I know Kate Jackson was a neurotic mess, but I still found Sabrina the most likeable character because she seemed the most earthbound angel. And I confess to preferring the first Kate/Farrah/Jaclyn trio because they seemed a nice counterbalance to each other, three equal corners to a triangle somehow. And then the Kate/Cheryl/Jaclyn trio from S2 and S3 was acceptable, even though Farrah's sparkle was a necessary note and hard to replace.
Jaclyn always seemed to be trying to be alluring and enigmatic, while Farrah really was all bouncy hair and shiny teeth. Cheryl was the better actress of the bunch, obviously, and yet I always got a wee sleazy vibe off of her.
And who the hell signed off on Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts?? Obviously the wrong type for the show.... I'm still convinced somebody thought the Hack tie-in to the Charlie perfume was a cute reason enough to hire her. Hack was supposed to be the uptown angel, one supposes, while Tanya Roberts was the retarded slut angel.
Interestingly, since we have a POLICE WOMAN thread at work here (by pretty much me alone) when ABC told Aaron Spelling that they thought CHARLIE'S ANGELS sounded like the worst idea for a show they'd ever heard, Spelling told them "it will be like POLICE WOMAN times three" -- and while the two shows would clearly have a different tone, it was a selling point because PW had hit #1 in the ratings that previous summer. And that argument in part helped make the sale, the CA pilot hitting #1 when it aired in Spring 1976, the series then greenlighted for that fall... A year later, Aaron, a POLICE WOMAN fan, called Cheryl Ladd's agent as soon as seeing her on an episode just after Farrah announced to great tumult that she was leaving ANGELS; Spelling came up with the idea that Farrah's little sister adored by the other angels would help minimize audience resentment of the new blonde. And it worked -- the Nielsen ratings actually ticked up after Cheryl replaced Farrah, the media controversy over Fawcett leaving undoubtedly helping.
Who knew Blake Carrington had his own team of sexy crimefighters? And did this cause problems between he and Krystle?
And speaking of sexy, media watchdog groups would cite ANGELS as the most irresponsibly sexual show on TV year after year -- despite the program's prim lack of any sexual content whatsoever. The girls may have warn bikinis twice during the series' entire run.