TWO FOR TUESDAY TRIBUTE (2) - CAROLE SHELLEY

As the September salute to soap operas kicked off this past weekend, we got word about the deaths of two actresses who had daytime drama credentials.  This being Tuesday, we'll have  Two for Tuesday Tribute.

With this second memorial, we're honoring an actress who holds a very special place in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame....

From Playbill:

Carole Shelley, known for her Broadway performances in the original companies of "Wicked and "The Elephant Man", died August 31 at the age of 79 at her home in Manhattan.

Her death from cancer was confirmed to Playbill by Ms. Shelley's close friend Barrie Kreinik.

Ms. Shelley made her Broadway debut as Gwendolyn Pigeon in the original Broadway cast of "The Odd Couple" in 1965, a role she would reprise in both the feature film and TV series adaptations of the Neil Simon play. Shelley shares the distinction of being one of only two actors (along with Monica Evans, who co-starred as her sister Cecily) to appear in all three major adaptations of "The Odd Couple" as the same characters.

It was for that reason that Ms. Shelley and Ms. Evans were inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as multiversal characters back in 2002, the Year of Duos.  For my quatloos, that's the role that should be listed up top as the role she is known for!

As for soap opera roles.....

• On 'All My Children', she played June Hagan.  (I have no other information about the character.)
• Ms. Shelley was Barbara "Babs" Bartlett from 1991-92 on 'One Live To Live'. (For being on the soap opera for almost a year, I would have thought there would be information about her somewhere online.  But I didn't find anything of merit.)
• She was only a temporary replacement as  Iris Cory Carrington Delaney Bancroft Wheeler on 'Another World', making her a recastaway.  (Just trying to remember that name would have been too much for actresses of lesser mettle.)   

I could only find information about Iris from a website dedicated to the two actresses mostly associated with the character.  Appropriately enough, the site is called "Irises".

As Iris in the 1970s, Beverlee McKinsey created the mold for "rich bitch" soap opera characters (the writers of 'Dynasty' even stole one of Iris' many last names when they created Joan Collins' more well-known but far less complex version of the archetype, Alexis Carrington) and served as the dramatic catalyst in the almost decade-long Iris/Mac/Rachel triangle, the only major love triangle in soap opera history in which one of the "couples" was not romantically involved (Iris and Mac were, of course, father and daughter). Iris proved so popular that a spin-off, 'Texas', was created centering around her - too bad the powers that be apparently thought they needed to make Iris nice in order for her to be effective as the main protagonist, and the show ended up being canceled after only two years. 

It turned out, Carmen Duncan could, if not replace Beverlee - for that implies one or both actresses were so one-note that they could be interchangeable - at least create her own vision of the character that was marvelous in its own right. A new Iris blew back into Bay City after nearly a decade away, having evidently traded in her halo from the 'Texas' days for a fabulous wardrobe and willing to go to nearly any lengths to maintain her place in the Cory family. Sadly, Carmen did not get the top billing that Beverlee had; she was mostly pigeonholed as a supporting player. Even when she had little to work with on the page, however, Carmen still brought such pathos to the role that for me Iris was often more compelling just talking to "Daddy's" portrait than much of the rest of the show. 

As a final indignity for one of the most pivotal characters in 'Another World''s history, Iris was eventually written out and shipped off to jail after she managed to accidentally shoot and critically injure Carl in a series of plot developments too ludicrous to recall or describe, while her family, who had by that point realized she was innocent, all but forgot about her. The powers that be had such little respect for history that the character who had set her up was soon turned into some kind of a romantic hero - while living in (a dark, dreary, redecorated version of) Iris' gorgeous apartment, no less! - until one of many new writers/producers wrote him off as well. As far as viewers know, Iris was never released from prison, and in fact she was mentioned on-screen no more than a handful of times in the five years that the show remained on the air after she left. On top of all that, due to a stupid preemption for the OJ Simpson trial, I did not even get to see her final episode (although I still recall Iris being dragged out of the courtroom, begging Carl and Rachel to believe her, in Carmen's penultimate episode).

So there's a recastaway to be dealt with here. 

The author mentions that Iris didn't return to Bay City until about a decade later (after the cancellation of 'Texas'.)  So any number of splainins can be found as to why she looked different - I would suggest plastic surgery as being the most logical, considering we're talking about a soap opera.

But how do we splain away Carole Shelley's appearance in the role in 1980 (probably somewhere between Episode 1.3949 and Episode 1.4052)?

I think we may need to turn to the 'Quantum Leap' splainin.

At some point in the future beyond Dr. Sam Beckett's experiments with the time-traveling device he created, others were leaping into the bodies of people in the past.  And I believe that eventually it became a profitable enterprise for people wealthy enough to pay for the chance to relive certain periods in Time. 

Many of these would be academics, subsidized by the institutions which hired them, in order to study some particular nub in History.  Of course there would also be those who were unscrupulous and wishing to use the technology to enrich themselves or to rid themselves of political opponents for example.  (But of course the Timecops would be monitoring that situation.)

To prevent wide-spread contamination from the Future, quantum leapers would be limited to visiting only certain areas which had been designated "time preserves".  Among the areas selected would be cities and towns like Llanview, Port Charles, Genoa City, Corinth, Monticello, Salem, and in this case, Bay City.  (This is the splainin I came up with the rampant recastaway problem in soap operas.)

Whoever that woman was who impersonated Iris Cory Carrington Delaney Bancroft Wheeler in 1980, I think she was one of those researchers, learning about the society of that time in light of the political events happening at that time.  She may have been there to gauge people's reaction to President Carter's actions against Russia because of their invasion of Afghanistan, including the cultural impact of the "Miracle on Ice" when the US hockey team beat the Russians at the Olympics held in Lake George.

There would also be the grain embargo imposed by Carter and she might have investigated if that had impact on any farmers in the Bay City region.  And of course there would have been the little things she would have learned about - like the first use of the word "yuppie" in an issue of Chicago magazine.

None of this they could garner from the historical archives of the Future, by the way.  Most of those were destroyed in the Eugenics Wars on orders of Colonel Green.

This historian masquerading as Iris Cory Carrington Delaney Bancroft Wheeler was hoping to stay long enough to interview the younger people of Bay City after President Carter imposed a draft on 18 to 25 year olds because of that Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 

Unfortunately two events forced her "leap" back to the Future - first, while she was visiting nearby Lake Forest for reseach, a bomb devised by Ted Kaczynski seriously injured the president of United Airlines.  "Mrs. Wheeler" happened to be in the same building at the time.

And then there was the intense heat wave from June 23 to September 6, which would ultimately claim the lives of 1700 Americans.  Her superiors back in the Future did not want to add her to the casualty list and so she was brought back against her wishes.

And that's my splainin for the presence of the late Carole Shelley in 'Another World'.

I'll have another look at Ms. Shelley in Toobworld after the September showcase of soap operas has run its course.

Good night and may God bless Carole Shelley......

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Another World'
• 'Texas'
• 'Quantum Leap'
• 'Star Trek'
• 'Timecop'
• 'Dynasty'