Stephen J. Cannell passed away at age 69 from melanoma. He is one of, if not the, first people not in front of the camera whose name I recognized and associated with good shows. A big part of that of course is how his shows ended with a clip of him banging on a typewriter, then pulling out a sheet of paper and tossing it away only to morph into a logo. His name was associated with mainly cop/detective shows such as Rockford Files, Baretta, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (think I'm the only person that actually remembers watching this), 21 Jump Street, Wiseguy, Hunter, Silk Starkings, Hardcastle and McCormick, Black Sheep Squadron, Rip Tide, but also delved into popular if silly shows such as Greatest American Hero and A-Team among others. Lately, he'd been appearing as himself on the show Castle as one of several real-life writers that were friends with the title character. His shows helped establish actors like Jeff Goldblum (Tenspeed & Brown Shoe), M. T (A-Team), and Johnny Depp (21 Jump Street).
Almost as impressive are his quotes on how he did business. And, despite his extensive career as a writer, until college English was one of his worse subjects due to bad spelling and he had dyslexia. Then, there's the bit that even though being in Hollywood, he was married to his first wife Marcia Finch for 46 years until his death.
Sadly, this year we also lost actor Robert Culp (of Greatest American Hero).
Godspeed Mr. Cannell.
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