neilclack Reviews

Charlie's Angels: The Jade Trap (1978) Season 2, Episode 22

A perfect episode

[10/10 · 3 November 2023]

Sabrina (Kate Jackson), dressed all in black, like a cat burglar, descends, with a rope, the side of the hotel building where burglaries, and now a murder, have taken place - that's Sabrina's idea of 'taking a look around up there', as she puts it to the hotel manager (played by Joan Leslie), who has hired the Angels to investigate.

As Sabrina is abseiling down, we see camera shots of the street below, and it's a long way down. The murderer, who's out looking for the real cat burglar who witnessed his murder, spots Sabrina and, thinking she is the real burglar, knocks out Bosley with a plank of wood, and cuts Sabrina's rope. She begins to fall to a certain death... the show cuts to the adverts...Oh, the suspense!

But what happens next is perhaps my favourite ever Charlie's Angels scene.

We return from the commercial break. "Whooooo", cries Sabrina, but she only falls a few feet, landing on a balcony full of pot plants. She composes herself, picks up a pot plant, bangs on the balcony door, and says 'hello' in a happy chirpy voice. The door is opened by a middle-aged man in a dressing gown, his wife in the bed.

"Excuse me for dropping in like this", says Sabrina, handing the man the plant. "I'm with the marine botanical society, and I couldn't help being attracted by your honey-suckle...could you help me with my rope". She then quickly walks across the couple's room, reeling in her rope, talking at 100 mph, and lets herself out through the main door, apologising for intruding, and wishing the couple a lovely evening. The man stands frozen, holding the plant, trying to take in what has just happened - he doesn't say anything, but just stands in stunned shock, his facial expressions saying it all, and he's clearly impressed by Sabrina.

"Tomorrow, either that honeysuckle goes, or I do", remarks his wife. Great acting from both these bit parts (Thomas Bellin and Nancy Penoyer). And Kate Jackson could definitely have starred in a comedy sitcom.

Humour always plays a part in Charlie's Angels, and there's plenty of it in this one. Kris (Cheryl Ladd) adopts a ridiculous Swedish accent, and explains to the cat burglar's mother, who is also his accomplice, that her 4th husband has just died, so she will have to sell her Jade (which, with her Swedish accent, she pronounces hade).

Despite the lightheartedness of Charlie's Angels, the programme actually never shies away from situations that might be considered quite adult for family entertainment, like, for example, an older lady paying a toyboy for sex. We learn in the opening scene that that's exactly the relationship between Denny (played by handsome Dirk Benedict), and posh Julie Redmond (played by Victoria Shaw). When Denny offers to pay for their meal in the dining room of the hotel, Miss Redmond says, "Don't be silly my sweet, why bother with the pretence when everyone around us knows what you are".

Back in her room, she tells him, "what you do darling, you do well enough, but then so do so many others". They argue over her reneging on a promise to pay for his boat.

"I'm not one of your two bit studs", pleads Denny. She responds, "that's exactly what you are", while slapping him in the face. This is serious stuff.

Definitely a candidate for my favourite Charlie's Angels episode, this one ticks all the boxes - the three best Charlie's Angels actresses all working together, along with Bosley. Not for the first time, and nor will it be the last, an Angel falls for the bad guy - this time it's Kelly, although she realises quite quickly he's the burglar,, and it's over. "Why is it every time I start to like a guy...", she says. That's a massive part of the Charlie's Angels appeal - that these stunningly beautiful women are all single - it wouldn't be the same if they were all in happy stable relationships.

As a Brit, I don't think there could be anything more 1970s USA television than when Denny, the murderer, in a car, tries to mow down Kelly and the cat burglar during their romantic stroll on the beach. All the skidding and revving on engine sounds, and the car is so big and long - cars like that simply didn't exist in the rest of the world.

Everything builds up to a climatic foot chase at the end. Denny does seem to escape too easily through the balcony door, considering how elaborate the plan to snare him had been. But, then again, if he hadn't got away we wouldn't have had the chase, which was accompanied by some great 1970s music; funky bass and trumpets. I'm not quite sure how Sabrina manages to get to the murderer's boat before him, as he sprinted as fast as he could to get there from the hotel, pursued by Kelly and Kris- Sabrina must've known a short cut?

Charlie's Angels: Mother Goose Is Running for His Life (1978) Season 2, Episode 20

Another good episode from the 2nd series

[9/10 · 13 October 2023]

As a Brit, who got into Charlie's Angels when it was on late night TV during the 2020 Covid lockdown, I loved the character of Orwell (played by Dan Knight) in this episode - what an accent! That's a clipped London accent from the 1950s/ 60s that I swear doesn't exist anymore - immigration and cultural integration has had a huge influence on the evolution of language in London.

I see Dan Knight, although British-born, moved to California in 1965, and was an ordained Church minister in real life.

Overall, an immensely enjoyable Charlie Angels episode, and, yes, definitely more light-hearted than some of the downtown drugs and prostitution ones - although, let's not forget, Wilkes, the first wire-tapper, does get murdered, so not that light-hearted!

This is one of those episodes when all three Angels work together, on an equal-footing...

Sabrina; smart, funny, beautiful, undercover as the daughter of a Hong Kong businessman - not quite sure why that means she has to wear kimono-type one piece silk dresses throughout though!

Kelly, undercover as a wire-tapper, builds up a rapport with Orwell, the Brit with the 1960s London accent, when she goes to meet him in Ye Olde King's Head, an English pub in Santa Monica - "you're a bit of alright", he remarks, and then, after testing her knowledge of bugging devices, they wire-tap together - until Kelly's cover is blown by the girlfriend of the murdered Wilkes, the previous wire-tapper (I agree with the previous reviewer that Bobbi Jordan playing Donna, the girlfriend of the murdered Wilk, is excellent, as are all the actors in this episode).

Kris, in the office, looks so mature, with a purple shawl and matching long skirt; a permanent wave in her long blonde hair - a complete contrast to the comedy rag toy doll she plays at the end. I did think she was overdoing it with the bubble gum at first, but then, of course, you see why, as the bubble gum becomes crucial to the story.

It's quite a complicated plot, and, considering how much planning the Angels and Bosley put into catching the villains, it's an enormous gamble that their whole trap depended on Roclair, the crooked toy designer, leaving the plans of the new toy designs on top of the photocopier after he had photocopied them. Kris, disguised as the life-size toy Ragdoll, standing next to the copier, is able to switch them for fake plans. But what would've happened if Roclair hadn't have left them there? The whole elaborate plan would've fallen apart - but, then again, it's Charlie's Angels, and we shouldn't ask questions like that.

Anyway, great stuff from Sabrina (Kate Jackson), Kelly (Jaquelin Smith) and Kris (Cheryl Ladd). This series, the 2nd series, topped the TV ratings at the time, and all sorts of merchandise, including Charlie's Angels dolls, were on sale, and, in a sweet, not to mention, commercial, touch, in the final debriefing scene, each Angel is presented with their own toy doll of themselves.

Charlie's Angels: Angel Blues (1978) Season 2, Episode 19

Charlie's Angels, not just jiggle TV - there was more depth to it than that.

[9/10 · 25 July 2023]

Heroin. Cocaine. This is quite a heavy subject for Charlie's Angels.

This series, the 2nd series, began with the two-parter 'Angels In Paradise', which was almost a comedy, it had so many funny moments - not to mention plenty of Hawaiian women, and the Angels themselves, in bikinis.

But 19 episodes on, and the mood in this one couldn't be more removed from 'Angels In Paradise'. This is dark, serious, proper drama, with the murdered Country and Western singer, a drug-addict, painted very much as a victim of the showbiz world she moves in, exploited by male hangers on, pushers, and crooked managers and promotors. Even syndicate violence gets a mention.

