This article appeared in the October 21, 1989 issue of TV Guide. Close to Home by Michael Logan

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Actress Shelly Burch - Delila on ABC's One Life to Live - steps into some big shoes this week, when PBS's Great Performances presents the Oscar Hammerstein 2nd-Jerome Kern classic "Show Boat." As Julie, the tragic mulatto torch singer, she tackles a role created by the legendary Helen Morgan. Ironically, the character and both stars have something more in common than great pipes - a battle with the bottle. For Morgan, it ended in death at age 41 from cirrhosis of the liver. For Burch, results were rosier. "I've been a recovering member of AA for five years," she admits. "I could not have played Julie - especially the scene where she gets drunk and sings 'Bill' - while I was struggling with my own alcoholism. It would have been too, too frightening."