Sheldon Reynolds (10 December 1923 – 25 January 2003) was an American television producer best known for his involvement in the Sherlock Holmes franchise.

He began his career as producer, writer and editor of the syndicated television show Foreign Intrigue.[1][2] In 1954, he produced the first American television show to feature the Holmes and Watson characters,[3] Sherlock Holmes, 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 as Watson. In 1979, he was involved in the creation of another Sherlock Holmes adaptation, the television series Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, 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, 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 Reynolds' 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.[4][5]

In the 1957–1958 season, Reynolds became executive producer of an American sitcom filmed in the United Kingdom, Dick and the Duchess, starring Patrick O'Neal and Hazel Court.

Reynolds died of emphysema.

References

  1. ↑ "Television Magazine, July 1952, page 18" (PDF).
  2. ↑ "The Economics of Making TV Films Overseas". The New York Times, March 22, 1953. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  3. ↑ Barnes, Alan (2012). Sherlock Holmes On Screen: The Complete Film and TV History (Third ed.). Titan Books. pp. 180–185. ISBN 978-0-85768-776-0.
  4. ↑ "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, About The Estate Page 1". Sherlockholmesonline.org. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  5. ↑ "Copyright". Sherlockian.Net. Retrieved 2011-01-02.


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