Stephen J. Cannell
Encyclopedia
Stephen Joseph Cannell was an American television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

ist and occasional actor
Acting
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....

, and the founder of Stephen J. Cannell Productions.

Early life

Cannell was born in Los Angeles, California
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, and raised in nearby Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...

. His parents, Carolyn (née Baker) and Joseph Knapp Cannell, owned a chain of furniture stores. Cannell struggled with dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...

 in school, but did graduate from the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...

 in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 degree in journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

. At UO, he joined the Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi is the largest and one of the oldest college Greek-letter secret and social fraternities in North America with 244 active chapters and more than . Sigma Chi was founded on June 28, 1855 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio when members split from Delta Kappa Epsilon...

 fraternity.

Career

After college, Cannell spent four years working with the family business before selling his first script to the Universal series It Takes a Thief in 1968. He was quickly hired by the television production branch of Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

 and was soon freelance writing for such other crime shows as Ironside
Ironside (TV series)
Ironside is a Universal television series which ran on NBC from September 14, 1967 to January 16, 1975. The show starred Raymond Burr as the wheelchair-using Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside. The character's debut was in a TV-movie on March 28, 1967. The original title of the show in the...

and Columbo. Not long after, he received his first full-time gig as the story editor of Jack Webb's police series Adam-12
Adam-12
Adam-12 was a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. Created by Jack Webb who is known for creating Dragnet, the series captured a...

,
then in its fourth season (1971–1972).

Cannell created or co-created nearly 40 television series, mostly crime dramas, including The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah...

, The Greatest American Hero
The Greatest American Hero
The Greatest American Hero is an American comedy-drama television series that aired for three seasons from 1981 to 1983 on ABC. Created by producer Stephen J. Cannell, it premiered as a two-hour movie pilot on March 18, 1981...

, The A-Team
The A-Team
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...

, Wiseguy
Wiseguy
Wiseguy is an American crime drama series that aired on CBS from September 16, 1987 to December 8, 1990 for a total of four seasons. Starring Ken Wahl, the series was produced by Stephen J...

, 21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street is an American police procedural crime drama television series that aired on the Fox Network from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focused on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in high schools,...

, Silk Stalkings
Silk Stalkings
Silk Stalkings is a TV crime drama originally shown on CBS in 1991 as part of the network's late-night Crimetime After Primetime programming package, and rebroadcast on the USA Network. After CBS ended the Crimetime experiment in 1993, the series ran exclusively on USA until its finale in the...

, and The Commish
The Commish
The Commish is a television series that aired on ABC in the United States from 1991 to 1996. The series focused on the work and home life of a suburban police commissioner in upstate New York....

. In the process he had, by his own count, scripted more than 450 episodes, and produced or executive produced over 1,500 episodes.

He described his early financial arrangements in a 2002 interview, saying that at Universal,
For many years, Cannell's office was at Paramount Studios
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 in Hollywood, though his shows (with the exception of Hunter, The Greatest American Hero and Riptide) were almost always distributed by Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

. The closing logo
Production logo
A production logo, vanity card, vanity plate, vanity logo or vogo is a logo used by movie studios and television production companies to brand what they produce. Vanity logos are usually seen at the beginning of a theatrical movie , or at the end of a television program or TV movie...

 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 (the one sheet of paper lands on a stack of paper forming a letter C). It was updated often, the main differences being Cannell's clothes, sometimes new awards were in the background and (rarely) a new office for the live-action part. Early examples are also notable for Cannell smoking a pipe as he types. The logo has become part of American pop culture and has been parodied on both The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

and Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...

. After his death, an episode of Castle
Castle (TV series)
Castle is an American comedy-drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. On January 10, 2011, Castle was renewed for a fourth season...

showed Cannell's logo with the words "Colleague, Mentor, Friend" while he is typing and "We'll miss you, pal" superimposed over the sheet of paper, but does not land on the stack of paper.

Cannell also acted occasionally, including a regular supporting role as "Dutch" Dixon on his series Renegade
Renegade (TV series)
Renegade is an American television series that ran for 110 episodes spanning 5 seasons between September 19, 1992 and April 4, 1997.The series stars Lorenzo Lamas as Reno Raines, a police officer who is framed for a murder he didn't commit. Raines goes on the run and joins forces with Native...

