The show follows the crime-fighting adventures of three women working at a private detective agency in Los Angeles, California, and originally starred Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Jaclyn Smith in the leading roles and John Forsythe providing the voice of their boss, the unseen Charlie Townsend, who directed the crime-fighting operations of the "Angels" over a speakerphone.

[2] Despite mixed reviews from critics and a reputation for merely being "jiggle television" that emphasized the sex appeal of the female leads, Charlie's Angels was a top ten hit in the Nielsen ratings for its first two seasons.

Charlie's Angels continues to have a 1970s American cult and pop culture following through syndication, DVD releases, and subsequent television shows.

Producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg first considered actress Kate Jackson during the early pre-production stages of the series.

Despite liking Smith, Spelling and Goldberg were wary about hiring her because their initial concept concerned a brunette, blonde, and red-headed woman.

Producer Leonard Goldberg had the initial idea, three years previously, for a show that would be a cross between The Avengers and Honey West, a short-lived drama from the 1960s about a female private investigator.

Forsythe was offered the 'Charlie' role in a panicky late-night phone call from Spelling after the original choice, Gig Young, showed up too intoxicated to read his lines: "I didn't even take my pajamas off – I just put on my topcoat and drove over to Fox.

[1] Spelling and Goldberg decided to add actor David Doyle to the cast as John Bosley, an employee of Charlie, who would frequently aid the Angels in their assignments.

The story focuses heavily on Kelly Garrett (a role intended for Jackson before she and Smith swapped) who poses as an heiress who returns home to gain her father's successful winery.

After viewing the pilot, Spelling encouraged executives to delete Scott Woodville from the series; according to The Charlie's Angels Casebook, audiences also reacted negatively to the character.

Several up-and-coming actresses were considered for the role, including Barbara Bach, Connie Sellecca, Shari Belafonte, Judith Chapman, newcomer Michelle Pfeiffer and The Price Is Right model Dian Parkinson.

A statement later issued by Spelling-Goldberg read: "When she signed her contract for the series, Miss Hack had a personal agreement that she could review her continuation with the show at the end of her first season since series television represented an enormous change in her career and lifestyle",[15] implying that Hack was included in the decision to exit Charlie's Angels.

These characterizations stemmed from the fact that the lead actresses frequently dressed scantily or provocatively as part of their undercover characters (including roller derby girl, beauty pageant contestant, maid, female prisoner, or just bikini-clad), and the belief that their clothing was a means of attracting viewers.

[17] Reflecting on the 1970s female-driven drama, Jaclyn Smith, who was the only 'Angel' to star on all five seasons, states how Charlie's Angels changed her – and TV audiences across America: "It was ground-breaking.

She noted, "there hadn't been a show like this on the air [with] three powerful women who had the latest hairdos, wore the coolest clothes and could walk around in a bikini.

[31] Time magazine called Charlie's Angels an "aesthetically ridiculous, commercially brilliant brainstorm surfing blithely atop the Zeitgeist's seventh wave".

The long working hours on set, combined with numerous calls for photo shoots, wardrobe fittings, and promotional interviews, took their toll on the trio.

Jackson was especially unhappy as she felt the quality of scripts was declining and the format was now more "cop story of the week" rather than classy undercover drama, which had been the intention with the pilot film.

Despite generally receiving mild competition from its rival networks on these time slots, Charlie's Angels placed fifty-ninth out of sixty-five shows for the 1980–81 season.

The Charlie's Angels seventy four minute pilot film that aired on March 21, 1976, received enormous ratings, but ABC network — who thought this was one of the worst ideas for a TV series they had ever heard — did not believe the figures and showed it again a week later to check.

Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including Charlie's Angels in 2013.

The episode starred Barbara Stanwyck as Antonia "Toni" Blake, a wealthy widow socialite and friend of Charlie's who ran a detective agency she inherited from her late husband.

Gavin MacLeod, Bernie Kopell, Fred Grandy, Ted Lange, and Lauren Tewes guest starred as their The Love Boat characters.

A sequel, entitled Full Throttle, was released in 2003, directed by McG and written by John August, and Cormac and Marianne Wibberley.

It sees Crispin Glover and Matt LeBlanc returning, as well as featuring Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Carrie Fisher, Shia LaBeouf, Robert Patrick, Justin Theroux, Luke Wilson, John Cleese, and Rodrigo Santoro, with Jaclyn Smith reprising her role as Kelly Garrett, and Bernie Mac as Bosley's brother.

The film opened in the United States on June 27, 2003, and was number one at the box office for that weekend, also making a worldwide total of $259.2 million.

ABC canceled the reboot series after one month on October 14,[58] due to low ratings and concluding on November 10, with seven episodes (the eighth and last one was unaired in the US).

During the TV show's run, Hasbro Industries produced an extensive range of Charlie's Angels merchandise, which was distributed in the US, the UK, and other international markets.

[73] The picture has been immortalized as a Black Label Barbie Collection doll and the legendary red bathing suit has been donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Proving unpopular, it folded in August and merged back into TV Comic where Canning's Angels strip continued until October 1979.