The A-Team. The Rockford Files. 21 Jump Street.
Stephen J. Cannell, who produced those hits and many, many more cop and action shows you grew up on, died Thursday night at his Los Angeles-area home. He was 69, and had been battling melanoma.
The prolific writer/producer'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 early 1980s.
The big screen has long coveted Cannell's biggest timeless hits. An A-Team movie, featuring Liam Neeson and some other guy going where George Peppard and Mr. T memorably went in the 1983-87 adventure series, opened to mixed critical and box-office results this past summer. Film versions of The Greatest American Hero and 21 Jump Street are currently in development.
The latter series, launched in 1987, propelled one of its young unknowns, a scrawny teen named Johnny Depp, to stardom.
Also recently, NBC considered reviving The Rockford Files, the acclaimed 1970s James Garner P.I. series that earned Cannell his first and only Emmy. But the network didn't pick up the Dermot Mulroney pilot for the fall.
In addition to his TV work, Cannell was a best-selling detective novelist.
"Through the legacy of his body of work…he will always be with us," a statement on his website said, "living on in our hearts and minds, with fond memories forever."
No comments:
Post a Comment