Badass Writer of the Week: Stephen J. Cannell

Stephen J. Cannell

By Sean Tuohy

We wanted to start post with a list of some of the shows this week's #badasswriter created. This isn't even half of the list, but we had to stop when Daniel got hand cramps and something shinny caught Sean’s eye.

• “The Rockford Files” 
• “Greatest American Hero”
• “The A-Team”
• “Baretta”
• “Hunter”
• “Riptide”
• “Hardcastle and McCormick”
• “Cobra”
• “Profit”
• “21 Jump Street”
• “The Commish”
• “Renegade”
• “Silk Stalkings” 

Even some of our millennial readers will have heard of a few of those shows. That’s an impressive list. And it goes on!

More impressive is the fact that the writer created all those shows while suffering from dyslexia. He had problems reading and writing his whole life. This week's #badasswriter is Stephen J. Cannell, the man who changed the television landscape forever.

You don't know the name? Are you sure? Watch the clip below. We'll wait.

That's right, the guy who throws the paper up in the air is Cannell himself! The man who you saw in the post credits of some of the best-written television shows was a man who had difficult reading as a child.

Cannell struggled throughout school and his writing career with his learning disability, but he never allowed this to stop him from becoming a writer. And write he did. It took Cannell only five years to start producing his own television shows. He was pumping out so many scripts for other shows that networks and producers took notice and allowed him to helm his own show. His first show was “The Rockford Files” which ranked #39 on TV Guide's Top 50 Shows of All Time.

Between 1973 and 1990, Cannell created or co-created 20 television shows. One of his biggest hits was a story about a group of guys in a van. Wow, when you say it like that it sounds dirty. Well, it wasn't dirty. It was “The A-Team.” One of the highest rated television series of the 1980's was created a man who had daily struggles with writing because of a learning disorder.

While Cannell produced hit after hit, he also found time to write novels. In 2001, he produced the first in the long-running and beloved detective Shane Scully book series.

Cannell passed away in 2010 after battling cancer, but we’re guessing he’s pitching an idea for a new television show where ever he is.

BADASS WRITERS OF THE WEEK ARCHIVE

Badass Writer of the Week: Marie Colvin

Marie Colvin

By Sean Tuohy

This week’s badass writer is a first for Writer’s Bone: a journalist! Marie Colvin (January 1956—February 2012) was just like Superman’s Lois Lane, but more like a 1980’s action hero version.

Colvin was born in Queens, N.Y. but was raised in Long Island. It was a quiet start for a woman who would grow up to laugh in the face of danger (we aren't kidding, she actually once laughed while being shot at!). After high school, Colvin went to Brazil for a year and upon her return to the United States she drove to Yale (you may have heard of it) and demanded, “you have to let me in.” So…they laughed in her face and turned her away. Oh wait, no they didn’t. They let her in, and she started there in 1978. The woman never formally applied to the school.

Colvin began working as a reporter in New York City for the Sunday New York Times the moment she was finished with school. In 1986, two years after leaving Yale, she interviewed then Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, days after American bombings. The city was ablaze while Colvin interviewed one of the most powerful (and as it turned out craziest) leaders in the world. From that point on, Colvin decided that offices were death traps and traveled the world going to different war zones (makes total sense to us!). Yes, she actively searched for battles to go to. The places she reported from sound like the greatest hits of modern warfare: Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and East Timor.

In 1999, Colvin saved 1,500 women and children in Timor by refusing to leave them behind at a besieged camp. For four days she stayed with U.N. Forces and helped them while also hitting daily print deadlines. In 2000, she won the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism award for her work in Kosovo. She was shot at, chased out of countries by government officials, and witnessed some of the most awful violence in history. She suffered from PTSD as a result.

Despite everything, Colvin continued her travels. While in Sri Lanka, she was injured in an RPG attack that took one of her eyes, caused her to lose some of her hearing, and lodged a piece of metal in her brain. She was 44 years old at the time, and, despite the life threatening injuries, she still made deadline. From that point on Colvin wore a black eye patch, forever sealing her badass look. In 2012, Colvin smuggled herself into war-torn Syrian and linked up with rebel forces to provide up-to-date reporting. Sadly, Colvin was killed by an improvised explosive device filled with nails while reporting from Homs.

