RIP Stephen J. Cannell, TV Producer

[TheMightyFavog]

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/detail.jsp?contentId=203466

The über-prolific Cannell's other credits included Wiseguy, Hunter, The Commish and The Greatest American Hero, one of the few caped-crusader shows to take successfully flight in the 1980s.

Cannell, who got his start in the 1960s, selling a script to Mission: Impossible, pounded out page after page on a typewriter—as anyone who remembers the production-company logo that closed out his numerous TV series could attest.

"I like hearing that ball hit the page, so I stayed on it," Cannell told PBS last year.

Cannell's small-screen cops, detectives and special-ops experts have long been coveted by the big screen. An A-Team movie, featuring Liam Neeson and others going where George Peppard and Mr. T memorably went in the 1983-87 action series, opened to mixed critical and box-office results this past summer. Per his website, film versions of The Greatest American Hero and 21 Jump Street are currently in development.

[OmahaBlueDog]

1. I loved the Rockford Files as a kid

RIP

[murielm99]

2. Cannell and Garner had no end of disputes.

Garner had to take him to court to get paid for the Rockford Files. When the shows came out in rerun, he had to go to court again to get residuals. I don't know if anyone else had that kind of trouble with him.

RIP. He was a creative guy.

[ChoralScholar]

3. Awww. man.... RIP SJC... here's a vid to honor you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd_3fXqZeMM