It’s that time of year when millions of kids head back to the classroom to face the familiar anxieties of fitting in and keeping up academically. For any student who feels like the deck is stacked against them, the story of legendary television producer Stephen J. Cannell is proof that academic struggles do not define a person’s future.

Long before he shaped American pop culture on TV, Cannell was just a kid growing up in sunny Pasadena, California. Cannell told the Television Academy Foundation in a 2004 interview that he felt like the “stupidest kid in the class.” He flunked the first grade. Then he flunked the fourth grade. During his formative years, learning differences were poorly understood and often undiagnosed. For reasons Cannell couldn’t articulate, letters and sounds did not align for him. School staff did not intervene or offer him additional support.

It wasn’t........

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