Review of Charlie`s Angels: The Complete First Season

Introduction

"Once upon a time there were three little girls who went to the police academy..."

John Forsythe`s dulcet tones introduced 109 adventures (and a pilot) between March 1976 and June 1981. At the time, the current big screen Angels were either at school or still in nappies.

The show was originally developed as "The Alley Cats" by producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg. Goldberg, influenced by iconic sixties show "The Avengers" envisaged a series about three gorgeous female detectives - Alley, Lee and Catherine (hence Al Lee Cat)who could hold their own against all comers. He and Spelling pitched the show to ABC tv head Michael Eisner and Paramount boss Barry Diller, who both hated the idea. That could have been the end of the concept, but for a deal typical of Hollywood tv making. Contractually, they and friends Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood had an option to make a series pilot for ABC and once they had pitched the idea the Wagners came on board as 45% owners of the new show.

The idea was then pitched to their intended star Kate Jackson, fresh from making another series with Spelling-Goldberg called "The Rookies". Initially, Jackson was intended to play Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith`s role), but at the last minute she decided to switch to the (to her) more challenging role of Sabrina Duncan as outlined in the pilot script by legendary Hollywood screenwriters Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts (responsible for Cagney`s "White Heat").

Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts` original brief for "Charlie`s Angels" had been for a slicker, more "Mission Impossible" style of show with capers and counter-capers, red herrings and disguises. Ultimately, the show leaned more towards the "Rockford Files" in style and content with more straightforward cases.

With script and star in place, the two other Angels were soon cast - Six Million Dollar Man Lee Major`s wife Farrah and comparative newcomer and commercials model Jaclyn Smith. They were backed up by (soon-to-be) M*A*S*H star David Ogden Stiers and in the minor role of Bosley David Doyle. Kate Jackson had had the idea of their orders coming through a speakerphone squawkbox, and after a disastrous initial casting of Gig Young (which similarly led to Gene Wilder`s casting in "Blazing Saddles"), John Forsythe took up dubbing duties.

Critics immediately labelled the show "Jiggle TV" after Farrah`s braless tendencies, although an overview of the five seasons of the show indicates that only 32 episodes throughout the run included scenes where the three actresses were in revealing costumes.

Season One remains the iconic "Charlie`s Angels" series, although Season Two (where Farrah was replaced with Cheryl Ladd after a pay argument) is more entertaining. This is the season where the Angels went to prison (and got lice-sprayed for their trouble) and Farrah rode a skateboard. Guest stars included Tommy Lee Jones (in an early role), Star Trek alumni Diana Muldaur and Rene Auberjonois, Kim Basinger, Fernando Lamas, Theodore Bikel and Ida Lupino. Line producing many of the shows was creator of "Cagney and Lacey" Barney Rosenzweig.

Being a Cheryl Ladd fan (and I hope Season Two will be forthcoming), I`d largely forgotten how entertaining Season One was, and just how breathtaking Farrah Fawcett could be. It`s a terrible shame her dispute with the production company blighted her career as she could easily have stolen Goldie Hawn`s niche market. (Interestingly, working on the show cost Kate Jackson the role in "Kramer vs Kramer" that went to Meryl Streep, and Jaclyn Smith was passed over for a Bond movie). "Charlie`s Angels" was definitely the beginnings of girl power, and had the Angels been granted a little more kick-ass-ibility the show would not have been branded "Jiggle TV."

Video

The episodes are presented in their original 1.33:1 tv format, although there seems to be a little right-edge cropping due to telecine extraction. The episodes do not appear to have been cleaned up terribly, and wear and tear is visible. Contrast is acceptable but colours are vivid. Some trouble may be attributed to the film stock used to shoot the episodes.

Audio

The episodes some in their original mono mix, presented via Dolby 2.0. the sound suffers from the age of the material.

Features

Columbia-Tristar have managed to squeeze up to five episodes on to each of the discs in this set without compromising the image quality of the episodes unduly. They have managed this largely by leaving off anything that might take up precious data space on the discs. Therefore there are no subtitles, extra languages or anything on the first four discs of the set. Disc five includes what special features there are, and these consist of the "Angels Forever" featurette included on the previously released two-episode disc and a set of trailers for the Charlie`s Angels movie, Charlie`s Angels: Full Throttle and for the "classic tv" discs and boxsets CTHE are bringing out this year.

The set comes in a flimsy wrap, and the five discs come in individual thin Amaray style cases rather than the digipak that the R2 release comes in. The whole set is only slightly wider than two standard Amarays, and at £10 cheaper than the average R2 set is a bargain. Just make sure you can handle RCE discs.

Conclusion

An excellent record of a fondly remembered tv show. Let`s hope that subsequent seasons are on the way.

If you want to learn more about "Charlie`s Angels", I recommend Pomegranate Press`s "Charlie`s Angels Casebook" by Jack Condon and David Hofstede (ISBN 0938817205) which provided much of the information used in this review.