Sheldon Reynolds (10 December 1923 – 25 January 2003) was an American

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television net ...

best known for his involvement in the

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

franchise. He began his career as producer, writer and editor of the syndicated television show ''

Foreign Intrigue ''Foreign Intrigue'' (also known as ''Foreign Assignment'') is a syndicated espionage drama television series produced in Europe by Sheldon Reynolds. The 30-minute series ran for four seasons from 1951 to 1955, producing 156 episodes. It was th ...

''. In 1954, he produced the first American television show to feature the Holmes and Watson characters, ''

'', which (except in two instances) did not directly adapt Conan-Doyle's original Holmes stories. It starred Ronald Howard as Holmes and

Howard Marion-Crawford Howard Marion-Crawford (17 January 1914 – 24 November 1969), the grandson of writer F. Marion Crawford, was an English character actor, best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in the 1954 television adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. In 19 ...

as Watson. In 1979, he was involved in the creation of another Sherlock Holmes adaptation, the television series ''

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson ''Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson'' is a television series created by Sheldon Reynolds and based on characters and storylines from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. It starred Geoffrey Whitehead, Donald Pickering and Patric ...

'', which was considerably less successful. In the 1970s, Reynolds attempted to acquire a license to produce direct adaptations of the stories. At that time, the rights were in the hands of the

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster Bank ...

, which acquired them after the previous owner defaulted on a loan. Reynolds successfully formed a consortium which acquired the rights at auction. Much of the money for the consortium came from the family of Reynold's then-wife, Andrea Reynolds-Plunket. After their divorce in 1990, she pursued the ownership of the American copyright in a number of court cases, but her claims were rejected. In the 1957–1958 season, Reynolds became executive producer of an American

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

filmed in England, ''

Dick and the Duchess Dick, Dicks, or Dick's may refer to: Media * Dicks (album), ''Dicks'' (album), a 2004 album by Fila Brazillia * Dicks (band), a musical group * Dick (film), ''Dick'' (film), a 1999 American comedy film * Dick (song), "Dick" (song), a 2019 song ...

'', starring Patrick O'Neal and

Hazel Court Hazel Court (10 February 1926 – 15 April 2008) was an English actress. She is known for her roles in British and American horror films during the 1950s and early 1960s, including Terence Fisher's ''The Curse of Frankenstein'' (1957) and ...

. Reynolds died of

emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...

References

External links

* 1923 births 2003 deaths {{US-tv-bio-stub