Charlie's Angels
Main title card
Created by	Ivan Goff Ben Roberts
Starring	Jaclyn Smith Kate Jackson (1976–79) Farrah Fawcett (1976-77) Cheryl Ladd (1977–81) Shelley Hack (1979–80) Tanya Roberts (1980-81) David Doyle John Forsythe
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	110 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Aaron Spelling Leonard Goldberg
Running time	50 minutes
Production companies	Spelling/Goldberg Productions Columbia Pictures Television (now Sony Pictures Television)
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 22, 1976 – June 24, 1981

Charlie's Angels was a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men. The series was broadcast in the USA on the ABC Television Network from 1976 to 1981 and was one of the most successful series of the 1970s. Charlie's Angels was created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg. In pre-production, the original proposed title was The Alley Cats.^[1]

Three women, the Angels (originally Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, and Jaclyn Smith), graduated from the Los Angeles police academy only to be assigned such duties as handling switchboards and directing traffic. They quit and were hired to work for the Charles Townsend Agency as private investigators. Their boss, Charlie (voiced by John Forsythe), is never seen full face — in some episodes the viewer gets to see the back of his head and his arms, talking through a phone while surrounded by beautiful women — assigning cases to the Angels and his liaison, Bosley (played by David Doyle), via a speaker phone.

Charlie's Angels is episodic in nature, as opposed to serial, thus each episode shows the Angels finding themselves in new situations in which they would go undercover to investigate. The undercover aspect of the show creates much of the plot interest and tension. In the early seasons of the show, the Angels, under their assumed identities, use a combination of sexual wiles and knowledge learned for the situation in which they are being placed, but by the third and fourth seasons, the writing has a tendency to stray from the sex appeal and focus more on the case at hand.^{[citation needed]}

• John Forsythe (voice) as Charles "Charlie" Townsend
• Jaclyn Smith as Kelly Garrett
• Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Jill Munroe (1976–77, recurring 1978–80)
• Kate Jackson as Sabrina Duncan (1976–79)
• Cheryl Ladd as Kris Munroe (1977–81)
• Shelley Hack as Tiffany Welles (1979–80)
• Tanya Roberts as Julie Rogers (1980–81)
• David Doyle as John Bosley

Charlie's Angels played host to a number of well-known faces during its five seasons. Some of those individuals were long-established stars of film and television; others would find considerable fame and recognition many years after appearing in the program. Notable appearances of celebrities (whether famous then or later) include those of:

The show became known as "Jiggle TV" and "T&A TV" (or "Tits & Ass Television") by critics who believed that the show had no intelligence or substance and that the scantily or provocatively dressed Angels — generally as part of their undercover character — e.g., roller derby girl, beauty pageant contestant, maid, female prisoner, or just bikini-clad — did so to showcase the figures and/or sexuality of the actresses as a sole means of attracting viewers. Farrah Fawcett-Majors once attributed the show's success to this fact: "When the show was number three, I figured it was our acting. When it got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra."^[3] However, Kate Jackson never wore a bathing suit or a bikini during her three years on the show.

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Charlie's Angels on ABC.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. All times listed are North American Eastern Time.

∞ Denotes tie in year-end rank.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released Seasons 1-4 of Charlie's Angels on DVD in Regions 1 and 2.

Note: Episode count is based on the format in which episodes originally aired. Two-hour episodes are counted as one episode.

As of February 2009, the first and third seasons of the show can be purchased on iTunes, and some episodes of the show can be streamed for free in the US on IMDB, Hulu, with Minisodes and full episodes available on Crackle. The show previously aired in syndication on various network affiliates and on TV Land and ION.

The series has inspired many remakes and reinterpretations throughout the years and in different countries.

Four women were selected to be in a show called Angels '88, which was to serve as an updated version of the show. The show was later named Angels '89 after production delays, but the show ultimately never aired. From 1998–1999, Telemundo and Sony produced a show called Ángeles.^[10] The weekly hour format did not catch on with Hispanic viewers, who are accustomed to watching telenovelas nightly and the series was soon canceled. In 2002, a German version of Charlie's Angels, Wilde Engel,^[11] was produced by the German channel RTL. The show was known as Anges de choc in French-speaking countries, and as Three Wild Angels in English-speaking ones.

The series inspired two feature films from Flower Films production company: Charlie's Angels (2000) and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), with John Forsythe returning to voice Charlie. Whereas most movie remakes of 1970s TV shows, like Starsky and Hutch, are actually remakes, the Charlie's Angels films are set in a different time and thus closer to a film revival. The mythology goes that whenever an Angel leaves, she is replaced so there are always three. The second film had more nods to the TV series than the first film, with Jaclyn Smith making a brief cameo as Kelly Garrett.

In 2004, a television movie entitled Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels aired on NBC.

• Connie Bates (1988–1989), played by Claire Yarlett,^[12] Angels '89
• Pam Ryan (1988–1989), played by Sandra Canning,^[12] Angels '89
• Trisha Lawrence (1988–1989), played by Karen Kopins,^[12] Angels '89
• Bernie Colter (1988–1989), played by Téa Leoni,^[12] Angels '89
• Madison Lee (2003), played by Demi Moore,^[13] Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
• Adriana Vega (1998–1999), played by Patricia Manterola,^[14][15] Ángeles
• Elena Sanchez (1998–1999), played by Sandra Vidal,^[14] Ángeles
• Gina Navarro (1998–1999), played by Magali Caicedo,^[14] Ángeles
• Natalie Cook (2000–2003), played by Cameron Diaz, Charlie's Angels & Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
• Dylan Sanders (2000–2003), played by Drew Barrymore, Charlie's Angels & Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
• Alex Munday (2000–2003), played by Lucy Liu, Charlie's Angels & Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
• Franziska (2002), played by Susann Uplegger,^[16]Wilde Engel
• Lena (2002), played by Eva Habermann,Wilde Engel
• Raven (2002), played by Birgit Stauber,Wilde Engel
• Rebecca (2003), played by Vanessa Petruo, Wilde Engel
• Ida (2003), played by Tanja Wenzel, Wilde Engel
• Aiko (2003), played by Zora Holt, Wilde Engel
• Richard Voss (2003), played by Udo Kier, Wilde Engel

