Charlie's Angels is a
television series about three women who work for a
private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men. The series was broadcast on the
ABC Television Network from 1976 to 1981 and was one of the most successful series of the 1970s.
Charlie's Angels was created by
Ivan Goff and
Ben Roberts and produced by
Aaron Spelling and
Leonard Goldberg.
Premise
Three women, the Angels, (originally
Kate Jackson,
Farrah Fawcett-Majors, and
Jaclyn Smith) graduated from the police academy and were hired to work for the Charles Townsend Agency as private investigators. Their boss, Charlie (voiced by
John Forsythe), is
never seen full face — in some episodes he is shown from the rear only (where the viewer only sees the back of his head and his arms) — assigning cases to the Angels and his liaison, Bosley (played by
David Doyle), via a speaker phone.
Charlie's Angels is
episodic in nature, as opposed to
serial, thus each episode shows the Angels finding themselves in new situations in which they would go undercover to investigate. The undercover aspect of the show creates much of the plot interest and tension. In the early seasons of the show, the Angels, under their assumed identities, use a combination of sexual wiles and knowledge learned for the situation in which they are being placed, but by the third and fourth seasons, the writing has a tendency to stray from the sex appeal (see "As 'Jiggle TV'") and focus more on the case at hand.
Cast and crew
Main stars
| Character
| Actress/Actor
| Role
| Notes
| Duration
|
| Sabrina Duncan
| Kate Jackson
| Private investigator for Townsend Associates
| Graduate from L.A. police academy
| Seasons 1-3
|
| Jill Munroe
| Farrah Fawcett-Majors
| Private investigator for Townsend Associates
| Graduate from L.A. police academy
| Season 1, recurring seasons 3-4
|
| Kelly Garrett
| Jaclyn Smith
| Private investigator for Townsend Associates
| Graduate from L.A. police academy
| Seasons 1-5
|
| Kris Munroe
| Cheryl Ladd
| Private investigator for Townsend Associates
| Graduate from San Francisco police academy, Jill's younger sister
| Seasons 2-5
|
| Tiffany Welles
| Shelley Hack
| Private investigator for Townsend Associates
| Graduate from Boston police academy
| Season 4
|
| Julie Rogers
| Tanya Roberts
| Private investigator for Townsend Associates
| Graduate from modeling school
| Season 5
|
| John Bosley
| David Doyle
| Private investigator, office manager for Townsend Associates
|
| Seasons 1-5
|
| Charlie Townsend
| John Forsythe
| Owner of Townsend Associates (voice only)
| Former police chief and private investigator
| Seasons 1-5
|
Notable guest stars
Charlie's Angels played host to a number of well-known faces during its five seasons. Some of those individuals were long-established stars of film and television, others would find considerable fame and recognition many years
after appearing in the program. Notable appearances of celebrities (whether famous then or later) include those of:
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Episodes
As "Jiggle TV"
The show became known as "Jiggle TV" and "T&A TV" (or "Tits & Ass Television") by critics who believed that the show had no intelligence or substance and that the scantily or provocatively dressed Angels (generally as part of their undercover character — e.g., roller derby girl, beauty pageant contestant, maid, female prisoner or just bikini-clad) did so to showcase the figures and/or sexuality of the actresses as a sole means of attracting viewers. Farrah Fawcett-Majors once attributed the show's success to this fact: "When the show was number three, I figured it was our acting. When it got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra."
Nielsen ratings/ABC broadcast history
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of
Charlie's Angels on
ABC.
Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. All times listed are
North American Eastern Time.