. He also took a turn in an episode of Silk Stalkings, in which the script called for one character to tell him, "You look just like that writer on TV," to which Cannell's character responds, "I get that all the time." He also served as the host of the 1995–1996 syndicated documentary series U.S. Customs Classified, focusing on the work of the U.S Customs Service. Cannell appeared as himself in the pilot of the ABC show Castle
Castle (TV series)
Castle is an American comedy-drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. On January 10, 2011, Castle was renewed for a fourth season...

and again in season 2. Along with James Patterson
James Patterson
James B. Patterson is an American author of thriller novels, largely known for his series about American psychologist Alex Cross...

, Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane is an American author. He has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film. Another novel, Gone, Baby, Gone, was also adapted into an Academy...

 and Michael Connelly
Michael Connelly
Michael Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. His books, which have been translated into 36 languages, have garnered him many awards...

, he was one of Castle's poker buddies. In season 3, an empty seat at the poker table is described as Cannell's, and to remain empty for a full year.

In an effort to lower production costs, Cannell opened a studio facility in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 toward the end of the 1980s. One of the first series shot there was 21 Jump Street, the highest-rated show of the new Fox network's first season. Scene of the Crime, a mystery anthology series for CBS's late-night schedule, was also filmed in Vancouver and hosted by Cannell. New World Communications
New World Communications
New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s...

 acquired his production company in 1995. Cannell then founded the Cannell Studios. One of the first shows produced by the newly established Cannell Studios was the short-lived but critically acclaimed corporate drama Profit
Profit (TV series)
Profit is an American television series that originally aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1996. The series was created by David Greenwalt and John McNamara, and starred Adrian Pasdar as the titular character, Jim Profit. In February 2008, episodes began airing on Chiller in the USA...

.

In the 2000s, Cannell turned his attention to novels. As of 2008, he had written 14, half of which featured the character of detective Shane Scully
Shane Scully
Shane Scully is a fictional character who has appeared in several novels by novelist and television producer Stephen J. Cannell. As of 2010, Scully has appeared in 10 of Cannell's novels: The Tin Collectors, The Viking Funeral, Hollywood Tough, Vertical Coffin, Cold Hit, White Sister, Three Shirt...

 of the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...

. The eighth book in that series, On the Grind (St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...

), was scheduled for release January 2009.

The documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 Dislecksia: The Movie
Dislecksia: The Movie
Dislecksia: The Movie is a documentary film. It was created by Captured Time Productions, LLC, a production company based in Litchfield, Connecticut. Dislecksia is the company's seventh film...

features an interview with Cannell, in which he discusses his struggles with dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...

 and how he managed to be such a successful writer despite his difficulties reading. During the interview, he mentions how he used to hire typists to overcome his "spelling problem", as he refers to his dyslexia, but also describes how he feels his condition has enriched his life.

Cannell's TV series The A-Team
The A-Team
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...

was remade into a 2010 feature length film
The A-Team (film)
The A-Team is an American action film based on the television series of the same name. It was released in cinemas in the United States on June 11, 2010, by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Joe Carnahan and produced by Stephen J. Cannell and the Scott brothers Ridley and Tony...

. Cannell served as a producer and creative consultant for the project.

Personal life

As of 2009, Cannell lived in Los Angeles. He married his high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 sweetheart, Marcia; he "asked her to go steady in the eighth grade". Together they had two daughters, Tawnia
Tawnia McKiernan
Tawnia McKiernan is an American television director. Since the mid 1990s she has amassed a number of directorial credits. She is also the daughter of television producer Stephen J. Cannell.-Career:...

 and Chelsea, and two sons, Cody and Derek. Derek died in 1981 at age 15 when a sand castle he was building at the beach collapsed and suffocated him.

Cannell was dyslexic, and was a spokesman on the subject. According to an episode of Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey Aurandt , better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated, at...

's The Rest of the Story, Cannell frequently had to dictate ideas or even complete scripts to a personal secretary. He discussed his experiences as a dyslexic in the upcoming documentary Dislecksia: The Movie
Dislecksia: The Movie
Dislecksia: The Movie is a documentary film. It was created by Captured Time Productions, LLC, a production company based in Litchfield, Connecticut. Dislecksia is the company's seventh film...

.

Cannell continued to write on a typewriter (an IBM Selectric) and only used a computer for research purposes.

Selected Filmography

  • Ironside
    Ironside
    -Entertainment and literature:*Ironside , an American television series starring Raymond Burr*Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale, an urban fantasy novel by Holly Black-People:...

