Shelley on the cover
of The Newfoundland Herald magazine, Oct 1983
Shelley was cast in the 1983 TV series, Cutter to Houston. It was about three doctors practicing at the Cutter Community Hospital in the fictional town of Cutter, located in the Texas boonies. Jim Metzler and Alec Baldwin co-starred. Shelley played ambitious surgeon Dr. Beth Gilbert who wanted more than anything to practice in a big city hospital in Houston, Texas. Jim played Dr. Andy Fenton, who grew up in Cutter. The town helped him through medical school and he was glad to be there and pay everyone back. Alec Baldwin played Dr. Hal Wexler, a ladies man on probation for writing unnecessary prescriptions. The series had great promise but, like many of the shows back then, it got mixed reviews; but many critics noticed that Shelley had improved vastly acting-wise from the time she was on Charlie's Angels (they probably didn't watch her Angels season beyond the first few episodes). In fact, some thought she was the best thing in Cutter to Houston. Because sleepers hits were unheard of at the time, the series was cancelled before further development of the characters and storylines were presented.
Shelley in a 1983 writeup about Cutter to Houston
