a glamour pic of Shelley from 1979
Shelley left Charlie's Angels in 1980 and the press had a field day. She was unfairly blamed for the drop in the ratings and everyone joined that bandwagon. Everything from her acting to her charisma to her looks to her hair were cited as the reason for the decline in the ratings. But if you look closer, Shelley really got the short end of the stick. It seems she was the scapegoat for further decline in the ratings the show experienced that year.
NO, she wasn't dull!
a writeup about Shelley from 1980
Her debut episode "Love Boat Angels" topped the Nielsen ratings and it was predicted that the Angels was going to be back on top (ratings for season 3 had dropped dramatically - from #4 in season 2 to # 12 in season 3). Shelley's Supermodel/Charlie Girl status brought a lot of publicity and renewed interest to the show. In episode 2, "Angels Go Truckin'," her rapport with the incumbent Angels was evident and landed the episode in the top 10 for the week. But by episode 3, she was suddenly relegated to the background. The same thing happened with the succeeding episodes. It was by this time that the ratings started spiraling downward. But was that really her fault? Her lines were deliberately cut down in her debut episode. The same thing happened from episode 3 on. So how was she supposed to "save" the series then? By her MERE PRESENCE alone? How could she make her character interesting when she was given little to say and do? Wouldn't that have been the reason viewers lost interest in the show or found her dull? Besides, Jackie Smith, Cheryl Ladd and even Farrah Fawcett appeared in the same season. They couldn't "save" the series either, could they? Was Shelley actually just the scapegoat for the ratings decline that season?