    (1970)
  • The D.A. (1971)
  • Adam-12
    Adam-12
    Adam-12 was a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. Created by Jack Webb who is known for creating Dragnet, the series captured a...

    (1971-1973)
  • Chase
    Chase (1973 TV series)
    Chase is an American television series that aired on the NBC network from September 11, 1973 to August 28, 1974. The show was a production of Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited for Universal Television and marked the first show produced by Stephen J...

    (1973)
  • Columbo
    Columbo
    Columbo is an American crime fiction television film series, which starred Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. It was created by William Link and Richard Levinson. The show popularized the inverted detective story format...

    (1973)
  • Toma
    Toma (TV series)
    Toma was a short-lived television series that ran on ABC in 1973 and 1974.-Overview:The series starred Tony Musante and Susan Strasberg and was based on the real-life story and published biography of police detective David Toma. Toma had compiled an amazing arrest record during his years on the...

    (1973)
  • The Rockford Files
    The Rockford Files
    The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah...

    (1974-1980) (Co-Creator, with Roy Huggins
    Roy Huggins
    Roy Huggins was an American novelist and an influential writer/creator and producer of character-driven television series, including Maverick, The Fugitive, and The Rockford Files....

    )
  • Switch
    Switch (TV series)
    Switch is an American action-adventure, tongue-in-cheek detective series starring Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner, who worked as private eyes, for a deceptive sting operation...

    (1975)
  • Baretta
    Baretta
    Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma...

    (1975) (Creator)
  • City of Angels
    City of Angels (1976 TV series)
    City of Angels is a 1976 television series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins, who had previously worked together on The Rockford Files...

    (1976) (Co-Creator, with Roy Huggins
    Roy Huggins
    Roy Huggins was an American novelist and an influential writer/creator and producer of character-driven television series, including Maverick, The Fugitive, and The Rockford Files....

    )
  • Richie Brockelman: The Missing 24 Hours (with Steven Bochco
    Steven Bochco
    Steven Ronald Bochco is a US television producer and writer. He has developed a number of popular television hits including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, as well as some notable flops such as Cop Rock....

    ) (1976)
  • Black Sheep Squadron (a.k.a. Baa Baa Black Sheep
    Baa Baa Black Sheep
    Baa Baa Black Sheep may refer to:* Baa, Baa, Black Sheep , the origin of the phrase* Baa Baa, Black Sheep , an 1888 short story by Rudyard Kipling...

    ) (1976-1978) (Creator)
  • Richie Brockelman, Private Eye
    Richie Brockelman, Private Eye
    Richie Brockelman, Private Eye is an American detective drama that aired on NBC from March 17, 1978 to April 1978. The series was a spin-off of the Rockford Files.-Premise:...

    (1978)
  • The Duke
    The Duke (TV miniseries)
    The Duke was a TV series shown on NBC from April 5 - May 18, 1979,This mini-series was about an aging boxer who became a private investigator. This Chicago, Illinois-set series starred Robert Conrad as Oscar "Duke" Ramsey; Conrad was actually a professional fighter in his own early years.The...

    (1979)
  • Stone
    Stone (TV series)
    Stone was an American police drama that aired on NBC on Monday nights between January 14 and March 17 1980. The series was a Stephen J. Cannell Production in association with Gerry Productions, Inc. and Universal Television and was created by Cannell, Richard Levinson and William Link.-Premise:The...

    (1980) (Co-Creator, with Richard Levinson
    Richard Levinson
    Richard Levinson was an American writer and producer who often worked in collaboration with William Link. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Economics in 1956. He served in the United States Army from...

     and William Link
    William Link
    William Theodore Link is an American film and television writer and producer who often worked in collaboration with Richard Levinson.-Life and career:...

    )
  • Tenspeed and Brown Shoe
    Tenspeed and Brown Shoe
    Tenspeed and Brown Shoe is an American detective/comedy series originally broadcast by the ABC network between January through June 1980. The series was created and executive produced by Stephen J. Cannell.-Synopsis:...

    (1980) (Creator)
  • The Greatest American Hero
    The Greatest American Hero
    The Greatest American Hero is an American comedy-drama television series that aired for three seasons from 1981 to 1983 on ABC. Created by producer Stephen J. Cannell, it premiered as a two-hour movie pilot on March 18, 1981...

    (1981-1986) (Creator)
  • The Quest
    The Quest (TV series)
    The Quest, a 15-episode Western television series which aired on NBC beginning September 22, 1976, starring Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson.-Overview:...

