Writer (and TV producer) Stephen J. Cannell has died

I wrote earlier in the year about writer Stephen J. Cannell and I was saddened to hear of his recent death. Reading the stories about him, many others as I were fans of his TV work, especially "The Rockford Files" from the '70s (I wrote earlier about a reboot of that series coming soon). The smooth mix of crime investigation and humor (actor James Garner was wonderfully cast) made it desirable TV viewing for years.

Here's a pix of Cannell as seen on his website.

Cannell had another professional life as a writer and the latest of his crime series with LAPD Sergeant Shane Scully (one cool cop name, huh?) and mystery novels in general (see here). The newest of his successful work--counting the titles on his website, he was up to 17 books--is the newest "Shane Scully" novel, The Prostitutes' Ball was released earlier this month.

New modern-day "Sherlock Holmes" TV series is here

I listened to the National Public Radio last week and caught an interesting story about arguably the world's most famous fictional detective, "Sherlock Holmes" in a new series on the BBC. It is a modern take on the detective in a series just entitled "Sherlock" and it will air in the United States beginning this month.

The revision of Holmes sounds reasonable if the character was to be dropped in the present day but read (or listen) to the story and reach your own conclusions. I'm rather curious.