Dying is easy. (The Roving Eye).

DOCUMENTARIAN David Zeiger might have called his latest film "Tuesdays With Frank."

Instead, he went with the title "Funny Old Guys" for the 40-minute documentary about a group of friends - many of them producers and writers for some of television's most popular sitcoms - that deals with the death of one of its members, Frank Tarloff.

The film is set to premiere on Wednesday (4th) at the Museum of Television & Radio. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Zeiger and some of the group's members, including writers Bernie Kahn ("Maude") and Bernie West ("All In the Family.")

"Funny Old Guys" is also scheduled for a limited engagement later this month at the Laemmle Theatre in Santa Monica.

It was Zeiger's father, Irving Zeiger, who invited him to attend the group's Tuesday lunches - a weekly tradition that was started at least 15 years ago.

The documentary's focus took a turn during filming when the group discovered that Tarloff had cancer. Tarloff was a blacklisted writer who worked on "The Danny Thomas Show" and whose screenwriting credits included the 1964 comedy "Father Goose;' for which he won an Oscar. He died in 1999.

"It became much more a piece about dealing with and confronting old age;' Zeiger said. "Frank had kind of an epiphany when he realized that he was actually dying - and that he could become his friends' guide into what it would be like to die."

In one scene, Tarloff is talking to his wife about death and then asks her if it's 5 p.m. so he can have a scotch. "On his deathbed, he had to wait until after 5 to have a scotch;' Zeiger said.