I've seen some debate over whether the original Charlie's Angels were feminist or not, given that they often used their beauty and sexuality to get around men in a way that normal, less stunningly attractive, women would not be able to do, but I think the programme is quite feminist, at least in the way it always sympathises, rather than condemns, women who work as prostitutes, a recurring theme in Charlie's Angels, and here Amy, the murdered female drug addict, is viewed very much as a good person who got treated badly by the men around her, beaten up by her guitarist, and ripped off financially by other men.

This episode could perhaps be Kate Jackson finest Charlie's Angels performance. Always considered the real actress among the Angels, the scenes where Sabrina confronts, first Cooperman (played by Steve Gravers), the crooked publisher who bought Amy's songs against her will, and then Doneger (played by Lou Picetti), Amy's manager - Sabrina starts low key, a cooky approach, before turning more aggressive and forceful, putting the allegations to them, almost Columbo-like in her delivery.

"What tangled webs we weave", Sabrina reflects openly, in front of Doneger who she realises played no part in Amy's murder, all eyes and facial expressions.

One can only imagine how much it must have hurt Kate Jackson that the Charlie's Angels producers didn't allow her to play the lead role in Kramer versus Kramer around this time (for which Meryl Streep ended up with the part, and won an Oscar for it!), as Jackson's acting in this episode shows how good she would've been in the role.

The first two Charlie's Angels series were filmed from 1976 to 1978, when flared trousers/jeans and shirt collars were at their largest and widest, but then suddenly went out of fashion overnight, never to return, so, unfortunately for Charlie's Angels, that quirk of fashion history makes some of the clothes they wear in some episodes not just look very dated, but laughable, but here though, throughout the episode, Kate Jackson's quality acting coincides with her wearing a stylish black duffel jacket/cardigan, with white trimming, done up with toggles, and blue jeans, that do pass the test of time and still look stylish today. She looks very cool.

It's a rare episode in that all three Angels wear the same clothes throughout, without one costume change - this is due to the timeline of the whole episode taking place in just one day, another rarity. Kris (Cheryl Ladd) wears a black Country and Western- style outfit, appropriately enough as she is goes undercover as a Country and Western music magazine journalist, but how would she have known to wear that right at the beginning, in the Townsend Agency Office, before Charlie had even told them what the case is about? - anyway, it's not fair to pick holes in Charlie's Angels scripts, as they should not be taken too seriously, so we won't question either how it is thst hardened criminals that tail cars are so unobservant that they fail to notice when they're being followed themselves.

The opening scene with the drug afflicted Amy Waters (played by Bess Gatewood, looking terrible, bruised and drugged) being driven around a taxi, takes place at night, and has a sinister vibe to it, typical of many 1970s USA crime films and TV series - the whole episode does have a slight feel of the classic 1976 movie Taxi Driver, starring Robert De Niro, with Larry (played by Gary Bisig), the Taxi Driver who drove Amy around shortly before she died, now retracing the route they took, including all the stops they made, with Kris, undercover as the magazine reporter. There's a slow, sombre feel to it. The three Angels and Bosley all work together as a team, each getting equal air time, and in contact with one another via radio and phone calls. And then, of course, comes the big twist in the story, three quarters of the way in, when Kris gets out of the cab to make a phone call to Bosley, and suddenly we realise that the Taxi Driver is part of the gang that murdered Amy.

The obligatory fight at the end, between all three Angels, and the three criminals is a bit silly and not really needed in this episode. Out of place this time infact.

Bill Quinn who plays Ted Waters, Amy's father, is very good. Heartfelt.

Charlie's Angels did return to the serious issue of Heroin in series 4 when Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) is injected with heroin by crooks and becomes addicted - maybe Smith's finest ever acting performance in all five of the Charlie's Angels series she appeared in.

Charlie's Angels, not just jiggle TV - there was a lot more depth to it than that.

Charlie's Angels: Angels in Paradise (1977) Season 2, Episode 1

Superb comedy and drama

[10/10 · 19 July 2023]

Bosley, it is upto you to talk to Charlie", says Sabrina, wagging her finger.

"We don't want her, and we don't need her", adds Kelly, getting right into Bosley's face.

"It's nothing personal, we don't need anybody", continues Sabrina assertively.

"That's right, whoever she is", says Kelly.

"Charlie knows what he's doing", is Bosley's only response, "trust Charlie".

The Townsend agency door bell rings, and in she walks, wearing a figure-hugging shiny black track suit.

"Hi", she says with a big grin, "I'm here".

Kelly and Sabrina look confused "It's me, Kris...Kris Monroe" "As in Kris Monroe, Jill's younger sister, pigtails and braces", enquires an open-mouthed Sabrina - suddenly the penny drops, and all three of them run upto one another and hug excitedly.

It's often forgotten in this legendary opening scene, in which Kris (Cheryl Ladd) introduces herself, just how good Kate Jackson (as Sabrina) and Jaclyn Smith (as Kelly) are; pacing up and down behind Bosley, knocking into each other, angrily expressing their opposition to having to work with someone new... before Kris comes bouncing in.

This opening is just one of a number of good scenes in both parts 1 and 2 of 'Angels In Paradise'. There are some great guest actors too.

I particularly like the Hawaiian native Kona (played by Pat Suzuki) of Kona's Massage Parlour, who Kelly visits to glean information.

"We got nothing to say to nobody about nothing, sister... ain't got nothing to say, nooo kind of way, too easy be dead".

Kona asks Kelly if she's 'in the business', and when Kelly says no, Kona tells her, "Big shame, girl, could get rich, sister" (the last episode of the 1st series, titled The Blue Angels, centered around brothels masquerading as massage parlours, and here we are again, straight into the 2nd series and there's a massage parlour/brothel - albeit with a lot more humour than those places probably possess in real life).

Alan Manson as a crooked lawyer is a another well- acted comedic bit part. He tells Bosley, "you may have some ilegal enterprise in mind, but lawyers shouldn't know about things like that, should they?". So when Bosley asks him if his client, Leilani, happened to mention that Bosley needed a layout of the state prison, the lawyer replies, "No, but I happen to have a complete ground plan of that establishment right here, isn't that a coincidence?", and he hands Bosley a brown envelope.

"Ah yes, amazing coincidence", says Bosley, "you know, for an honest lawyer that doesn't know what's going on, you're just a bundle of help".

Unfortunately for this charmer though, when he later asks Sabrina out for dinner, after, by coincidence, he just happened to have right there all the information and diagrams of a boat Sabrina had asked about, Sabrina turns him down on the principle of, "I don't dinner with crooked lawyers".

Leilani herself is brilliantly played by 38 year old France Nuyen, who first appears by emerging from the sea in a bikini. Leilani's sister-in-law describes Leilani to Kris as "charming, greedy, aggressive, educated, bloodthirsty... and arranges the best dinner parties this island's ever seen".

The sister-in-law (played by Lydia Lei) is dressed in a smart khaki blouse and long skirt, but as she's talking to Kris, a bell rings, and she suddenly lets her hair down and starts undoing her blouse. "Surfs Up", she says, and the camera turns to show lots of young men and women running out of some kind of college building, stripping off their tops and trousers as they do so. As the camera goes back to the sister-in-law, she's already taken off her blouse and is in now in the process of, rather sexily, removing her skirt, to reveal another stunning body in a bikini - can't think why Charlie's Angels was so popular!