| | Season |
| | Time slot |
| | Première |
| | Finale |
| | TV Season |
| Season
Rank |
| Viewers
(millions) |
| style="background:#F9F9F9;text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 1 |
| style="background:#F9F9F9;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;text-align:center;line-height:110%" | Wednesday 10:00 P.M. |
September 22, 1976
| May 4, 1977
|
| style="background:#F9F9F9;text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 1976-1977 |
| style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | #5 |
style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 18.4 |
| style="background:#F9F9F9;text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 2 |
| rowspan="3" style="background:#F9F9F9;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;text-align:center;line-height:110%" | Wednesday 9:00 P.M. |
September 14, 1977
| May 10, 1978
|
| style="background:#F9F9F9;text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 1977-1978 |
| style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | #4∞ |
style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 17.8 |
| style="background:#F9F9F9;text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 3 |
| style="background:#F9F9F9;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;text-align:center;line-height:110%" | September 13, 1978 |
May 16, 1979
|
| style="background:#F9F9F9;text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 1978-1979 |
| style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | #12 |
style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 18.2 |
| style="background:#F9F9F9;text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 4 |
| style="background:#F9F9F9;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;text-align:left;line-height:110%" | September 12, 1979 |
May 7, 1980
|
| style="background:#F9F9F9;text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 1979-1980 |
| style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | #20 |
style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | 15.9 |
∞
Denotes tie in year-end rank.
DVD releases
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released Seasons 1-3 of the series on DVD to date. No release date(s) have been announced for the seasons 4 & 5 DVDs.
| Season |
| Ep # |
| Discs |
| Release date |
| Notes |
| 1
| 23
| 5
| May 27, 2003
| Includes 90-minute pilot tele-film
|
| 2
| 24
| 6
| April 06, 2004
| The two-hour episodes "Angels in Paradise" and "Angels on Ice" appear as syndicated versions
|
| 3
| 22
| 6
| July 04, 2006
|
The two-hour episodes "Angels in Vegas" and "Terror on Skis" appear as syndicated versions
|
| 4
| 25
| TBA
| TBA
|
| 5
| 16
| TBA
| TBA
|
Note: Episode count is based on the format in which episodes originally aired. Two-hour episodes are counted as one episode.
Pop culture impact
Film and television remakes and reinterpretations
The series has inspired many remakes and reinterpretations throughout the years and in different countries.
Four women were selected to be in a show called
Angels '88, which was to serve as an updated version of the show. The show was later named
Angels '89 after production delays, but the show ultimately never aired. From
1998–
1999,
Telemundo and
Sony produced a show called
Ángeles.
["Ángeles" (1999)] The weekly hour format did not catch on with Hispanic viewers, who are accustomed to watching
telenovelas nightly and the series was soon canceled. In
2002, a German version of
Charlie's Angels,
Wilde Engel,
["Wilde Engel" (2003)] was produced by the German channel
RTL. The show was known as
Anges de choc in French-speaking countries, and as
Three Wild Angels in English-speaking ones.
The series inspired two
feature films from
Flower Films production company:
Charlie's Angels (
2000) and
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (
2003), with John Forsythe returning to voice Charlie. Whereas most movie remakes of 1970s TV shows, like
Starsky and Hutch, are actually remakes, the
Charlie's Angels films are set in a different time. The mythology goes that whenever an Angel leaves, she is replaced so there are always three. The second film had more nods to the TV series than the first film, with Jaclyn Smith making a brief cameo as Kelly Garrett.
In
2004, a television movie entitled
Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels aired on
NBC.
Subsequent Angels
- Connie Bates (1988–1989), played by Claire Yarlett,
[Angels of the "Angels '88" or "Angels '89" from the much-hyped but never-aired show of the late '80s. [1]] Angels '89
- Pam Ryan (1988–1989), played by Sandra Canning,
- Trisha Lawrence (1988–1989), played by Karen Kopins,
- Bernie Colter (1988–1989), played by Téa Leoni,
- Madison Lee (2003), played by Demi Moore,
[A character in the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle movie with "retcon" involving her being a former Angel] Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
- Adriana Vega (1998–1999), played by Patricia Manterola,
[Angels from the "Angeles" TV show from the 1998-99 Spanish-language version on Telemundo. [2]]["Ángeles" (1999)] Ángeles
- Elena Sanchez (1998–1999), played by Sandra Vidal,
- Gina Navarro (1998–1999), played by Magali Caicedo,
- Natalie Cook (2000–2003), played by Cameron Diaz, Charlie's Angels & Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
- Dylan Sanders (2000–2003), played by Drew Barrymore, Charlie's Angels & Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
- Alex Munday (2000–2003), played by Lucy Liu, Charlie's Angels & Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
- Franziska (2002), played by Susann Uplegger,
["Wilde Engel" (2003)]Wilde Engel
- Lena (2002), played by Eva Habermann,Wilde Engel
- Raven (2002), played by Birgit Stauber,Wilde Engel
- Rebecca (2003), played by Vanessa Petruo, Wilde Engel
- Ida (2003), played by Tanja Wenzel, Wilde Engel
- Aiko (2003), played by Zora Holt, Wilde Engel
- Richard Voss (2003), played by Udo Kier, Wilde Engel
Video games
In July 2003, three
Charlie's Angels games were released on three different gaming platforms:
Nintendo GameCube,
PlayStation 2, and the
mobile phone. The versions released on both the
GameCube and PlayStation 2 were virtually the same, each given the same title:
Charlie's Angels. The version released for the
mobile phone was fundamentally toned down to fit the technical restrictions of the platform, and was titled
Charlie's Angels: Road Cyclone.
