a closeup of Shelley from a promo pic
for Charlie's Angels, 1979
In 1979, Shelley was cast as the newest Angel for the 4th season of the hit TV series Charlie's Angels - taking over from Kate Jackson who left the series after the previous season. "We hired her 40 percent from the screen test and 60 percent from the personality test," executive producer Aaron Spelling (of Spelling-Goldberg Productions) told TV Guide magazine, "We decided she was a nice person with sparkle and intelligence." Her casting made Shelley a Hollywood superstar overnight. Her face appeared on virtually every magazine in the world and was even mentioned in the evening news. "I couldn't believe it. What was I doing in the evening news?" Shelley exclaimed. Charlie's Angels 4th season debut episode, "Love Boat Angels," topped the Nielsen ratings, and the addition of Shelley had revived interest in the show (the series had slipped significantly from #4 [in 1977] to #12 [in 1978] in the Nielsen ratings during its third season.)
a short writeup about Shelley, 1980
But after three episodes at the top 10, it began descending to the 20s, then to the 30s. And the "disappointing" season was unfairly blamed on Shelley and everything from her acting, her attitude, her voice and even her hair were cited as the reason for the show's further slip in the ratings - and everybody jumped on that bandwagon. The verdict: she was let go at the end of the season. Spelling-Goldberg Productions issued the statement, "When she signed her contract for the series, Miss Hack had a personal agreement that she could review her continuation with the show at the end of her first season since series television represented an enormous change in her career and lifestyle." The statement further said, "In case Miss Hack decides not to come back next season on a regular basis, she has agreed to do several guest-star appearances on the show." (FYI: In spite of everything, in the Nielsen ratings, the fourth season of Charlie's Angels still finished within TV's top 20 shows of 1979 - which wasn't bad for a show that had been on the air for 4 seasons.)
Shelley in a promo pic
for Charlie's Angels, 1979