In complete contrast to everyone else on the island, who generally wear Hawaiian tops and shorts, Mr Blue, a gangster from Chicago who's moved in on the Hawaiian smuggling scene, always wears a jacket, and first appears in a suit and tie when he meets the three Angels. Played convincingly, and amusingly, by Art Metrano, Mr Blue complains throughout about every aspect of the island, "the restaurants here are lousy, they serve pork and poi - that's purple stuff that tastes like Elmer's glue".

When Charlie and Mr Blue are having a conversation over cocktails on Mr. Blue's boat, the kidnapped and his kidnapper getting on well, Mr Blue states how much he misses the smog of Chicago, and how, "I can't drink the local garbage round here with all these funny colours, the banana, the pineapple, the little umbrella stuck in the glass". When Charlie asks why he came here then, Mr. Blue explains that, "once in a while a guy in my business gets a little heat occasionally, so I had to leave Chicago and this is as far as I can get and still be in The States". Mr Blue expresses his admiration for James Bond movies. Of course, we only see Charlie's back and the sleeve of his pink jacket as he sips his drink, but thinking about it, Charlie from Charlie Angels, is actually the USA's closest answer to James Bond - women and cocktails wherever he goes, even when kidnapped!

We think Charlie is dead as part 1 ends in suspense, but that is quite tamely resolved at the very beginning of part 2 as it turns out the dead body in the morgue, which had Charlie's wallet in its pocket, is the corpse of a known drunk and thief who must've stolen Charlie's wallet before meeting with his fate, although there is an intentionally amusing element to this scene as the three Angels are called to the morgue to identify whether the body is Charlie's or not, when actually none of them have ever ever met Charlie and have no idea what he looks like!

Given that Charlie's kidnapping is the whole premise of the episode, and the reason why the Angels are in Hawaii, he has a more prominent role than usual, but is treated incredibly civilised by both sets of his kidnappers. "Do you mind if we put the chains back on", Mr. Blue politely asks Charlie once their cocktails and conversation are over.

"Do you mind if I finish my drink first", says Charlie, who later, in true James Bond style, manages to escape by opening the padlock on the chains with a cocktail stick!

I like the scene where Sabrina gets angry with Kelly for walking in and creeping up on her while she's practising her 'figure of eight'/gyrating hips Hawaiian dance in the mirror. Kate Jackson by the way, as well as sporting a new shorter bob haircut for the new series, looks as if she has lost a little bit of weight around the waist. She's incredibly slim. But still incredibly beautiful.

Not content with putting Cheryl Ladd in a bikini for her Charlie's Angels debut, she also has to go nude on a beach, covered only by palm leaf, to talk to an eccentric nude psychiatrist, played by Norman Fell, who tells her that Mr Blue suffers from 'Dislocation Anxiety' - "he hates the good climate, he despises beauty and nature, he hates pineapple". Ladd's natural comic timing comes out, as it will in future Charlie Angels episodes, but actually, despite the furore over her (and Kelly) in a bikini, it's in the scene where she's wearing a pair of tight orange shorts and matching orange crop top that I think she looks the sexiest.

There is so much humour in Angels In Paradise, some of it quite risque and adult, and the whole thing ends with the three Angels and Bosley joining in with somesort of Hawaiian beach party festival, all four of them doing over the top silly dancing, and all looking radiant and happy.

Farah who?

Charlie's Angels: The Blue Angels (1977) Season 1, Episode 22

Blue-fringed Pantsuit

[9/10 · 29 May 2023]

You have to pity Kate Jackson in this one. She has to wear the 'Blue Fringed Pant-Suit', just about the worst costume in the history of Charlie's Angels. Actually make that possibly the worst ever costume in the history of television per se!

It starts out all well and good for Jackson's character, Sabrina Duncan, as she is tasked with going undercover in a police department's vice division where there's suspected corruption going on, and, on her first day at the office, she looks radiant in a classy long navy skirt with matching waistcoat and jacket, and a large-collared white blouse, which was the fashion of the day. But her new boss, Leautenant Howard Fine (played by Ed Lauter) wants her to go undercover as a prostitute at a new massage parlour that's opened up. "I'll need to wear something that's a little more conspicuous", says Sabrina.

"Well there's a terrific number in the wardrobe. Blue fringed pantsuit. You'll love it", says the Lieutenant.

As if wearing this hideous torquoise mid-70s flared-trousered one-piece with tassels around the chest wasn't enough, a car tries to run Sabrina down and kill her in a back alleyway while she's on her way to the massage parlour, but she survives by climbing up some railings, which must have been quite a difficult manoeuvre in those ludicrously wide flares.

Sabrina maintains her sense of humour though. Back in the office, still in the 'Blue-fringed pantsuit', the three Angels and Bosley are discussing who it could be that tried to kill her. "Maybe it was a couple of angry fashion designers", quips Sabrina.

The two young men who did carry out the deed are actually trainees at the police academy, in cahoots with Leautenant Fine. Here the characterisation doesn't quite work as handsome Dick Benedict playing John Barton has far too an angelic face - he could be David Cassidy in the Partridge family. Also I'm not sure the police academy would allow its recruits to have shoulder-length hair as long as Benedict's (nor the heeled shoes that Kelly wears when she joins the academy undercover).

And to make matters worse for Sabrina, her ex-husband suddenly turns up at the police department, and, foolishly, without thinking, blows her cover. Surely, as he knows she is a private detective, and seeing her name plate on a desk, he would've had the intelligence to realise she must be there undercover. But instead Bill Duncan blurts out to Lieutenant Fine that Sabrina's a private detective, working for the Townsend Agency, and adds that her colleagues are called Kelly and Jill for good measure. He's not even good looking, so no wonder Sabrina had divorced him!

By the way Ed Lauter is excellent as Lieutenant Howard Fine, giving a very convincing portrayal of a corrupt police officer. Actually you would've thought it would've been pretty obvious for the Angels to work out it must have been him collecting the extortion money from the start.

Jill, Farah Fawcett's character, also has to go to work in a massage parlour, but comes out much better in the fashion stakes, as she's given a stylishly-cut red/orange dress to wear, and then a kind of Country & Western cowgirl low cut top with tassels, which she naturally wears without her bra (see one of the previous reviews on here (by robrosenberger) - can't really add to that!)

There's a rather surreal comedy scene in which a character with a Russian accent called Brechnik goes on about bodies being wrapped in leaves (the president of the Soviet Union at the time, at the height of the cold war, was Brezhnev).

This was the 23rd and last episode of the iconic first Charlie's Angels series, which at the time was causing a sensation, topping the TV ratings, and really this episode is a microcosm of the series as a whole, especially as they're dealing with prostitution, a common theme that features in a number of Charlie's Angels episodes, both before and after this one.

There's humour, plenty of costume changes, with all three Angels looking stunningly beautiful, suspense, danger, an angel in jeopardy at some point, and action at the end (this time at a large car wrecking yard, where the villains are knocked out with a car tyre and a wheel hub) before the debrief back in the Townsend agency office at the end, in which Charlie, on the speaker phone, makes a remark with a sexual innuendo.

When this episode first aired in May 1977 noone knew Farah Fawcett was leaving the programme, except perhaps Farah herself, although, whenever it was that she made her decision, I'm sure she probably didn't realise just quite how perfect Charlie Angels was for her, and that she would never find a better role that so suited her look, personality, and quirky but limited acting skills, not to mention the obvious chemistry and camaraderie she shared with her colleagues Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, and David Doyle.

