Charlie's Angels
"Once upon a time there were three little girls who
went to the Police Academy, 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."
 Created by Starsky and Hutch
producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, this series
followed three female detectives routinely dispatched on
crime-busting missions by Charlie, an always-unseen wealthy
benefactor heard only by speakerphone (voiced by future Dynasty
star John Forsythe).
The Angels were assisted every week by the millionaire's
right-hand man, John Bosley (David Doyle), as they chased
criminals from beauty contests to health spas.
Nobody ever
pretended it was about acting, storytelling or anything more than
what goes into your average toothpaste advert.
There were TV babes before them and there were TV babes after
them, but no TV babes captured the eye quite like the original
trio of Charlie's Angels.
By dispensing with superfluous
law-enforcement devices like bras, Sabrina, Kelly and Jill became
overnight sex symbols.
When they braced themselves and did that
two hands on a pistol thing, half the men in the world collapsed.
It was the dawn of "jiggle TV".
Of course, this presented a weekly opportunity for the viewing
public to get an eyeful of the cleavage of the three leading
ladies (who would always manage to shed some of their clothes in
the name of the law).
This no doubt contributed to making Charlie's
Angels one of the top-rated prime-time shows in 1978 and 1979.
Playing the super-sophisticated Kelly Garrett, Jaclyn Smith was
the only Angel who lasted the show's entire five year run.
 By the 1978-79 season, Kate Jackson ( who played the
intelligent Angel, Sabrina Duncan) was so unhappy with the show
after producers refused to give her time off to shoot the part
eventually played by Meryl Streep in Kramer
vs. Kramer, that she asked to be let out of her contract.
Jackson was replaced by Shelley Hack, who, when asked how long
she'd last on the show, gave a joke estimate of "another
three hours". She lasted a little longer - one season -
before Tanya Roberts was brought in to take her spot.
Farrah Fawcett (then married
to Six Million Dollar Man
star Lee Majors and known as "Farrah Fawcett-Majors")
became a superstar with her role as the athletic Jill Munroe, and
also through her famed cheesecake shot, which quickly became the
highest-selling poster of all time (two million copies sold
in less than four months).
Wanting to launch a career in films, Farrah left the series
after one season and was promptly sued for breach of contract. As
part of her settlement with Spelling, she agreed to make three
appearances on the series each year until her original pact ran
out in exchange for a raise from $5,000 per episode to at least
$25,000.
Farrah's replacement was Max Factor modelling
sensation Cheryl Ladd, who also became a star playing Jill
Munroe's sister, Kris.
An interesting aside: In the episode Angels in Chains,
the Angels are captured while investigating a southern prison
farm. They are chained together, stripped, forced into a shower
and sprayed with disinfectant. 20,000 letters poured into the ABC
after that episode asking for more of the same . . . And despite
predictable howls from feminists, the majority of the shows
viewers were actually women.
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