Stephen J. Cannell Quotes

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!...'

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.

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.

The only time I had to get rough with a Network was during production on one of my shows. What had happened, was, the budget we agreed upon wasn't working, so I called the Network chief and said: listen, either increase the budget or I'm delivering a show that looks really cheap... Well, he was upset but told me he'd readjust the numbers - quietly - but he could only do it at the end of the first season ... So I got my team in the meeting room and we agreed there was no reason to distrust this guy and we'd take his word he'd come-through with the increased license fee ... And he did.