Biography
This page uses content from the Stephen J. Cannell biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Stephen Joseph Cannell, and known professionally as Stephen J. Cannell (born February 5, 1941), (IPA pronunciation: ), is an Emmy award winning American television producer, writer, novelist and occasional actor from the United States. Born in Los Angeles, California, his father owned an interior design business. He is married to Marcia and has three children.
Noted for sophisticated, character-driven writing within genre formats, Cannell has created or co-created nearly 40 different shows, including The Rockford Files, The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, Wiseguy, 21 Jump Street, Silk Stalkings and The Commish. In the process he has scripted more than 350 episodes, and produced or executive produced in excess of 1,500 episodes. In recent years, Cannell has turned his attention to novels. As of 2006, he has written 11 novels, most of which have featured the character of Shane Scully of the LAPD.
Most of his television shows were produced through Stephen J. Cannell Productions in Vancouver, British Columbia. He currently heads the Cannell Studios.
Television
Cannell has worked on numerous TV projects, some of which are listed below:
- Adam-12
- Chase
- The Rockford Files
- Tenspeed and Brown Shoe
- The A-Team
- The Greatest American Hero
- Hardcastle & McCormick
- Stingray
- 21 Jump Street
- Hunter
- Silk Stalkings
- Renegade
- Wiseguy
- Baa Baa Black Sheep
- Baretta
- The Commish
- The Duke
- The Quest
- Quincy, M.E.
- Riptide
- Sonny Spoon
- Stone
- The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage
- Profit
His production company was acquired by New World Communications in 1995.
Bibliography
Shane Scully series
- The Tin Collectors (2001)
- The Viking Funeral (2002)
- Hollywood Tough (2003)
- Vertical Coffin (2004)
- Cold Hit (2004)
- White Sister (2006)
Other novels
- The Plan (1996)
- Final Victim (1997)
- King Con (1998)
- Riding The Snake (1999)
- The Devil's Workshop (2000)
- Runaway Heart (2003)
Film
Cannell is working on several projects in this area, most notably The A-Team, a film based on the 1980's TV show.
Trivia
- The closing logo of his production company features him typing, before throwing the sheet from his typewriter whereupon it animates to become his company logo against a black screen. It was updated often, the main differences being Cannell's clothes, sometimes new awards in the background and (rarely) a new office for the live-action part.
- This is parodied in an episode of The Simpsons called "The Front", featuring Bart and Lisa watching the "Itchy and Scratchy" episode that they wrote, followed by the cartoon's closing logo with a version of Cannell's typewriting, but instead Itchy and Scratchy throwing the piece of paper away to signal the end of the episode, and "Itchy and Scratchy Productions" appears.
- The closing logo is also parodied in an episode of Family Guy titled "The Story on Page One", in which protagonist Peter Griffin is typing a story about Luke Perry for daughter Meg. After completing the page, he throws the paper and the rest of the parody is true-to-form.
- Cannell is dyslexic, and is a spokesperson on the subject. According to an episode of Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story, Cannell frequently has to dictate ideas or even complete scripts to a personal secretary.
- Cannell graduated from the University of Oregon in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science in journalism. At Oregon he joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
- Continues to write on an old-fashioned typewriter (an IBM Selectric currently) and only uses a computer for research purposes.
- Has said how he wants to make film adaptations of many of his old television series.
- His office for many years was at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, though his shows were always distributed by Universal Studios.
External links
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