Charlie's Angels: Angels at Sea (1977) Season 1, Episode 21

Borrowing from Starsky and Hutch

[7/10 · 22 May 2023]

I started getting into Charlie's Angels during the 2020 Covid lockdown when it was on late at night on a British TV channel called Great TV, which also repeated a lot of other 1970s USA crime/detective programmes, and not long before it showed 'Angels At Sea', I had also seen, on the same channel, Starsky and Hutch's 'Murder At Sea', which was made in 1975, a year or so before 'Angels At Sea', and which is also set on a cruise ship where murders are happening, and ends with Starsky and Hutch having to de-wire a bomb in exactly the same suspense-filled finale as the Angels, including having to run onto the deck and throw the bombs overboard, seconds before they explode in the ocean. So, it's one Spelling-Goldburg production borrowing directly from another.

Until I read the other reviews on here, I hadn't realised that the murderer was played by the actor (Frank Gorshin) who also played The Riddler from Adam West's 1960s Batman, which was a staple of children's TV in the UK when I was a kid in the 1970s. Also, not being familiar with pre-1970s Hollywood actors, it was completely lost on me, until I read the Trivia section on this IMDb page, that Gorshin was actually doing impressions of famous actors during his mad rant - I just thought that was a lengthy over the top bonkers portrayal of a crazy man having a breakdown.

Overall, I have to say this episode isn't as strong as most of the others in the Charlie's Angels first series. Maybe due to the restraints of being completely set on a ship?

The dewiring of the bombs, with the angels receiving instructions from a bomb squad expert, drags on a bit, as does Gorshin's mad impressions scene

We do see the Angels in some stylish night clothes and dressing gowns though, and poor old Bosley ends up completely naked (apart from covering his private parts with a lifebelt) - Kelly and Jill actively giggle at Bosley in this state, which is a bit inconsiderate given he'd just been whacked over the head by the murderer and almost knocked out. Only Sabrina says, 'Don't laugh at him', but she then joins in with the mickey-taking when they're all back in a room, nursing Bosley with an ice-pack on his head and a cup of tea.

It was quite convenient for the plot that the murderer left three bombs in the deep bowels of the ship, one for each Angel to detonate. However, maybe due to the restrictions of being set on a ship, there aren't enough men to go around for all three Angels, and the final scene is perhaps the most suggestive and risque in the whole history of Charlie Angels as they have to share one man. In a reversal of the usual final debrief, when Charlie is normally entertaining a busty female, this time there is one handsome, sun-tanned muscular l man subservantly serving all three Angels cocktails as they lounge on the deck of the ship. Charlie, on the phone, warns the Angels, who have decided to stay on the cruise, that they will get bored on the ship unless they find an activity. "Don't worry about that, Charlie", they say, with knowing grins, and looking admiringly up at the tall hunk, "we have an activity plan, infact it's one of the best-loved by man". Are they suggesting a threesome? "We'll be gentle", says Kelly as it ends.

Charlie's Angels: I Will Be Remembered (1977) Season 1, Episode 20

Elegant and educated Sabrina

[7/10 · 11 May 2023]

Thunder, lightning, driving rain, weird noises, and a horror film voice - not the usual Charlie's Angel's opening.

"I hope you can help her, Angels", says Charlie on the speaker phone, "I'm a long-time friend and fan" - someone is gas lightning ageing Hollywood actress Gloria Gibson (played by Ida Lupino). Or maybe she's just going senile, flashing back on her old films? The Angels aren't too sure.

When the Charlie's Angels series was first conceived, the writers decided the character of Sabrina would be 'elegant, refined, educated, a fashion plate'.

As the series developed though, each of the actresses moulded their individual characters to their own style, taking them on different tangents from the original ideas, but here we see Kate Jackson definitely playing Sabrina as elegant and educated, and that's particularly expressed in her dress. I don't think there's another episode, in which Sabrina has so many changes of outfit (seven in total) - and there's a prolifacy of the silk neck scarf, a symbol of high class sophistication and education, I guess?

1. When the Angels visit Gloria's house for the first time, Sabrina wears a white jacket with matching long white skirt, a light yellow patterned neck scarf, stockings and heels. She reveals her knowledge of art by instantly recognising the large painting on the wall as a Botticelli Fresco.

2. Next, staying at Gloria's, Sabrina is in garish green silk pyjamas when Gloria believes she sees a ghost in the bathroom.

3. Sabrina accompanies Gloria to the film studios in Charlie's Mercedes, which he has lent Gloria as she's broke, and Sabrina's now changed into a black jacket, with a white large-collared blouse, and grey-chequed knicker bottoms/breaches that are so flared that they look like a skirt at first, with black boots.

4. Next it's a claret jacket, with a purple neck scarf, and a grey and purple long skirt. Good colour coordination.

5. Relaxing back at Gloria's house, Sabrina wears a brown jumper, with a torquoise neck scarf, the knot tied at the front, which gives her the air of an art critic, rounded off with Kate Jackson's favourite pair of flared jeans which she's worn in a number of previous episodes

6. For the concluding scenes, it's a white boiler suit with an elastic belt around Sabrina's slim waist, and, this time, the obligatory neck scarf is orangy brown - the outfit is not a million miles away from the white motor racing suit Sabrina wore when racing cars in Hellride, the first Charlie's Angels episode. "I've got it, by George, I think I've got it", Sabrina declares looking at the Botticelli fresco, 'the smart one', having worked out it's not a representation but the original painting, and thus solving the whole motive for the gaslighting of Gloria, which had flummoxed everyone up until then.

7. Finally, back in the Townsend Agency office for the end of episode debrief, Sabrina changes back into outfit number 5, the casual brown pullover and her favourite jeans, but it's yet another neck scarf, this time a classical paisley tan pattern.

Jill (Farah Fawcett) was always the sporty Angel right from the show's conception, and she wears a black leather jacket, with a low cut revealing red blouse in the early scenes.

Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) is given this episode's most bizarre and comedic scene when she goes to the 'Bits and Extras' agency, and finds that the two partners who run the company, apart from hiring Bit players for films, also work as Bit players themselves, so Kelly is interviewed by a bare-chested Samoan warrior with a bush on his head, and then a red Indian. Kelly lands a bit part waitress role that, of course, involves her having to wear some kind of red bunny girl outfit with black stockings and red knickers.

Apparently the Angels got to keep the clothes they wore on the programme, so what a pity for Kate Jackson that 1977 flared trousers and wide collars went out of fashion so quickly after this episode was made.

Charlie's Angels: The Vegas Connection (1977) Season 1, Episode 17

Another strong episode from the first series.

[9/10 · 7 May 2023]

For a programme often derided for being light and fluffy, Charlie's Angels does sometimes delve into social comment, probably more than it's given credit for, and none more so when dealing with the subject of prostitution, a recurring theme throughout all the series (1976 to 1981), normally with one, sometimes all, of the Angels, going undercover as a sex worker.

And it's interesting that, overall, the Charlie's Angels scripts are quite sympathetic towards the women, generally painting them as victims of their circumstances.

In this episode, the Angels actually openly discuss the subject, on the car journey to Las Vegas, with Bosley present in the back seat. "With her parents dead, and the money gone, I dunno, in her place, maybe I could almost con myself into doing it", says Sabrina (Kate Jackson) refering to Mrs Mallin (played by Carla Borelli) who's being blackmailed, and who has confessed to the Angels, when they pressured her to tell the truth, that she was once so desperately broke that she slept one night with a 'high roller' for money. It had taken Mrs Mallin months with a psychiatrist for her to come to terms with what she did, "when the sun came up in the morning I had 500 dollars in my purse...and feeling so dirty I couldn't wash it off" - she remembered 'every rotten detail', even the room number at the hotel.

"Let's hope none of us gets put in a position where we have to find out what we'd do", replies Jill (Farah Fawcett) to Sabrina in the car (note that she doesn't say, "I'd never do it").

