Shelly Tambo
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Shelly Tambo is one of the main fictional characters in the American television series Northern Exposure, portrayed by Cynthia Geary in all six seasons of the show. Shelly is introduced in the pilot episode (aired July 12, 1990) as the young girlfriend of sexagenarian Holling Vincoeur. The two live and work together in his bar, "The Brick," in the center of the town of Cicely, Alaska that is the fictional setting of Northern Exposure.
[edit] Character backstory
The pilot explains that Shelly was a high school beauty queen from Saskatoon, who had been brought to Cicely by Holling's best friend, local millionaire and former astronaut Maurice Minnifield. Flashbacks show Holling, Maurice, and Shelly's conflicting memories of how she fell in love with Holling in "Only You" (aired September 30, 1991), when Holling takes a picture of Maurice that he believes is unflattering and the old wounds reopen; the subplot of Maurice's jealousy over losing Shelly to Holling continued into later seasons.
Shelly's father's first, and only, appearance was in the first season episode Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens. In it he mentions he had been married four times[1] and the series implies he was only sporadically involved in her raising. Her mother is close enough in age to Shelly that she at times pretended to be her sister, and in Shelly's adulthood she even claimed to be her "little sister." Shelly's feelings on this were somewhat mixed. Her mother's relative youth and immaturity made her "a cool mom" to Shelly, but it also made her unable to provide much guidance or "mom stuff."
[edit] Relationship with Holling
In the episode "Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens" (aired August 2, 1990), which takes place within a year or two after moving in with Holling, Shelly believes she is pregnant and nearly marries Holling. He stands her up at the altar the first time, fearing that the longevity of his family will cause him to outlive her despite his being 44 years older than her. The second time, he talks her out of going through with the ceremony. In "Sex, Lies and Ed’s Tape" (aired August 16, 1990), Shelly learns that she merely had a hysterical pregnancy. In the same episode, Holling is shocked to learn that Shelly is still married to a former schoolmate named Wayne Jones, when he comes to Cicely to ask for a divorce. Shelly finally divorces Wayne over the radio in "Oy Wilderness" (aired October 7, 1991), with Cicely DJ Chris Stevens officiating. Holling and Shelly later have a daughter, Miranda. While pregnant Shelly briefly found herself compelled to sing rather than speak. She is also fluent in Spanish and Italian.
Shelly did eventually marry Holling, prompted by recurring visions of dancers, but she insists that this is only a nominal marriage.
[edit] Character traits
Though kind-hearted, Shelly is portrayed as simple-minded or superficial. In "Sex, Lies and Ed’s Tape" (aired August 16, 1990), her motivation to marry Wayne is explained as having been simply to make him stop asking. She is excited when Holling stands up to a drunken bar patron in "All Is Vanity" (aired April 22, 1991), and then almost pushes him into getting circumcized as another way to prove his manliness. Shelly becomes jealous at Holling's old friendship with a woman his own age in "Slow Dance" (aired May 20, 1991) because they appear to share more in common, but is then comforted when Holling tells her that he is only interested in Shelly's body, not her mind. In "Spring Break" (aired May 6, 1991), when the townsfolk act irrationally due to the onset of spring, Shelly's aberration is an obsessive interest in reading D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow even though she cannot understand it.
Shelly is Roman Catholic by upbringing, which she finds difficult to practice in Cicely, as Chris Stevens (who was ordained after answering an ad in the back of Rolling Stone) is the only local clergy. Chris is tapped to perform her wedding to Holling in "Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens," and he improvises a confessional for her when she becomes addicted to television and home shopping in "Goodbye to All That" (aired April 8, 1991). Shelly pines for a traditional Christmas Mass in "Seoul Mates" (aired December 16, 1991).
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