Charlie's Angels has inspired many remakes and reinterpretations throughout the years and in different countries. Did you know that the Fox Network and Aaron Spelling Productions interviewed more than 8,000 women in 1988 for roles in a reprised version of Charlie's Angels? The proposed series, which was to be called Angels '88 would have been about four actresses who started a detectives agency after their TV detective show was canceled. Four women were selected to be in the show: Tea Leoni (The Naked Truth, Flirting With Disaster), Claire Yarlett (The Colbys, Robin's Hoods), Karen Kopins (Dallas) and Sandra Canning. The show was later named Angels '89 after production delays, but the show ultimately never aired.

From 1998–1999, Telemundo and Sony produced a Spanish-language version of Charlie's Angels called Angeles. Mexico's Patricia Manterola played Angel Adriana Vega, Argentina's Sandra Vidal played Angel Elena Sanchez and Colombia's Magali Caicedo played Angel Gina Navarro. The weekly hour format did not catch on with Hispanic viewers, who are accustom to watch telenovelas nightly & the series was soon cancelled. For fans of the original Charlie's Angels, or anyone who likes fine quality television that involves hot Hispanic chicks in bikinis, "Angeles" is a must-see.

The opening credits are a wonderland of nostalgia, complete with a synth-pop version of the old Charlie's Angels theme, and those great gun-pointing merged silhouettes that have inspired many a sweaty night of adolescent foursome fantasies. The ladies, as described in the opening voice-over by Charlie, are Adriana "The Brunette" (Patricia Manterola), Elena "The Blonde" (Sandra Vidal), and Gina "The Ebony Beauty" (Magali Caicedo), I guess because there are no Hispanic redheads.

Even by the standard of acting established by Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith, these ladies are no Ralph Richardsons. In this first episode, as the distraught husband describes the disappearance of his wife, the ladies try to look thoughtful and sympathetic mostly by cocking their heads and shaking the hair out of their eyes.

In addition to being translated into Spanish, the show has been updated with a more modern feel--instead of the old-fashioned intercom, Charlie now communicates with the Angels via cyberspace, appearing on a large video screen in front of their computer console. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that he appears in a large window in the wall above their computer console. There's a fishbowl on his desk.

The plot of the first episode involves a masked killer who is offing a lot of half-naked models. In order to find one of the missing girls, The Brunette must go undercover as a model. The other ladies occupy their time with their respective specialties, The Blonde handling the high-tech stuff, and The Ebony Beauty sneaking around in Mission Impossible garb, and periodically reading the tarot and crossing herself. (She may be into voodoo, but she's no bimbo--encountering a corpse lying stiff, its eyes wide open, jaw hanging slack, and lips pale blue, the first thing she does is feel for a pulse.) Dialogue is mostly on the level of the Chandleresque "If you think that your barking scares me, darling, you and I can dance any time," and other equally cogent metaphors, but let's face it: we didn't tune in to see these ladies talk and solve crimes. We tuned in to see them go undercover as fashion models, or cheerleaders, or foxy boxers, or whatever else the deviant scriptwriters can think up each week.

I know I for one will be waiting with bated breath, or maybe raspy breath, each week to see what sexy adventures the Angeles will be getting into next. And I recommend all lovers of nostalgia, or classic television, or naked Hispanic flesh, do the same.

Wilde Engel - Wild Angels

In 2002, a German version of Charlie's Angels, Wilde Engel, was produced by the German channel RTL. The show was produced by Hermann Joha, Angela Strunck, and Melanie Mohr. The show was known as "Anges de Choc" in French-speaking countries, and as "Three Wild Angels" in English-speaking ones. RTL Television presented on the 28th of February 2002 for the first time the pilot of an action-series with female heroes. Three young women in a fight against the criminality and to survive. They came together against their will with life-stories which couldn't be more different. Only together the Wild Angels can survive their deadly assignments.

A series full of spectacular body-action, wild chases, crashes, explosions, helicopter- and water sport acrobatic. But the Wild Angels don't only let it bang: they also have their female qualities, like sex appeal, charm, attractiveness, smartness and intuition, which delivers them advantages in their fight against the criminals.

In the pilot you can see how these three woman meet each other and how they have to fight against a group of criminals. However they do some things which the police doesn't accept.

