Charlie's Angels

June 2023

So i am reviewing the original Charlies Angels series which ran for 5 seasons back in the late seventies. I have gone through them all 2 or 3 times now, having just watched them all on blu ray recently.

I used to watch them growing up as i about 10 years old when they originally ran.

I think they hold up pretty well, the mysterious Charlie who we and the Angels never ever see, always added a humorous and mysterious element.

There were plenty of famous faces to be seen throughout the episodes and some of those turned up multiple times playing different characters.

I still prefer these to any of the remakes and movies there have been since.

So all in all not bad.

7 angels out of 10.

I loved Charlies Angels very much. Okay, I could ignore the cheezy plots because in front of me each week were three beautiful young ladies working as private detectives.

The original girls were Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Jill Monroe, Kate Jackson as Sabrina Duncan and Jaclyn Smith as Kelly Garrett. They were my favourite line up in the show. Their bosses were John Bosley (played by the late David Doyle) and the faceless Charlie Townsend (voiced by John Forsythe).

Each week the girls happened to go undercover on a case which required them to strip down in places such as health-spas and holiday camps. They used their seductive (and detective) skills to bring down the bad guys.

It was fun throughout even when the line-up changed and there were some really weird and surreal episodes at times. But who cares-when you've got three lovely women on the screen, great plots matter little.

I have seen complaints about the original Charlie's Angels series and how having beautiful stars in it negated any feminist notions about the series. I would like to disagree.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were few enough female 'action' stars on television to be role models for young girls. The various women in 'Charlie's Angels' were (according to the OP) police officers before Charlie hired them -- and as female police officers, they were given stupid 'girl' jobs like handing out parking tickets, and handling switchboards, and so on. Charlie gave them jobs in which they could actually fight crime -- and they did fight crime, together. If one of them needed rescue, it wasn't a man that came to rescue her, but one of the other two 'angels'. They were independent, intelligent, single, employed women who worked well together and supported one another.

The show is dated now, given how strong feminism has become since then. Back then, however, it was more than enough for at least one little girl to see that she didn't have to grow up and get married and have babies to be happy in life. Charlie's Angels -- the original show, not the fluffy movies (which are fun in their own way) -- remains to this day in my opinion an excellent example of how women should look at life: it's a challenge; meet it head on, and on your own terms.

The fact that the women were all beautiful is irrelevant to the show except that it attracted a male audience.

When this show first came on, it was dismissed as nothing more than a jiggle show. However, this was one of the first shows that showed that women could go out and get the bad guys just like the boys could. Of course, I was a fan of the Kate Jackson era. The three years she was on the show were its greatest era. She definitely was the star of that show and when she left I stopped watching. But, it was her chemistry with Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd and of course Farrah Fawcett that made it one of the top shows of the 1970's.

And God awful after Kate Jackson's departure. That is because, in the beginning, you had 3 young women who complimented each other: Sabrina was the brains and the elegance, Jill, the modern, athletic, all-American beauty and Kelly, the street wise beauty with a troubled past.

No better is this dynamic exemplified than in the classic "Angels in Chains Episode". While in prison, Kelly clashes with the guards. Sabrina orchestrates the escape while in the sheriff's car and then comes up with thee idea of the gasoline to throw the dogs off their scent. Finally while the Angels are being chased in the pick-up, Jill climbs her way to the back to throw the bushels of potatoes at the sheriff's car while Kelly exclaims "sometimes I worry about her!".

Sadly, once FFM left, the group not only lost its most charismatic member, but, more importantly, it lost the only real athlete of the group. Cheryl Ladd was a capable actress, but was obviously brought aboard for her physique and blond hair. Watching her run was just too painfully funny. No longer would the Angels have that someone believable capable of playing tennis, performing roller derby, riding a skateboard and hanging out the side of pickup truck.

While the show lost it's edge after the departure of the inimitable FFM, it still managed to be watchable for the next 3 seasons until Sabrina's departure. Kate Jackson always lent an air of believability to the silly goings on. When she left, the Angels lost their de facto leader. They needed to replace her with a decent actress who could play the role of the sophisticated, wise Angel. Instead, we were given the mindless Shelly Hack. I stop watching pretty much after a few episodes of that 4th season, so I couldn't even tell you anything about Tanya Roberts tenure.