Cybill Shepherd scored early big-screen hits with "The Last Picture Show," and "The Heartbreak Kid," and then spent a decade trying to regain the respect of Hollywood's fickle industry.

It seems almost everyone is familiar with her story -- a quick rise from top model to actress-of-the-month, and eventually, a Golden-Globe winning television actress with sitcom hits "Moonlighting," "Cybill" and lately, a regular role on "The L Word."

Over her 40 years in show business, singer and actress Cybill Shepherd has always struggled to disprove those who said she was just a pretty face.

Bankrate: Your comedy "Cybill" just came out on a DVD set after 10 years. Why so long and why is it being released now?

Cybill Shepherd: It was like being buried in a salt mine. This is very emotional for me because I couldn't even get the footage to see the shows. When I called to ask them for this particular footage, they said oh, it's buried in a salt mine in Utah someplace. And I felt that my career and my show was buried, but it turns out it wasn't; it turns out they had it on a computer and they could give it to me if I paid $4,000 and that way I could get to see my scenes.

Bankrate: What caused everything to unravel at the end?

Cybill Shepherd: The studio made the deal where the network had to pay the money and the studio was going to pay the network back once it went into syndication. They made a deal that will never be seen again, one that benefited the studio as opposed to the network. Consequently, the studio made sure it was never syndicated because then they would have to pay the network back. CBS sued (independent producer and distributor) Carsey-Warner and I think they paid them $53 million because they never tried to sell it.