"Charlie's Angels"

1976-1981
-created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts
Feminist watershed or regressive objectification of women?
How about both?
Love it or hate it (or again, both), it was hard to be ambivalent about the cultural phenomenon that was CHARLIE'S ANGELS. Single, employed, empowered women kicking butt in a man's world, in a profession that it would have been laughable to imagine any woman doing a generation before. The single ANGELS male regular? A clown. Who was almost never central to the plotline.
Indeed, the only other comparable bursts of prime time estrogen in television's first half-century were 1981's CAGNEY & LACEY, 1984's KATE & ALLIE, 1985's THE GOLDEN GIRLS, and 1986's DESIGNING WOMEN. Notice anything about the proximity of those dates to ANGELS? Over three decades later, women still trail men in percentage of television leads, by a large margin...but at least no one talks about HOT IN CLEVELAND as a "woman's" show.
A compelling case can be made for THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW as the first female-dominated show, but a majority of the regulars were male. Plus, studio execs wouldn't allow Mary to be divorced (unlike one Sabrina Duncan). Mary wasn't given duties commensurate with her talent (once freed from the sexist police force, no Angel ever took a backseat to any other detective). Unlike her male co-workers, Mary deferred to her boss as "Mr. Grant" (did you ever hear an Angel utter "Mr. Townsend"?).
Of course, the flip side to all that...
The ANGELS opening credits intro ("Once upon a time, there were three little girls") is arguably the most patronizing tagline in television history. They were perhaps reaching for irony, but still...
ANGELS reduced serious women to sex objects. No Angel would have been out of place on the catwalk. Sex was an overriding factor in the show's success, in a way that reinforced the notion that a woman's worth is measured by her beauty (though to be fair, they didn't use sex as gratuitously or obviously as other shows - i'm lookin' at you, T.J. HOOKER).
Too often, the Angels solved their problems in male ways. A lot of bad guys received angelic beatdowns. Not even a radical feminist could be happy about that.
And behind it all, there was a mystery male pulling the strings.
Still, argue about whether the bad outweighed the good, but you can't argue that there wasn't a lot of good going on. These women were nobody's fools, excelling in a male-dominated world...and that's something which can never be taken away from the millions of little girls (and boys) who watched. It would be intriguing to find out how much of that was intentional. Is it possible that "charlie" was Ivan and Ben's deal with the devil (and no, i don't mean Aaron Spelling, but don't tempt me)? Would "SARAH'S ANGELS" have even made the airwaves?
Aside from all that, if you managed to get past your reservations, the show was a hoot! The stars complained of a dearth of great scripts, and not without cause. But their sexy/silly adventures were a brilliant formula. Nor was it all mindless...most people don't remember, or never took the time to find out, but there were genuine forays into the darker side of life. And a lot of the best episodes were the ones that took character study seriously.
So here, a salute to all things (classically) ANGELS!
FIVE GREATEST EPISODES (season)
-Angels in Chains (1)
-Angels at Sea (1)
-Angels in Paradise (2)
-Fallen Angel (4)
-One Love...Two Angels (4)
JACLYN SMITH
-Kelly Garrett, 110 episodes
In many ways, the quiet heart of the show (as opposed to the brains of Sabrina, or the groins of Jill). Lurking in her character were an orphan's abandonment issues...underneath that sweetness, there might have been someone a little high-maintenance, or even occasionally unreasonable. But no other Angel put herself on the line to help others as much.
KEL-A-THON
-Target: Angels (1)
-To Kill an Angel (1)
-Unidentified Flying Angels (2)
-Avenging Angel (4)
-Angel's Child (4)
DAVID DOYLE
-Bosley, 110 episodes
How underappreciated are this man's contributions, this Bosley John Bosley? The subtle line of comic relief he had to walk? He never descended into caricature, and always made the people around him better. All three Angels were never strictly required, as the interplay between them was fairly interchangeable...CHARLIE'S ANGEL probably would have been a success. But thankfully, we never had to learn what a Bos-less episode would be like.
