Shelley with Jack and Mike co-star Tom Mason
on a TV Times mag cover, 1986
Shelley's third foray into series television was Jack and Mike in 1986. The show explored the life of journalist Jackie Shea (played by Shelley) and restauranteur Mike Brennan (played Tom Mason), a married couple with busy careers trying to make their marriage work. The yuppie phenomenon exploded in the 1980s when more and more women began entering the workforce, climbing up the corporate ladder and holding positions previously held exclusively by men in past generations. The other cast members were: Nora Adler (Jacqueline Brookes), Jackie’s editor; Anthony Kubecek (Kevin Dunn), Jackie's assistant; Carol (Holly Fulger), the head waitress at Mike's restaurant, Brennan's Grill; and Rick Scotti (Vincent Baggetta), an attorney who appeared occasionally. The series was filmed on location in Chicago, Illinois.
Shelley in TV Times mag, 1986
The series aired right after the hit TV series Moonlighting and debuted to decent ratings. It also received decent reviews, with a few scathing writeups here and there, as any series did. Ratings-wise, it held on to its middle-of-the-pack spot as it continued airing and was ahead of its immediate competition. It looked like it was in for a long run when it was suddenly canceled to the disappointment of fans. Sleeper hits were still unheard of at the time. (A sleeper hit is a TV series that is initially unsuccessful during its early run but slowly becomes a huge success later on.) Nevertheless, Shelley admitted she loved working on Jack and Mike. "I saw in the script a modern woman who really loves her job and really loves her husband and is trying to balance the two," Shelley told ET in 1986. "I read this and I liked it so much," she added, "that I signed on the dotted line for five years, which is a big chunk of your life. And you don't sign on the dotted line for five years unless you really, really want to do it."
a writeup about Shelley a TV Times mag, 1986
