A couple other recent Cannell projects worth checking out: The One Hundred Lives of Black Jack Savage, starring "Cannellisario Repetory" players Daniel Hugh-Kelly and Steven Williams; Marker, starring 21 Jump Street alumnus Richard Grieco, and Gates McFadden's first post-Star-Trek non-Trek role (say that 5 times fast); and the critically-acclaimed, short-lived Profit, with Adrian Pasdar.
Oh...and we can't forget his novels!
Other producers who have a similar character-driven style to their shows are Juanita Bartlett, Donald Bellisario (Magnum, P.I.; Airwolf, Tales of the Gold Monkey, Quantum Leap; JAG), Philip DeGuere (Simon & Simon; Whiz Kids; Otherworld) and James Parriot (Forever Knight; Matt Waters). Not surprisingly, the first three have worked with Cannell on more than one show, the most focal being The Rockford Files and Baa Baa Black Sheep (later retitled Black Sheep Squadron).
| An Opinion (duck!): one of the most underappreciated of Cannell's "Vancouver"
shows, cancelled way too hastily by good ol' NBC, was UNSUB. When discussing it with the
few others who actually remember and appreciate this program, we concluded that it was canned
because it was too smart for the general viewing population. This wasn't really a who-dun-it: It
was a why-dun-it. Inspired by Thomas Harris' Red Dragon, and Michael Mann's atmospheric
cinematic adaptation originally titled Manhunter, it followed an elite Federal forensics team as
they scientifically investigated the tenative trails of serial murders. Starring David Soul, M. Emmet Walsh, Jennifer Hetrick, Kent McCord, Andrea Mann, Richard Kind and Joe Maruzzo, UNSUB ran for only eight episodes, two of which were a two-parter. What a bleeding shame .... |
There's actors who I irreverently think of as belonging to the "Cannellisario Repetory Company," who show up repeatedly on productions by either Cannell or Bellisario. For instance, Ben Vereen created the character of Tenspeed Turner in the late, lamented Tenspeed and Brownshoe; showed up as Turner again in J.J. Starbuck, and was last seen working for SJC Productions as Capt. Benjamin "Hutch" Hutchinson on the syndicated Silk Stalkings (set in Palm Beach, but filmed, for reasons which escape me, around San Diego. Wrong palm trees, dudes).
Even Cannell himself belongs to this actor pool <grin> -- he has a recurring role as bad guy Det. Donald "Dutch" Dixon on the also-syndicated Renegade. Others who have made conspicuous appearances on more than one series are: Larry Manetti, W.K. Stratton, Mario van Peebles, Daniel Hugh Kelly, Steven Williams, Tom Selleck, James Whitmore, Jr., Simon Oakland, Peter and Michael DeLuise ... and just for fun, let's toss in Jeff Goldblum and Johnny Depp, because starring in Cannell series started them on their road to starhood.
More info on "Cannellisario" actors or series can be found at these locations, although I tried to include most of what I could find: