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21 out of 22 people found the following review useful: One of the Best of the '70s!, 22 February 2004 Author: speedo68 (speedo68@aol.com) from australia
One of the reasons why this show is still big and popular after all these years, can be attributed to the Angels themselves. I can't think of any other stars in the history of television who can actually enticed the viewing public more than the Angels, especially the MAGIC FOUR namely, Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Jaclyn Smith, and Cheryl Ladd (Of course, the other two angels, Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts created a sensation too, but the "Magic Four" are the ones who started it all).I didn't had a chance to see the first season when it was first broadcast, as I was very "young" then, but lucky me, it was a huge success and was re-played again and again, every year. Funny, because a lot of people thought the series lasted until 1983 or 1985 because it was like being re-played forever!I must say, that the first season is the best of the rest and the chemistry of the original three are just wonderful. The second series with Cheryl Ladd was excellent too, but everyone knows that Jackson and Ladd were not in good terms, so, I guess, it affects the way the people look at them.I started as a fan of Kate Jackson, I reckon, for she's the only known star before the series started. But the two other lovely angels are hard to ignore. Fawcett is so bubbly and appealing while Smith is the most beautiful angel you can think of. But,I am still surprised up to now, why Fawcett became the more popular angel during her time on the show.She was even dubbed the sexiest of all the angels, where in fact, I believe, it is Jaclyn Smith, who's got the most curvaeous body of the three and looks great in that famous "white bikini" on the show. Even, in the hair department, I believe that Smith's hair is actually more flouncy and sexier than Fawcett. But then, I guess, Fawcett's popularity came right up with the released of her poster which was very timely for the show.But all in all, the original three are just wonderful.Then came, Cheryl Ladd. She's a welcome addition to the show. She's sexy, beautiful and very charming. Her introduction to the show with ANGELS IN PARADISE is one of my fave episodes and one the best of the series. Who can forget the scene when they're about to rescue Charlie in the yacht? Ladd came out from the water in a bikini with Jaclyn Smith (in her tiniest in a "green" bikini). No wonder the second season became more popular than the first one. I called this, the BIKINI FEVER!Then, Jackson, left the show. I believe, that Shelley Hack, did a wonderful job as the next angel, actually. Her characer speaks for her action in the show. Remember, the scene with Bosley in "LoveBoat Angels," when she told him that she's a bit scared to be part of the group because of what they have started already? Well, maybe her portrayal of her character was just too classy for the show but she's actually a stand out in the show. I also think that she's one of the two best-dressed angels on the show --the other one is Jaclyn Smith.Smith and Hack are in they're best when they're together. I like their chemistry on the show. It's a pity, she only lasted one season.The last of the Angels, Tanya Roberts is a fave, too. She's got this fabulous body and sexy eyes. Roberts, actually became more popular overseas and the bikini fever is back again. She was, obviously, given all the bikini scenes on the show. With Smith wanting to leave and Ladd, just happy to go along with the show, Roberts was given the responsibility to carry the show. Alas, the chemistry, didn't work out.The show opened a lot of things to women on television. Sad, to say, none has the charisma of the angels. I think, that's one of the reasons, why television is not as exciting as before in the '70s!
23 out of 29 people found the following review useful: Beautiful does not mean weak, 8 July 2003 Author: kittykatkan from Canada
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.
13 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Jiggle TV, 7 July 2006 Author: BumpyRide from TCM's Basement
For those of you not around for it's original run, Charlie's Angels was not just a hit TV show, it was a phenomenon. Every magazine and rag magazine had a picture of "The Angels" on their covers. Incredibly popular, it all came down to Farrah and her 70's fly away hair, her dazzling toothy smile, her skateboarding pose wearing Addia's, her shampoo, her toothpaste, THE bathing suit poster of the century, and then she was gone. Exiting after only one season Charlie's Angels never was the same again. Bolstered by Jill's kid sister, Kris (Cheryl Ladd) and then others, Charlie's Angels never again climbed to the heights of sheer madness of its first season. Owing its popularity to episodes such as "Angels in Chains" and "Angels on Wheels," it fulfilled many a preadolescence male's fantasy and "Jiggle TV" was born. It may be a period piece today but it was a product of the fun, wacky 1970's that gave it birth.
13 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Influential in Its Own Way, 8 April 2003 Author: Brian Washington (Sargebri@att.net) from Los Angeles, California
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.
6 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Three Beautiful Detectives...What More Could A Man Want?, 22 September 2002 Author: Big Movie Fan from England
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.
