The American Girls

I remember all the hype given the show. Okay - if you don't want to call it a "Charlie's Angels ripoff," you must at least acknowledge that the show would not have been greenlighted were it not for "Jiggle TV." I remember seeing the promo ad in TV Guide (is that even sold anymore?), with the main characters posed to look vibrant, girly-sexy and "commercial." Well - I'm GAY so of course I was into the whole "glamour-girls-on-an-adventure" show.

Well, the show may have been better-written, better-plotted than "Charlie's Angels," but it was nowhere as much fun.

That's why these "American Girls" are but a forgotten footnote in the history of 80s TV.

Well, they were NOT a "Charlie's Angels" ripoff. There were "girl group" adventures in TV much earlier than "Charlie's Angels" was even imagined. Even before TV, there were such adventures in literary form. And for the times they were aired in, they deserve at least twice the e ranking of "C. Angels". They had a PLOT for every episode, what the so watched"Angels" had not, not even in their most recent movie version. A plot must have a beginning, middle and end, something "Angels'" writers very often neglected. Plus, the stories might not be great, but there was storytelling skill there - what one might not find in 49 out of fifty "Angels" stories. The actresses also could give a basic performance - While the "Angels" just walked the catwalk.

This show came out at the height of the popularity of Charlie's Angels and will always be remembered as nothing but a cheap imitation. The only difference was that there were only two girls on this show as opposed to three. Also, the acting from the two leads had nowhere near the chemistry that the Angels had. I just bet that Priscilla Barnes doesn't put this show on her resume, unlike the show that helped make her famous, "Three's Company".

The thing that amazes me most about reviews for old shows like this (especially one said to be a "rip-off" of Charlie's Angels)is that anybody even remembers this stuff at all. I can honestly say that in Winnipeg where I live, there have been very little instances of the 70's sitcoms and hour-length stuff ever being shown on our airwaves. I see so much airspace devoted to reality shows, and stuff I can't even begin to relate to, and every once in a while a sort of trashy biography show about the actors from an old TV show I haven't seen for years like Three's Company, Family Ties, or Diff'rent Strokes. Capitalism just bewilders me. Some of the TV from the past, regardless of a critical point of view, defined an aesthetic of a certain place in time. I would have much preferred to have access to shows like The Incredible Hulk, 6 Mill. Dollar Man/Bionic Woman, Mork and Mindy, Muppet Show, Fantasy Island, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley throughout my youth, but they were all taken out of reruns in the early 80's. Along with a lot of other 70's style TV trends, this stuff just disappeared when 80's pastels and fluorescent post-new wave fashion sense removed all traces of the older look and feel from our lives. I don't expect TV stations to buck the trends in audience tastes and such, but I think if the world was more receptive to the tastes of even the minority, perhaps there could have been some sort of outlet similar to a library where people could still access these older shows before they were reduced to faded memories. Because to me, that world, from the late 70's, the way people looked, acted and dressed, was the real world to me then. I've sort of spent my whole life (I'm 31 now) searching for peace of mind, and happiness, and I'm always left wondering why people in our culture are so restless, so willing to accept change. I admit that it's sort of lame to pine over largely manufactured culture, but I see revivals all over of things from the past all the time. It just seems like no one ever wants to bring back 70's TV up here. I sometimes think that it is my life that is meaningless, cause I was born in a largely forgettable era, apparently. Like I realize the fashion sense of entertainers gets outdated rather quickly, and can even be awkward for some people to watch. But the message, the spirit of the writers and actors doesn't deserve to be locked away for decades so no one can see it. No wonder it looks so strange to us to see it after so many years. We have had no access to it since! I mean, if I had TV from all eras, from all places over the globe, I would be less shallow, more accepting of humanity in all it's different appearances, and perhaps more willing and able to get the underlying message in each TV program. To what the writers and actors are trying to convey. Instead I find myself at age 31 feeling like an outcast, an alien, because everything in pop culture keeps updating itself to something different, and I'm pretty much the same person I was before, and moving backwards, if anything. HELP

They filmed some of this show in Phoenix which was, at that time, a right to work state.I guess it was cheaper to film there than in Hollywood. The show was not great, but not terrible either. Co-stars like William Prince added a touch of class to the proceedings,directors like Lee Philips did a good job,and the two stars, if not up to Helen Hayes in acting talent, had great looks and were very charming. I think the whole series only ran six months at the most, but it was fun while it lasted.

Would love to find video copies as I appeared, (in a minuscule part!),in one of the episodes. Unhappily, this was a couple of years before the advent of the VCR so, as far as I know, no copies are available.