When the show premiered in Spain, it was aired on Saturday afternoons. They really belonged to Aaron Spelling, who had sold a lot of his camp archive to the Spanish Public TV. They usually scheduled one or 2 seasons of "The Love Boat", and then, a new one of "Charlie´s Angels". Just like "Dallas", you just couldn´t miss the Opening, it was as if the TV set would scream at you: "Hey boy, your show is starting!".
To be honest, though I was in my early teens when the series began in Spain, I can´t remember playing "Angels" with my friends. Of course, I did have my favorites. At first, it was Kate Jackson, or maybe I should say her Sabrina instead. She was the most interesting to me because she seemed to use more her brains than her police physical training (or her sex appeal). Despite what I read about Farrah in the mags, then I didn´t understand what her appeal was (not even as a gay boy...besides, I didn´t watch too many episodes with Farrah), aside from her iconic hairdo.
As the series progressed, I began to take notice at Jaclyn Smith. She was the most elegant of all, and quite good at giving the comic touches in the surreal plots of the episodes. Jaclyn was a classic beauty, and I was a true fan of the Hollywood stars of yesterday. She reminded me a lot of Gene Tierney (remember "Laura"...?) and her Kelly was truly down-to-earth and warm. I even though that Jaclyn could get to have a movie career...but those times weren´t like current times, for TV actors. A TV star very hardly could be successful in films too. She was very wise and realistic and, instead of trying once and again (like did Farrah), she had two major flops ("Time to Kill", a wonderfully camp thriller that had real "scary" moments, and "Déjà Vu", a romantic drama directed by her soon-to-be ex-husband where she played two roles, one in the past and one, as a blond, in the present). So Jaclyn took the miniseries route, and became the Queen of this genre in a couple of years.
Back to "Angels", when Cheryl Ladd showed up, I immediately loved her. Maybe because she was a less agressive beauty, or because her part had a lot of humor most times, Kris surpassed Jill in my eyes. What was a surprise to me, was the fact that, when Farrah was obliged by contract to film 3 or 4 more episodes after leaving the show, the four of them made a wonderful team, and Farrah, probably because the scripts were more focused on comedy than before, was terribly good in those episodes. When years later I found out that Jackson caused trouble to Ladd in the show, and didn't speak to her at all, I realized how good these actresses were.
Kate Jackson´s replacement Shelley Hack had been highly publicized here too, and at first, I just thought that she seemed to play a character too similar to Sabrina. Hack also was very elegant (she did ads for perfume "Charlie") and had a touch of irony that mixed well with the other two more lively, street-wise girls. But our TV cancelled that season before its end, and they didn´t even show the Tanya Roberts year (not that it seems we missed too much). The show wasn´t hot anymore (we were at the early 80´s) and what was hot was the supersoaps like "Dallas"...Strange that none of the "Angels" participated in any of these soaps.
I tried to follow the Angels´career after that. Jackson did a great job in "Making Love", but to be honest, back then I only had eyes for her co-stars Ontkean and Hamlin. She did other movies and also 2 TV shows, "Baby Boom" (in Diane Keaton´s role in the film) and "Scarecrow & Mrs. King", where she played a total opposite of Sabrina Duncan, a housewife who by chance collaborates with FBI (or something like that). It was a light action comedy with an incredibly cute Bruce Boxleitner as her "connection". After 4 years, she had a cancer scare and had to leave the show, at least for a few weeks), and it was soon cancelled anyway. Every now and then, I find her face in a TVM, and I can´t help thinking what an underrated actress she is. Probably the best one of the 6.
About Cheryl, her miniseries and telemovies also were shown here (I did love her as Grace Kelly, though the movie was very cheap!), and she was so popular that she starred in a very well-paid commercial that was made every year for a Spanish champagne (or "cava"). She looked glamorous and sang very well. The problem I had with them was that they seemed to have to prove audiences (and maybe producers too) that they could play "dramatic" parts, and they eventually got typecast as "drama queens" instead. They were hardly seen in comedies, or in drama series (non-soaps, I mean). In every movie, they had to appear with no make-up, or with a different hair color, or their characters were abused, raped, kidnapped or murdered. After awhile, everybody gets tired of that, and I think that might happen to them, as professionals, and also to us, as audience.
As I said above, Jaclyn Smith was very smart to choose her projects: she played a very "pink-colored" Jackie Kennedy in a biopic; a very naive (but oh so well-dressed and so human!) laywer in Sidney Sheldon´s "Rage of Angels" (probably my favorite of her miniseries) and also in its lame sequel; she was absolutely terrific in 3 other titles: the Hollywood soapy TVM "The Users" (as the muse of a gay Tony Curtis), the great tearjerker "Sentimental Journey" (as a stage agent who adopts a little girl with her husband and the he dies), and finally, the detective series "Christine Cromwell" (which she only accepted if they could gurantee her there would be no weekly series: they only filmed 4 self-conclusive episodes). She did a couple of comedies where she was great, and another miniseries that was especially interesting: she played one of the first female movie directors in a story signed by Danielle Steele, and her elderly characterization reminded me of Katharine Hepburn.
Just like the "Dallas", "Knots" and "Dynasty" stars, the 4 major actresses were constantly in the screens of our TV´s all through the 90´s. Public channels were a new thing here, and they programmed a recent American TVM every afternoon (very bitchly renamed the "siesta films"...). Kate, Cheryl, Jaclyn, Farrah, (both) Lindas, Victoria, Michele, Donna, and of course, the "Princess of Miniseries", who was none other than...Jane Seymour. Those were the days...good ol´days. Sometimes I wonder what kind of careers these beauties would have had if they had been born 50 years earlier...
:cooler: 
