Charlie’s Angels, from the beginning

Bloody Mary, the villainess, has a boyfriend?!

One thing that always puzzled me. If the Angels pose as different people for each case, why do they always use their real names? Wouldn’t it make sense to use aliases?

“Angels in Chains” today at 5. I can’t wait!

Let me know when the one where the Disco Instructor is the bad guy, they pose as dorks who can't dance to get the near the guy, and they end up nailing guy a la bowling a strike as the guy goes flying down a bowling alley.

Yesterday Richard Mulligan guest-starred as an evil fashion designer. It was the episode where Jaclyn posed in the white bikini.

Pleaae list more ridiculous job titles of the villains.....

Farrah is the angel that throws the strike.

Look for “Consenting Adults” when Farrah jettisons through Griffith Park in a most exciting skateboard getaway!

Who saw the delousing?!

Coke hound Lauren Tewes!

Still can't believe that in that first episode when Jaclyn gets out of the pool in the white bikini one can clearly see through it. And trust me, when she walks toward the camera there is no QUESTION it was the 70s!

It wasn’t until I started rewatching these early episodes that I noticed that Jaclyn Smith had a gap between her front teeth. Did she get it fixed or did I just never notice it?

OMG! They edited out the delousing scene!

Goodness, Kim Basinger is wearing a lot of makeup to be doing prison labor.

I’m loving how Louisiana looks remarkably like Southern California.

[quote] And trust me, when she walks toward the camera there is no QUESTION it was the 70s!

Full bush?

I can’t take the early episodes seriously. The show didn’t come alive until Shelley Hack came onboard.

Once Farrah's gone, I'm out. Rethuglican Ladd is too much cunt for me!

Love me some Cheryl Ladd!

R18 = Donald Trump.

R19=asshole of misery.

I’m really loving Kate Jackson so much as I’m rewatching these episodes. She was delightful.

LOL, R7, that skateboarding scene was classic 1970s cheese! I remember they sped up the film to make it look like Farrah (or more likely a stunt double) was going faster.

Jaclyn dumped Tom Selleck today.

R17 = Samantha Bee

21 scintillating behind-the-scenes photos from Charlie's Angels in the 1970s:

R25's link mentions the attempt at a gender reversed version of the show, 'Toni's Boys' with Barbara Stanwyck as the 'Charlie' to three young men. I believe this was the show where Stanwyck said her famouse line, 'I'm a bitch in the boardroom, a bore in the bedroom and a bear on the toilet!'

R24 You wish, Trumpette!

Ladd;s a Rethug and a holy roller. She used to appear on Pat Robertson's show.

I always wanted the Angels to team up with Starsky and Hutch in a crossover episode.

In R25 link poor Hack had it going against her from the unfortunate first press photo. Crows feet, not a good shot of her teeth, veiny hands, and a bandage around her toe. Not good for a show that emphasizes sexy appeal and glamour.

Let me know when they get to the Ice Capades episode.

I always thought you could argue that Ladd was at least a close second in terms of looks, but recently I caught her on a rerun of Tattletales which was a couple of years before the show. Her hair was shorter and an ash blonde and she wasn’t tan, and she was definitely nice looking but kind of mousy looking - far from beautiful.

So I don’t know.

Jaclyn was beautiful but she was quite a bad actor compared to Kate and Farrah.

Kelly gets shot in the head tomorrow!

The car racing episode includes a cameo by Oscar nominee Anne Ramsay

Cheryl was sexy (I.e. nice titties) but I wouldn’t call her beautiful like Jaclyn, Shelley and Tanya.

Anne Ramsay? I thought she played Helen Hunt's sister on "Mad About You"?

The Throw Mama From the Train chick. Not the actress from MAD AVOUT YOU

Ah, okay. Thanks, R37.

I was obsessed with this show during it's first season. I continued to watch the entire run after Farrah left but that first season still gives me life to this day. I've loved Kate Jackson since The Rookies and Farrah was certainly a striking beauty that you couldn't help but notice during the Charlie's Angels 90 minute TV movie pilot and first season but Jaclyn Smith has ALWAYS been my favorite angel. There was just something unique and very cool about her beauty and the way she played her character. Granted, I thought Jaclyn's acting got much better during the run of the show and when she started making quite the entertaining TV movies and mini-series but I was so in awe of her as Kelly Garrett. I was also touched to know that the original angels were real-life friends post angels and up to Farrah's death.

