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Charlie's Angels [8.1]

Charlie's Angels Plot Summary

Once upon a time, there were three little girls who went to the police academy. And they were each assigned very hazardous duties but I took them all away from all that and now they work for me. My name is Charlie.

Those famous words were heard every week from 1976 to 1981 during Charlie's Angels 5 year run.

This ABC crime series began in September of 1976 introducing three stunning, sexy and young former policewoman, private detectives working for the Charles Townsend Detective Agency. The wealthy Charlie Townsend, voiced by John Forsythe, was their never-seen boss, who relayed assignments via a speaker telephone. The trio of Angels featured Sabrina Duncan; (Kate Jackson) the "cool, smart, multilingual leader," Jill Munroe; (Farrah Fawcett-Majors) the "athletic angel" and finally Kelly Garrett; (Jaclyn Smith) the "street wise angel." The Angels worked with their trusty male counter-part, John Bosley played by (David Doyle).

Charlie's Angels was a huge success the moment it hit the airwaves in 1976. The Angels were on gum cards, doll boxes, T-shirts, board games, puzzles and posters. They also graced the covers of Time magazine on November 22, 1976 and TV Guide on September 25, 1976. Charlie's Angels has appeared on TV Guide Cover four times, Sept, 25, 1976; Jaclyn, Farrah and Kate, February 18, 1978; Jaclyn, Kate and Cheryl, December 29, 1979; Jaclyn, Cheryl and Shelley and the last on December 18, 1993; Kate, Farrah and Jaclyn.

Being #1 was nothing for the Angels, but it was Farrah Fawcett-Majors who soared. Farrah quickly became the object fad due to her flowing blond hair and publicity photos including her now-famous red swimsuit pose.

Farrah wasn't happy with the direction her character was going so she decided to leave the series at the end of the 1976-1977 season intending to have a career in feature films. With another year on her contract, the producers, Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, took Farrah to court for breaking her five-year series contract.

The 1977-1978 season began with the search for a new Angel. Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg had asked actress Cheryl Ladd to replace the departing Farrah Fawcett-Majors. Cheryl initially said no to the idea. A couple months later, Cheryl was asked once again and eventually agreed after some minor adjustments were made to the character. Cheryl would portryaed Kris Munroe, the rookie sister of Jill, who would make mistakes but eventually triumph in the end. Along with a new Angel, the show received a new time slot. The Angels remained on Wednesday nights, but moved from 10pm to 9pm. This change in time opened up a whole world of new viewers who wanted to know what the big fuss was all about and kept the "Angels" right where they belong - on top of the ratings! The 1977-1978 season ended with high ratings, proving that Kris was every bit as popular with the viewers as Farrah. In the spring of 1978, Farrah settled her dispute with Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg by agreeing to appear in six more episodes. Three during the 1978-1979 season and three during the 1979-1980 season. Fans were excited by Farrah's return, but so was the media, which anxiously reported rumors that the set was full of tension.

However, the biggest bombshell landed when Kate Jackson announced she was leaving Charlie's Angels at the end of the season. With the 1978-1979 season in a bit of turmoil, the Angels kept their heavenly faces on 100's of magazines. The biggest question on everyone's mind was: "Who was going to be replacing Kate Jackson?" The race to find Charlie's Newest Angel had begun!

In the 1979-1980 season, the answer came with Shelley Hack, a model who had been prominent in Revlon's "Charlie" Perfume ads and commercials. Shelley entered The Townsend Office as Tiffany Welles, the sophisticated Ivy League scholar who graduated from the Boston Police Academy. Spelling and Goldberg had the idea that with this new Angel/model at the helm, she could bring an elegant and touch to Charlie's trio!

The writers treaded lightly as they tried to figure out how to make Tiffany Welles, the new 'Sabrina Duncan'. The 4th season's problem was the sudden decline in ratings. The series found itself in the top 20's instead of the top 10 were it had been for the last three years. The ratings drop was directed at the new Angel and at the end of the season, Shelley was let go.

By 1980, Charlie's Angels was beginning to feel its age and was declining fast. Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg wanted to go with a fresh new image. After careful consideration, they decided to hire virtually unknown actress, Tanya Roberts. This time around, the character would be a model-turned-detective, street-smart Julie Rogers. The new Angel showed her face in the three-hour 1980-1981 season premiere on November 30, 1980. High hopes were placed on Charlie's newest Angel to pull the series out its failing ratings. To help give it an added boost, the Angels were sent to Hawaii for the first six episodes. Hawaii wasn't only chosen to intrigue the audience but to keep the Angels scantily clad in swimsuits! Unfortunately, at this point, the audience was no longer keeping up with the Angels antics. In February 1981, the show went on hiatus and wasn't shown again until June of 1981.

Charlie's Angels was not winning any viewers in the summer of '81 with it's remaining episodes. The show that had made women crime fighters popular during the 1970's was cancelled.

Charlie's Angels became a popular part of our pop culture, mainly due to the fact that it was mostly about women fighting crime in a man's world. This show even inspired the popular 1980's drama, Cagney & Lacey.

In 1988, Aaron Spelling produced a pilot for an updated version of the seried for the Fox network. This series was different in having four angels who were ex-actresses who started their own detective agency. The show never made it on the air.

On February 12, 1996, Baywatch, had an episode called Baywatch Angels, where Logan is terrorized by a mad man named Ripley. Caroline has a dream that Charlie's Angels arrive at Baywatch to help him. In her dream, Caroline (



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