Stephen J. Cannell

When I enjoy something, I want to share it with people. And when I find something I consider to be “good” I feel I have an obligation to tell others about it. I know this sometimes manifests itself in horrible, possibly harmful ways (i.e. any author review I have ever done, and the abortion known as the BSG Live Blog) but still since I have a readership… I feel that need to share things I like.

So, I was listening to the Adam Carolla show a few days ago and heard an interview with Stephen J. Cannell. He struck me as one of those guys who could just immediately capture anyone’s attention with his voice, and he talked a lot about his experiences writing in Hollywood. It took me about five full minutes to realize why he seemed so familiar.

Stephen J. Cannell wrote about half the shows I watched as a kid that helped me become a better person.* The most prominent of which was the A-Team, as I spent a lot of time as a child wandering around the house pretending to be “Howling Mad” Murdock. Remember when those strange spots would air on the USA network before or after “Murder She Wrote” and there was that guy who would be pounding away at his typewriter? That guy was Stephen J. Cannell.

So I later found a very compelling interview with him on youtube, which I would embed if not for the fact I believe that whoever owns the interviews disabled the embeding feature (probably because they don’t actually know what it means to embed a video and don’t know how the internet works, and have therefore reached the conclusion that restricting the ability of their media to go viral is somehow a good thing). Anyhow, yes I know it is annoying but I want to share the interview, even though part 5 doesn’t load and part 9 is apparently missing.  It had some really good writing and life advice in it.

Here is the LINK.

Stephen J. Cannell strikes me as one of those people that makes friends everywhere he goes and always puts people immediately at ease. In short, Stephen J. Cannell is on my list of people I would like to be like in the event that I ever discard my social awkwardness and become an actual person.

Now, I shall return to writing a sci-fi short I am hoping to get published, and will then write the last winning story from the New Years contest as I promised I would.

*Other shows that helped me become a better person were Quantum Leap, MacGyver, and Batman the Animated Series