Biografia

His oldest child, Derek, died at age 15 on April 4, 1982. He was suffocated when a sandcastle he was building collapsed on him.

Had a room in his home where he only allowed other writers to enter.

Received his Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon (1964).

During the early 1980s, his office was located on the Paramount Studios lot while his series were distributed by Universal Studios.

The filmed logo for his production company showed him seated at a typewriter, typing something onto a piece of paper, then pulling the sheet of paper from the typewriter, throwing the paper into the air which floated down turning into his logo. In the background, we see a shelf containing his awards.

Whenever something unfortunate happens in my business dealings I never sit there and observe it as a problem... The first thing I do when something goes wrong is say: 'hey, I can use this!...'

Because I was a private company, I always looked long-term. And our meetings at the Cannell company had a theme... It wasn't about doing what was in our best interest, it was about doing what was right. We were one of the first companies to hire an 'assistant location manager' onto our productions with sole purpose of making sure the locations we rented were never 'burnt'. The job description in the ALM manual was simply to make sure the people who owned the property had a good experience with a Cannell project and would welcome us back.

And when the television market crashed in the mid-80s and the economics were bad, I was one of few who saw the signs and got out of town. Many of the other television companies went bankrupt...I went to Canada and was able to stay in business.

So I thought, television, my gawd! There's a thousand episodes of this written each year. I otta' be able to get in there, and if I grin -- I was a good salesman -- I otta' be able to pick-off one or two assignments. It was the only way I figured I could afford a family.

...Even though I was flunking English because I couldn't spell; in my high school year book under ambitions I had written 'Author'. When I went off to college I ran into a guy at the University of Oregon named Ralph Salisbury who was my first creative writing instructor and he turned all the lights on for me. He was the first teacher in all my years who actually said I had talent. Some people don't know this, but I have dyslexia.

I'm a very conservative business-man. I don't work on credit. My father was the guy who taught me how to think straight, not to delude myself and think I was larger than I was. I never bought a new car until I was 45-years old...I bought used because my father always said: 'why do you want to buy a car, drive it around the block and lose thirty percent of its value'? ...Don't get me wrong, I had great used cars: XKEs, Jags... But they were all used. All my friends were out leasing new Mercades and other high-end cars...and there I was buying used; and writing a check for it! "There! give me the car"! That was all my dad's thinking and I ran the company that way.