screen captures from the Cutter to Houston pilot episode, 1983
Shelley's second foray into series TV was Cutter to Houston. It was about three young doctors from the world-famous Texas Medical Center in Houston who were recruited to run a small hospital in the fictional rural town of Cutter, Texas. Jim Metzler and Alec Baldwin played the other two doctors. Jim played idealistic GP Dr. Andy Fenton, who grew up in Cutter and is glad to be home. Alec played internist/ladies man Dr. Hal Wexler, who is getting through his probation, having been relegated to Cutter for being a little too fast and free with his prescriptions. And Shelley played Dr. Beth Gilbert, an ambitious surgeon on temporary assignment in Cutter and aspires to be a heart surgeon in Houston.
more screen captures from the Cutter to Houston pilot episode, 1983
To continue, back at the Cutter Community Hospital, Hal spots a beautiful young woman who, he immediately finds out, is there with her brother, there to have his hand examined. He can't seem to close it. They are Carl and Sally Tollhouse. Carl notices the glint in Hal's eye when he looks at Sally; so he tells her to leave them. She reluctantly does, and Hal watches her walk away. Carl reminds Hal that he can still close his other fist and Hal gets the message. Meanwhile, Andy and Beth arrive via helicopter at the site of the oil rig accident. One of the towers caught fire and the men there have been trying to put it out. One man is unconscious and is pinned down by debris. They've been trying to lift it off him to no avail.