Series Description

The Charlie's Angels TV show was a 60 minute action series on ABC that aired for 111 episode from 1976-1981. It was about three young women who worked for Charlie Townsend, owner of the Townsend Detective Agency. Charlie would give the ladies their assignments by telephone but was never seen by the girls or by the viewers. Charlie's Angels had backgrounds in law enforcement but in lowly jobs such as meter maids, answering the phone, or as clerks. Once they became employed by Charlie, that all changed! They became tough, powerful women who could handle any evildoer whether they were women or the biggest, badest man. They were also beautiful women though so they fought criminals dressed in revealing outfits and bikinis. Female viewers wanted to be them and male viewers wanted to possess them!

Charlie's Angels Cast

Jaclyn Smith .... Kelly Garrett
Farrah Fawcett .... Jill Munroe
Kate Jackson .... Sabrina Duncan
David Doyle .... John Bosley
John Forsythe .... Charlie Townsend (Voice)
Cheryl Ladd .... Kris Munroe
Shelley Hack .... Tiffany Welles
Tanya Roberts .... Julie Rogers

Charlie's Angels Trivia

The poor office staff for the Charlie's Angels TV show had to deal with as many as 18,000 fan letters each week!

The producers of Charlie's Angels originally wanted a blonde, a redhead and a brunette for the ladies on Charlie's Angels but they were so impressed with Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith's auditions that they happily did without the redhead.

The actor who was first hired to provide the voice of Charlie was fired early on when he showed up drunk for work. John Forsythe was practically begged to take the job and he eventually agreed.

Even if you never saw Charlie's Angels, you still may be familiar with some of John Forsythe's other work (where he actually appeared on screen) including starring roles on other TV shows including, "Bachelor Father (1957)", "The John Forsythe Show" (1965), "To Rome With Love (1969)" and "Dynasty (1981)".

Aaron Spelling produced this TV show and so many other ones that only a very few of his best known can be listed here. Here they are:
"Johnny Ringo (1959)", "The Addams Family (1964)", "The Mod Squad (1968)", "The Rookies (1972)", "Starsky and Hutch (1975)", "Charlie's Angels (1976)", "The Love Boat (1977)", "Fantasy Island (1978)", "Hart to Hart (1979)", "Dynasty (1981)", "T.J. Hooker (1982)", "Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990)", "Melrose Place (1992)", "7th Heaven (1996)", "Charmed (1998)".

Aaron Spelling owed Robert Wagner some money for a previous business deal and talked the very reluctant Wagner into accepting a 45% ownership of the Charlie's Angels TV show as payment. Wagner stated that the idea of a show where three small, young women kicking tough guy's butts was the worst idea he'd ever heard! Obviously, he was eventually very happy he took the deal!

Charlie's Angels was the only immediately obvious hit of the 1976-77 season. By the end of the season, 59% of all TV viewers were watching the show in its time slot. It stayed in the Nielson ratings "Top Ten" for the first three seasons.

Jill Monroe's hairstyle became such a hit with Charlie's Angels female viewers that a huge number of them changed to what became popularly known as "Farrah Fawcett Hairdos".

Charlie's Angels was the first TV show to get more than $100,000 per minute for advertising.

Farrah Fawcett appeared in Playboy magazine in December of 1978 (not nude) and then took it all off at age 48 in December of 1995. Tanya Roberts also did Playboy in October of 1982 after Charlie's Angels was canceled.

Charlie's Angels was originally going to be about three lady cops and would be called "Alley Cats". Kate Jackson came up with the idea of making the ladies detectives instead of cops. She also recommended that the series be named, "Harry's Angels", and that Harry should never be seen and would only be heard on the telephone. All of her suggestions were used except that "Harry's Angels" was changed to "Charlie's Angels". The only reason that was changed was because there was alread a series titled, "Harry O" and the producers didn't want any confusion with or misconceptions about their new show. Kate Jackson's great instincts for what would work and what wouldn't later got her fired from Charlie's Angels for continuously griping about how terrible the scripts were. We'll never know how many more seasons Charlie's Angels may have run if they'd listened to Kate.

Charlie's Angels had nearly no competition from the shows in its time slots on CBS and NBC for the first three seasons. When the series began in the 1976/1977 season, it was up against "The Blue Knight" on CBS and "The Quest" on NBC. The Blue Knight only survived for four episodes and The Quest was gone after eleven episodes. For Charlie's Angels' second and third seasons, it quickly killed off another series titled, "The Oregon Trail". Otherwise, CBS and NBC just ran movies against the Charlie's Angels dynamo. In November of 1978, the series finally got some competition from NBC with "Diff'rent Strokes" running during Angels' first half-hour. In its final season, Charlie's Angels was moved to Sunday nights against "Archie Bunker's Place" and "One Day at a Time" on CBS and "CHiPs" on NBC.

Charlie's Angels Opening Narrative

Narrated By: "John Forsythe" as "Charlie Townsend"

Version #1:

"Once upon a time there were three little girls who went to the police academy. They were assigned very hazardous duties."

(While showing the Angels writing parking tickets and directing traffic)

"But I took them away from all that and now they work for me. Ah? My name is Charlie."

(Angels shown answering ringing telephones at each one's apartment)

"It's Charlie, Angels. Time to go to work."

Version #2:

"Once upon there were three little girls who went to the police academy. Two in Los Angeles. The other in San Francisco. And they were each assigned very hazardous duties. But I took them away from all that. And now they work for me. My name ... is Charlie."