YMMV / Charlie's Angels

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Did Kris really only provide a distraction on the villain to help Kelly as a favour to Bill, or was she genuinely concerned for her friend, and only claimed otherwise to spite for their Love Triangle?
  • When we're first introduced to Tiffany in "Love Boat Angels", she claims that her father had never described Charlie to her. It seems odd that her own father would refuse to talk to her about an old childhood friend, considering that Charlie appears to only maintain his physical appearance a secret from his employees (sans Bosley). And Charlie would have no clue that the small daughter of his old friend would eventually go to work for him years later. Therefore it is more likely that Tiffany knew what Charlie looked like, but was strictly ordered by Charlie not to reveal anything she knows to the other angels, and go on pretending that she was just as clueless about Charlie as the they are. But knowing that they would push for an answer regardless, he permitted her an old picture of he and Tiffany's father when they were toddlers, not a good indicator of what a grownup might look like.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: ABC thought it was the worst concept for a show they'd ever heard of and, when the pilot got such high ratings, they didn't believe them. The episode was shown a second time, and the ratings were equally as high.
• Best Known for the Fanservice:
  • Pretty much the poster child of the trope, though it was perhaps not as extreme as some recall/believe. For example, Farrah Fawcett donned a swimsuit only once during the series (and that was because Jill was impersonating a swimming instructor), and Kate Jackson dressed conservatively throughout her tenure (as did Shelley Hack). Jaclyn Smith tended to don bikinis more frequently, but even she often dressed conservatively for the times. Cheryl Ladd, on the other hand, was frequently called upon to wear the tiniest bikinis allowed on late-1970s network TV. Tanya Roberts also brought up the fanservice in the Hawaiian episodes.
  • Though it seems that many people do in fact remember the series mainly for its fanservice, interviews with fans indicate that a significant portion of the audience instead remember it as one of the first action series with strong female leads.
  • Fawcett commented that when the show reached #3 in the ratings, she thought it was because of their acting ability. When it reached #1, she realized it probably was because they didn't wear bras.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the season 4 episode "Three for the Money", Kelly and Kris put on a jealousy show over the con man when the two show up at his house at the same time. All this is Played for Laughs. This scene becomes a tid more difficult to watch when just three episodes later in "One Love...Two Angels, Part Two". Kelly and Kris turn on each other for real over Bill Cord, the man who tried presenting Kelly to her birth father. The two Angels ghost each other for the rest of the episode, and it gets to the point where Kris was this close to letting the Big Bad kill Kelly, and only helps rescue her as a favour to Bill, who was killed by said Villain of the Week. They make up in the end, though.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Timothy Dalton guest stars in a 1979 episode. Early on, his character is described as a man of "James Bond-ian tastes." Dalton would later go on to play Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill. At the time, this was likely a reference to how Dalton came close to becoming the new Bond in Live and Let Die but was ultimately rejected as too young.
  • The 1976 episode "Target: Angels" has Bosley talk about how difficult it would be to replace any of the Angels; he says this as he looks at Kate Jackson, whose departure two years later would see her replaced unsuccessfully. The same scene has Farrah Fawcett's character pipe up that Charlie can't find anyone to work as cheap as they do; this takes on irony give the circumstances surrounding her departure.
• Les Yay:
  • A lot between Sabrina and Kelly.
  • "Winning Is for Losers" basically centers around this between Kris and golf pro Linda Frey.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Kate Jackson left the show after the third season claiming she was simply tired of it, and that it had run its course for her. However, she originally was up for the lead role in Kramer vs. Kramer, which eventually went to (and got an Oscar for) Meryl Streep. Aaron Spelling refused to let her out of her contract. She also did not get along well with Fawcett's replacement Cheryl Ladd, and after a particularly strange third season episode where the Angels infiltrate a marathon running competition, she decided it was time to quit.
  • Shelley Hack was never popular with viewers, and was dropped after the fourth season. This has made her quite the target for jokes on shows such as The Golden Girls. After an unsuccessful attempt at a followup series (the medical drama Cutter To Houston), Hack would later star in films such as The Stepfather and Troll (1986), and in 2000, shortly before the release of the Charlie's Angels films, she hosted a week-long marathon on the Biography channel highlighting biographies of the original television show. Away from acting, however, Hack forged a successful career as a producer of televised political events in eastern Europe and as a media advisor.
• Replacement Scrappy: When a bitter Kate Jackson left after the third season, the producers scrambled for a replacement for everybody's favorite "Smart Angel." Enter Shelley Hack, who for many Angels viewers practically defines the trope in every sense of the word. Hack portrayed the glamorous Tiffany Welles, a cop from Boston who spoke Latin, and was always fashionable. Unfortunately, Hack wasn't given much to do during her tenure on the fourth season, simply because the writers could not seem to come up with anything for her to do, and as such, she was scarcely seen doing anything of note during the season. Because of this, Kris was given the brunt of most of the storylines, with the occasional Kelly story thrown in, particularly in the season finale. Viewership sank as a result, and Hack was widely blamed for the ratings drop, even though she herself had nothing to do with it, it was in actuality the writers whom were to blame. Hack was immediately fired from the show, and Tiffany was sent back to Boston. Hack's replacement for the fifth and final season was Tanya Roberts as street smart model Julie Rodgers. Though Roberts was received well by critics, she wasn't enough to save the show from cancellation.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Tommy Lee Jones has a supporting role in the Pilot Movie.
  • Tom Selleck plays Kelly's boyfriend of the week in "Target: Angels."
  • Martin Kove is a goon in "The Sammy Davis, Jr. Kidnap Caper."
  • Jonathan Frakes appears in "Angel on My Mind," where he tries to help the amnesiac Kris.
  • Dirk Benedict as a corrupt police cadet. In his autobiography he states that each of the principle 3 actresses had a dedicated hair expert constantly following them around the set.
• The Scrappy: Woodville was dropped from the cast after the pilot because audiences responded negatively to his character. He had been added in by executives, who felt that three women fighting crime on their own was unbelievable. Aaron Spelling himself ordered Woodville removed after viewing the pilot.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Despite the show ending up much campier and sillier than originally intended, Kate Jackson avoided doing Fanservice and gave a strong dramatic performance, earning two consecutive Emmy Award nominations for outstanding lead actress in a drama series.
• Tough Act to Follow: Neither of Kate Jackson's replacements (Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts) were as well-remembered.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The series exemplified the start of the craze for men's butts among Western women which began with the publication of photographer Christy Jenkins' photo book A Woman Looks at Men's Buns in 1980 during the fourth and fifth seasons (1979-1981). During the fourth season, Kris and Tiffany visually assessed men's buns in both the "Love Boat Angels" and "Toni's Boys" episodes; during the fifth season, Julie stared at a guy's butt in the "Mr. Galaxy" episode, while Kris is seen checking out guys' butts in both the "He Married an Angel" and "Angel on a Roll" episodes.
  • "Angel on a Roll" also shows some of the first bank automatic teller machines (ATM).
  • The series features lots of 70's fashions, designs, hairstyles and sets that may seem either cool or cheesy today.
  • Several episodes also display the rampant discrimination against women that was still common in the era (usually in a lampshading manner as the Angels soon prove how outdated those viewpoints are).
  • It's perhaps telling that the series didn't survive very long into the 1980s.
• Values Dissonance: Sabrina quips that she'd let her attempted rapist in "Night of the Strangler" go through with it if he was Robert Redford,

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