BOS-A-THON
-Magic Fire (2)
-Antique Angels (2)
-The Sand Castle Murders (2)
-Angels in Waiting (3)
JOHN FORSYTHE
-Charles Townsend, 109 episodes (voice)
Immaculate pipes, Mr. Forsythe. But even as a kid, i knew there was something not quite right about his playboy ways. Did Ben and Ivan make that aspect of the show intentionally cheesy, to undercut it? One might be tempted to regret the fact that the network never forked over the bucks John wanted to finally appear in an episode. But in the big picture, history should be thankful. His absence guaranteed that nothing would mar the show's belonging incontrovertibly to...the women.
CHERYL LADD
-Kris Munroe, 87 episodes
Replace Farrah? Have you taken leave of your sanity?? It can be argued that the show broke no new ground in its final four seasons, so Cheryl's quietly towering achievement is perhaps lessened...but that's a myopic view. How many more impressionable children were touched by ANGEL magic in those four seasons (and the syndication that resulted)? Everything about Cheryl's excellence will forever be a bit diminished by a certain shadow...but her understated charm and unimpeachable talent brought about an almost unforeseeable result. The show thrived, and lost no ratings steam at all.
KRIS-A-THON
-Caged Angel (4)
-Angel Baby (2)
-Angel on my Mind (3)
-One of Our Angels is Missing (4)
-Love Boat Angels (4)
KATE JACKSON
-Sabrina Duncan, 69 episodes
How dynamic was Kate? How coolly intelligent? If i hadn't been a male child living in a sexually repressed society, might my (and everyone's) favorite Angel have been Sabrina? It might be worth mentioning that the ratings drop-off that DIDN'T follow Farrah's departure, did follow Kate's. And the show never bounced back. None of that is enough to make me watch SCARECROW AND MRS. KING, though.
SABRINATHON
-Lady Killer (1)
-Circus of Terror (2)
-Angel in Love (2)
-Angels on the Air (2)
FARRAH FAWCETT
-Jill Munroe, 29 episodes
Sigh. See http://nakedmeadow.blogspot.com/2009/06/farrah.html.
FARRAHTHON
-Dirty Business (1)
-The Blue Angels (1)
-Angel Come Home (3)
-An Angel's Trail (4)
SHELLEY HACK
-Tiffany Welles, 25 episodes
Was she hampered by how tentatively the producers used her? Given more time, might she have come into her own? She was far from awful...which is a lot harder than it sounds.
TANYA ROBERTS
-Julie Rogers, 16 episodes
Awful. Just really awful. More wooden than Long John Silver with a stiffy. And it genuinely pains me to say that, as the loyalty inspired by BEASTMASTER is the forever kind. But completely out of her element here. Literally hundreds of people (producers, directors, writers, actors, technicians) tried to make her look good...and failed in every episode save one. For a look that is somehow both deeper and shallower, read http://nakedmeadow.blogspot.com/2011/01/tanya-roberts.html.
SOON-TEK OH
-Lt. Torres, 4 episodes
The answer to one of the greatest ANGELS trivia questions - who was the only non-regular, recurring character in show history? Soon-Tek was also M*A*S*H's all-time guest star M*V*P.
FOUR-STAR EPISODES
-pilot (1)
-Angels in Chains (1)
-Target: Angels (1)
-Dirty Business (1)
-Angels at Sea (1)
-The Blue Angels (1)
-Angels in Paradise (2)
-Angels on Ice (2)
-Angels on the Air (2)
-Angel Baby (2)
-Angels on Horseback (2)
-Angels in the Backfield (2)
-The Sand Castle Murders (2)
-Angel Come Home (3)
-Angels Ahoy (3)
-Angel on my Mind (3)
-Marathon Angels (3)
-Love Boat Angels (4)
-Fallen Angel (4)
-Angels on Skates (4)
-An Angel's Trail (4)
-One Love...Two Angels (4)
-Island Angels (5)
LEFTOVER-A-THON
-Angels on Ice (2)
-Terror on Skis (3)
-Marathon Angels (3)
-Angels Ahoy (3)
-Angels Remembered (3)
-Island Angels (5)