Once upon a time there were three little girls who starred as private detectives answering to a never-seen boss in a show that turned into a pop culture phenomenon called “Charlie’s Angels.”
Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd reunited to mark the show’s 50th anniversary at PaleyFest LA on Monday night. They were greeted with a standing ovation and whoops and cheers from an audience at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
The hour-long crime adventure series debuted on Sept. 22, 1976, in a pre-Internet and streaming world when there were just three major television networks. It was a top-10 hit for ABC in its first two of five seasons, ending in 1981.
“I knew the show was different, special and unique,” Smith told the audience. “Three women chasing danger instead of getting rescued.”
Jackson added, “We made an impact, I think.”
Farrah Fawcett-Majors became a 1970s icon with her feathered hair and sexy swimsuit poster. She left after the first season to pursue a film career. She died in 2009.
She was replaced by Ladd, who showed up on her first day wearing a Farrah Fawcett Minor T-shirt. She had turned down producer Aaron Spelling three times, knowing how beloved Fawcett had been.
“I knew that there was nobody that was going to replace Farrah, so I made a joke of myself,” Ladd said on the red carpet. “Everybody laughed. Farrah would have done something like that.”
Jackson added, “Cheryl stepped in and we didn’t miss a beat.”
Critics weren’t kind, however, calling the show “jiggle television” because the women dressed scantily to go undercover and slamming it for vapid acting.
“It didn’t bother me,” Jackson said on the red carpet. “I knew what we were doing and Gloria Steinem knew what we were doing, and some other very impressive people knew what we were doing. We were helping to punch a hole in that glass ceiling and that makes a big difference.”
Five decades later, the show remains popular in reruns and DVDs, having spawned a film series starring Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu.
“We were giving people an hour to sit back, put their feet up, forget everything and watch television,” Jackson said, “and then again just kind of subtly getting the message in there that women are just as capable, intelligent, can do anything that a man can do.”
The mostly older audience cheered and laughed as scenes from various episodes were played. Included in the highlights were Shelley Hack, who lasted one season after replacing Jackson, and the late Tanya Roberts, who appeared in the final season. Smith and the late David Doyle, who played Charlie’s go-between, were on the show’s entire run.
Smith, who is 80, and Ladd, who is 74, went on to prolific careers in made-for-TV movies and guesting on other shows. Jackson, who quit after three seasons, later starred in the CBS hit “Scarecrow and Mrs. King.”
Jackson left the business nearly 20 years ago to raise her son. Now 77, she said, “I’m ready to go back.”
The trio’s sisterhood includes all of them overcoming breast cancer, with Ladd revealing for the first time publicly Monday that she had an aggressive form of the disease. She didn’t say when it occurred.
“When Cheryl called me,” Smith said, “the first thing I did was send her my wigs.”
Smith was at Jackson’s bedside during her cancer battle. Each of them urged the audience to have regular health screenings.
In one of many lighter moments, the women were asked to name their favorite outfits.
“I wore a lot of turtlenecks,” Jackson said, drawing laughs.
Smith singled out her tiny white bikini seen in the opening credits.
Ladd recalled, “Bikinis, a lot of bikinis.”
Smith joked, “Our ratings went up.”
Jackson, Smith and Ladd will reunite again on May 14 when they are among the recipients at the Paley Honors gala in New York. Smith’s memoir titled “I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie” comes out in September.
“I was really proud to be part of that show,” said Ladd, who always welcomed fans expressing their fondness for the Angels. “I felt so loved. You couldn’t be in a bad mood. It was always uplifting to hear it.”
