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, Beth comes out of the Texas Medical Center in Houston rattled. She had come to see how Frank Bickum was doing. He was transferred there for medical care. Frank was very angry at her for removing his arm. Beth had come to see him to try to explain why she did it but was angrily told to leave by Frank. Outside, as she was leaving the premises, she is called by Dr. Easley, the hospital director of the Texas Medical Center. They exchange pleasantries and the conversation quickly turns to the doctor recently hired by the hospital. Beth is visibly upset that it wasn't her; but Dr. Easley explains why he chose someone else. He says that because of the fantastic job she did on Frank Bickum, he knew that Cutter urgently needs a doctor like her.