    (1982)
  • The Rousters
    The Rousters
    The Rousters is a 1983 NBC television series about a group of modern-day bounty hunters who are descendants of legendary lawman Wyatt Earp. Despite advertising claims that this series would "sink The Love Boat" in the ratings, it ran for only one season of 13 episodes.-Premise:Wyatt Earp III works...

    (1983)
  • The A-Team
    The A-Team
    The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...

    (1983-1987) (Co-Creator, with Frank Lupo
    Frank Lupo
    Frank Lupo is an American television writer and producer. In collaboration with Stephen J. Cannell, Lupo created such shows as The A-Team, Riptide, Wiseguy and Hunter....

    )
  • Hunter
    Hunter (TV series)
    Hunter is a police drama television series starring Fred Dryer as Sgt. Rick Hunter and Stepfanie Kramer as Sgt. Dee Dee McCall, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1991. However, Kramer left after the sixth season to pursue other acting and musical opportunities. The seventh season saw Hunter partnered...

    (1984)
  • Riptide
    Riptide (TV series)
    Riptide is a TV detective series that ran on NBC from 1983 to 1986, starring Perry King, Joe Penny, and Thom Bray. Riptide was created by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell, and produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions. The main theme was composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter...

    (1984-1986) (Co-Creator, with Frank Lupo
    Frank Lupo
    Frank Lupo is an American television writer and producer. In collaboration with Stephen J. Cannell, Lupo created such shows as The A-Team, Riptide, Wiseguy and Hunter....

    )
  • The New Mike Hammer
    The New Mike Hammer
    The New Mike Hammer is an American television series based on the exploits of the fictitious New York-based private detective Mike Hammer. The show starred Stacy Keach and was essentially a continuation of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, an earlier television program featuring an identical core cast...

    (1984)
  • Hardcastle and McCormick
    Hardcastle and McCormick
    Hardcastle and McCormick is a 1980s action/drama television series from Stephen J. Cannell Productions, shown on ABC from 1983–1986, starring Brian Keith as Judge Milton C. Hardcastle and Daniel Hugh Kelly as ex-con and race car driver Mark "Skid" McCormick.The show's premise involves the...

    (1983-1985) (Co-Creator, with Patrick Hasburgh
    Patrick Hasburgh
    Patrick Hasburgh is an American television producer and writer.He is best known for his work on the television series Hardcastle and McCormick and 21 Jump Street, two series he co-created with Stephen J. Cannell. His other television credits include The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team , SeaQuest...

    )
  • Stingray
    Stingray (NBC TV series)
    Stingray is an NBC television series produced by Stephen J. Cannell that ran from 1985 to 1987. It stars Nick Mancuso, who plays the mysterious character known only as Ray, whose trademark is a black 1965 Corvette Sting Ray.-Plot:...

    (1986-1987) (Creator)
  • J.J. Starbuck
    J.J. Starbuck
    J.J. Starbuck was a short lived NBC series about a cornpone-spouting J.J. Starbuck, a Texan millionaire who wears ten-gallon hats, cowboy boots and fancy western shirts...

    (1987) (Creator)
  • Wiseguy (1987-1990) (Co-Creator, with Frank Lupo
    Frank Lupo
    Frank Lupo is an American television writer and producer. In collaboration with Stephen J. Cannell, Lupo created such shows as The A-Team, Riptide, Wiseguy and Hunter....

    )
  • 21 Jump Street
    21 Jump Street
    21 Jump Street is an American police procedural crime drama television series that aired on the Fox Network from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focused on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in high schools,...

    (1987-1991) (Co-Creator, with Patrick Hasburgh
    Patrick Hasburgh
    Patrick Hasburgh is an American television producer and writer.He is best known for his work on the television series Hardcastle and McCormick and 21 Jump Street, two series he co-created with Stephen J. Cannell. His other television credits include The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team , SeaQuest...

    )
  • Unsub
    Unsub (TV series)
    Unsub was an American television series that aired on NBC from February 3, 1989 to April 14, 1989. The series centered around an elite FBI forensic team that investigates serial murderers and other violent crimes. Unsub is an abbreviation for the unknown subject of an...

    (1989)
  • Booker
    Booker (TV series)
    Booker is an American crime drama series starring Richard Grieco that aired on the Fox Network from September 24, 1989 to May 6, 1990. The series was a spin-off of 21 Jump Street...

