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Charlie’s Angels
The Complete Third Season
Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, David Doyle, Farrah Fawcett
Guest stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Scatman Crothers, Kasey Casem, Dean Martin
TV Series 1978-79 season
The Complete Third Season
6 DVDs 24 Episodes
Sony Home Entertainment 2006
Charlie's Angels was probably the most successful female detective show in the history of television –Jessica Fletcher in her support hose does not count. Its perfect mix of good mystery stories, teenage boy titillating appeal, and jiggle made this show a must watch for the whole family. The advantage of Charlie's Angel's The Complete Third Season is it marks the departure of star Farah Fawcett aka Farah Fawcett Majors whose acting abilities can be summarized as a series of pouting and smiley faces unless she does her imitation of Mount Rushmore when her fiancé blows up right in front of her. Then again, I was always a Kate Jackson fan when I was a teenage boy. Charlie's Angels Season Three is when Cheryl Ladd joins the Townsend Detective Agency as Kris Munroe, sister of the Fawcett character; this is reason enough to watch.
Charlie's Angels The Complete Third Season and all 24 episodes of it is simply great sit back and relax fun. Most episodes are quite fun to watch and decently written. Fawcett Majors makes guest appearances in three of the season's shows. Of course, some episodes are basically set up to show angels Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, and Cheryl Ladd in tight fitting outfits and there is nothing whatsoever wrong with that.
This is the case for the Angels in Springtime episode where the girls end up going undercover (although everyone seems to know they are detectives) at a health spa. Of course, Ladd gets to wear tight shorts and, by some kind of strange coincidence, most of the customers at this spa also look great in a pink bathing suit. The story itself is not particularly original as I am sure I have seen a recycled version of it in other cop shows but, hey, Ladd in a towel…. You also get to see her, or a stuntwoman, wrestle alligators.
Then again, Cheryl Ladd in a cheerleader outfit is not a bad idea either as you can see in Pom Pom Angels where the girls try to solve the case of the disappearing cheerleaders. Smith has fun shoving her pom poms in Jackson's face for fun while Charlie's angels try to find the religious nut who is kidnapping the cheerleaders.
A highlight of this mystery television DVD box set has to be Winning If For Losers. It features Jamie Lee Curtis as a young pro golfer someone is trying to intimidate or kill before she can win a big time tournament. Any fan of Jamie Lee Curtis will enjoy seeing her in an early role and the story itself is pretty good and keeps you guessing even if the manager hitting on Jaclyn Smith is an annoying bit especially since he does not know Alice Cooper is a guy. The Halloween episode, though it aired October 25th, features the angels out to debunk a psychic study program. Lots of things go bump in the night and so on but this is an interesting episode.
Watching Charlie's Angels The Complete Third Season highlights the contribution of David Doyle as John Bosley. Doyle is believable as the angel's manager and as a detective in his own right but is also very good at providing the occasional bit of comic relief either by delivering a funny line, getting in an awkward situation, or playing a variety of secondary roles during the investigation. He also stars in the best episode of this mystery TV DVD box set, Angels In Waiting, where Bosley gets annoyed at being seen as old predictable and reliable and issues a challenge to Charlie's angels to find him using clues he phones in from time to time. This one features James B. Sikking of Hill Street Blues fame and will definitely keep you guessing.
A dose of willing suspension of disbelief is necessary if you want to buy the idea of Cheryl Ladd as a young college student in Teen Angels. Then again, she is not the only student there who looks a little too old for the part (especially the Liz character) even if Blackmoor College is, and it is not really clarified, an all-girls community college of some kind. Audrey Landers is good as the rich b running the show.
One of the weak episodes of Charlie's Angels The Complete Third Season is episode 4, Angel On High: a little old lady reading her bible after church gets run over. A millionaire hires the angels to look into her past as he believes she is a former flame and might have an heir for his fortune. There are a few too many bits featuring stunt airplane flying that feel like padding more than anything.
All in all, Charlie's Angels The Complete Third Season is, like the television series itself, a lot of fun to watch. Most episodes are well done and, television mystery wise, pretty good.