Sunday, May 14, 2023

Fragile But Strong

Shelley on the cover of Neighbors, 1986

Shelley's third foray into series TV was Jack and Mike in 1986. It was about a married yuppie couple living in Chicago, trying to find time for each other in their busy schedules. Shelley played Jackie Shea, a star columnist at The Mirror, a fictional Chicago newspaper. Shelley admitted she loved working on Jack and Mike. "I saw in the script a modern woman who really loves her job and really loves her husband and is trying to balance the two," she told ET in 1986. "I read this and I liked it so much," she added, "that I signed on the dotted line for five years, which is a big chunk of your life. And you don't sign on the dotted line for five years unless you really, really want to do it." And Shelley was no stranger to series TV. Prior to Jack and Mike, Shelley survived several other TV series. She played detective Tiffany Welles for one season on Charlie's Angels. She worked hard on her character Dr. Beth Gilbert on the short-lived but critically well-received Cutter To Houston. And she worked equally hard on her character public defender Christine Sullivan on the sitcom Night Court, which she eventually pulled out of at the last minute (as she felt her character's role had changed somewhere between her first meeting with the producers and her first day on the set). Yet through it all, Shelley was undaunted and took everything in stride, moved forward and allowed herself to grow from her experiences. This delicate beauty was one fiercely strong woman.

a writeup about Shelley from 1986