February 5: Happy Birthday Stephen J. Cannell

[TMC]

https://lebeauleblog.com/2023/02/05/...hen-j-cannell/

Stephen J. Cannell (1941-2010) was born and grew up in the Los Angeles area. After studying at the University of Oregon, he worked for his father’s interior decorating business for a few years. In 1968, Cannell sold his first television script, to ABC’s It Takes a Thief.

Cannell was a prominent television writer and producer for three decades. He was the creator or co-creator of over two dozen series, most of them falling within the action/crime genre. One of his best known series was about the adventures of a crack commando unit who survived as soldiers of fortune–expending enormous amounts of ammunition while never seeming to hit anyone.



At the start of the 1970s, Cannell wrote for series such as Ironside, Madigan, and Adam-12. In 1973, he created Chase, a short-lived police procedural series. A year later, he had his first hit, as the co-creator of a series about a Los Angeles private detective named Jim Rockford. The Rockford Files ran for six seasons, and won an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in 1978.

During the late seventies, Cannell also created several crime series, including Baretta, and the World War II drama/comedy Baa Baa Black Sheep. In the early 1980s, along with The A-Team, he created series like The Greatest American Hero, Hardcastle and McCormick, and Hunter.

In 1987, Cannell created a new series about three improbably young undercover police detectives. 21 Jump Street is famous for, if you will pardon the expression, jump-starting Johnny Depp’s career. With it, Cannell also became one of the pioneers of producing and filming series in Vancouver, BC.

In 1991, Cannell created his longest-running series. Silk Stalkings aired for 8 seasons, first on CBS and then on USA Network, chronicling the misdeeds of the elite of Palm Beach, FL. His other major creations in the 1990s included the police series The Commish, and Renegade, about the adventures of a cop-turned-bounty hunter.

In the late 1990s, Cannell began writing novels, and focused more on that side of his career from then on. His first novel, The Plan, was published in 1996. In 2001, he began a series about an LAPD detective named Shane Scully. He completed eleven novels in the series by the time of his death in 2010.