CHICAGO– In the 1980s, you couldn’t swing a burnt-out remote without coming upon either a Stephen J. Cannell created series or an episode that he’d personally written. The amazingly prolific and populist television icon – best known for “The Rockford Files” and “The A-Team” – passed away last week at the age of 69.
On-screen, Cannell was remembered for his famous sign-off to the TV shows he produced – ripping the paper out of his typewriter and flinging it into the air until it formed a “C” logo. In the truest honor, “The Simpsons” did a parody of that sign-off in an episode featuring Itchy and Scratchy.
 Photo credit: Cannell.com |
Stephen J. Cannell was born in Los Angeles and raised in nearby Pasadena, California. He struggled with dyslexia throughout his life, and later became a national spokesperson for the condition. After successfully graduating from the University of Oregon, he began writing scripts while working in the family furniture business.
He sold his first script to the TV show “It Takes a Thief” in 1968, and was hired by Universal Studios Television to freelance on such shows as “Columbo” and “Ironside.” His first full-time break came on the police series “Adam-12,” when he became story editor in that show’s fourth season in 1971.
Even though initially he worked as a “head writer” for Universal for the princely sum of $600 a week, he had a clause in his contract that paid handsomely for writing pilots. In a 2002 interview, Cannell said, “The reason they did it is that they never thought I was going to write a pilot. So they’d give me $70,000 to write a two-hour pilot and a $100,000 production bonus if it ever got made. Then I became the hottest pilot writer at Universal. I was writing two or three pilots a season. I was making $400,000 a year in pilot fees.”
Cannell created or co-created nearly 40 television series, including “The Rockford Files,” “Baretta,” “The Greatest American Hero,” The A-Team,” “Wiseguy,” “21 Jump Street,” “Silk Stalkings” and “The Commish,” an incredible run of shows that kept him on the air consistently from 1974 through 1999.
 Photo credit: Universal TV |
“I never thought of myself as being a brilliant writer, and still don’t.” Cannell once told the Associated Press. But this assessment never deterred him from producing or executive producing over 1500 TV episodes and personally scripting more than 450 shows. He also wrote or co-wrote 17 novels.
Probably his greatest legacy was the wise-cracking anti-hero, as evidenced in Jim Rockford and The A-Team. His shows were entertaining mind candy, escapist fare that perfectly fit into the zeitgeist of 1970s and ‘80s network television. His highest concept show probably was “The Greatest American Hero,” which starred William Katt as a superhero who lost the instruction manual for his own powers, a perfect metaphor for life in the Star Wars generation.
Cannell launched several careers, including Mr. T, Ken Wahl, Kevin Spacey, Michael Chiklis and Johnny Depp, who he released from “21 Jump Street” after one season. “I wasn’t going to hold him back,” Cannell said about Depp, “because by then, he was a star.”
Cannell passed away from complications due to melanoma, survived by his wife of 46 years, Marcia, three children and three grandchildren.
He later summed up his career with an appropriate quote: “So I thought, television, my gawd! There’s a thousand episodes of this written each year. I ought to be able to get in there, and if I grin – I was a good salesman – I ought to be able to pick-off one or two assignments.”
Stephen J. Cannell, 1941-2010.
 | By PATRICK McDONALD |
