Video Discription |
This is a clip from "Let Our Angel Live", the 17th-and final-episode (115th overall) from the fifth-and final season-that served as the series finale for the 1976-81 ABC pop culture detective series "Charlie's Angels", produced by television legend Aaron Spelling ("The Love Boat", "Fantasy Island", "Vega$"). The episode originally aired Wednesday, June 24, 1981.
The series had become a runaway hit with viewers upon its debut in the fall of 1976, while TV critics derisively referred to it as "jiggle TV". It had made household names out of the three lead actresses portraying the Angels: Kate Jackson (Sabrina Duncan), Jaclyn Smith (Kelly Garrett) and Farrah Fawcett-Majors (Jill Munroe), who by that point had become a pop culture icon due to her famous poster and the series.
Chinks in the show's armor of success started when after the first season competed filming in the spring of 1977, Farrah Fawcett-Majors decided to leave the series. Alarmed, the show's executive producers, Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, reminded her that she signed a five year contract and couldn't just leave. They offered to increase her salary, but she refused. Incensed, she was later sued by Spelling and Golberg, in conjunction with ABC. In time, the suit was settled and Fawcett-Majors was released from her seres contract, though she had to honor the other 4-year contract she had with ABC, which saw her reprising her role as Jill Munroe on "Charlie's Angels" for six appearances between 1977 and 1980.
Cheryl Ladd was brought in after a nationwide search to play Kris Munroe, Jill's younger sister in the fall of 1977. She would stay with the show until it's cancellation. Ratings were marginal, but still firmly in the Top 20. That would change in the spring of 1979, when Kate Jackson was offered the role of Joanna Kramer in the 1979 drama classic "Kramer vs Kramer", but was unable to accept due to the fact that the producers would not allow her to reschedule her scenes on the series, leading her to become problematic behind the scenes. Having had enough of her behavior, as well as her complaining of script quality, Jackson was let go from "Charlie's Angels" in the summer of 1979. Commercial actress Shelley Hack was brought in as Jackson's sophisticated replacement Tiffany Welles. Ratings spiked briefly, but returned to their normal place near the bottom of the Nielsens. She would be released from her contract in early 1980.
By the fall of 1980, the end was near, due to several time slot changes, as well as new cast changes. Actress/model Tanya Roberts was brought in as Hack's street-smart replacement Julie Rogers, but viewers didn't connect with her. A series locale change from Los Angeles to Hawaii didn't help ratings or quality.
In early 1981, the original five-year contract of the last remaining original Angel, Jaclyn Smith, was almost up and she had decided that she wouldn't renew. With the frequent cast changes, backstage battles, declining ratings, and the changing tastes of the American viewing public, ABC decided to cancel the aging series after five years in the spring of 1981.
In the final episode, Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith) is shot twice in the head at point blank range while watching a suspect on a stakeout. She is taken to the hospital, where her fellow Angels Julie Rogers (Tanya Roberts) and Kris Munroe (Cheryl Ladd) and their handler John Bosley (David Doyle, the only actor who appeared in every episode) anxiously awaits news of her condition. They also spend the time reminiscing on past cases (clips from previous episodes from the last five years).
While in the chapel, Bosley and the Angels are approached by the surgeon, who informs them that Kelly survived the procedure and is asking for them. Behind him is a man in scrubs with a surgical mask that Bosley instantly recognizes as their never-seen boss, the enigmatic Charlie Townsend.
Kelly greets her friends and groggily tells them that she heard Charlie's voice during the operation. Bosley confirms to Julie and Kris that Charlie was indeed in the operating room and in the chapel, but slipped away. Kelly just chuckles and says "Well, that's Charlie."
While the Angels are reuniting with Kelly, Bosley glances up to into the other room and smiles before turning his attention back to her. The camera pulls back to see a reflection of Charlie, still masked up smiling at his Angels, before departing.
And with that, "Charlie's Angels" comes to an end. |