It's been suggested that Brenda, Dee Dee and Taffy, the three girls of the cartoon series Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels were inspired by Charlie's Angels.^[17]

In July 2003, three Charlie's Angels games were released on three different gaming platforms: Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and the mobile phone. The versions released on both the GameCube and PlayStation 2 were virtually the same, each given the same title: Charlie's Angels. The version released for the mobile phone was fundamentally toned down to fit the technical restrictions of the platform, and was titled Charlie's Angels: Road Cyclone.

April 2008 - Ojom announced a new Charlie's Angels mobile phone game titled: Charlie's Angels: Hellfire. The game is now available on operator portals across Europe.

During the show's run, many collectible items were produced, including (two versions of) dolls, countless boardgames, several posters, trading cards, notebooks, a lunchbox & thermos, Charlie's Angels Van, and even record albums.

Even though it was not directly part of the show, Farrah Fawcett also released a poster of her sporting a red bathing suit that became the biggest selling poster in history with 12 million copies sold. This poster also helped the burgeoning popularity of the series.

Two British comic strip versions were produced. The first appeared in the Polystyle publication Target in April 1978, drawn by John Canning. Target was a sister title to the long-running TV Comic aimed at older children and featuring TV action and crime shows of the day. Proving unpopular, it folded in August and merged back into TV Comic where Canning's Angels strip continued until October 1979. The second strip was printed in Junior TV Times Look-in, debuting in November 1979 (as soon as Polystyle's deal expired), written by Angus Allan and drawn by Jim Baikie and Bill Titcombe.

In the on-line comic Erfworld, one side in The Battle for Gobwin Knob hires three glowing, flying female combatants from an unseen "Charlie". One is blond and two are dark-haired. They first appear in silhouette in Page 42 of the comic and in the final frame of Page 69, after dispensing with some "Dwagons" of the opposing side, once again take up the iconic pose of Charlie's Angels. They are referred to as "Charlie's Archons". In Gnosticism, an archon occupies a role similar to the angels of the Old Testament.

Angel's "Proper" Charlies was a British comic strip published in the weekly Jackpot. It first appeared in 1979, drawn by Trevor Metcalfe. Angel was a beautiful teenage girl who was worshipped by three not-so-very-mature boys called the Charlies. Angel's beauty hid a conniving mind, in that she took advantage of the love-struck trio in order to get her own way, such as slipping into parties and concerts and attracting the attention of more suitable boyfriends, while the Charlies ended up bruised and battered as a result of their efforts to impress her (in vain).^[18]

Brelan de dames (Three Ladies of a Kind), a Belgian comic strip by artist Renaud Denauw and writer Jean-Luc Vernal, was also about a trio of action women, though in this case they came from various countries and, after a short stint in the secret service, became independent operators. Again, one is blond and the others are dark-haired. Their adventures were published in the 1980s in Tintin magazine.^[19]

In the Sonic the Hedgehog comics, Issue #152 has a reference to "Charlie's Angels" called Sonic's Angels.

The show was parodied in the third series of BBC Two sketch show Goodness Gracious Me (episode five). The sketch, called "Channa's Angels", was about three Asian girls who graduated from police academy, but were then employed by a man who believed that sort of activity to be culturally inappropriate.

Another parody exists in the 2009 Chick-fil-A calendar "The Bovines in Blue" where the show in October was referred to as Chuckie's Heifers.

This is a chronological list of appearances that two or more Angels have made together in support of Charlie's Angels.

• 1976 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith are featured in the cover story of Time magazine, which analyzes the impact of the show on popular culture.
• 1976 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith appear on the cover of TV Guide.
• 1976 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith appear on an ABC tv special wearing the outfits from their Time magazine cover
• 1976 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith guest star on 'The Captain & Tennile Show' variety tv series
• 1978 - Jackson, Smith, and Ladd guest star on the new tv show 'The San Pedro Beach Bums'
• 1978 - Jackson, Smith, and Ladd appear on 'ABC's Silver Anniversary Celebration: 25 and Still the One' tv special
• 1978 - Jackson, Smith, and Ladd appear on the cover of TV Guide.
• 1979 - Smith, Ladd, and Hack appear on the cover of TV Guide.
• 1992 - Jackson, Smith, and Ladd appear together to pay tribute to Aaron Spelling on 'The 18th People's Choice Awards'
• 1994 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith appear in the 20th Anniversary edition of People Magazine, the Angels are pictured in the top corner of the cover, and the article includes a pull-out poster. NOTE: The same issue was released in Australia with the Angels (Kate, Jaclyn, & Farrah) on the cover.
• 1998 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith pre-record a reunion segment for the tv special: 'ABC's Tribute to Aaron Spelling'
• 2006 - Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith appeared together on stage at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards, to pay tribute to Charlie's Angels executive producer Aaron Spelling.
• 2008 - Jackson and Smith appeared on the show Shear Genius, which Smith hosted, for a Charlie's Angels themed episode where the contestants styled models' hair in an updated version of the original three Angels' iconic hairstyles.

• Charlie's Angels (the series) at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Behind the Camera: The Charlie's Angels Story at IMDb
• Charlie's Angels Producer Barney Rosenzweig: Memories of Farrah - OurPrattville.com article