9 out of 12 people found the following review useful: A lot of fun! I adore the first four Angels!, 29 May 2003 Author: troy-32 from Chicago, Illinois
I have loved "Charlie's Angels" since I was a little boy. I started watching it during the third season, then Kate Jackson left. Her departure was such a loss to the show because Sabrina had so much personality and she actually had a great sense of humor and the only one who was believable as a detective. Still, this show was not about credibility - most of its fun qualities had to do with the chemistry between the three Angels. The first season was by far the best. The season's episodes had serviceable, sometimes even interesting and complex plot lines with only a modicum of filler. Some good scriptwriting, too -especially "Consenting Adults". Attention was paid to editing, the music and the action sequences. A few of the musical motifs could remain in one's head. In addition to everything else, it was certainly not sloppy. None of the episodes were less than entertaining. ("The Seance" and "Angel Trap" being the least interesting. Maybe because these were the only episodes that were focused on a single Angel, Kelly and Jill, respectively, rather than the others which were group efforts...) Kate was excellent and extremely compelling as Sabrina Duncan, Farrah was quite good (sometmes mesmerizing) as the fun-loving, athletic, charming flirt Jill Munroe (I have always thought her comedienne skills could have been tapped into more) and Jaclyn was beyond lovely and sweet as Kelly Garrett, the perfect third banana. (I actually think Kelly had better hair than Farrah.) When Farrah left the show, Cheryl Ladd stepped in and was great. She was cute, funny and did not take herself too seriously. She was not possessed with Farrah's hypnotic charisma, but she was also a bit more generous with the other actors than Farrah had been. I wonder why Kate Jackson was so unpleasant towards Cheryl??? Too bad. I always liked to think they were all buddies offscreen, too. And, if anybody cared to notice, Cheryl Ladd was probably the best all-around actor on the show, versatility-wise. So, it did not matter so much that the 2nd season's episodes were not as tightly constructed as the previous one's and were not always as interesting. These three girls were great together and the show was still a lot of fun. By the third season, the producers and everyone else involved (sans the actresses) figured that because the ratings had not slipped, then the success of the show had nothing to do with quality, because the third season's episodes were mostly not very good, sometimes pretty bad. Also, Kelly and Kris started looking a little bit dumpy and Sabrina started wearing too much makeup. And when Jill returned, she was no longer charming and bubbly, she became snotty and aloof. And her hair looked like she didn't comb it. What was up with that? Maybe it was the actress' resentment about having to come back for guest appearances? Or maybe it was 1979 chic to become disco Bo Derek with rude tan boots? Anyway, at least Kate Jackson's character actor skills were still around to carry the show. It was still watchable. When she got fired (big mistake on the producer's part!), the show went into steep decline, which nevertheless held attention because of the girls. Cheryl Ladd pretty much took over. Shelly Hack was laughably bad, perhaps because she took the show too seriously. Especially the episode where she was supposed to be a streetwalker!? She dressed and acted like a modern day Katherine Hepburn, or at least the producers' notion of it. She actually seemed to think she could make her lines sound intelligent. It could be painful to watch sometimes... Maybe if somebody had encouraged her to being more laid-back she would have been better. And Sabrina was no longer around. Sigh, weep... By the fifth season, it didn't matter. The show's plotlines and scripts were sub-juvenile. Yechhh! Tanya Roberts did a good job as Julie, though, and had a really nice sense of humor. Plus, she was a lot sexier and tougher than the imbecilic and grossly misplaced Tiffany ("peacocks aren't indigenous to this latitude") ---okay, whatever. I am enormously devoted to this show, which was inarguably a lot of fun for its first two seasons. Too bad Aaron Spelling was devoured by his own unabashed cynicism. The show could have stayed at a higher level of quality. Anyhoo... Favorite episodes: "Consenting Adults", "Dancing in the Dark", "Angels at Sea", "The Big Tap-Out", "The Blue Angels", "Angels in Paradise", "The Jade Trap", "Angel Flight" (with the most unsympathetic, annoying client the girls ever had to deal with. Sabrina, how could you? Still a whole lot of fun.), "Angels in Springtime" (with the gorgeous gorgon Nancy Parsons!) and "Angels on the Line" (with the best-worst psycho drag-queen I have ever seen.)
