Good night, Angels.
In honor of Charlie’s Angels milestone 50th anniversary — which kicked off its five-season run in 1976 — stars Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd came together for a conversation at PaleyFest LA on Monday to look back at their groundbreaking series.
Jackson was involved with the show — which followed three beautiful private detectives — from the very beginning, helping Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg put together the idea after her time on The Rookie. She was originally attached to play Jaclyn Smith’s role of Kelly Garrett but would later switch to playing Sabrina Duncan; Smith recalled during the chat that her audition wasn’t her best work and she didn’t think she’d get the role. She also quipped that the producers originally wanted a blonde, a brunette and a redhead, which “they thought was inclusive” at the time.
“This show was different, special and unique. I thought wow, three women chasing danger instead of being rescued from danger,” Smith said when she was offered the part. “It gave women permission to be independent and to break out of the mold and not be defined by men.”
Farrah Fawcett, who passed away in 2009, was originally the third Angel alongside Jackson and Smith, but departed after the first season, which the two admitted to being disappointed by. Ladd was brought in to play Fawcett’s character’s younger sister Kris Munroe, after turning Spelling down three times when he asked her to join the show.
“He said, ‘Just tell me, why don’t you want to do it?’ I said, ‘Because everybody loves Farrah, I don’t know who is going to try to take that place,’” Ladd recalled. “And he said, ‘Well, I have an idea. If you’re Farrah’s little sister, then you’re part of the family.’ And I said, ‘I’m in.’”
Ladd later showed up to set wearing a shirt that read “Farrah Fawcett Minor,” while also revealing another moment of rebellion after Spelling repeatedly put her character in bikinis. “I went out and bought the tiniest little bikini ever seen on television, and we filmed and Aaron wasn’t happy,” Ladd explained, later getting a message from Spelling that said, “‘Tell the little troublemaker that she’s never going to do that again.’ And I didn’t, but I made my point. When I was wearing a swimsuit, it was something I felt comfortable in.”
During the conversation Ladd also revealed a past battle with breast cancer, which Jackson and Smith have similarly been through and brought the three women even closer.
Later in the conversation, the trio spoke about some of the challenges that came along with Charlie’s Angels, which included having to say no to other major projects due to their schedules and contracts. Smith noted that she was considered as a Bond girl in 1979’s Moonraker, but “I had a contract, and you know, [my] Houston upbringing, you follow your contract. And Aaron was the first to invite me to the party, so I was honoring my contract.” She also revealed she was up for Beetlejuice “but I just didn’t understand it. My husband regrets that,” which was met with laughs from the crowd.
Jackson was asked about turning down the role later played by Meryl Streep in Kramer vs. Kramer, to which she replied, “You want the truth? They changed the schedule for the movie four times and every time they did, Aaron would look at the Charlie’s Angels schedule and say, ‘Oh gee, we had to change our schedule. Now it doesn’t work here, here and here.’ He didn’t let me do it.”
The group — who were open about how little money they’ve seen from the series, despite it launching multiple film franchises — also talked about the uphill battle they faced, as Smith remembered, “The network didn’t believe in our show. They aired our pilot as a two-hour movie and it went through the roof. And they thought, ‘This isn’t true, we’ve got to do it again; this can’t be, this doesn’t have endurance.’ And they aired it a second night to even higher ratings,” but even then, “They didn’t even order a full season of episodes.”
In continued celebration of the 50th anniversary, Jackson, Smith and Ladd will also be recognized at the Paley Honors Spring Gala next month in New York.