We then meet Elizabeth (played by Brooke Bundy), one of the Las Vegas chorus line girls. She tearfully tells Kelly and Sabrina her life story, how she got married at 18, "and when I was 19 he put me in a short skirt and sent me out to the street, then for my 20th birthday he sent me back onto the street with a fat lip and black eye, and told me not to come back with anything less than 100 bucks".

That Elizabeth has been deprived of love all her life is underlined when Bosley drives her home and she asks him to do her a favour and kiss her goodnight as nobody's done that at her front door before, and she wanted to know what it was like. However, this does become a bit of a loose end as the relationship between the pair never develops beyond that.

In 'Consenting Adults', seven episodes before this one, the prostitute was a high school student, funding an extravagant lifestyle; a cold unsympathetic character who was also robbing her clients in cahoots with the boss of the escort Agency she worked for, so to balance things out, this episode deals with women who go into this line of work out of desperation.

This time it's Kelly's (Jacklyn Smith) turn to be the prostitute, but, as in Consulting Adults, the client is none other than Bosley, who has now fully developed his impersonation of a sex client into the character of a rich brash Texan (an undercover accent that Bosley would repeat many a time in episodes to come).

Cass Harper played by Michael Callen makes for a convincing blackmailer, although the necktie he wears in the final scenes gives him the look of an avant garde artist, or painter. He's genuinely confused when he's falsely accused of stealing from the hotel, and even more so when a Rolls Royce is delivered in his name - all set up by the Angels, of course.

Kate Jackson is beautiful in a red track-suit in the opening scenes,."Mrs Mallin just went into the poker palace", she says in her trademark husky voice in her opening line.

Farah Fawcett with her hair unusually tied up, sports a quasi-hippy look, in a long brown skirt, purple blouse with sequins, and matching shawl, and has a great car chase around the casino car park played out to the familiar Charlie's Angels funky action music.

And Jaclyn Smith changes clothes and character from wearing a leotard for the chorus line audition, to a smart white silk blouse and trouser outfit when she's the high class prostitute, and then hot-pants and high thigh-length boots when playing the role of the showroom girl who delivers the Rolls Royce.

Overall, it's another strong episode in this groundbreaking first series, which by now, February 1977, was topping the TV rankings.

And by the way, the giant signs on the Las Vegas strip advertise that Tom Jones is playing at the Caesar's Palace, as indeed he did exactly at this time.

Charlie's Angels: Consenting Adults (1976) Season 1, Episode 10

The most 1970s scene ever...

[10/10 · 5 May 2023]

The most 1970s scene ever - Farah Fawcett on a skateboard, in flared jeans and a tight red jacket, chased by a hit man in a brown leather coat driving an ice-cream van, while funky jazzy music - that classic 1970s sound - plays in the background.

This episode must have been made just after the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci famously won the Gold medal in the gymnastics at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, as she gets mentioned when Kelly (Jaclyn Smith), undercover as a sports magazine editor, tells the racketeer Bialy (Alan Manson) that the cover story is a choice between his racehorse or Nadia Comaneci.

I was 10 years old in 1976 and remember the skateboard craze, and those kind of clothes, and getting excited when the ice cream van came round.

It's actually quite a complicated plot, difficult for the viewer to work out exactly, until Sabrina (Kate Jackson), the smart one, cracks it with just ten minutes of the programme remaining. This is after she's been blindfolded and held at gunpoint while the two men who blindfolded her are shot dead by the hit man in the brown leather coat (played by George Sperdakos)... A while later when Sabrina and Jill are stealing the racehorse, pretending to be veterinarians, and remarking upon how different it is from the "good ole dull days" of the Police Academy, Sabrina says with a smile, "you know what, I miss the good ole dull days".

Prostitution features in a number of Charlie's Angels episodes, and this time it's Jill (Farah Fawcett) who has to go undercover as a sex worker; "I don't give anything away for free that I can sell", she says as she signs up to work at the 'Consenting Adults' agency, and there's a great moment as her first prospective client walks in... and it's Bosley! Meticulous planning from the Angels team there.

The way the episode finishes with the hit man in the brown leather coat stacking the ice cream van into a parked car, and knocking himself out, is pure entertainment. Ten episodes into the first Charlie's Angels series, no wonder it was so popular, topping the TV ratings around this point.

Charlie's Angels: To Kill an Angel (1976) Season 1, Episode 7

A slow episode, but Sabrina and Jill provide a couple of funny scenes.

[5/10 · 27 April 2023]

I found this one quite slow moving - the whole episode is really just one long search for Skip, the autistic boy.

It does seem odd, given that we're always lead to believe the Angels are close friends, that Kelly hadn't told Sabrina and Jill that she does voluntary work, regularly looking after an autistic child - she keeps it a secret from them, telling them she's going on a date instead. Why would she do that?

Kelly picks the boy up from the Pacific Sanitarium - what kind of place is that? And the boy is handed over to Kelly by a nurse in uniform. So that's a lot of responsibility on Kelly's shoulders, and she carelessly, and irresponsibly, manages to lose him at an Amusement Park.

It's not fair to pick holes in Charlie's Angels plots, as it was never meant to be taken too seriously (although sometimes the plots are very good), but it was a bit too convenient that the boy Skip was able to walk from the Amusement Park to the restaurant where his mother used to work (she gave him away when he was 2 years old, so how would he realistically know where the restaurant is?), and then from the restaurant he's rather conveniently just given a lift to the beach by a stranger, and then, from there, it's just happens to be a short walk to his mother's house.

And, at the end, at the Amusement Park, when Kelly tells the taxi driver to telephone the police and the other Angels, they all miraculously arrive within seconds!

There are still a couple of good scenes though; Robert Donner is good as Korbin, the gangster who manages to trick his way into Kelly's hospital room, pretending to be Skip's father, and the best bit of the whole episode, in my opinion, is the short comedic scene, in which Sabrina and Jill deal with a seedy publisher who makes an offer to them to pose for an adult magazine, "the less you wear, the more you get". The two girls read each other's minds, and immediately carry out a little routine in front of him, pretending to be police officers, discussing out loud what his sentence for the 'pornographic preposition' will be - it's good acting from Kate Jackson as Sabrina, "oh, it was a joke", she says as the publisher backtracks, and they let him off so that he gives them the information about wage tickets that they came for, although Jill (Farah Fawcett) let's him know she still thinks they should book him as they leave.

Sabrina and Jill are on a telepathic level again in the episode's finale at the Amusement Park. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking", says Sabrina, and with no discussion necessary, they turn on the spinning wall ride (the Gravitron), trapping Korbin as he spins helplessly pressed against its wall.

Charlie's Angels: Angels on Wheels (1976) Season 1, Episode 12

Quite a complex insurance scam

[9/10 · 11 April 2023]

As a Brit, watching Charlie's Angels for the first time during the 2020 Covid lockdown, the first question I have to ask about this episode is, 'What on earth is a Roller Game?' - What are the rules? How do you score points? Or is it just a race? You certainly cannot work that out here, even though there are plenty of scenes of the competitors skating around the track. Whatever it is, Roller Game looks pretty violent!

The white, blue, and red gear the skaters wear, with big writing and numbers on the front, are very 1970s USA - reminds me of an Evel Knievel toy I had as a kid around the time this episode would have been made, or Elvis performing live at Las Vegas which was shown on the telly around this time too.

