Stephen J. Cannell

[Halloween Jeff]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101001/ap_en_tv/us_obit_stephen_j_cannell

[Paul L]

69's pretty young these days, sorry to hear this.

[typhooforme]

Stephen J. Cannell wrote for many of our favorite tv shows--and what's amazing about this is--he suffered from dyslexia all his life.  Undiagnosed for a long time, he struggled through his school years.  Here's what he said about himself:

"Even though I was flunking English because I couldn't spell, in my high school year book under ambitions I had written 'Author'. When I went off to college I ran into a guy at the University of Oregon named Ralph Salisbury who was my first creative writing instructor and he turned all the lights on for me. He was the first teacher in all my years who actually said I had talent. Some people don't know this, but I have dyslexia."

Cannell wrote for THE ROCKFORD FILES, THE GREAT AMERICAN HERO, BARETTA, BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON, IRONSIDES, THE A-TEAM, 21 JUMP STREET (he released Johnny Depp from his contract, realizing that Depp had a great talent that was being wasted on tv), etc, and wrote the screenplays for innumerable tv movies.  He passed away from problems associated with a battle with cancer--far too young to go, but with a sizeable history of successes!  I suspect he's writing in The Great Beyond right now.

[Wicked Lester]

He def wrote a ton of great stuff. A TV legend in my book.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004798/

[Scatter]

Man, he produced a ton of great shows. He'll be missed.

[Gillman-Fan]

Creating "The Rockford Files" alone make this guy aces in my book.

Yet another cancer-related death . . . He'll be missed.

[Moonshadow]

A wonderfully talented man. Gone far too young.

[Universal Steve]

A-Team and Greatest American Hero are my favorites. I liked his logo at the end of the show where he types a letter and rips it out of the typewriter and throws it to form his initals. A creative talent is gone.

[Wicked Lester]

I'm really surprised at the few responses here. C'mon,He was a TV show writer/director legend.

Thanks for all the great stuff Stephan.