Trivia / Charlie's Angels

• Actor-Shared Background: Much like her character, Tanya Roberts was a model.
• Baby Name Trend Starter: The number of baby girls named Farrah increased dramatically in the United States following the show's debut. In 1977, it was the 177th most popular name.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Kate Jackson originally signed on to play Kelly, being the first name the showrunners had in mind. However, when she warmed up to the role of the rather brainy Sabrina, the producers cast Jaclyn Smith as Kelly instead. This is why the pilot episode mainly focuses on Kelly. Farrah Fawcett also auditioned for Kelly.
• The Cast Showoff: Before joining the series, Cheryl Ladd was already known as a singer (she was one of the singing voices in Josie and the Pussycats and recorded an album with the group), and she used her fame on Charlie's Angels to launch a solo singing career that actually scored a few hits in the late 1970s. Not surprisingly, the series built an episode titled "Angels in the Wings" around Kris performing in a musical, allowing Ladd to sing several tunes.
• Creator Couple: Jaclyn Smith's then-husband, Dennis Cole, guest-starred in three episodes.
• Directed by Cast Member: "Chorus Line Angels" was directed by David Doyle. Considering Bosley never got A Day in the Limelight, perhaps this a way to give Doyle something extra to do (this was his only directing effort). Kate Jackson got to direct on her next series.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd reportedly did not get along during their two seasons working together. Ladd stated in interviews there were some days Jackson would not even speak to her.
  • Era magazines in Spain consistently reported that Ladd was jealous of Shelley Hack from the get-go, because Shelley's height made her uncomfortable and she felt dwarfed by it. Ladd also wanted to be "the only blonde on the show". They further claimed that Cheryl bullied Shelley, often to tears, and constantly walked into the producers' office and demanded Shelley's lines, so as to diminish her role. (Ladd was often the star of the episode, since her arrival.) Indeed, Tiffany incidentally had less and less to say as the show progressed. Eventually, Ladd threatened to walk unless Shelley was fired, the Spanish magazines reported that she got her way: rather than deal with the drama, Shelley chose to leave on her own. However, it would appear that none of this ever made the U.S. press. It is unclear if there ever was any truth to these published facts, or from where they were obtained, but Spanish fans still hold Ladd directly responsible for Hack's departure. Strangely enough, as if to expunge her mea culpa, in later interviews, Ladd often claimed that she took one look at Tanya Roberts when she came on-board, referred to her as a bitch and said something to the effect of: "I don't want to work with her, she is too sexy!" This was supposed to be a self-humbling declaration on Ladd's part.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
  • in 'Haunted Angels' the supposed supernatural activity is exposed as a fraud. However in 'Of Ghosts and Angels' the ending suggests it is quite real.
• Money, Dear Boy:
  • In an "Emmy TV Legends" interview, John Forsythe called the show a "potboiler" (a bad show), of deliberately poor quality, made quickly on the cheap solely to make a lot of money, which it did. Money is also the reason he was never seen on-screen, claiming he'd have needed to be paid a lot to do so.
  • Jaclyn Smith was eventually given a raise from $5000 an episode to $40,000 to prevent her from leaving the show.
• On-Set Injury: While filming "Angel in a Box", stuntman Bobby Bass was high on cocaine and drove a car that the stuntwomen Julie Ann Johnson and Jeannie Coultar were supposed to jump out of faster than instructed. Coultar suffered multiple injuries and a concussion. Johnson was injured far worse; though knocked out, Johnson was writhing on the ground. Stunt coordinator Ronnie Rondell had to pin her down to stop the chance of her further injuring herself.
• The Other Marty: Gig Young was the original Charlie, but he was fired due to his drinking problems. John Forsythe was asked to do the voiceover on the midnight of the Friday before the pilot was to be broadcast. He recorded the first voiceover in his pyjamas.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Kate Jackson was dropped from the show after the third season due to her difficult attitude, stemming from her complaining about the lack of quality in the scripts and the series costing her the lead role in Kramer vs. Kramer. In a statement, Aaron Spelling said, "Due to problems on the set, Kate is being dropped for the good of the show".
• Throw It In!: Kate Jackson suggested the title after seeing a poster of angels in Aaron Spelling's office.
• Wag the Director: A lot of writers were fired from the show because the stars were always demanding better scripts.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Producers originally wanted to have a Blonde, Brunette, Redhead trio as the Angels, but they abandoned this in order to have Jaclyn Smith as the third Angel. They finally got their redhead when Tanya Roberts joined in Season 5.
  • At the end of the fifth season, Smith's five-year contract was up, and she had made it clear she was not going to return. Interestingly enough, her character apparently was going to be killed off. But when the show was cancelled instead of renewed, it was decided that Kelly should remain alive for the sake of syndication. Had there been a sixth season, Kelly would have died.
  • Kim Basinger, who appears in the episode "Angels in Chains" as an inmate, was later offered the role of Kris Munroe and turned it down because she wanted to do film.^note she did go to play a Fair Cop on ABC in the short-lived 1970s series Dog And Cat
  • Suzanne Somers was considered for Jill Monroe.
  • Michelle Pfeiffer and Barbara Bach auditioned for Tiffany Welles.
  • The season four episode "Toni's Boys" was meant to lead to a Distaff Counterpart Spin-Off of the same name. It guest-starred Barbara Stanwyck as Antonia "Toni" Blake, a wealthy widow socialite and friend of Charlie's who ran a detective agency. The agency was staffed by three good looking male detectives—Cotton Harper (Stephen Shortridge), Matt Parrish (Bruce Bauer), and Bob Sorensen (Bob Seagren)—who took direction from Toni, and solved crimes in a manner similar to the Angels. The show was not picked up as a regular series for the following season.
  • There were plans for a reinvention of the series on Fox called Angels '88. The premise of the series was four young actresses, whose detective series is cancelled, after it is slotted against The Cosby Show, open their own detective agency, using their acting skills, and what they’ve learned from portraying detectives on their series. Their agency was to undergo many of the difficulties faced by new businesses, so the Angels not only had problems solving cases, they had problems finding cases. The new angels would have been Karen Kopins as Pam Ryan, Claire Yarlett as Connie Bates, Sandra Canning as Trisha Lawrence and Téa Leoni as Bernie Coulter. After many setbacks, the series title was changed to Angels '89, before being canned completely.
  • The role of Julie Rogers in Season 5 saw Shari Belafonte, then working mostly as a model, as a finalist for the role (and possibly the front-runner for the part) before Tanya Roberts was cast for the role. However, Aaron Spelling would later cast Belafonte in both a made-for-TV movie and unsuccessful pilot called ''"Velvet"'' and as Julie Gilette on Hotel (1983).
• Working Title: The series had two alternate titles: The Alley Cats and Harry's Angels.

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