STEPHEN J CANNELL: THE INDEPENDENT OBITUARY

My obit of Stephen Cannell, who created the Rockford Files and the A Team, among other shows, is in today's Indy; you can link to it here. I wasn't a huge fan of most of his stuff, although Rockford is always pleasannt and I do have pleasant recollections of Wiseguy which, as I said was both derivative and highly influential. His career seems a pretty good reflection of the business itself, but better in the sense that he seemed to encourage good writing, particularly in letting characters have their rein, which played well in some of the lighter hearted shows. He was, it seems, genuinely admired and liked by fellow writers. Bob Crais emailed me (after I'd written the piece, and the quote didn't get added to it) that 'Steve was a genuinely good guy...with the enormity of his success, and his wealth, he didn't have to be and so many of them are not, but Steve was--a nice man.' I do wish that had been in the printed piece.