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Landmark TV- show of the seventies, 8 June 2005 Author: mnau from Luxembourg
It was my brother who got me launched on Charlie's Angels when I was at ground school, in 1976 or 1977. I was 9 or 10 years old. We both got equally hooked on it but after a few years my brother's interest fainted while I remain addicted to this day. Now whoever did the casting for the show, he (she?) proved to have good taste, for sure. Kate, Jaclyn, Farrah, Cheryl, Shelley and Tanya as they looked back then were not exactly the kind of girls you would have kicked out of your bed. The angel who got my attention from the start when I watched the show for the first time was Kate Jackson with her crushing personality and her exotic eyes but mainly because She was unique - so unlike the 2 other girls, She was the one who "wore the pants" in the team - and never pulled them down. Oh and she could be really funny and entertaining at moments. Jaclyn Smith in turn went completely stealthy to my eyes in first place but as the years went by with me watching the reruns again and again she more and more grew on me. Today easily hers is the face that I am identifying the entire show with. She is by far the coolest angel- and the prettiest of them all, with her warmth and her exotic beauty she comfortably eclipses Farrah Fawcett in my opinion. I never really got Farrah by the way - what's all that fuss about her hair etc.?( just look at actresses like Heather Menzies or Stephanie Powers and you'll get an idea of a classy feathered back hairdo). Now that said I have nothing against her, and - to give credit where it is due - she was looking nice, acting well and from her side came a substantial contribution to the tremendous success of the TV-show but she never really grew on me. She played a bunch of remarkable roles though in her post-angels period. (Extremities, Barbara Hutton....etc). The "newbie" angels aka Ceryl Ladd, Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts all were OK in my eyes, overwhelmingly charming (and remarkably nice-bodied ) Cheryl Ladd turned out to be a fit replacement for Farrah Fawcett, Shelley Hack as Tiffany Welles somewhat struggled to get her way out of Kate Jackson's shadow but I happened to like Tiffany and her classy silhouette from the first time I saw her on the screen and it has never changed ever since. Season 4 came out with 2 of my all-time favorite's episodes besides (Angels go trucking and Angel Hunt). Together with Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith Shelley Hack is one of my favorite angels. As for Tanya Roberts I didn't get to see the episodes with her until recently but my mind is made up - she is gorgeous !!
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Charlie's angels rocked!, 22 October 2006 Author: sdeeemarie from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
By far, 3 of the baddest women of the seventies. They were endlessly amazing, from their ability to perform whatever undercover occupation they were given, to staying beautiful throughout all the fights. There was amazing things about all of them, how Kelly always managed to have that tiny camera that took pictures of everything, how Jill's hair never lost it's curls, how Sabrina's voice managed to crack in a funny, cool way. Sabrina was the intellectual , charismatic angel, there was no way you could hate Sabrina Duncan, they were all smart but she was the brightest one, her brains got them out of many troubles. Like in Angels in Chains, it was her idea to pour the gasoline to confuse the dogs. Kelly was the sweet, streetwise angel, she grew up in an orphanage and knew every trick in the book, including how to get to an informant. Like in Dirty Business, she had the guy making the Little Bo Peep porn eating out of her hands. Jill was the beautiful, athletic angel, like in Angels on Wheels, and numerous other episodes like Ladykiller, and The Mexican Connection, she was pure athleticism and breathtakingly beautiful. They were smart, resourceful women who weren't just beautiful, they were smart and efficient, and they always got their man(or woman). I think my favorite part of the show was when that "de de de deeee" music would play, that would signal that you have been had by an angel. I have most of the episodes on DVD. The movie was okay, but Barrymore, Diaz, and Liu don't do these women justice.
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Who didn't watch this show??, 1 January 2003 Author: elizabethbennett from United States
OMG, I grew up watching this show! Well, at least the first 30 minutes each week as I was in elementary school and my bed time would not allow me to watch the whole episode unless it was the holidays or summer. However, this was my favorite show growing up, I loved it! There were Charlie's Angels dolls, bubble gum cards and stickers and on and on and on. We used to play Charlie's Angels in the neighborhood and at recess as I was like any other little girl in America during this period. I loved Charlie's Angels, played Charlie's Angels and wanted to be just like Jaclyn Smith when I grew up. I think it would be neat if they did a reunion at some point. Now my generation is bringing it to the big screen! Great stuff!
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Classic and Unforgetable, 18 March 2003 Author: jamesbond-1 from Nicosia, Cyprus
I never quite figured out what made me jump out of joy every time the show started when I was a kid. The 3 gorgeous girls or their personalities. Maybe it was also that their characters were somewhat.. extraordinary. C'mon do u know a lot of people's sisters or daughters who are detectives and they kick a**? Didnt think so. The show was brilliant. The plots were clever, excellent guest stars, (Remember Patrick Duffy?) But i was really unhappy when Farah left. It was only after sometime I got to love Cheryl Ladd, and be glad she stayed on till the end of the series....Still what a joy it was every time Farah returned for an episode or two..! Kate Jackson. The studios should have made whatever it took to keep her. The show was never the same after she was gone Shelley Hack, Tanya Roberts. Totally and utterly inappropriate choice. No further comments.The new Angels..? Oh come on! Lets get serious. I was so dissapointed with the first movie but I am happy to see that Jaclyn Smith is going to be in the new release in the summer. That! I wanna see! If u didnt have the chance to watch the original series, dont wait a sec. Go to get it NOW. 10/10
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