MovieChat Forums > Adam-12 (1968) Discussion > Stephen J Cannell

Stephen J Cannell

posted 10 years ago by lds3359
3 replies | jump to latest

As we all know, Stephen J Cannell essentially began his TV career being the story editor for A12 the fourth and fifth seasons. In fact, his first writing gig for the show, "Post Time", is pretty much prototypical Cannell as we know him. In my little opinion, he if not saved the show, he certainly gave it a breath of fresh air it needed. By the end of Season 3, Reed is more or less Malloy's equal - he almost always calls him Pete, as opposed to 'Malloy' (and Malloy calling him Jim),we've seen Ree tested in most kinds of situations, so now the show will have to depend more on making the calls a little more...unusual. Post Time does this perfectly - the nice mix of a real crime that is unusual - the theft of a printing press - a little human interest: the old man being dispossed, and then a little bit of something unusual - the street legal tank, of all things! NObody would think of something like that except Cannell. I will bet anything that script got him the story editor job.

One also has to wonder if Webb and Cinader loosened the reins on A12, also - it certainly is rarely as grim after the third season, as it was before.

Anyone else think this?

[–] seldon913 10 years ago

NObody would think of something like that except Cannell.

Except that every episode has the tag that says all the events are real with the names changed, so most likely it happened. According to this news story, Tennessee has a category for tanks in its motor vehicle code:

http://www.wnd.com/wnd_video/tennessee-man-owns-a-street-legal-tank/

[–] slackersmom 10 years ago

I agree, supposedly nothing was made up on this show--if we saw it on screen, it happened in real life. (The same with Emergency!... every rescue came from a log-book somewhere.) And I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that Cannell "saved" Adam-12.

[–] badge7213 10 years ago

I don't think it was mere coincidence that the show had its best Nielsen rankings - #8 in 1971-72, #11 in 1972-73 - when Cannell was involved as writer / story editor for those two seasons.

Cannell's time also coincided with Webb leaving as executive producer and Cinader focusing more of his time on 'Emergency!'

Also, the episode "The Search" - notably a fan favorite (even Milner was quoted somewhere as saying "We did a pretty good job with that one" when asked about his favorite) and/or one that even casual viewers generally remember - was from this time period.