Colvin was part heroine, part storyteller, and an-all around tough chick. Her work was brave and game changing, and we couldn’t be more proud of honoring her memory as a badass writer.

Marie Colvin, we honor your badass writing skills. RIP.

BADASS WRITERS OF THE WEEK ARCHIVE

Badass Writer of the Week: Edward “Eddie” Bunker

What do you do when you land in jail after robbing a bank at gunpoint? Become a writer of course! Photo courtesy of StyleBlazer

By Sean Tuohy

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Dennis the Menace grew up to be a real person? He’d probably be someone like ex-banker robber turned bestselling author Edward “Eddie” Bunker.

Don’t know the name? Well, learn it quick before he comes back from the dead to shive you in the back! We are fearfully checking over our shoulders as we write this just to make sure that the late cigar-chewing ex-convict doesn't spring an attack on us.

Edward Bunker was born in New York City in 1933 to parents with a drinking problem (always a good start!). He was in foster care by age 5 and running away almost every other week. By the way, he didn’t just walk around the block until someone picked him up. This badass ran 400 miles away and lived in hobo camps.

By the time Bunker was 16 years old, he had been in and out of so many reform schools, military schools, and mental hospitals that when he got in trouble again the court system threw its hands in the air and said, “Screw it! Send him to real jail.”

Bunker realized that his age put him at risk of becoming someone’s girlfriend in state prison. To make sure no one would mess with him, he stabbed a fellow inmate in the back while showering. Yes, while most of us were worrying about dating and how to pay for gas, Eddie Bunker was stabbing people in the shower. Kind of puts things in prospective.

Bunker became the youngest inmate at San Quentin State Prison, one of the most infamous prisons in California. He caught the writing bug from death row inmate turned writer Caryl Chessman who showed Bunker how to channel his feelings in to writing.

Bunker wrote regularly between doing time, robbing banks, and running drug rings. His first book, No Beast So Fierce, was published while he was in jail for robbing a bank while under surveillance for drug running. Yes, the police were tailing Bunker to what they thought was a drug buy, but were surprised to watch him rob a bank at gunpoint.

While Bunker was incarcerated for that, Dustin Hoffman bought the rights to his book and turned in to a movie. Once Bunker was out of prison, his second book, Animal Factory, was published and he decided to give up the whole life of a crime thing to become a writer/actor. From that point on Hollywood picked at Bunker’s crime-riddled mind to help improve its movies. Michael Mann used Bunker for his crime drama “Heat” to the point that Jon Voight’s character in the movie is based on him.

Bunker died at the age of 71—we’re guessing that’s 50 years longer than anyone thought he would live—but we assume he just faked his death so he could continue robbing people.

BADASS WRITERS OF THE WEEK ARCHIVE

Badass Writer of the Week: John Gardner

James Gardner shooting a camera man who got too close to his car.

By Sean Tuohy

Did you just ask yourself, "Who is John Gardner?" Seriously? Fuck off! #Badasswriter Gardner was born and raised in England and didn't waste time becoming a badass. At the outbreak of World War II, he joined the British Army's Home Guard when he was 13-years-old. At that age, my biggest worry was hair growing in new places. Gardner was fighting Nazis. Nazis! 

In 1942, he joined the Royal Marine Commandos where he became a small arms and explosives expert, and learned to fly a plane. He became a priest after the war, but that only lasted until 1958 when he lost his faith in God and turned to drinking. When Gardner sobered up, he turned his badass skills toward writing and he produced some of the most acclaimed spy thrillers of his time.

What do you do after fighting Nazis? You fucking write James Bond novels.

In 1979, Gardner took over the long running and, at that time, sagging James Bond book series. He turned the series back in to a top seller. During his time penning James Bond, Gardner produced 14 novels, each a massive best-seller. So, not only did he save the world from Nazis while still a teenager, he saved one of pop culture's biggest icons from extinction.

John Gardner died of a heart attack at the age of 80. We assume at the time of his death he was fighting a brown bear that had chainsaws for hands.

BADASS WRITERS OF THE WEEK ARCHIVE