Saturday, September 24, 2011

35th Anniversary! Go Angels!

Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack and Jaclyn Smith as the angels
in the fourth season of Charlie's Angels

It's the 35th Anniversary of Charlie's Angels and over the past 35 years, the series, produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, has jumped from phenomenon to legend and has spawned several "sequels."

With the series' history, inside stories and influences tackled and re-tackled over the passing years, the series has become part of the world's psyche. All the women who starred in it have their own cult following to this very day. And the series has been reinterpreted and updated through the passing years.

The landmark 1970's television series began with Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith, as the angels. Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts played angels in later seasons. All thoughout the series, David Doyle played their liaison officer, John Bosley, and John Forsythe provided the voice of their boss, Charles Townsend. The series ran from 1976 to 1981.

Aaron Spelling attempted to reignite angel magic with Angels '88 in 1988 with Claire Yarlett, Sandra Canning, Karen Kopins and Téa Leoni (now, the most famous of the group) as the angels of the '80s. But after many delays in production and a title change to Angels 89, the project was shelved.

In 2000, the show jumped to the big screen with the Leonard Goldberg/Drew Barrymore produced Charlie's Angels. Barrymore along with Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu played the angels. Bill Murray played John Bosley and John Forsythe returned as the voice of Charles Townsend. In 2003, the same duo produced Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle with Demi Moore playing Charlie's first wayward angel. Bernie Mac joined the cast as Bosley.

This year, Drew Barrymore brought the series back to the small screen with Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly and Rachael Taylor as the angels of 2011. Ramon Rodriguez plays Bosley.