Touched by an Angel is an American drama television series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994, and ran for 211 episodes over nine seasons[1] until its conclusion on April 27, 2003.

Created by John Masius and executive produced by Martha Williamson, the series stars Roma Downey as an angel named Monica, and Della Reese as her supervisor Tess.

The episodes of the series generally revolved around the "cases" of Monica (Roma Downey), an angel recently promoted from the "search and rescue" division, who works under the guidance of Tess (Della Reese), a sarcastic boss who is sometimes hard on her junior colleague, but is more of a surrogate mother than a supervisor.

Most cases involve a single person or a group of people who are at a crossroads in their lives and facing a large problem or tough decision.

During their first episode, the pair receive a red 1972 Cadillac Eldorado convertible as a gift; they use it for transportation throughout the rest of the series while in the human world, with Tess doing the driving.

In Season 4, a new angel is introduced named Rafael (Alexis Cruz), who appears throughout the series on a recurring basis, often assisting the main trio (Monica, Tess, and Andrew) in their cases.

Towards the end of the seventh season, a new angel, Gloria (Valerie Bertinelli), is created by God during one of Monica's assignments, designed to adapt to life on Earth in the 21st century.

In the series finale, Monica is up for promotion to supervisor, pending the outcome of a difficult case in which she must defend Zach (Scott Bairstow), an innocent drifter accused of causing a boiler explosion at a school two years ago in the small town of Ascension, Colorado.

Monica does all she can to help him, including asking Mike to represent him, but the prosecutor in the case, Jones, is really Satan in disguise, and Zach is eventually convicted.

The citizens decide not to search for him, and it is revealed that Joey inadvertently caused the explosion after the devil tricked him into turning the boiler too high to warm some kittens he'd found.

[3] The show also featured early appearances by Jack Black, James Marsden, Shia LaBeouf, Brie Larson, Kirsten Dunst, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Bryan Cranston.

According to New York Times reviewer Caryn James, John Masius created the first pilot episode for the series, but it was a darker, less hopeful story than the producers wanted.

[18] Williamson herself wrote a new script for the pilot episode, while also working on hiring the remaining staff for the series, which was due to premiere in September.

In 1996, Promised Land was launched as a spin-off series, following the Greene family whom Monica had met during one of her cases, as they travel the United States helping those in need.

Tom Shales of The Washington Post said, "viewers with low tolerance for precious whimsy will probably find they have overdosed on pixie dust within the first 10 minutes.

Commenting on frequent shots of Monica's bare feet in the first episode, Zurawik wrote, "I'm not sure what that's all about unless CBS has research showing a large audience of foot fetishists waiting for a reason not to watch ABC's Roseanne.

"[28] He added the show "seemed to suggest that God was deeply concerned but mostly unable or unwilling to get directly involved, sending along his messengers to patch things up for humanity (or select portions of it) now and again.

"[29] Common Sense Media reviewer Emily Ashby gave the series 3 out of 5 stars, and said that "this uplifting, inspirational show is steeped in strong moral messages, life lessons, and Christian overtones that include multiple references to 'God,' 'Lord,' and the 'Father.

[44][45][46][47][48] In 1999, a chain email emerged that falsely claimed that atheism activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair (who died in 1995) was circulating a petition for the Federal Communications Commission to ban all religiously themed radio and television shows, including Touched by an Angel.

In addition to having tracks performed by Reese and Downey, it features songs from Randy Travis, Keb' Mo', Charlotte Church, Kirk Franklin, Collin Raye, Amy Grant and Donna Summer.