Saturday, August 26, 2023

Doing Something Good

Shelley in a paparazzi pic from 1984

Shelley wanted to make the most of the opportunity she had gained from her year as one of Charlie's Angels. She had become an  international Hollywood superstar and "I didn't want to leave Los Angeles without doing something good," she said. So immediately after leaving Charlie's Angels in 1980, Shelley joined the cast of the Jack Heifner play Vanities. The play was a record-breaking hit. It was taped and was aired as part of the HBO series Standing Room Only in 1981. In 1982, she starred in Elizabeth Diggs' play Close Ties. The play ran in 1982 and was aired on cable TV's The Entertainment Channel in March of 1983. Also in 1982, Shelley played Billie Dawn in the Pennsylvania Stage Company's production of Born Yesterday in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Shelley received glowing reviews for her performances in all three plays. Shelley said, "Every actor likes to do a variety of things - television, movies, stage. I like the theater because you have the live audience."

a clipping about Shelley
from the "Photo Topics From Los Angeles" page
on the Japanese fan magazine Screen, Jan 1985

Aside from theater, Shelley also starred in both the big and small screens. In 1983, she delivered a noteworthy performance in the Martin Scorsese feature film The King of Comedy opposite Robert De Niro. She also gave fine performances opposite comedy legends Dick Van Dyke and Sid Caesar in the 1983 TV movie Found Money... as well as opposite Hollywood acting veteran George Segal in the 1983 TV movie Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer. She was deemed a bright spot in her second TV series, 1983's Cutter to Houston. She also turned out fine performances opposite TV veterans Paul Michael Glaser and Tony Danza in the 1984 TV movie Single Bars, Single Women. After all the unfair criticism she received during her stint on Charlie's Angels, Shelley surprised her critics and detractors with her subsequent work on stage, TV and the big screen.

Shelley was featured
in the "Photo Topics From Los Angeles" page
on the Japanese fan magazine Screen, Jan 1985

Shelley's fellow Charlie's Angels
Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Ladd
and future Charlie's Angel Drew Barrymore
were also featured in the same
"Photo Topics From Los Angeles" page
on the Japanese fan magazine Screen, Jan 1985