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Shout! Factory's Stephen J. Cannell TV/Film Library Deal: "21 Jump Street", "The Greatest American Hero" & More

Shout! Factory acquired distributing rights to one of the most lucrative television libraries out there, reaching a deal with Stephen J. Cannell Productions. The deal includes worldwide, domestic and international broadcast and streaming rights to the series creator's catalog of 1970's-1990's shows – including, 21 Jump Street, Hunter, Wiseguy, The Commish, The Greatest American Hero, and Riptide.

The deal gives Shout! access to more than 20 series and movies, combining for close to 900 hours of content. The company reached similar deals with Sesame Workshop and ITV Global Entertainment. Prior to the deal, MeTV owner Weigel Broadcasting licensed 21 Jump Street, its spinoff Booker, Hunter, Wiseguy, and The Commish.

Shout Factory Secures Rights to Stephen J. Cannell's Film and TV Library
Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

New Opportunity for Shout!

"Many Stephen J. Cannell series have already proven to be immensely popular with viewers and fans over the years. We're incredibly excited to bring these memorable series through Shout's distribution channels. There are a lot of untapped opportunities to distribute this content through digital, streaming, transactional outlets and emerging entertainment platforms. As we're aggressively expanding our content offerings of quality series and movies, this deal exemplifies the type of major acquisitions we plan to pursue actively."

– Shout! Factory founders Bob Emmer and Garson Foos

Cannell passed in 2010 at the age of 69. He was involved in creating and writing in over 80 projects throughout his career winning an Emmy in 1978 for The Rockford Files for Outstanding Drama Series. The James Garner-starring series garnered two additional nominations in 1979 and 1980 in the same category. He was nominated three other times, for The Greatest American Hero, Wiseguy, and Tenspeed and Brown Shoe.

The deal also includes a mix of rights to Cannell's 21 Jump Street spinoff Booker, The Greatest American Heroine, Hawkeye, Marker. Missing Persons, Palace Guard, Renegade, Silk Stalkings, Stingray, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, and the films Dead End Brattigan (aka The Great Pretender), Greyhounds, and Return of the Hunter.

Omitted from the Shout! deal are Black Sheep Squadron, Baretta, Hardcastle and McCormick, The A-Team, and The Rockford Files.

Deadline Hollywood


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Tom ChangAbout Tom Chang

I'm a follower of pop culture from gaming, comics, sci-fi, fantasy, film, and TV for over 30 years. I grew up reading magazines like Starlog, Mad, and Fangora. As a professional writer for over 10 years, Star Wars was the first sci-fi franchise I fell in love with. I'm a nerd-of-all-trades.
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