brother and sister.

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