What an amazing entrance from Jill (Farah Fawcett) at the beginning; she boldly strolls into the Townsend agency office, braless, wearing a light blue vest-like top, nipples protruding - her trademark look. With matching light blue 1976 flared trousers, she joins Sabrina (Kate Jackson) and Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) on the sofa, both equally wearing enormous flares; white for Sabrina, green for Kelly. The girls are briefed by Bosley, and, unusually, are each handed a brown envelope with instructions of their tasks.

Dick Sargent is good as Hugh Morris, the owner of The Tornadoes, the Roller Game team. I don't think some of his lines would be allowed today though. When he first meets Jill who comes to his office to introduce herself, he asks, "You mind if I look you over?", while walking around her, looking at her body, "you got a shape that can sell tickets, little lady".

And now we know what Bill Clinton was doing back in the 1970s, as I'm sure that's him playing Red Loomis, the big-muscled, dirty-faced accomplice - the only difference is that Clinton must've been much more into bodybuilding back then (the part is actually played by Steve Sandor, who later appears in a very sinister role in season 2's Sandcastle Murders).

The bomb thing, that other reviews have mentioned, with the unseen Charlie warning Kelly on the phone in the car, is odd, I agree, but I rewinded it back and ran through it again, and thought about it - it can only be that Charlie was in the bus station car park where Kelly left her car while she collected the suitcase full of money, and Charlie must have witnessed Taylor Lecher (played by Jeremy Carr) attach a bomb to the underneath of the car, and then Charlie must have driven off down the mountain road and pulled into that 'first breaking area' himself, which is why he tells Kelly on the car phone to pull over at the 'first breaking area' she sees. Therefore, already being there, Charlie sees Kelly run out of the car without the suitcase, so shouts down the phone, "The suitcase, Angel, the suitcase".

That must be it, rather than Charlie having God-like powers, watching over proceedings from up high.

But why does Kelly have to keep driving until reaching that 'first breaking area', with the bomb ticking away? As Charlie says himself, he has no idea when it's going to go off.

And it does beg the question. How often does Charlie do this, follow the Angels around? And it's very surprising that Kelly doesn't mention to anyone afterwards that Charlie must have been there. Especially as in other episodes the girls get so worked up and excited if they think Charlie has been present in the same place as them.

All three Angels meet up together just after Sabrina has visited elderly financial wizard Emmet Winston (played by William Benedict), and it's a lovely scene as they sit on a park bench together discussing the case, trying to work it all out (you've got to concentrate hard to understand the ins and outs of the insurance scam). They're so relaxed, and you can really sense the well documented chemistry these three original Angels had between themselves.

The dinner meeting between Jill and Jessica Farmer, the leading scammer played by Andra Akers, and Betty (Kres Mersky), the skater who's in on the scam, reveals, through the dialogue, how this quite complex crime works, and Bosley explains in the car ,while driving Kelly and Sabrina to the final climatic Roller Game, that it's Jessica and her partner, the coach Toby Rizzo (played by Nate Esformes) who have been buying up all the stock in Morris Insurance - this explains why Rizzo ran off at the end (that other reviews didn't understand). Definitely one of the most complex and most difficult to follow Charlie's Angels plots, which shows it was lot more than just jiggle TV. Great entertainment.

Oh, and that bit when Emmet, the William Benedict character, says after meeting Sabrina, who's resplendent in a white skirt and jacket suit, 'Oh to be 30 years younger'; as a middle-aged man watching during lockdown, I found myself nodding in agreement!

Charlie's Angels: Dirty Business (1977) Season 1, Episode 16

Great Entertainment

[9/10 · 4 April 2023]

Blackmail, blue films, corrupt police officers, Kung Fu kicks, driving at break-neck speed - this one's got the lot! What more could you want from a Charlie's Angels episode!

And, of course, all three of the Angels - Sabrina, Kelly and Jill - look great throughout too.

There's even a romance, with one of the Angels, Jill (Farah Fawcett) this time, falling for a man who turns out to be one of the bad guys - this is a running theme throughout all the Charlie's Angels series - these stunningly beautiful women, who are also smart, stylish, and funny, always seem to have such bad luck with men - that, of course, was a big part of the appeal - I'm sure Charlie's Angels would not have been so popular if they had all been happily married, in stable relationships.

I enjoyed this episode, as I did all the first series (watching it for the first time during the 2020 Covid lockdown), and I can imagine how fresh Charlie's Angels must have felt when it first aired in 1976.

I enjoyed the sub-plot; Bosley visiting Mrs Evers (played by Doris Dorn), a partner in the film company, at somesort of golf practice drive, and Sabrina visiting Mr Goldman, another invester in the company, at his tropical fish store - they're both good scenes, well-acted, and add to the plot and mystery, in my opinion.

There's a bit of bizarre surrealism in this one, as one of the films the Angels have to watch, to look for clues, features a band of bearded Fidel Castro lookalikes in green army fatigues. The revolutionaries just happen to be leaving the studio at the same time as the Angels, so Sabrina confronts their leader, and this is my favourite scene - it's like a Monty Python sketch; Kate Jackson's facial expressions are superb, speaking with her eyes - she would have made a very good comedy actress.

Talking of Kate Jackson, I mocked her clothes in a previous episode called The Seance, but here she"s back to her stylish best in a silver silk blouse with white skirt, and dhe multi-coloured jersey (mainly red, orange, light brown) she wears in the final scenes is very chic, and would still look cool today.

Another surreal scene that would not be out of place in an early Woody Allan comedy, is when the actors and actress from 'Little Bo Beep' walk past the girls in the studio. This leads to a suspicious Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) following the director of this film, and approaching him at a hamburger stand in a park. Kelly puts on her strongest simple Southern girl accent, and tells him she'd be willing to do anything to get into acting, prepared to participate in one of his 'freeform' films.

Jill (Farah Fawcett) has a dinner date with the district attorney Paul Baylor (Alan Feinstein) who, at this point, we don't realise is in cahoots with corrupt police officers. After the meal Jill drives home, and is immediately shot at in underground garage car park, so it's an episode where the work is equally spread out between the three Angels and Bosley, and I honestly thought the plot was quite complex and gripping, worthy of a serious whodunnit crime story, and I was genuinely surprised by how it ended.

Charlie's Angels: The Seance (1976) Season 1, Episode 11

Eerie fun.

[8/10 · 17 March 2023]

The Angels were always at their best when dealing with kidnaps, prostitution; the seedy side of LA...

But they can't do that in every episode, and this is the first of the eerie ones, with eerie music - later super-natural episodes would include UFOs, and mind-reading.

This episode holds together well, mainly due to excellent acting from Jaclyn Smith (Kelly) and Rene Auberjonois, the villain who has two different voices - his normal one, and a special one for when he's doing the clairvoyant stuff.

In 1976, flared trousers were at their very widest, and this episode is proof of that - it doesn't date too well in the fashion stakes. God knows what the normally stylish Kate Jackson (Sabrina) is wearing when the Angels first appear at the crimescene -some kind of purple and torquois woollen space suit, which she follows up with something I can only describe as a kind of long brown cape, or shawl, tied at the side, accompanied by a piece of metal around her neck that makes Sabrina look more like a character from Star Trek than a Charlie's Angel!

And then there's her extravagant pink silk nightdress... Sabrina did solve the crime though.

Charlie's Angels: Lady Killer (1976) Season 1, Episode 8

Reality follows fiction.

[7/10 · 1 March 2023]

Reality followed fiction here as Farah Fawcett did pose for the Playboy front cover in 1978, just two years after this episode aired, and then fully nude for the magazine in 1995.

Although I doubt the fictional Jill Monroe character (played by Farah), or any of the Angels would have approved of soft porn, and Farah's real life antics? They are far too perfect for that.

