Shannon's Deal
| Shannon's Deal | |
|---|---|
| Starring |
Jamey Sheridan Elizabeth Peña Jenny Lewis Richard Edson Miguel Ferrer Martin Ferrero |
| Theme music composer | Wynton Marsalis |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | John Sayles |
| Running time | 48 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | April 16, 1990 – May 21, 1991 |
Shannon's Deal is an American legal drama that aired on NBC from April 16, 1990 until May 21, 1991. The series was created by John Sayles and executive produced by Stan Rogow. The show centers on a successful Philadelphia corporate lawyer named Jack Shannon (Jamey Sheridan), who lost his family and his job to a compulsive gambling habit. The saga of Shannon, who leaves a prestigious law firm after years of becoming unhappy with the legal system and being forced to take his clients to court, and whom subsequently opens his own low-rent practice, was first explored in the high-rated two-hour movie pilot, which NBC aired on June 4, 1989 and repeated April 13th 1990, ahead of the series premiere.
The series was highly regarded in the industry for its level of writing, complex character development, and its witty dramedy elements, but is also remembered for the notable people who worked behind the scenes.
The premise of the show was perhaps summed up best by the following opening narration given by Jack Shannon in the title sequence:
I thought I was a big shot. Big money, big house, big car...I thought I held all the cards. I thought I could pick the winner every time, I thought I could smell it...but the whole thing was built on garbage. I treated my wife badly and I knew it and I didn't stop and one day she walked. She took my daughter with her. I started gambling big time, crazy stuff, long shot stuff. I turned into the kind of man that I'd grown up hating. Making the big bucks and being made a partner wasn't enough to buy that off. I'm just kinda starting from scratch, trying to keep things low pressure.
Though he worked hard to attain a high-profile partnership at the prestigious Philadelphia law firm of Coleman & Weiss, John F. "Jack" Shannon grew disillusioned from successfully defending corporations in pollution cases. (He later ruefully referred to a stretch of land that had been used as a toxic dump by one of those companies as "Shannon Park.") As a consequence, his marriage fell apart and Shannon became a compulsive gambler. Racking up massive debts, Shannon lost his house, his car and other assets. He was then fired from his position at the firm, following a disastrous confrontation with fellow partner Todd Spurrier.
Though he maintained a good relationship with his teenage daughter Neala (Jenny Lewis), Shannon found himself starting over with his own small firm in a low-rent Philadelphia building filled with low-rent professionals, including lawyers like ambulance-chaser Lou Gondolf (Martin Ferrero). He also found himself going up against his old adversary Todd Spurrier (Miguel Ferrer), who had moved to the D.A.'s office to lay the groundwork for a political career. Though he gained a loyal assistant in Lucy Acosta (Elizabeth Peña) when he freed her boyfriend from a wrongful charge, he quickly discovered that practicing law was now a far different venture, as he worked cases involving crime, corruption and corporate greed from the other side of the tracks without the vast resources of his old law firm.
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