It was 50 years ago today that, on September 22, 1976, that Charlie's Angels debuted on ABC. The show would prove to be an immediate hit, ranking no. 5 during its first season and continued to do well for its next few seasons. While ratings for Charlie's Angels would eventually falter and it would be cancelled after five seasons, it would not only prove to be a success in syndication, but would lead to feature films and even reboot series.
Charlie's Angels centred on three female private investigators who work for the Charles Townsend Agency. The original Angels were Sabrina Duncan (Kate Jackson), who was the level headed brains of the three women, Jill Monroe (Farrah Fawcett), the action-seeking athlete of the group, and Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith), the cool, calm glamour girl of the group. Assisting the Angels was Charles Townsend Agency employee John Bosley (David Doyle). As to Charlie (the voice of John Forsythe), the Angels had never met him in person nor would they ever meet him in person. He gave the Angels their assignments via speaker phone. Charlie had many enemies, so he never met the Angels face to face in order to protect them. While the Angels had never met Charlie, Bosley had. In the initial concept, the Angels were all graduates of the Police Academy who found themselves unhappy in their work after being given menial assignments. This would be changed for the final season.
Charlie's Angels was created by writers Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, who had written the classic movie White Heat (1949) and for such shows as Burke's Law, Ironside, and Mannix. Due to the success of Police Woman starring Angie Dickinson, Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts developed an idea for a TV show titled The Alley Cats, which would centre on three beautiful female private eyes. It was early in the pre-production of the series that producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg brought Kate Jackson, who had earlier appeared in their series The Rookies, onto the project. Kate Jackson was initially cast as Kelly Garrett, but found himself more drawn to the role of Sabrina Duncan. She then asked for her role to be switched. She also disliked the title The Alley Cats and requested that the title be changed. Kate Jackson partially came up with the new title after seeing a picture of angels in Aaron Spelling's office. She then suggested the three women could be called "Angels." The series would then be called Harry's Angels, with the Angel's boss being named "Harry." ABC objected to the title, worrying it could be confused with the show Harry O starring David Janssen. What had started out as The Alley Cats and was then named Harry's Angels was renamed Charlie's Angels.
Farrah Fawcett was the second Angel to be cast. At the time, she was married to Lee Majors and so she was billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors. Aaron Spelling had seen her in the movie Logan's Run (1976) and offered her the part of Jill Monroe. Auditions were held for the role of Kelly Garrett. Initially Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg had wanted the women to be a brunette, a blonde, and a redhead, but the role ultimately went to brunette Jaclyn Smith because of how she interacted with Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.
Initially, Charlie would have been a millionaire who assisted the Angels in the field. It was Kate Jackson and Aaron Spelling who decided that Charles Townsend should be more of a mystery. While Charlie remained a millionaire, he communicated with the Angels only by speaker phone. Gig Young was originally cast as Charlie, but showed up so drunk he could not even read his line. In a panic as to what to do, Aaron Spelling made an emergency call to his friend John Forsythe, who was already in bed. John Forsythe rushed to 20th Century Fox wearing only his topcoat and pyjamas and read the lines. John Forsythe then became Charles Townsend.
Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg cast David Doyle as John Bosley. ABC was concerned that audiences would not accept three women fighting crime more or less on their own, so for the pilot David Ogden Stiers was cast as Scott Woodville, who was Charlie's second in command and hence both the Angels and Bosley's superior. As it turned out, the character of Scott Woodville was not well-received by audiences. Aaron Spelling, who felt having both Woodville and Bosley was redundant, used this as leverage to persuade network executives that the character should be cut from the show.. Bosley would then remain the Angel's only liaison with Charlie.
Charlie's Angels proved to be a hit in the ratings, and ultimately ranked no. 5 for the year in the Nielsen ratings for the 1976-1977 season. While television viewers loved Charlie's Angels, many critics dismissed the show as fluff, lacking any substance at all. Worse yet, many critics labelled "Jiggle television" or "T&A Television," the term "Jiggle television" having been coined by NBC executive Paul Klein as a criticism of ABC under Fred Silverman's leadership. Other shows labelled "jiggle television" while Fred Silverman was president of ABC Entertainment were Three's Company and Wonder Woman.
Although Charlie's Angels was labelled "jiggle TV" and developed a reputation for putting its actresses in skimpy costumes, none of this was actually warranted. The vast majority of time the Angels wore what could be described smart streetwear: blazers, button-down blouses, turtlenecks, and the like. The only time that any of the Angels might appear in skimpy clothing was only under very circumstances, such as at a pool party or in a beauty pageant. Indeed, it was in Kate Jackson's contract that she would never appear in a bikini.
