Charlie's Angels (1976–1981)

The adventures of three sexy female private eyes.

Creators:

Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts

Stars:

Jaclyn Smith, David Doyle, Kate Jackson

Nominated for 7 Golden Globes. Another 5 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Jaclyn Smith	...	Kelly Garrett (110 episodes, 1976-1981)
David Doyle	...	John Bosley (110 episodes, 1976-1981)
Cheryl Ladd	...	Kris Munroe (87 episodes, 1977-1981)
Kate Jackson	...	Sabrina Duncan (69 episodes, 1976-1979)

Storyline

TV series about a wealthy mystery-man who runs a detective agency via a speaker-phone and his personal assistant, Bosley. His detectives are three beautiful women, who end up in a variety of difficult situations. The cast changed substantially over the life of this show, as actresses left for various movie, TV, and modeling deals.

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Plot Keywords:

speaker phone | 1970s | 1980s | female protagonist | hidden character | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Screen Gems Network

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 September 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Alley Cats

Filming Locations:

189 N. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Spelling-Goldberg Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min 45 min (106 episodes) 60 min (116 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original concept of the Angels was to have one brunette, one red-head and one blonde. Kate Jackson was aboard from the beginning of the project and was set to play the lead angel. Farrah Fawcett was the next to join, filling the blonde role, but then the producers dropped the hair color concept and brought in Jaclyn Smith to complete the trio. Ironically, this hair color concept actually came into being when Tanya Roberts (a red-head) joined the show in the fifth season.

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Connections

Referenced in Charmed: The Devil's Music (1999)

User Reviews

Beautiful does not mean weak

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.