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, Frank Bickum has stormed into the operating room of Cutter Community Hospital were his wife Ginny is about to be have an emergency C-section due to complications in her pregnancy; and he has a gun in hand. Dr. Beth Gilbert is about to perform the operation with the assistance of Dr. Andy Fenton. Dr. Hal Wexler is trying to talk Frank out of what he's doing as Beth, Andy and the nurses look on. Frank doesn't trust Beth. Earlier, she had to make the tough decision of amputating Franks arm to save his life when he was pinned down at a recent oil rig accident. Frank doesn't want Beth to touch Ginny. Beth tries to reason with Frank and slightly flares up as she tries to explain how tough it was for her to do what she did and how much she didn't want to do it but had to due to the dangerous circumstance he was in.