April 2008 -
Ojom announced a new
Charlie's Angels mobile phone game titled:
Charlie's Angels: Hellfire. The game is now available on operator portals across Europe.
Collectible items
During the show's run, many collectible items were produced, including (two versions of) dolls, countless boardgames, several posters, trading cards, pipes, notebooks, a lunchbox & thermos, Charlie's Angels Van, and even record albums.
Even though it was not directly part of the show,
Farrah Fawcett-Majors also released a poster of her sporting a red bathing suit that became the biggest selling poster in history with 12 million copies sold. This poster also helped the burgeoning popularity of the series.
Books
2008 - "
The Q Guide to Charlie's Angels"
book by
Mike Pingel Foreword by
Tanya Roberts.
2006 - "
Angelic Heaven: A Fan's Guide To Charlie's Angels"
book by
Mike Pingel ; Forewords by
Farrah Fawcett &
Cheryl Ladd.
2000 - "
Charlie's Angels Casebook"
book by David Hofstede, Jack Condon; Foreword by
Jaclyn Smith.
Comics
Two
British comic strip versions were produced. The first appeared in the Polystyle publication
Target in April 1978, drawn by John Canning.
Target was a sister title to the long-running
TV Comic aimed at older children and featuring TV action and crime shows of the day. Proving unpopular, it folded in August and merged back into
TV Comic where Canning's Angels strip continued until October 1979. The second strip was printed in Junior TV Times
Look-In, debuting in November 1979 (as soon as Polystyle's deal expired), written by
Angus P. Allan and drawn by
Jim Baikie and Bill Titcombe.
In the on-line comic
Erfworld, one side in The Battle for Gobwin Knob hires three glowing, flying female combatants from an unseen "Charlie". One is blond and two are dark-haired. They first appear in silhouette in
Page 42 of the comic and in the final frame of
Page 69, after dispensing with some "Dwagons" of the opposing side, once again take up the iconic pose of Charlie's Angels. They are referred to as "Charlie's Archons". In the role-playing game
Dungeons & Dragons, in the context of which the Erfworld story is placed, an
archon is a documented character. In
Gnosticism, an
archon occupies a role similar to the angels of the Old Testament.
Angel appearances
This is a chronological list of appearances that two or more Angels have made together in support of
Charlie's Angels.
- 1976 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith are featured in the cover story of Time magazine, which analyzes the impact of the show on popular culture.
- 1976 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith appear on the cover of TV Guide.
- 1978 - Jackson, Smith, and Ladd appear on the cover of TV Guide.
- 1979 - Smith, Ladd, and Hack appear on the cover of TV Guide.
- 1994 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith appear in the 20th Anniversary edition of People Magazine, the Angels are pictured in the top corner of the cover, and the article includes a pull-out poster. NOTE: The same issue was released in Australia with the Angels (Kate, Jaclyn & Farrah) on the cover.
- 2006 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith appeared together on-stage at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards, to pay tribute to Charlie's Angels executive producer Aaron Spelling.
- 2008 - Jackson and Smith appeared on the show Shear Genius, which Smith hosts, for a Charlie's Angels themed episode where the contestants styled models' hair in an updated version of the original three Angels' iconic hairstyles.
Notes and references
