Jim Geoghan died at his home in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 7. He was 79. His daughter, Genevieve Geoghan, confirmed the death to media outlets. No cause has been released.

For most people who grew up on Disney Channel in the mid-2000s, Geoghan's name is attached to one thing: The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. He co-created the show with Danny Kallis in 2005, and over three seasons and 87 episodes it turned Cole and Dylan Sprouse into household names alongside Ashley Tisdale and Brenda Song. The show ran until 2008, picked up two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Children's Program, and spun off into The Suite Life on Deck, which followed the twins onto a cruise ship high school through 2011.

Here's the part that'll matter more to Indian readers than most obituaries do. Geoghan didn't stop at the American version. He went on to executive produce The Suite Life of Karan & Kabir, the Disney Channel India adaptation of his own format. It never got anywhere near the cultural footprint of the original, but it's a rare instance of a Hollywood sitcom creator putting his own hands on the desi remake rather than licensing it off and walking away.

Geoghan's actual career started nowhere near children's television. In the early 1970s he was part of a stand-up trio called Divided We Stand, working New York rooms like the Improvisation Cafe, The Bitter End, Catch A Rising Star and The Bottom Line, and per Deadline, opening for acts as varied as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, The Temptations and Jimmy Buffett. That run fed straight into a writing career across some of the biggest sitcoms of the era: Three's Company, Family Matters, Silver Spoons, The Facts of Life, Sanford, Kate & Allie, Mama's Family and Amen all carry his credit somewhere. He wrote 18 episodes of Silver Spoons between 1983 and 1987 and produced It's Garry Shandling's Show from 1986 to 1990.

He had a parallel life in theatre too. His play Only Kidding, set inside the stand-up world he'd come out of, opened Off Broadway at the American Jewish Theater in 1988 before moving to the bigger Westside Arts Theater. It ran 500 performances and picked up two Drama Desk nominations. Another of his plays, Light Sensitive, premiered at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego and has since been staged more than 40 times around the country.

Geoghan is survived by his wife Annie, married to him for 45 years according to Deadline, and by Genevieve. Funeral details haven't been made public yet.