The whispery mid-Atlantic accent didn't hurt either. Farrah used one as well. The combination of it with the girls' Texas twangs was really quite fetching.

Perfect for pah-ties.

R40 I actually really liked her in that Jackie Kennedy TV movie from the early 80s.

Bump!

Hair bump!

This is probably sacrilegious but I hated both the overrated Farrah and turtle neck queen Kate. Kate became such a boring sourpuss. Much preferred the fun Tanya and sophisticated Shelley.

I watched a few of the Shelly Hack episodes when they were rerun on afternoons where I live.

She actually wasn’t bad at all - but I think by that stage they’d seen ratings and audience opinions and were kind of marginalising her and squeezing her out - instead of trying to build her up and get some audience sympathy and relatability going. She was given hardly anything to do - and every line and action she got was generic. Yet she seemed pretty charming and capable with what she did get. Seems a real waste. But I guess by then - like most series that are more than a couple of seasons old - it was starting its decline and just a scheduling fixture based on its former glory days and popularity.

R45, everything you said with regards to Shelley I've been saying for years. You just managed to say it a heckuva lot better.

I thought Shelley became a much better actress after Charlie's Angels. Check out the first The Stepfather film. She was also in a classic episode of Tales From the Crypt and she was very good in that.

I’ve been enjoying watching the first season over the past few weeks. Kate and Farrah were really quite good. Jaclyn was beautiful but a truly terrible actor, at least in the beginning. The scripts ranged from ok to awful.

[quote]r12 OMG! They edited out the delousing scene!

did they cut the nip slip?

[quote]R25 21 scintillating behind-the-scenes photos from Charlie's Angels in the 1970s:

That's not exactly a "behind the scenes" photo...unless they shot a makeup artist on their lunch hour or something.

[quote]r29 poor Hack had it going against her from the unfortunate first press photo.

Shell doesn't need your PITY! She went on to do a Scorsese movie with De Niro....and has a marriage that's lasted 30 years.

Not like those other [italic]whores[/italic] with tit and ass cancer.

isn't life too short to dedicate to rewatching crap.

I own the complete series on DVD.

R53 is Bootsie Gumdrops.

R54 is Misty Malarky Ying Yang.

I’m watching Frank Gorshin deliver an endless monologue. Calgon, take me away.

r53, I only have the first season, can't find the 2nd and beyond at stores and I don't order online.

Someone please explain to me why the Angels almost always used their real names while working on a case. Seems a little...stupid. Still love the brittle bitch Sabrina played on the episode where they were gonna sell her Kelly's baby.

I think it’s because the producers thought the audience would get confused who was who and not remember which actress was which character.

Are you kidding me, R59. We're watching a show in which people go undercover with 3 of the most recognizable faces on television at the time and they thought we wouldn't know that Farrah was playing Jill posing as The Pizzarina Szabarro? Were all people in the 70's dim?

I'm only here for Jill's Ford Mach One.

Yes R60, given the IQ of the average TV watcher in the 70’s plus the dumb scripts of CA I’d say it was a good bet the viewers could be easily confused. Either that or the writers were too lazy to come up with aliases or didn’t give a fuck.

Hack. Stunning beauty, stunning emotion. How an Emmy never got caught in her Aqua Net is even more stunning.

B U M P Townsend and Associates

When does tranny Margo show up?

The show went downhill when Tanya Roberts joined for the final season.

I loved Margo the tranny in season 5.

Game, Set Death from the 2nd season all about women's tennis with Carrie Jo(!) , Helga Born and Carmita Medina, the champ of Mexico who gets killed off during the tournament but the tournament isn't cancelled. Hilarious. This ep was tailor made for Farrah but she'd already left the show. Instead we have Kris entering the tennis tournament undercover because she played a little tennis in college. Sabrina's dykey look would have been much more believable as a Betty Stove like player.

