|
"Charlie's
Angels" premiered on September 22, 1976 and came off air on June 24,
1981.
Initially, Kate
Jackson was intended to play Kelly Garrett, but at the
last minute she decided to switch to the (to her) more
challenging role of Sabrina Duncan as outlined in the pilot
script by legendary Hollywood screenwriters Ivan Goff and Ben
Roberts. Jaclyn Smith was the one Angel who lasted for the
show's entire five-year run.
At one point, the
program was getting 18,000 fan letters each week!
Originally, the producers of the tv show wanted a blonde, a
redhead and a brunette for the three angels but they wanted both Kate
Jackson and Jaclyn Smith so bad that they gave up the idea.
John Forsythe was not the first choice for the voice of Charlie.
The originally hired actor showed up drunk for work and John
agreed to take the job.
The hair style worn by the charachter "Jill Monroe"
was so popular that shortly after the show began, a large
percentage of America's females were wearing "Farrah
Fawcett Hairdos".
Robert Wagner reluctantly accepted 45% ownership of the show as
payment for a prior contract he had with Aaron Spelling. He said
that he felt the show was the worst idea he'd ever heard!
Charlie's Angels was the only immediately obvious hit of the
1976-77 season. By the end of the season, 59% of all tv viewers
were watching the show in its time slot. It stayed in the
Nielson ratings "Top Ten" for the first three seasons.
Two of Charlie's Angels posed in Playboy magazine. Tanya Roberts
in October of 1982 after the series was cancelled. Farrah
Fawcett posed in December of 1978 (not nude) and bared it all at
age 48 in December of 1995.
Originally, the show was to be about three female cops and would
be called "Alley Cats". Kate
Jackson suggested that
the women be detectives instead, that the name be changed to
"Harry's Angels", and that Harry should be a voice on
an intercom and never be seen. The producers used all of her
suggestions except they changed "Harry" to
"Charlie" because the tv show "Harry O" was
already using that name. Ironically, Jackson was ultimately
fired from the show for constantly complaining about how lousy
the scripts were.
Due to the popularity of Charlie's Angels, it was the first show
to break the $100,000 per minute barrier for advertising.
The episode "Street Models to
Hawaiian Angels" was later renamed
"Angel in Hiding" and
"To See An Angel Die" in
syndication.
Among the celebs who
guested on Charlie's Angels during its 1976-81 run on
ABC: Tommy Lee Jones, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sex and the City's
Kim Cattrall, Kim Basinger, Tom Selleck, Sammy Davis Jr.,
Dean Martin, Timothy Dalton and Robert "Freddy Krueger"
Englund.
Kate
Jackson, who had starred in another Spelling cop
drama, The Rookies, was the first Angel cast.
The original idea for the TV version, according to creator
Aaron Spelling, was a vehicle called The Alley Cats,
which was to feature three karate-chopping, leather-attired
female cops called Alley, Lee and Catherine. Al-Lee-Cat...get
it?
Unfortunately, ABC didn't get it. When
Spelling and his partner, Leonard Goldberg, pitched the idea
in a breakfast meeting with then ABC honchos Barry
Diller and Michael Eisner, Eisner remarked that it was "the
worst idea I've ever heard", while Diller echoed by
saying Spelling and Goldberg "should be ashamed."
Actor Robert Wagner would also call it the worst idea he'd
ever heard when it was later pitched to him. After a year with
a finished script in limbo, Spelling finally got the green
light to shoot a pilot from new ABC head Fred Silverman.
Farrah Fawcett, known at the time as Farrah Fawcett-Majors,
won her Angels role after playing a stewardess in
the Spelling-produced TV movie Murder on Flight 502.
That role was a favor to her then husband, Six Million
Dollar Man Lee Majors, a friend of Spelling.
The third Angel to pass the Spelling test: Jaclyn Smith, who, Spelling says, thought she had blown the
audition for the part of "sophisticated" Kelly, only
to return home and find an offer waiting for her.
After finally finishing production on the pilot, the
series was again rejected, this time by ABC's New York head,
Fred Pierce, who didn't like the concept of the Angels working
for a boss they knew only via telephone. So, on the spot,
Spelling devised the scenario that there would be a main
title that would feature Charlie saying: "Once upon a
time, there were three young ladies who graduated from the
police academy and were given outstanding jobs. One is a
traffic cop helping kids across the street. One is a girl
typing in the office and one is a meter maid. I took them away
from all that. Now they work for me. My name is Charlie."
Tinkering ensued, but the idea stuck, and the show was
greenlighted - again.
In 1988, the Fox network, then headed by Barry Diller
(who, remember, had originally nixed Angels) planned a
completely revamped version of the show called Angels '88.
The new series would feature four Angels, all former
actresses, who decide to open a detective agency after their
series-within-a-series gets the ax.
