Stan Rogow

John Sayles wrote "Shannon's Deal" (Sunday at 9 p.m., Channels 4, 36 and 39), a pilot that didn't make the cut for next fall. As might be expected from the creator of such offbeat films as "Return of the Secaucus Seven," "The Brother From Another Planet" and "Eight Men Out," it's a fairly rich script for its genre. That genre is lawyer show, scrappy loner subdivision. Here we have a guy (Jamey Sheridan) who, fed up with corporate law and wracked by gambling debts and a failed marriage, puts out his own shingle--in a fleabag building occupied by ambulance chasers.

While you are waiting to sell your next off-Broadway play or direct your next $20-million movie, why not do a little television? John Sayles (writer) and Stan Rogow (executive producer) of NBC's "Shannon's Deal" think they can create a different sort of television by offering screenwriters, playwrights and directors a different sort of deal.

John Sayles, the staunchly independent film maker, would not seem the most likely person to jump into the network series grind. "It's part of my program," he said. "I've told myself I'd do anything once." "Shannon's Deal" isn't on NBC's fall schedule, but the two-hour pilot airs Sunday. Besides Sayles, it boasts such behind-the-camera talent as "Jewel of the Nile" director Lewis Teague, who also directed Sayles' early feature effort, "Alligator," a cult-favorite horror film; "Fame" producer Stan Rogow, and composer Wynton Marsalis, who wrote the score.

John Sayles wrote "Shannon's Deal" (Sunday at 9 p.m., Channels 4, 36 and 39), a pilot that didn't make the cut for next fall. As might be expected from the creator of such offbeat films as "Return of the Secaucus Seven," "The Brother From Another Planet" and "Eight Men Out," it's a fairly rich script for its genre. That genre is lawyer show, scrappy loner subdivision. Here we have a guy (Jamey Sheridan) who, fed up with corporate law and wracked by gambling debts and a failed marriage, puts out his own shingle--in a fleabag building occupied by ambulance chasers.

While you are waiting to sell your next off-Broadway play or direct your next $20-million movie, why not do a little television? John Sayles (writer) and Stan Rogow (executive producer) of NBC's "Shannon's Deal" think they can create a different sort of television by offering screenwriters, playwrights and directors a different sort of deal.

Watching Hilary Duff pretend she's a gawky middle-school misfit in "The Lizzie McGuire Movie," one is drawn toward two unavoidable conclusions. First, that no misfit in the whole history of middle schools ever glowed in the dark as she does. And second, paraphrasing something Chris Rock once said in an altogether different context, if she's a loser, then you wonder who's winning.

"South of Sunset," which was to have been a comedic action/drama series starring former rock singer Glenn Frey as a detective, became a one-shot special. CBS canceled the series after its debut Wednesday night when its ratings, like the title, went south. In what reportedly were the lowest premiere ratings on record for a series on one of the Big Three networks, the show attracted only 9% of the available audience and finished fourth in its 9-10 p.m. slot.

"CBS This Morning" anchors Mark McEwen and Paula Zahn hit prime-time when they guest as themselves on an April episode of the hit CBS comedy "Murphy Brown." James Garner recently won a Golden Globe for his performance in NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame drama "Decoration Day." In February, he received more kudos: the Silver Nymph Award as best actor in a television film at the 31st International Television Film Festival of Monaco. Dolly Parton is going dramatic. She's currently in Austin, Tex.

"All I Want for Christmas" tries to be a something-for-everyone Yuletide charmer. It's about two industrious kids, Ethan (Ethan Randall) and Hallie (Thora Birch), who scheme to reunite their divorced parents on Christmas Eve. It's like "The Miracle on 34th Street" for the dysfunctional family era: the "mature" material is sugared with whimsy.

An intrepid rabbit and a set of Latino twins with a bilingual parrot are the stars of two new fall PBS kids' series designed for the generally unserved early elementary school population. The emphasis in both is on positive ethnic values and cultural diversity. PBS and Scholastic Entertainment ("Clifford the Big Red Dog") have teamed to present "Maya & Miguel," an animated weekday series scheduled to premiere on KCET Oct. 11.

John Sayles, the staunchly independent film maker, would not seem the most likely person to jump into the network series grind. "It's part of my program," he said. "I've told myself I'd do anything once." "Shannon's Deal" isn't on NBC's fall schedule, but the two-hour pilot airs Sunday. Besides Sayles, it boasts such behind-the-camera talent as "Jewel of the Nile" director Lewis Teague, who also directed Sayles' early feature effort, "Alligator," a cult-favorite horror film; "Fame" producer Stan Rogow, and composer Wynton Marsalis, who wrote the score.

SERIES Art Carney will guest star in an upcoming episode of the new CBS sitcom "Uncle Buck," which airs Mondays at 8 p.m. beginning this fall. It will be the first time that Audrey Meadows, who plays the grandmother on the sitcom, and Art Carney will have performed together since "The Honeymooners." The Emmy Award-winning team of Susan Harris, Paul Witt and Tony Thomas will create and produce a new half-hour comedy series entitled "Good and Evil" for ABC Entertainment.

"The Clan of the Cave Bear" (Mann's Village), or Hannah and her Cro-Mag Sisters, was described as "a good old-fashioned tale with a spunky Stone-Age tomboy named Ayla" in 1980 when it was a whopping big novel. Now that it's a whopping big movie, it all still applies--except possibly the "good." With Daryl Hannah as Ayla, the rising Cro-Magnon outsider on the fading Neanderthal scene, teen-age girls still have the feisty role model they had in the book and the movie has its saving grace.