Ugh, I've never seen this episode, R68 and it sounds so good! And indeed, Farrah was a very good tennis player, IRL, so it was clearly written with her in mind. The only thing that could've made that episode better is if they brought the Margo character in as sort of Renee Richards (who was big news at the time) character fighting for her rights to play on the woman's tour, but of course, it's Margo so she also is crazy and tries to murder somebody and winds up flailing and whining in a mud puddle at the end of the episode.

Yesterday was "Counterfeit Angels" with the lookalike Angels committing crimes. It was such a wasted opportunity. The two groups of Angels never meet. It would have been great campy goodness to have the two groups fight it out. My favorite moment was when Kelly said she needs to disguise herself because a suspect might recognize her and all she does it put her hair up and put on a big pair of sunglasses. I remember a story from the actress who played fake Sabrina. She said her only interaction with Kate Jackson is she walked into the room, said which one is playing me, saw the actress, and said ok, and left.

Has ‘Angels In Springtime’ aired? Probably my 3rd favorite episode after ‘Chains’ and the Beamish episode.

Yes, that one aired already. It's definitely the best episode of the third season. Lots of lesbo innuendo and Kris got her butt kicked by Beulah Balbricker...err Zora.

My favorite episode of Season 4 is Caged Angel. It's not as epic as Angels in Chains, but poor Kris is constantly harassed by obese lesbo Big Aggie. DL fave Sally Kirkland also guest stars.

Every episode of CA should have involved poor Kris getting her ass kicked by a butch lesbian.

I liked the episode where the Angels go on vacation together to visit Kris’ aunt and uncle. Nice change of pace episode. And you almost believe that Sabrina and Kris are close pals outside of the office!

Today was disco day!

You could tell the dancers were playing to the camera with everything they had.

This is our big break! We’ll get noticed and become big stars like Deney Terrio!

Solid Gold here we come!

It was funny that they do an episode about a disco but it's about someone strangling old men. Makes no sense.

Big Aggie called Kris "chicken". I was scared of big, fat, lesbians as a small child as was Kris Munroe.

I had huge, child-sized crushes on the guys from the Toni's Boys episode from season 4.

Yesterday they showed "Angel in a Box," the episode in which Jill returns to help Sabrina, Kelly and Bosley find Kris, who's been kidnapped. There's a scene in which Sabrina and Jill bolt across some grass trying to catch some guy who's broken into Jill's hotel room. When you're watching it, it's so obvious that the two people in the shot are not Kate and Farrah but their stunt doubles. I laughed because apparently just running across an open field to get a 5-second shot would've been asking too much of them. It's the kind of moment that defines cheesy '70s detective shows in my opinion.

This episode is also the last time you would ever see the three original angels together again (as advertised this week by MeTV), even though Kelly really isn't given that much to do in it. And as in all of her return episodes, Farrah had the look of someone who didn't really want to be there, no doubt because she was being forced to participate by the lawyers at ABC.

i remember when farrah "returned" to CA for special episodes. Those shows were always highly desirable to me as a child.

Farrah’s episodes in S3 and S4 were always highly anticipated by me too - but I remember always being highly disappointed. Jill didn’t have the same spunk and the episodes were mostly dull as dishwater. And Farrah without the original signature ‘do seemed like an imposter!

[quote]Lots of lesbo innuendo and Kris got her butt kicked by Beulah Balbricker...err Zora.

I always found it odd how sometimes the angels could defend themselves and sometimes they couldn't (depending, of course, on whatever that week's storyline called for with no regard for consistency). There were certain episodes in which they would demonstrate an ability to kick ass and other times when they would either just submit to the perp or, as in the clip at R72, literally get their butt kicked. I mean yes, she was a big woman compared to Kris but so what? If Emma Peel, a so-called "talented amateur," could take out men every week with her bare hands on "The Avengers," Kris being a trained police professional should've been able to handle that big heifer. Not only would it have been thrilling to watch, it would've demonstrated yet again that the angels weren't just pretty faces but lethal weapons who could make any man (or woman) regret taking their size for granted.

Cheryl said Farrah wasn't particularly friendly to her when she made her count mandated guest appearances in Season 3 and 4. Jaclyn and especially Kate had some tension with Farrah after she left the show suddenly, but they were ok by the time she returned and became close again after some time passed.

Sorry but never thought Farrah had a pretty face or a great body. Amazing hair and lots of shiny white teeth but that face is not pleasant to look at.