    (1990) (Co-Creator, with Eric Blackeney)
  • Broken Badges
    Broken Badges
    Broken Badges is an American police drama that aired on CBS from November 24, 1990 to December 22, 1990 and in June 1991. The series was co-created by Stephen J...

    (1990)
  • The Great Pretender
    The Great Pretender
    "The Great Pretender" is a popular song recorded by The Platters, with Tony Williams on lead vocals, and released as a single on November 3, 1955. The words and music were created by Buck Ram, the Platters' manager and producer who was a successful songwriter before moving into producing and...

    (1991)
  • Silk Stalkings
    Silk Stalkings
    Silk Stalkings is a TV crime drama originally shown on CBS in 1991 as part of the network's late-night Crimetime After Primetime programming package, and rebroadcast on the USA Network. After CBS ended the Crimetime experiment in 1993, the series ran exclusively on USA until its finale in the...

    (1991-1999) (Creator)
  • The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage
    The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage
    The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage is a television series broadcast in the United States by NBC and produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions in association with Walt Disney Television. This show originated as a TV-movie. The program originally aired in 1991, but lasted less than one season...

    (1991)
  • The Commish
    The Commish
    The Commish is a television series that aired on ABC in the United States from 1991 to 1996. The series focused on the work and home life of a suburban police commissioner in upstate New York....

    (1991-1996) (Co-Creator, with Stephen Cronish)
  • Palace Guard
    Palace Guard
    Palace Guard was a drama series that was briefly broadcast by CBS as part of its 1991 fall lineup. It was produced by Stephen J. Cannell.Palace Guard was the story of a reformed jewel thief and cat burglar, Tommy Logan Palace Guard was a drama series that was briefly broadcast by CBS as part of its...

    (1991) (Creator)
  • Renegade
    Renegade (TV series)
    Renegade is an American television series that ran for 110 episodes spanning 5 seasons between September 19, 1992 and April 4, 1997.The series stars Lorenzo Lamas as Reno Raines, a police officer who is framed for a murder he didn't commit. Raines goes on the run and joins forces with Native...

    (1992-1997) (Creator)
  • The Hat Squad
    The Hat Squad
    The Hat Squad is a crime drama television series that ran for only one season on CBS, during the 1992-1993 season. 13 episodes were made, but only 11 of them aired.-Synopsis:...

    (1992-1993) (Co-Creator, with Bill Nuss)
  • Cobra
    Cobra (TV series)
    Cobra was an American television action/adventure series starring Michael Dudikoff. It ran for just one season in syndication.-Premise:Robert "Scandal" Jackson, Jr., is an ex-Navy SEAL who went A.W.O.L. after refusing to blow up an enemy command center housing civilians...

    (1993-1994) (Co-Creator, with Craig W. Van Sickle and Steven Long Mitchell)
  • Traps (1994)
  • Marker
    Marker (TV series)
    Marker was an American hour long television drama that premiered on the UPN on March 20, 1995. It was set in and filmed in Hawaii.The series focused on Richard DeMorra , a man given a strange inheritance from his late father: markers which were given in the past by his father to those who had...

    (1995)
  • Profit
    Profit (TV series)
    Profit is an American television series that originally aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1996. The series was created by David Greenwalt and John McNamara, and starred Adrian Pasdar as the titular character, Jim Profit. In February 2008, episodes began airing on Chiller in the USA...

    (1996)

Notable Acting Credits

  • Magnum, P.I.
    Magnum, P.I.
    Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....

    (1986)
  • Renegade
    Renegade (TV series)
    Renegade is an American television series that ran for 110 episodes spanning 5 seasons between September 19, 1992 and April 4, 1997.The series stars Lorenzo Lamas as Reno Raines, a police officer who is framed for a murder he didn't commit. Raines goes on the run and joins forces with Native...

    (1992-1997)
  • Diagnosis Murder
    Diagnosis Murder
    Diagnosis: Murder is a mystery/medical/crime drama television series starring Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, a medical doctor who solves crimes with the help of his son, a homicide detective played by his real-life son Barry Van Dyke. The series began as a spin-off of Jake and the Fatman...

    (1997-1999)
  • Pacific Blue
    Pacific Blue
    Pacific Blue may refer to:*Pacific Blue *Pacific Blue Airlines...

    (1999-2000)
  • Castle
    Castle (TV series)
    Castle is an American comedy-drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. On January 10, 2011, Castle was renewed for a fourth season...

    (2009)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK