Mr. TV’s Love Tips

By Tina Dirmann / Photograph by Jason Wallis

 

Published March 2010


Stephen J. Cannell may push the most prolific pen in Hollywood. Ever heard of “The Rockford Files”? How about “The Greatest American Hero”? Or maybe “The A-Team,” “21 Jump Street,” “Baretta,” “Silk Stalkings,” or “The Commish?” Cannell was the creator or co-creator of them all. And he’s written episodes for such classic crime shows as “Ironside,” “It Takes a Thief,” “Columbo,” and “Adam 12.”

In his spare time, he also has written 16 mystery novels, most of them centering on his fictional Los Angeles Police Detective Shane Scully. (“On the Grind” hit bookstores in January 2009; his latest, “The Pallbearers,” comes out this month.)

The 69-year-old writer—who was, by the way, born dyslexic—could be resting on his laurels, but Hollywood has tapped him to produce movies of “The A-Team” and the upcoming “21 Jump Street.” Both are scheduled to be in theaters this year.

But ask Cannell what he considers his biggest achievement, and he won’t speak of his many hit shows, or the Emmys and other Hollywood honors that line his shelves. Instead, he’ll tell you how, as a skinny eighth-grader who spent summers as a kid playing along the beaches of Balboa Island, he won the heart of a pretty classmate as she sashayed down the hallways of Pasadena’s Polytechnic Elementary School. Her name was Marcia Finch.

“And I just went, ‘That’s the one,’ ” Cannell recalls. “I hadn’t even spoken to her. I was just so smitten. It was love at fist sight.”

In a era, when power and extramarital affairs appear to go hand-in-hand, Cannell and the love he shares with his wife might seem almost quaint, if it weren’t so impressive. More than 45 years of marriage later, he says talking to Marcia is still the best part of his day.

“We just really enjoy each other. We’ll go off to St. Bart’s together, just she and I sitting on a boat, and that’s all we need. We don’t need anyone else to keep us entertained.”

Marcia couldn’t agree more: “My husband and I have always had a true sense of friendship. … He is truly my best friend and the only man I have ever loved.”

Cannell took a break to share details of his true Hollywood love story—and let us in on what it takes to keep a marriage working.

The entertainment industry isn’t known for producing successful marriages. How have you two kept the love affair going?
Well, I know other Hollywood marriages that are very successful. Look at Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. It really isn’t about Hollywood. It’s more about having values and a code of ethics.

But Newman and Woodward stand out because they’re the exception, not the rule.
Most bad behavior comes from insecurity. And if you have to keep hitting on girls to make yourself feel valuable and wanted, that will lead to a bad ending.

What kept you out of trouble?
My parents were married about 62 years—basically their entire lives—so I had tremendous role models. And this wasn’t a marriage where they barely held it together. They really enjoyed each other. And that’s the way Marcia and I are.

Tell me how you wooed her in elementary school.
She was a grade below me and I just thought, “Now, how can I connect with this goddess?” But we had this tennis tournament in school and she was enrolled in it. I told the tennis teacher we had decided to be mixed doubles.

Did she even know you at this point?
No, Marcia had no idea! I was a devious little dude.

You spent a lot of time in Orange County as a kid?
I was raised in Pasadena and that felt like home to me. My parents always had a beach house in Newport Beach, and our second home is in Laguna Beach. My wife and I came to those beaches as kids. It was just the greatest time. Marcia and I are real beach people, so we’ve always made that our escape. And I wanted to stay close to places we loved. We had happy memories here. That’s why I choose to be in Laguna, not Malibu. Our house here is right on the water.