Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Charlie's Angels'

A very entertaining and well-done portrayal of life behind the scenes of the original Charlies Angels. All the angels did a fantastic job, especially the actress who portrayed Kate Jackson. At times it really seemed like the Farrah Fawcett story. Loved the little details, such as Ricardo Montalbon at Spellings party. Interestingly enough, Jackson left the show a few years later when producers refused to let her take the female lead in "Kramer Vs. Kramer", which led to an Oscar for the then unknown Meryl Streep. But supposedly Jackson went on to become the highest paid woman in television for "Scarecrow and Mrs. King". All and all not bad for fluff.

Another recent trend in Hollywood is filming "untold" or "behind the scenes" TV films about previously broadcast TV series...a continuation of the cannibal-like cycle of television programming. Previous TV shows that got this treatment include "Gilligan's Island", "The Partridge Family" and "Three's Company". They're like "E! True Hollywood Stories" with doppelganger actors playing out all the juicy tidbits instead of relying on interviews or footage. This time, "Charlie's Angels" is the subject and, all in all, it isn't too bad. The makers of this flick have gathered 3 ladies who truly do look and sound like the ones they are portraying. That goes a long way in putting the project over. Helfer as Farrah Fawcett-Majors has the hair down pat and shares the wall-to-wall smile, tan and bone structure. The only big difference is that she isn't quite as ditsy-acting as the real lady was. Stamile as Kate Jackson does a tremendous job with the voice. It had to have taken work and she nails it. Chambers as Jaclyn Smith is startlingly right-on in both looks and mannerisms...even her posture and stride. They all are so good at inhabiting the original trio that it does give one that sense of being "Behind the Cameras". The film has ample humor in it as well, with intentionally hammy portrayals of Aaron Spelling, Jay Bernstein and Fred Silverman. There is also a running gag of show ideas that keep getting turned down even though later they were unbelievable successes. If one has seen any documentary on the series or biographies of the stars, there isn't much new here. Still, it's a fairly captivating two hours for those who enjoy '70's nostalgia, '70's clothing or the series itself. One drawback is the lunk-headed, humorless, one-sided portrayal of Lee Majors. It's true that he had some Cro-Magnon views on marriage, but this teleplay makes it impossible to understand why Farrah would have married him in the first place.

This is what you expect, watching one of these shows. Unauthorized, willing to shatter the phoniness surrounding the public facade:

The show was torn apart by feminists for its sexism. Nobody fell for the female empowerment claim.

It was a jiggle show, first, last, and always. The ladies were always in bikinis, tight or see through clothes, wet clothes, eye candy.

And the ladies were pushed into this against their will. Smith was morally conservative. Jackson refused to go braless and happy to quit. Fawcett hated her sex symbol image and how it affected her marriage.

There are some slow parts to the film. It's padded. The 90 minutes would have been far better at 60.

Enjoyable, once, most likely very close to the actual goings-on in the TV business. Only the gal that played Kate Jackson is a poor look-a-like for the super good looking real Ms. Jackson. Her acting was OK as was most others in the film.

The use of sub-titles to introduce each new character is very good as it helps to keep track of the many TV executives who have large but necessary parts. Music of the 70's running in background is a nice touch and not overdone.

Again, it is worth a early evening viewing but only once: don't bother to tape it.

I believe that movies like this will definitely educate members of our generation about all those famous TV shows that now airs on cable, that people have not much idea over. Well one such programme is Charlie's Angels- though also having been made into 2 big screen movies, in 2000 and 2003, people know of it, but may be do not know about it.

Well this movie filled in all those gaps- about why Farrah left the show etc. Though this movie had information- it was badly given- well it is obvious that they just wanted the actresses portraying Farrah, Jaclyn and Kate to look like them- but that was it- they just had the looks- as for acting- it was definitely disappointing. However I must admit that the Farrah look-alike was supposed to be bigger chested. Not forgetting the fact that this movie gave room for certain scenes to make Aaron Spelling look like a schizophrenic.

I also noticed some trivia- the guy playing Jay Bernstein- Wallace Langham- played thie same role in the 'behind the camera: the unauthorized story of Three's Company' where he played Suzanne Sommer's agent. Something else which I noticed was when Aaron Spelling tells his kid daughter Tori that he is one day gonna have a TV show just for her - which actually happened- with the huge success of Beverly Hills 90210.