The entire pilot episode for Toni's Boys with Charlie's Angels as their case of the week.

Oh r53 and r54...I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. Thanks so much.

Did you like the episodes where Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) gets shot up with Heroin while she's sleeping at night?

What I always found interesting about Cheryl Ladd is how, during seasons 2 and 3 with Kate Jackson, she had this very youthful, innocent quality to her, kind of like a teenage girl who was relishing being able to hang out and do grownup stuff with her big sister's friends. But when Kate left and she essentially became Angel #2 (behind Jaclyn), she took on a harder, more mature look -- not unappealing or unattractive in any way, just that that innocence she once had completely washed away. Perhaps it was something as simple as her hairstyle had changed, who knows, but I noticed it.

Cheryl was a big smoker then, which doesn't help with aging well. Jaclyn was looking more matronly the last season also. She and Cheryl were both over the show by that time too. It didn't help that they brought Tanya on, who looked quite a bit younger than them. Despite the age she claims, Tanya is actually older than Cheryl.

Who knows if it was true but I remember one of those gossip rags at the time claimed that Jaclyn made CA's hairstylists color Tanya's hair red (or reddish-like) because she didn't want another brunette on the show.

I always thought that too, r89! She was super cute especially in S2. I’m not sure if it was the combination of hairstyle, makeup and wardrobe or maybe it was the effect of unhealthy living as suggested by r90. But she did not look good in S4.

S2 Cheryl.

It’s hard being an Angel and it ain’t easy bein easy.

It's hard being a CHERYL, take it from me!

You think it's easy being Tiffany Welles in this place?!

[quote]r88 Did you like the episodes where Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) gets shot up with Heroin while she's sleeping at night?

Story of my life - -

I like the episode where Julie beats the shit out of that dude who played victor on the young and the restless.

I liked that episode too. Eric Braden seems very annoying and arrogant, so I liked seeing him getting his ass handed to him.

Season 5 had some bad episodes, but had some good ones too.

In Toronto they are showing repeats of Charlie's Angels at 10 AM on channel 11

Remake of Charlie's Angels in 1988 - From Left to right

Claire Yarlett, Tea Leoni, Sandra Canning and Karen Kopkins

I loved "Dancing in the Dark." Kate had a flair for comedy.

R98 - poor Kelly gets caught in the crossfire of Julie’s karate chops.

^ that looks like something out of the Three Stooges.

That was a fun episode.

Loved it. I remember that episode!!!

I wanted to be Kelly Garrett and Tiffany Welles when I was a little boy.

Kris is starting to look older at the end of season 3. Yesterdays episode set at the girls school, she looked much older than the "students". At the beginning of the season she would have looked closer to their age. I guess working with Kate Jackson for two years started aging her.

r108 - it sounds like you are approaching the “Rosemary” episode - a cheap “Rebecca rip-off with Cheryl in the Joan Fontaine role. I hated that episode because of its change in format; it was basically a solo Kris outing and Kelly/Sabrina just appear at the beginning and end of the show. Unfortunately most of Season 4 would follow this format.

And Kris really did mature by end of Season 3 as you say, and not in a good way.

R108 - that must be the episode with Elissa Leeds as “Cissy”, one of the students of the school. I can’t believe I remember that but it sticks out because of how much she annoyed the hell out of me. She popped up on a LOT of shows during that era and was such a shit actress. She had what I can only describe as a baby doll country accent and always came across like she had a recent lobotomy,

On the other hand, Audrey Landers was the head bitch/bully of the episode and was very, very good. She yanks Cheryl’s hair in front of the entire class! She deserved a bigger career.

Audrey Landers and her bitching rest face deserve a spot in the CA Hall of Fame Rogue’s Gallery, along with Beemish, Big Aggie, and the trio of baddies from the Springtime episode (Mercedes McCambridge, Beulah Ballbricker and the lesbian psychiatrist).

fuck, r111, you're spot on!

“WHAT did you say to me, bitch?”

“Oh no you didn’t!”

Counterfeit Angels. Jaclyn must have been pissed!

I can't believe Tommy Lee Jones is the "heartthrob" from the first episode. He still looks rough as hell.