Or, at least, the Angels always just managed to steer that fine line between being incredibly pretty and sexy and using it to get their way, and joining in on Charlie's sexist comments, but at the same time remaining feminist.

In contrast to the tiny Feline club outfits and bikinis Jill (Farah), and all the young under 20s girls are wearing, Sabrina (Kate Jackson) wears mainly longer skirts and jackets in this episode... So when the Angels and Bosley go to back up Kelly when she puts herself in the dangerous position of doing a blackmail deal in the middle of nowhere with Dave Erhard, not only does Kelly go without her gun, as others have pointed out, but Sabrina has decided that long skirt and heels would be appropriate dress for the occasion, that inevitably includes a footchase. But Sabrina, and all the Angels look great throughout, and that's the most important thing.

Charlie's Angels: Disco Angels (1979) Season 3, Episode 15

Where are the Disco Dancing Angels?

[6/10 · 15 February 2023]

Charlie's Angels meets disco - it had to happen!

I cannot think of anything that could be more late 1970s than Charlie Angels and Disco!

I'm watching this for the first time during the 2020 COVID lockdown, and the opening scene is great. The disco anthem 'Disco Inferno' blasts out, just as it did in Saturday Night Fever, as the disco dancers strut their stuff on the dancefloor - there's even a John Travolta type, called Mario (played by Gregory Rozakis).

But it does go a bit downhill after the opening scene.

I would've loved to have seen all three of the Angels on the dance floor, and considering their multiple talents, and the fact that they'd all previously shaken their hips while Hula dancing in Hawaii in Angels In Paradise, it's disappointing we didn't see them all up boogying, even if it was just done in a jokey way.

We do get Kris dancing with Mario, the John Travolta-type, but it's not disco, just some form of ballroom dancing with formal steps and him twirling her around.

God knows why Harry the DJ (played by Zalman King), who turns out to be the murderer, is the star attraction at Freddie's disco as he just shouts between tracks in a manic way, and is not cool at all in either looks or dress. In the real world he'd drive people away rather than attract customers.

Once again, one of the Angels, Sabrina this time, goes undercover as a magazine reporter, which is a bit unimaginative and lazy by now, and, once again the Anglels blow their covers by making the ridiculously basic mistake of all sitting and chatting together in full view of suspects when they're not meant to be connected or know each other. Will they ever learn!

Shera Denise looks great and acts great in her supporting role, taking her dislike and jealousy of Kris (Cheryl Ladd) so far that she attacks her, and they have a fight. Kris dressed in tight red PVC trousers, and matching red top.

It's quite convenient for the the visuals that the prospective final victim, when he realises he's been followed by the suspect, chooses to walk away from people and buildings to an isolated place, perfect for getting attacked, and for the Angels to jump in and save the day.

But all could have been saved If only we could have seen all the Angels in disco gear dancing the night away!

Charlie's Angels: Angels in the Backfield (1978) Season 2, Episode 17

Kate Jackson at her best

[6/10 · 25 January 2023]

In the opening scene, one of the Duck's players (Pokey) gets terrorised after training by two people on motorbikes, and the way she rolls over and over is silly and comedic, which sets the tone for this whole daft episode.

After the opening action, it's standard in every Charlie's Angels episode that the second scene takes place in the Townsend office with the client explaining to Bosley and the girls what's been occuring and asking for their help (with Charlie listening on the speaker phone) but this time, for me, it's actually the best scene of the episode. Amy (Nancy Fox), the Duck's trainer (who looks like a young Taylor Swift with round glasses) and her father (L. Q. Jones), sipping beer as he does throughout the whole episode, are on the sofa, and Sabrina (Kate Jackson) is just stunningly beautiful as she sits on the arm rest at the end of the sofa in a stylish orange dress. There are some great facial expressions from Sabrina and Kris (Cheryl Ladd) when Amy's father announces to Bosley, "Do you know where I think these girls should be spending their time, including my daughter? - in the kitchen.".

I've always been amused by how easy it seems to be to get lunch dates with the Charlie's Angels. In this episode Joe (Gary Wood), a complete stranger, strolls over to Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) after one Ducks training session, gives her a couple of tips about her game, and she says "How About Lunch?" - if only real life was like that!

I enjoyed the catty exchanges between Sabrina (Kate Jackson) and the owner of the Panthers, Julia Smyth (Patch Mackenzie), again both actresses saying so much with their eyes and facial expressions... and there's another good piece of Kate Jackson acting when Kelly and Kris are pleased that the game might be called off, but are surprised that Sabrina appears to still want to play. Jackson brings out Sabrina' s competitive streak by replying with her head down,."I don't want to play the Panthers.. I wanna beat the Panthers" (oddly she's rolling up what looks like a cigarette paper as she says it?).

As a Brit, I know nothing about American Football, so I learnt a bit about its scoring in this episode. The Ducks were losing 13-0 at halftime, though the three Angels weren't playing as they were busy solving the crime, catching Joe and his mates in the act of breaking open the stadium's safe, with the match commentary running in the background. Does that really happen at American Football matches -.there's a commentator giving a running commentary to the crowd inside the stadium?

And talk about leaving it late! Having caught the criminals, the Angels take their time, telling them off and handing them over to the police, before getting changed into their Football gear, and joining the match for the final few minutes, and turning it around. Is that allowed - three substitutions like that right at the end of the match?

Charlie's Angels: Angel on a Roll (1981) Season 5, Episode 14

C'mon, it's still good viewing!

[8/10 · 28 November 2022]

So, it opens with what we think is a lazy 1970s stereotype of an Asian/Japanese buisnessman... but actually that turns out not to be the case, because it's actually the suspect in disguise.

And one of his other disguises is as a man called Morales Morales who wears a sombrero, and has a droopy moustache...

I honestly can't see anything wrong with it, and do get the joke.

I don't have a problem with Kris (Cheryl Ladd) getting the main role either - Kelly and Julie have had the lead in other episodes, and the three Angels can't work together, sharing equal screen time, in every episode.

There's a mixture of comedy, when Bosley, Julie, and Kelly interview the various bank executives....and some seriously beautiful philosophical acting between Kris and the suspect Ted Markham (played by Mark Pinter)... the car ride when they discuss their lives, and Van Gogh, could've easily been from a movie classic like Dr Zhivago, Love Story, or Casablanca.

Cheryll Ladd, apart from being beautiful, is an excellent actress, probably at her best when interacting with men, and, as she shows here, could definitely have handled a serious role in a serious film.

But why did Kris and Ted Markham finish? - once the charges are dropped against Markham, why couldn't he and Kris have become an item, and gone to Europe together? That actually might have been a good way of ending the whole thing as there were only two Charlie's Angels episodes two go after this one.

Charlie's Angels: Attack Angels (1981) Season 5, Episode 13

Eerie Angels

[7/10 · 22 November 2022]

This episode starts off very eerily, and Eric Braeden is excellent as the sinister John Reardon

The strange music gives it the feel of an episode of Twilight Zone.

Who is the beautiful Stephanie Hoff who plays Francine? I looked her up, and it would appear that this is her one and only appearance in anything?

The sub-plot with Reardon's sidekick Robert Carver (David Sheiner) is well acted - Carver warning Reardon not to hire Julie.

But then the episode starts to get silly when Reardon has Julie in some sort of bath tub, with water up to her neck, and images of candles, something about fire and water being good for hypnotism, strong hypnotic symbols ... It did seem very easy to hypnotize Juile, and turn her into an assassin though.

Charlie's Angels: Angel on the Line (1981) Season 5, Episode 10

Still some good stuff as Charlie's Angels nears it's end..

