Shannon's Deal

This short-lived series was an acting tour-de-force by the under-appreciated Jamey Sheridan. Here is an actor who captured every nuance of the complex sympathetic Shannon struggling, as much as anything, to re-polish a very tarnished humanity. A fine series, still missed by all too few of us.

It had a great story line. But did not air long. This series probably upsets lawyer: the hero worked to gain his son's esteem more than for money!

Each week Shannon would face impossible odds, but being a good gambler would win by gambling or bluffing his way through.

I liked the story and the character was sympathetic. But if I remember correctly, it did not have a good time slot...

I guess there were too many lawyer stories, not like today! ;-)

Shannon's Deal was a well-written, well-acted show. Jamey Sheridan was a perfect fit to play Jack Shannon, an attorney who was starting over with his own law office. The show played out more like a detective show than a typical show about a lawyer. Shannon was usually hunting down leads in an overcoat and even had the small office with the loyal secretary. It was created by John Sayles who also appeared in an episode.

With so many shows being released on DVD hopefully Shannon's Deal can find it's way there as well. Until then I suppose we can take comfort in that Who's The Boss? season one box. It was a high quality show at a low quality time. No wonder it didn't last.

If anyone has any episodes out there let me know!

Shannon's Deal was one of the best TV shows ever. Writing by John Sayles, soundtrack by Wynton Marsalis, great acting. It was also interesting in that the endings were not the pat predictable type.

I think part of what damaged the show was its bad luck in timing. The pilot episode aired on the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre--not the sort of event to put one in the mood for light comedy. The next fall, the show was entirely overshadowed by another new show--Twin Peaks. The subtlety of Sayles's writing was lost under the weight of Twin Peaks's bizarreness. It got some favorable press later in the season, but I guess it never built the audience it needed.

I tried to catch the show, but the network kept changing when it was on. The last episode I saw, at the end of a season, was a cliffhanger: Shannon was about to sue his old law firm for mishandling his father's union's pension fund. I don't know if they ever made the episode that was supposed to start the next season.

What a perfect melding of actors, directors, writing, and music! In an era (the turn from the 1980s to th 1990s), Shannon's Deal was ahead of the pack then and now in its quality.

Jamey Sheridan gave us a complex antihero. Elizabeth Pena brought us smarts and sass in a latina character that was not a caricature. Jenny Lewis... Well, jenny Lewis later became a singer.

The closest I can think of are some of the great Howard Hawks films with great characters and overlapping dialog.

I have the pilot and episodes 1-11 on DVDs I burned from my O-L-D video tapes. I cherish these, but the quality is poor. WHEN OH WHEN will this come out on DVD???