a magazine cover of Shelley from 1984
After leaving Charlie's Angels in 1980, Shelley embarked on a serious acting career. She was determined to learn her craft and give this acting opportunity a try. In 1981, she tackled stage a via the Jack Heifner play Vanities and garnered critical praise for her work. In 1982, she also received praise for her subsequent stage efforts via Elizabeth Diggs's play Close Ties and Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday. In 1983, she received great reviews for her performance in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy. In 1983, she got to work on TV movies with seasoned actors such as George Segal (Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer) and Dick Van Dyke and Sid Caesar (Found Money aka Max and Sam). Also in 1983, she appeared in her second TV series Cutter to Houston with Jim Metzler and Alec Baldwin. In 1984, she was cast as Christine Sullivan on the second season of Night Court. But when the series started shooting, Shelley and producer Reinhold Weege decided she wasn't right for the part; and they mutually and amicably agreed to call the whole thing off. That same year, Shelley starred in the TV movie Single Bars, Single Women with Paul Michael Glaser.
a writeup about Shelley from 1984