Escapade Week: Late (Great) Producer Stephen J. Cannell's Filmography

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[00:00:11] Well, the advice I give to all writers, whether it's television, motion picture novels, or anything else, is that you must write every day.

[00:00:18] And one of the things that you come to realize when you're around a lot of writers is that they love to talk about writing and love having written.

[00:00:30] And they don't really love the process of writing. They find it often very painful. And this isn't bad. I mean, I know some of the best writers I know struggle.

[00:00:40] Every day they struggle. I don't struggle. And I know why I don't struggle. I don't struggle because I was always the stupidest kid in my class.

[00:00:49] And the idea that I would ever be brilliant was knocked out on me in the third grade. So I'm not sitting around here trying to be brilliant. I'm trying to be Shakespeare.

[00:00:57] I'm just trying to get the work I have in my head down on the page in the best way I possibly know how, without putting that horrible pressure on myself of saying, you know, and I'm going to write it today.

[00:01:10] And in 200 years at Princeton University, they will be studying these words.

[00:01:17] I couldn't write like that. And I know that that's why a lot of my friends have trouble getting it on paper. You know, it's that sense that it has to be brilliant.

[00:01:26] And yeah, I want my stuff to be as good as I can conceivably make it. But I'm not, I am not going to put that on my head. And I really, I think it's a real strong byproduct and plus of being the worst student in my school.

[00:02:28] Here's the late, great Stephen J. Connell. So that sounds familiar. He worked on all kinds of crazy ass shows in the 80s and 90s.

[00:02:39] 21 Jump Street, the 18, the Rockford Files. Well, that's 70s, but you know what I mean. Renegade, the Greatest American Hero, and the Comish.

[00:02:49] He also wrote a bunch of novels that were mystery books. There you go. But yeah, anytime you see any of his things, any of his material, you pretty much know what you're watching.

[00:03:01] He's also worked on Beretta, Baa Baa Black Sheep. I also forget he was responsible for Hunter and Hardcastle and McCormick.

[00:03:10] And he even released a bunch of his cancelled or one or two season shows like On Sub, Booker, Palace Guard, Cobra, and The Hat Squad, and Missing Persons onto DVD.

[00:03:29] It was actually titled, just cancelled, you know, Too Brilliant for TV, and Connell shows.

[00:03:38] But yeah, he was even a creative consultant on the A-Team remake movie and the 21 Jump Street, you know, parody slash continuation movies with Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.

[00:03:50] So, it's just also interesting how he just started off as like a typical kind of 70s guy, works on stuff like Ironside and Columbo, and there's even a story editor on Adam-12.

[00:04:03] So, that really does make sense, especially the Adam-12 thing for why he pretty much goes for the formula, and then he just slowly just has his characters have an unusual quirk.

[00:04:13] And it's like, that's what makes those shows stand on for multiple years.

[00:04:18] He also produced Profit. He did not create it, but he produced it as well as worked on another Irish Greek Echo show called Marker for UPN.

[00:04:29] And it was filmed in Hawaii, so that was pretty much his answer to the Hawaii Five-0 formula, you know, let alone, pretty much just like, uh, Belisario and even Steven Bosco.

[00:04:41] Just have unusual characters and just go to town on him.

[00:04:46] And it's so wild how his company got acquired by New World Pictures and Fox later acquired that in 96.

[00:04:54] So, from 95 to 96, that's it.

[00:04:57] But his estate apparently signed a worldwide distribution deal with Shout Factory, so that makes sense why they've been able to, you know, adapt a bunch of his stuff.

[00:05:07] He's even done some partial acting just for fun.

[00:05:13] He even created, I can't believe I skimmed over it.

[00:05:17] He actually did guest star a few different times as himself on both All My Children and on the show Castle.

[00:05:27] So, that's wild. I did not know that.

[00:05:29] But I thought the guy looked weird and unusual, so...

[00:05:39] It's because I remembered him from his photos. There you go.

[00:05:44] Yeah, but he's pretty much been impossible to, you know, kill.

[00:05:52] And I think what just, again, all his material just stands out.

[00:05:55] It just makes you feel good. Just some easy escapism.

[00:05:59] Just easy to get into, just material.

[00:06:01] And he was also dyslexic and even appeared in a documentary on that.

[00:06:07] So, I think that's pretty cool.

[00:06:13] Even William Catt, of all people, yep, from Greatest American Hero, wrote a song for Econnell called Cody the Cowboy.

[00:06:21] And Econnell was touched by that and even named one of his sons Cody because he loved that song.

[00:06:26] So, but yeah, he's a pretty cool guy.

[00:06:35] And everyone's heard his stuff. I mean, not heard, seen.

[00:06:40] You've all seen his stuff. It's just impossible to miss.

[00:06:47] Even if you weren't completely taken a while back by it.

[00:06:50] I mean, it served its purpose. Just easy going, over the top entertainment.

[00:06:55] Sometimes it was campy. Sometimes it was serious.

[00:06:58] But either way, left to mark. So, there you go.

[00:07:06] We'll return after these messages.

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