Of Ghosts and Angels

I used to watch Charlie's Angels as a lad, and this is one episode that's always stayed with me (I was heavily into ghosts/the unexplained at the time!). It plays out like a gothic romance: new bride taken to her husband's family mansion; stormy nights, complete with windows blowing open with a crash; secret doors and candle-lit explorations of cobwebbed passageways. And - of course - a ghost! The Angels all look gorgeous as ever - especially at the costume ball (it was this episode where I finally fell for Shelley Hack, up till then I'd found her pretty uninteresting)! Nice to see Paul Burke as the new husband (plus one of Frank Christi's last appearances - he went down in a hail of bullets a couple of years later, courtesy of a jealous husband). Great, innocent, 70s TV fun + nostalgia gets this an 8/10

As the title indicates, this is a ghost story, but not one where the ghost turns out to really be a human using gadgets to pretend to be a ghost. No, this has a real, "live" ghost in it, which is what makes this story so ridiculous. Add to all that, Tiffany is has psychic powers, able to see the future (at least in this one episode) in full color detail. If you are one of those that believe in the 4 Gs (ghosts, goblins, gargles, gods) this show will thrill you since it proves beyond a shadow of doubt that these things really exist, but if you are a reasonable thinking person, give it a pass. Oh, just one thing, it DOES have Cheryl Ladd and jacklyn Smith in some rather sexy costumes. That's the reason I gave it a second star.

I enjoyed this episode a lot more than I had any right to. The premise is a tad silly, with ghosts being part of the storyline. Charlie's Angels had on occasion drifted into the occult, season 1's The Seance, season 2's Haunted Angels, and season 3's Unidentified Flying Angels. Two of those episodes involve conmen scamming people out of their money, while alternately Haunted Angels featured a character with legitimate psychic ability. In this episode The ghosts are for real and Tiffany Welles acknowledges that from the beginning, first dreaming a premonition, and then later feeling the presence of a ghost.

The plot has Tiffany visiting a friend of hers who is now married to an older man (second marriage) and they live in this creepy house where there are some strange occurrences. Paul Burke plays Clifford Burke, and Robin Matson plays his young wife Erica. Matson is known for a lengthy run on the daytime soaps All My children & General Hospital.

We find out that Cliff Burke's previous wife died mysteriously, and Tiffany is concerned for her friend's safety. The episode is full of clichés and tropes but it doesn't bother me much. There's a Halloween-type costume party in which the Angels dress up, and who wouldn't want to see Kris Munroe in a sexy pirate costume?

This is an strong episode for Shelley Hack as Tiffany, and she appears to have a psychic ability that was not mentioned previously, and I don't think it's mentioned ever again. But she's very proactive throughout the course of events and that's why she stands out in this episode.

There's a plot hole or two, particularly when the car tries to run over Robin Matson, but that's overshadowed by secret passages, well-timed thunder, and windows that fly open whenever a jump scare is needed. As long as you disregard a few nits here and there, it's a strangely fun episode that I wouldn't mind watching again.

This was one of the better episodes during Shelley Jack's tenure. A fun ghost story although it got a little ridiculous by the end. I remember seeing this one as a kid and getting a big kick out of it. There's no innocent fun TV anymore.

This one is just bizarre.

The beginning of the end for Charlie's Angels really.

Ratings were already going down, I believe, and then they come up with this - ghosts and the supernatural introduced, about as far removed from the original gritty angels as you can get. Struggling to define Shelley Hack's Tiffany's personality, the writers now suddenly give her a background as a psychic with special powers, who organized seances at high school, was 'very big into the occult', and worked for a ghost hunter.

And then at the end of the episode, in the Townshend office, when Bosley expresses cynicism towards the existence of ghosts his desk rises and shakes - so ghosts do exist in the world of Charlie Angels, and we're moving into The Exorcist/ horror genre here, rather than three female detectives chasing criminals in downtown LA.

This episode concentrates on Tiffany (Shelley Hack), with Kris (Cheryl Ladd) and Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) on the periphery, and, as attractive as she is, it exposes Shelley Hack's lack of acting skills.

At this point Charlie's Angels is now badly missing Kate Jackson, who, if she watched it at the time, would have been on no doubt that she made the right decision by leaving when she did.