a closeup of Shelley from a promo pic
for Charlie's Angels, 1979
Shelley became Charlie's Angel Tiffany Welles in May of 1979. After a long search, executive producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg chose Shelley to fill the spot vacated by Kate Jackson in the spring of 1979. Shelley said, "I remember there was a big Angel hunt going on, and they asked me to audition. The hunt seemed to go on for a long time. A lot of my girlfriends went in to be tested, but I wasn't involved until sometime later when my agent called and said, 'It's a terrific show - you really should think about testing.' So, I thought about it again and went in." Shelley was cast; and she along with Jaclyn Smith (Kelly Garrett) and Cheryl Ladd (Kris Munroe) became Charlie's newest Angel team.
a writeup about Shelley from 1980
When asked whether she liked being a TV star, Shelley said, "Yes. I've got two parking spaces with my name on them. It's wonderful. Someone on the set asked me if I was scared, but it never even occurred to me." Shelley added, "There is a lot about Charlie's Angels that's confining. You'd be trying too hard, if you try to do too much. It's a very charming, one-hour piece of entertaining fluff. Try to make it anything else, and you'd fall on your face." But being a TV star on a hit TV series had it's pros and cons. Yes, fame was guaranteed, but then there was also all the gossip and rumors, such as -the Angels talked to each other only when it was in the script, -when one Angel emerged from her trailer in a stunning outfit, the others ran back to top it, -that Shelley was so ugly in the morning before makeup that nobody would look at her, -that she was going to be fired soon, so none of the previous rumors mattered anyhow. Shelley's response to all of them was, "All a crock of you-know-what. But... yet... some of those stories do hurt." She was just a hard-working actress making the most of a good opportunity that had fallen on her lap after all.
Shelley with Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith
in a glamorous promo pic for season 4
of Charlie's Angels, 1979