Jack Condon, memorabilia collector and
chronicler of all things Angel, tries to dispel the
"jiggle TV" rep in his comprehensive 2000 tome The
Charlie's Angels Casebook (Pomegranate Press). Condon
broke down all 109 episodes according to how many times the
girls were shown in skimpy attire. His findings: Only 32
episodes (29 percent) featured an Angel in a bikini, swimsuit
or towel.
 Most of the "jiggle TV" scenes fell to
Smith's Kelly and Ladd's Kris. During her entire three years
on the show, Kate
Jackson was not seen in a swimsuit.
In the year the show debuted, the famous
Farrah-in-red-swimsuit poster sold more than eight million
copies, obliterating the previous record (two million) for a
TV personality poster: Henry Winkler's Fonz.
Oscar winner Gig Young was hired to play the role (or rather,
the voice) of Charlie, but when it came time to record the part
for the pilot, the notorious alcoholic was too drunk to do his
job. So, with the pilot due the following Monday, Spelling
called friend John Forsythe at 11:30 on Friday night and asked
him to fill in. "I didn't even take off my pajamas. I just
put on my top coat and drove over," he recalls. "When
it was finished, Aaron said, 'That's perfect.' And I went home
and went back to bed".
Among the show's biggest fans? The British Royal
Family. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip were said to set
their schedules around the show, and Buckingham Palace reps even
secured a photo of the Angels for the Palace TV room. And though
the set was usually closed to press and outsiders, Prince
Charles made a visit in 1977.
Among the actresses who auditioned as replacement
Angels after Fawcett and Jackson left: Kim Basinger, Michelle
Pfeiffer, Kathie Lee Gifford, Catherine "Daisy Duke"
Bach and Shari Belafonte.
Kate Jackson was originally cast as Dustin Hoffman's
estranged wife in Kramer vs. Kramer but was forced to
turn down the movie when Angels producers wouldn't work
around the movie's production schedule. Meryl Streep, natch,
went on to win an Oscar for the role, and Jackson quit CA
immediately after the next season.
Kate Jackson was one of the few Angels who didn't
enjoy the perk of the show's glamorous wardrobe, provided by
designer Nolan Miller. "Kate was never interested in
fashion," says Miller. "One season, we bought 50 of
the same kind of turtleneck sweaters for her. And the one time I
did design a beautiful gown for her, she came on the set
wearing it with sneakers".
Angel Jill Munroe drove
a white Ford Cobra MKII.
Kate
Jackson and future angel Cheryl Ladd starred together in
another Aarron Spelling production. A movie called "Saten's
School for Girls".
The Angel's office telephone number was 555-0267.
Kate
Jackson (Sabrina) was the only Angel to be once married.
She was divorced however from Dr. Bill Duncan.
Bill Duncan was a cop with the LAPD. (see 1st season episode TARGET: ANGELS).
John Forsythe was asked to do the voice of Charlie after the
original actor was taken ill.
Veronica Hamel of "Hill Street Blues" fame almost
got the part of an "Angel" but Jaclyn Smith
got the
part instead.
David Boyle (Bosley) has directed over 60 plays.
Farrah
Fawcett was nomimated for an independent spirit award
for her role in "The Apostle" opposite Robert Duvall.
Farrah
Fawcett and her then long time boyfriend Ryan O'Neal starred together in a 1991 TV series "Good
Sports".
All three of the original Angels were born in the American
South - Farrah and Jaclyn are from Texas, Kate from Alabama.
All three had to unlearn their southern accents.
This may be old news, but the Angels never saw Charlie in the
entire series. They only spoke over the phone.
When Farrah left and Cheryl took over, Jaclyn
Smith, Kate
Jackson and
Cheryl Ladd became close friends while they shared
a trailer filming in Hawaii.
Cheryl Ladd was the first choice for the movie "The
Burning Bed" but she declined the role. The role was
taken by former angel Farrah
Fawcett.
Writer Del Reisman
(episode "Mother Goose is Running for His Life") once produced "The Twilight zone"
series.
Aaron Spelling produced a pilot episode for a new Angels
series, in 1988. It was called "Angels 88". But it
didn't sell.
Farrah Fawcett returned in a few episodes as part of a court
settlement with the producers.
David Doyle [Bosley] was nominated for a Golden Globe for best
supporting actor.
Writers
were encouraged to place scenes in the show in which the often
braless Angels were required to run, creating what critics
called "jiggle TV".
John Forsythe [Charlie] could do an entire season of
episodes in one recording session.
Action figures of the Angels still in their boxes are worth
over $600 on the collector's market.
David Doyle [Bosley] was Cheryl Ladd's best friend on the
show.
John Forsythe [Charlie] real name is John Lincoln Freund.
John Forsythe already had an impressive filmography before
becoming the voice of Charlie. He of course later went on to
star a Blake Carrington on Dynasty.
David Doyle co-starred with Rod Steiger in the tense movie
classic "No Way to Treat a Lady".
"Charlie's Angels" was originally conceived by
Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood.
|
