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The
Charlie's Angels Movies |
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It
all began in 1976 with the
Charlie's Angels Pilot Movie
that aired on ABC on March 21, 1976.
This 72-minute pilot film
of the Charlie's Angels series originally aired as a
movie-of-the-week and stars the three original "Angels":
Sabrina (Kate Jackson), Jill (Farrah Fawcett-Majors),
and Kelly (Jaclyn Smith). The
pilot drew a 54 share in the Nielsen ratings, which
translates into over half of all television sets in the
country in use that night were tuned in. The pilot
ranked 3rd among all tele films for the year and when it
was re-aired on September 14, 1976, it ranked 4th.
ABC placed Charlie's Angels
series on to their fall 1976 schedule. The rest is
television history. The
pilot was set up a bit differently than the series. The
Angels were detectives and they did not use guns. They
used their wits and brains and were masters of disguise.
It was not until the series that the Angels had guns in
their hands and had martial arts skills The Angels also
worked beside two men, one was John Bosley (David Doyle)
and Scott Woodville which was played by David Ogden
Stiers. Yet, when the series was made the character of
Woodville was axed.
The TV 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.
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Charlie's Angels
(2000)
Directed by McG
Produced by Drew Barrymore, Leonard Goldberg and Nancy
Juvonen
Written by Ed Solomon, John August and Ryan Rowe
Original Music by Ed Shearmur
Cast
Drew Barrymore ... Dylan Sanders
Cameron Diaz ... Natalie Thompson
Lucy Liu ... Alex Munday
Bill Murray ... John Bosley
Tim Curry ... Roger Corwin
Kelly Lynch ... Vivian Wood
Sam Rockwell ... Knox
Crispin Glover ... Thin Man
Luke Wilson ... Pete Komisky |
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Charlie's Angels:
Full Throttle
(2003)
Directed by McG
Produced by Drew Barrymore, Leonard Goldberg and Nancy
Juvonen
Written by Ed Solomon, John August and Ryan Rowe
Original Music by Ed Shearmur
Cast
Cameron Diaz ... Natalie Cook
Drew Barrymore ... Dylan Sanders
Lucy Liu ... Alex Munday
Bernie Mac ... Jimmy Bosley
Crispin Glover ... Thin Man
Justin Theroux ... Seamus O'Grady
Robert Patrick ... Ray Carter
Demi Moore ... Madison Lee
Rodrigo Santoro ... Randy Emmers
Shia LaBeouf ... Max
Matt LeBlanc ... Jason
Luke Wilson ... Pete Komisky |
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