Angels in Chains

This is my favorite episode of Season 1. The title was so catchy, people were talking about it the next day in school when it originally aired in 1976. I looked forward to seeing this episode when it finally came out on DVD. The title probably caught many more peoples interest with an already hot show for its time. A simple plot but the story line and setting kept me interested. The acting was good and the supporting cast did a great job in their roles. The prison staff and correction officers were memorable characters. It was nice to see a young Kim Basinger as a fellow prisoner before she gained movie stardom. This episode really summarizes the entire series. I like how the Angels use simple techniques to solve the mystery and not the high tech stuff that makes some of today's shows hard to fathom.

Deliciously cheesy 1970s T&A television! Was shrieking with laughter during the gratuitous strip search / shower scene and the delousing spray treatment by prison guard "Maxine." And all the southern prison clichés were hauled out: corrupt southern sheriff, the leering, inbred-looking deputy, the Dukes of Hazard - like car chase, the work farm and the hints of cell block lesbianism. Better still, the production values: the cheap interior sets, and the California exteriors (the episode was set in fictitious Pine Parish, Louisiana, but the browned hills and dust betray the S. California back lot.) And then the cocktail dresses for the cat house. Great fun! A must see classic of 1970s television.

A once notorious episode from the hit TV show "Charlie's Angels". The angels (Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett) allow themselves to become prisoners in a ridiculously sadistic prison. There are strip searches, delousing, a lesbian guard, beatings, killings...the works. Sounds harrowing but it's impossible to take seriously. I actually laughed out loud when one of the angels sneers at the guard, "When was the last time you were sprayed?" In 1976 this was considered over the top and way too strong for TV. They got away with it because this show played at 10:00. Also the ratings for this episode went through the roof. Today you can see it complete and unedited during the afternoon on TV! Worth seeing once---for laughs.

I'm not quite sure that this episode lives up to its reputation, it's not exactly the greatest written episode. If you view as a take on the 70s women in prison films, then I suppose it's more enjoyable on that level, something to savor in a low brow way.

There's not much to say about the plot, other than the Angels are hired to go undercover at a prison to discover what happened to the missing sister of their client. But their cover is only known by one guard and he's quickly taken out of the picture, so suddenly the Angels have to deal with the fact that they're just like any other prisoner. That includes showering and being deloused in front of female guards who shamelessly leer at them, and then later on being forced into a high-class call girl ring run by the warden. Yeah, it's that kind of episode.

While the plot is rather farfetched, the cast is great. Love Boat's Lauren Tewes plays Christine Hunter, the woman who hires the Angels to find out what happened to her sister. She doesn't look anything like her Love Boat character.

David Huddleston plays greasy Sheriff Clint, a cigar chomping, corrupt lawman who we've seen a thousand times before in stories just like this one. He's of course best known for playing The Big Lebowski himself, you know, not the Dude.

Kim Basinger plays a woman named Linda Oliver, an inmate who's been forced into the call girl ring. She's young enough to have a little bit of baby fat, and it's pretty apparent she's an inexperience actress. This being 1976, it would take another 21 years for her to go on and win an Oscar in LA Confidential. Interestingly enough, at the episode's end she's hired by Charlie Townsend to be the receptionist at the agency. Of course we never see her again.

Other supporting cast of note; Anthony James as Karl Stern, another guard with bad intent. Because of his devilish face, James played a lot of bad guys throughout his career, I particularly remember him from a Buck Rogers episode where he played a mutant.

Mary Woronov plays Maxine, a lascivious guard, and perfectly cast I might add. She's perhaps best known for being part of Andy Warhol's entourage and starring in some of his underground films.

Angels in Chains is certainly worth watching, Anything with Farrah in it is worth checking out. But in my estimation there are far better episodes than than this one.

I'm surprised no one else has reviewed this, one of the most watched 1st season episodes of "Charlie's Angels" (Aaron Spelling was once quoted that he could keep re-running this show over and over and the ratings would never go down). Lauren Tewes (pre-"The Love Boat") hires the girls to locate her sister, who was railroaded into a prison work-farm by snarling baddies who operate a prostitution racket on the side. With a wonderfully cheesy supporting cast including Kim Basinger as an inmate (back in the day when she was a lip gloss model for magazines), lascivious Mary Woroonov as a warden named Maxine, and oily Anthony James as a guard, this one has great seedy flavor worthy of a theatrical feature, a tight direction, some tart, funny lines of dialog, and lots o' T&A.