From that moment on the police starts a hunt after them. Fortunately there is one man within the police who can help them not to be caught: Grossmann (played by Filip Peters). He can protect the three woman when they help them with his work: to get criminals by using methods which aren't allowed by the police. Also starring are  Filip Peeters as  Martin Grossmann and Michael Hanemann as  Wilhelm Heitmann. The first season had good ratings, but they were slipping by the second season and high production costs made it hard to go on. The cast was entirely changed around the second season with Vanessa Petruo as Rebecca, Zora Holt as Aiko, Tanja Wenzel as Ida and Udo Kier. The show was cancelled during 2005.  More information about "Wilde Engel" you can find on www.actionconcept.de.

The television series inspired two feature films from production company Flower Films: Charlie's Angels (2000) and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), both directed by McG and starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu as the three angels, with John Forsythe returning to voice Charlie. Bosley was played in the first film by Bill Murray, while the second film cast Bernie Mac as Jimmy Bosley, John's adoptive-brother. The second movie had more nods to the TV series than the first movie in the series did, perhaps due to complaints from fans of the TV series. Whereas most movie remakes of 1970s TV shows, like Starsky and Hutch, are actually remakes, the Charlie's Angels films are set in a different time. The mythology goes that whenever an Angel leaves, she is replaced so there are always three (seen in the TV show).

Liu, Barrymore and Diaz's characters are not based on the Angels in the show, but are their "successors". To prove this fact, Demi Moore's character, who is a 'fallen' Angel, quotes; "Back in my day — we used guns", which refers to the lack of martial arts in the TV series, while it is the preferred form of combat in the films. In the TV series, the Angels were more police-like, generally using guns. Physical struggles, were, however, common. In fact, the silhouette logo of the TV series does show one angel with her hands in a karate-like pose (and the other two with a gun and a walkie-talkie). The karate pose is often included when the show is being spoofed. The martial arts theme in the movies can be seen, in a way, as based on the original TV logo.

Also, Jaclyn Smith reprised her Kelly Garrett role from the TV series, who Dylan (Barrymore) meets in a Mexican cafe when she decides to leave the Angels. Kelly persuades her to rejoin the Angels with an inspiring speech. This reinforces the fact that there were not just three Angels (in fact in the TV series the viewer sees six different Angels), but there have always been three Angels at any one time.

From the good people who brought you "Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Three's Company,'" this telefilm documents the rise of Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson as they became famous sex symbols as well as the price of that fame. Dan Castellaneta ("The Simpsons") is inspired casting as the show's producer, Aaron Spelling.

Synopsis: In 1975, television producer Aaron Spelling (Dan Castellaneta) was looking for a new hit, and he thought he might have one in a script about three beautiful female police officers who become private detectives working for a mysterious man named Charlie. While the show began life as The Alley Cats, in time Spelling and his crew changed it to Charlie's Angels, and once they cast Farrah Fawcett-Majors (Tricia Helfer), Kate Jackson (Lauren Stamile), and Jaclyn Smith (Christina Chambers), they soon had a show that would give birth to a new genre -- "jiggle television" -- and become a worldwide phenomenon. Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels also features Ben Browder as Lee Majors, Dan Lauria as ABC head Fred Silverman, and Chelsea Watson as Cheryl Ladd.

Charlie's Angels became an instant cultural phenomenon and shot to the top of the Nielsen ratings after premiering on September 22, 1976. It made overnight stars of its original crime-fighting "Angels" -- Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith. The trio even made the cover of Time magazine that fall when TV celebrities rarely graced the covers of newsmagazines.

"'Charlie's Angels' was the original 'jiggle TV' show, and Farrah Fawcett was the original blonde bombshell of television," said writer-executive producer Matt Dorff ("Growing Up Brady," "Mr. Rock 'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story"). "It was extremely influential in empowering female characters in action-oriented hour dramas and beyond."

As the former head of VH1 movies, Michael G. Larkin ("Red Water", "Murder in the Heartland") was responsible for over a dozen pop-culture TV movies, including TV movies on The Monkees, Ricky Nelson and Meat Loaf. Larkin also said "The dramatic story behind the show's first season makes this a perfect fit with NBC's direction for movies. Love it or hate it, the impact of this show is still with us 27 years later."