[8/10 · 15 November 2022]

Forget the fact that the plot's a bit flawed (it's Charlie's Angels, for God's sake, which I don't believe anyone ever tuned into expecting a seriously deep intellectual script, not even in the halcyon days of Kate Jackson and Farah Fawcett), and, yes, Kelly's fear and nervousness is inconsistent with the character she's built up over the previous 100-odd episodes, but... there's menace in the air - I always enjoy the grittier episodes of Charlie's Angels, in downtown Los Angeles, rather than when they're cavorting around Hawaii or Las Vegas.

The opening music is great. And that late 70s/early 80s jazz funk groove continues through all the scenes - there's more background music in this one than most Charlie's Angels episodes.

As a Londoner, I love the red British phone box at the entrance of the hotline club.

Paul Cavonis has appeared in other Charlie's Angels, and is an excellent actor - I, certainly, was fooled, and had him down as the main suspect.

OK, without Kate Jackson, Charlie's Angels wasn't the same after the 3rd series, we all know that, but once you get your head around the fact that she's gone, there's still some good stuff in the 4th and 5th series.

Sad that the actor who played the transvestite murderer (Bruce Watson) appears to have been quite confused and conflicted in real life too, taking his own life.

For all it's silliness, there's always been some deeper reflections to Charlie's Angels.

Charlie's Angels: Taxi Angels (1981) Season 5, Episode 9

Taxi Driver

[7/10 · 15 November 2022]

I liked the opening panoramic views from the air of Los Angeles, with jazz music.

Certainly not as violent as Robert De Niro's Taxi Driver, but when Kelly was driving around in her yellow cab, picking up passengers, with the more jazzier version of the Charlie's Angels theme playing as the soundtrack, there was a similar vibe. The passenger who was actually a taxi-driver himself, from New York, was great, irritating Kelly with his constant commentary on how much better New York is to Los Angeles.

I enjoyed this episode, and even fell for the twist on the plot, believing it was the trauma suffering army veteran Sergeant who was rigging all the cabs.

Charlie's Angels: Stuntwomen Angels (1981) Season 5, Episode 12

A silly one

[6/10 · 14 November 2022]

Like the opening, the jazz music.

But then, it does all get a bit silly.

Running out of ideas, it looks like they're borrowing off Starsky and Hutch, who went undercover as stuntmen in one episode - I'm sure it's even the same studio set balcony they fall from - the one with white wooden railings that David Soul (Hutch) in cowboy gear falls from in that series opening credits.

Julie Rogers (Tanya Roberts) turquoise boiler suit hasn't aged well - difficult to believe, but, back in the early 80s, they were the height of fashion.

In the scene, when the three Charlie's Angels, swing down on ropes, and knock three horsemen off their horses, while their friend gets an arrow in the chest, it all has the feel of a school-play, a world away from the best Charlie's Angels episodes when they are downtown dealing with fraudsters, prostitutes and drugs.

Charlie's Angels: Island Angels (1980) Season 5, Episode 4

It's the Julie Rogers in a bikini show.

[5/10 · 9 October 2022]

After the gritty two-parter of Angel In Hiding that opened the 5th (and last) series, and was set in the Angel's natural habitat of downtown LA, this episode (no. 5 in the series) is now the third episode in a row of the Angels sojourn in Hawaii, and it's now becoming clear that the main reason for opening up a Townshend Agency branch in Hawaii is to show off Julie Rogers (Tanya Roberts) amazing body in a bikini at every opportunity (with plenty of accompanying shots of supporting cast and extras scantily-dressed around swimming pools etc).

It's the 1980's now, and even Kris (Cheryl Ladd) has a perm, and the fashion is pegged trousers and boiler suits (when they're not in bikinis).... The charm (from today's perspective) of the original Charlie's Angels is that it's so 1970s, wiih Kate Jackson and Farah in flares, big collars etc...

(Kate Jackson, by the way, was by now sporting a horrendous perm in the Scarecrow and Mrs King, so thank god she'd left the Angels, and didn't ruin her iconic Charlie Angels status with silly hair, which she no doubt would have been sporting by now had she stayed).

The programme has changed, and is now a long way from the original Charlie's Angels, and, for me, these episodes are only interesting in the context of what came before then. Julie (Tanya Roberts) has centre stage in this one, and the other two, and Bosley and Charlie, go out of their way at the end to make it so clear to Julie how well she's doing, and how much they like her.

Considering quite a lot must've been spent on the budget, filming on location etc, you would think they could have done better than the photo with the heads so obviously stuck on bodies - most amateur drama groups/school plays would put more effort into coming up with something better than that.

Charlie's Angels: One Love... Two Angels: Part II (1980) Season 4, Episode 25

Good acting

[9/10 · 4 October 2022]

After the very silly, but enjoyable, Toni's Boys episode, the 4th series ends with a more serious, and darker, two-parter, during which Kelly and Kris fall out over a man.

That's one of the charms of all the Charlie's Angels first 4 series, the flexibility to swing from completely ridiculous, almost comedic episodes, to others that deal with emotional, sometimes quite serious social issues.

No doubt the producers were searching for original ideas, after about 100 episodes, and two angels falling in love with the same man just about works thanks to good acting from Jacklyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, and Patrick Duffy... I thought Kris's (Cheryl Ladd) facial expressions throughout the whole affair were quality, capturing a woman's feelings of hurt, jealousy...

However, you would have liked to have thought that two confident, savvy female detectives would have both dumped their lover when they discovered he was cheating on them, with their best friend - especially as the whole premise of Charlie's Angels is how tight the friendship and loyalty of the Angels is, both on a professional and social level. It just goes against the grain of everything we've known about their personalities that this would happen, but then again, that's the power of love, and what makes this episode so intriguing... They do have weaknesses after all...

While Kelly and Kris are dealing with their personal issues in this episode, it is Tiffany (Shelley Hack) who does all the detective work, and bizarrely, in her last ever episode, is so comfortable and confident in her role, really nailing the Tiffany personality, as well as looking great, stylish and sophisticated, in every scene (and braless when wearing the purple jumper, a tribute to Farah Fawcett perhaps!).

Charlie's Angels: Nips and Tucks (1980) Season 4, Episode 21

A good episode

[8/10 · 12 September 2022]

I enjoyed this one a lot.

Ratings for Charlie's Angels were falling during this period, the 4th season, but maybe it's too easy to just blame the Tiffany (Shelley Hack) character for it - perhaps by the 4th season (we're now in 1980), the original novelty of three attractive female detectives had worn off - and would have done so, just the same, even if Kate Jackson had stayed.

I say that, because Shelley Hack's acting is more natural and less wooden in this episode, as she gets to play a much more central role than usual - far more involved than Kelly and Kris - and she's smart, and sensitive, her character beginning to take shape. And when she responds back to Charlie with a cheeky, 'Chercher yourself, Charlie', it's clear that the Tiffany character is growing in confidence. And we'll never know how much more the Tiffany character could have grown into the role as she was replaced for series 5 with the more curvaceous and energetic Tanya Roberts (the change had no effect on halting the falling ratings though).

Louis Jourdan, Joanna Poulett and Tab Hunter are all great in Nips and Tuck, and it's a decent plot.

Charlie's Angels: One of Our Angels Is Missing (1980) Season 4, Episode 15

Great acting from Cheryl Ladd

[4/10 · 25 August 2022]

As is becoming the norm in series 4, it's not really Charlie's Angels anymore, but a focus on one of the Angels, and, in this case, it's Kris (Cheryl Ladd), who's simply brilliant - great acting. Just her facial expressions. Especially as she tactfully rejects Devlin's continuous attempts to get her into bed.