The success of Charlie's Angels resulted in a proposed spinoff series. The fourth season episode "Toni's Boys" was a backdoor pilot for show to be called Toni's Boys. It would have essentially been Charlie's Angels with the genders reversed. Toni Blake, played by the legendary Barbara Stanwyck, had her own detective agency in which she employed three handsome young men as her operatives. Unlike Charlie, who always remained hidden from the Angels, Toni ran her agency in person. Ultimately, ABC did not pick Toni's Boys up as a series.
During its run, Charlie's Angels would go through several cast changes. The first and most famous would be when Farrah Fawcett left the show after its first season. Farrah Fawcett left the show for multiple reasons, including the desire to pursue a movie career as well as the intense production schedule of a weekly television series. She had no formal long-term contract, so this would result in a protracted legal battle with ABC.Ultimately, Farrah Fawcett agreed to return for six guest appearances. On the show, it was explained that Jill Monroe had left the Charles Townsend Agency to become a race car driver.
Farrah Fawcett's departure necessitated the search for a new Angel. Eventually Cheryl Ladd had been the singing voice of Melody on the animated series Josie and the Pussycats and had made guest appearances on such shows as The Partridge Family and The Rookies. She was cast as Kris Munroe, Jill Munroe's sister. Cheryl Ladd would remain with the show for the rest of its run.
As Charlie's Angels continued, Kate Jackson became disenchanted with the show. She felt the script quality had declined dramatically from what it was in the first season. During the third season, she was offered the role of Joanna Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) , but the production schedule of Charlie's Angels forced her to turn the role down. Ultimately, Kate Jackson asked to be released from her contract.
Several actresses would be considered as Kate Jackson's replacement. Among them were Barbara Bach, Connie Sellecca, Shari Belafonte, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Ultimately, Shelly Hack was cast as Tiffany Welles. At the time, she was best known as the face of Revlon's Charlie perfume. Unfortunately, Shelley Hack was not well received. Critics attacked her acting ability. Audiences did not warm to her either. Charlie's Angels ranked no. 10 for the year in its third season. With its fourth season, it dropped to no. 20. Ultimately, Shelley Hack would be fired from Charlie's Angels.
As Shelley Hack's successor, supposedly 2000 actress applied to be the new Angel. Among those who tried for the role were Jayne Kennedy and Susie Coelho. Ultimately the role went to Tanya Roberts, who had appeared in such movies as The Yum-Yum Girls (1976) and Tourist Trap (1979) and had guest starred on the show Vega$. Tanya Roberts's character Julie Rogers was a sharp break from earlier Angels. While previous Angels had all been graduates of police academy, Julie was a model who had a rough background including a six month stint in the Sybil Brand Correctional Facility.
While Tanya Roberts appeared to be better received by audiences than Shelly Hack had been, ratings for Charlie's Angels would plummet in its fifth season. Having aired on Wednesday night for its entire run, ABC moved Charlie's Angels to Sunday night where it faced the high-rate Archie Bunker's Place and One Day at a Time on CBS and the high rated CHiPs on NBC. ABC would move Charlie's Angels back to Wednesday at mid-season, but it was too little too late. For the first time ever, Charlie's Angels did not rank in the top thirty for the season in the Nielsen ratings. In the end, Charlie's Angels was cancelled after five seasons.
This would hardly be the end of Charlie's Angels. It proved to have a successful run as a syndicated rerun. It would air on such cable channels as TNT, TV Land, and Cloo, and on such digital broadcast networks as MeTV, Cozi TV, and get TV. It is currently available on several streaming services, including Crackle, Plex, Prime Video, The Roku Channel, and Tubi.
Charlie's Angels would also become a franchise years after the show had been cancelled. The movies Charlie's Angels (2000) and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) could very nearly be considered sequels to the original series, with John Forsythe returning as Charlie. A reboot of the original show aired on ABC during the 2011-2012 season, but was cancelled after only seven episodes. Yer another film, this one again titled Charlie's Angels, was released in 2019.
During its original run, Charlie's Angels was dismissed as fluff and worse yet as "Jiggle TV." From today's perspective, it seems that critics were not giving the show enough credit. True, Charlie's Angels was not Playhouse 90, but it was not necessarily a bad show either. Shelley Hack may have said it best in an article in People after she had been cast on the show, "Of course it's fluff, but high-grade fluff. You don't compare Agatha Christie to Tolstoy."
What is more, it was high-grade fluff with an important subtext. Before Charlie's Angels, there were only a few action-adventure shows with female leads. In the Sixties, there were The Avengers, Honey West, and The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. In the Seventies, there were Police Woman and Wonder Woman. And on most of these shows, the female leads were assisted by a male character. The Angels were intelligent, independent, and competent women who fought crime on their own (Bosley really wasn't that much help). Girls and yong women at a time when women only recently had gotten the right to have their own credit card could look to the Angels and realize that they were not limited to the traditionally female occupations of the era. Charlie's Angels may have been an escapist show, but it was one with an important underlying message.
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