The main source consulted for the movie is the book "Charlie's Angel's Casebook" by Jack Condon and David Hofstede. Condon, who is considered to have the world's largest collection of "Charlie's Angels" memorabilia - topping off at more than 8,000 items - has interviewed all six "Angels" series actresses and counts several of the women as personal friends.

In July 2003, three Charlie's Angels games were released on three different gaming platforms: Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and the mobile phone. The versions released on both the GameCube and PlayStation 2 were virtually the same, each given the same title: Charlie's Angels. The version released for the mobile phone was fundamentally toned down to fit the technical restrictions of the platform, and was titled Charlie's Angels: Road Cyclone.
According to Game Rankings, the GameCube version is the worst reviewed video game of all time (an average of 23%, with Metacritic garnering the same results). Although the PlayStation 2 version didn't garner enough reviews to be officially listed, this version is virtually the same as the GameCube version. The mobile phone version averaged a respectable 79%.

The first season of Charlie's Angels caused an explosion of fan hysteria and press coverage that was unheard of in the mid-1970s. It was even highlighted as a cover story in Time magazine which analyzed the impact of the show on popular culture. Also, in the U.S census, it was found out that the name Charlie was more often used in naming children.

Since Charlie's Angels were among the first strong female role models for girls and young women, there was an enormous market for Angel merchandise, which any number of franchisers were willing to fill. In beauty products alone, there were cosmetics and beauty sets by Fleetwood, Farrah hair products by Faberge, a beauty hair-care set and a cosmetic beauty kit by HG Toys -- in both Jill and Kris versions (now worth about $150 each), dresser sets by Fleetwood, a "Charlie's Angels" hair dryer, and several kinds of mirrors. To capitalize on Farrah's influential hair style, there were also Farrah's Glamour and Styling Centers, with which young fans could practice their styling skills. Dolls, toys and games proliferated as well. There was a Milton Bradley board game, produced in 1977;a Colorforms Adventure set; Paint by Numbers sets; paper dolls in both booklets and boxes; 8-inch Hasbro dolls of Kelly, Sabrina, Jill and Kris; and Hasbro boxed gift sets of three dolls, now valued at around $200;. A Hasbro Hide-a-Way Playset and a Fashion Tote carrying case, plus a 16-inch pink plastic Adventure Van; 11-inch Mego Farrah dolls and 12-inch Farrah and Jaclyn Smith dolls; Mattel-produced 12-inch Cheryl Ladd and Kate Jackson dolls; separate sets of clothes ("Farrah's Fashions") and action gear; and several different jewelry sets. One of the most amusing of these is "The Fawcett," a gold-plated sterling-silver pendant in the form of a faucet with moveable handle, now valued at up to $100. 

During the show's run, many collectible items were produced, including (two versions of) dolls, countless games, trading cards, pipes, notebooks, and even record albums. A poster of Farrah Fawcett-Majors was also sold showing Farrah sporting a red bathing suit that became the biggest selling poster in history with 12 million copies sold.

Two British comic strip versions were produced. The first appeared in the Polystyle publication Target in April 1978, drawn by John Canning. Target was a sister title to the long-running TV Comic aimed at older children and featuring TV action and crime shows of the day. Proving unpopular, it folded in August and merged back into TV Comic where Canning's Angels strip continued until October 1979. The second strip was printed in Junior TV Times Look-In, debuting in November 1979 (as soon as Polystyle's deal expired), written by Angus P. Allan and drawn by Jim Baikie and Bill Titcombe.
In the on-line comic Erfworld, one side in The Battle for Gobwin Knob hires three glowing, flying female combatants from an unseen "Charlie". One is blond and two are dark-haired. They first appear in silhouette in Page 42 of the comic and in the final frame of Page 69, after dispensing with some "Dwagons" of the opposing side, once again take up the iconic pose of Charlie's Angels. They are referred to as "Charlie's Archons". In the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, in the context of which which the Erfworld story is placed, an archon is a documented character. In Gnosticism, an archon occupies a role similar to the angels of the Old Testament.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released Seasons 1-3 of the series on DVD thus far. No release date has been announced for the seasons 4 & 5 DVDs.