Feb 3
Barbara Bach discusses her false-start as an Angel (May 1979)
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Barbara Bach discusses her false-start as an Angel (May 1979)
Harry's Angels - "An Honest Day's Work" (1975) - A London museum heist triggers a lethal trail of betrayal leading to a San Francisco wellness resort. The scam is perfect: return forgories of famous paintings to insurance companies for half the value, then sell the originals on the black market for the full price. When the conspirators begin turning on one another, it's up to Harry - a wealthy, "compact", retired investigator - to stop them. With his three daughters, each born to a different Hollywood legend during his three whirlwind marriages, Harry and his Angels must expose the deadly resort's secrets before the syndicate cuts their finale tie. Before it was titled Charlie's Angels, the show was called Harry's Angels. The first writer hired to pen the pilot script was Ernest Tidyman. His approach was much different. The three Angels were sisters and we saw their wealthy father, Harry, on screen. The script feels way more like Petticoat Junction meets Hart to Hart than it does an episode of Charlie's Angels. Here are some pages from his pilot script, an episode titled "An Honest Day's Work". Dorie would have been Kate Jackson, Angela would have been Farrah Fawcett, and Karen was to be a redhead. Harry sounds like he was written specifically for James Cagney, who was rumored to be courted for the role initially. When Tidyman's script was rejected by Spelling-Goldberg and/or ABC, Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts were hired to write a new approach, and their pilot script was accepted and filmed. The rest is history, but one interesting tidbit is that the Goff-Roberts pilot script was filmed in October 1975, but this second draft from Tidyman was dated December 1975. This likely indicates that Tidyman was hired to pen two drafts, so he took his time with the second draft, OR, that ABC and/or Spelling-Goldberg thought they could use his script as a different project later. Who knows, all of this is so mysterious over 50 years later!
Charlie's Angels talk from 1998 and 1999.
James Cagney was considered for the role of Charlie!
Veronica Hamel in interviews from 1981. She was too good for Charlie's Angels in 1975 when she was offered the third Angel role and blah, blah, blah. I think fans dodged a bullet with her not accepting.
Initially, the rumored frontrunners for the Charlie's Angels film were Jada Pinkett, Michelle Yeoh, and Jenny McCarthy (1998). When Drew Barrymore became attached to the project, Cameron Diaz was brought in, they had chemistry with Lucy Liu, and the rest is heavenly history!
"Dare Angel"...the sad story of Claudia Jennings, who auditioned for the role of Tiffany Welles in 1979. If she had been cast, she would have been the first redhead Angel. Sadly, Claudia died in a car accident October 3, 1979. Who knows if she would still be with us if she had won the role. Claudia is one of the actors that I think would have made a phenomenal Angel. If you want a glimpse of her Angel abilities, check out her films "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase" (Angels in Chains-esque) and "Unholy Rollers" (Angels on Wheels-esque). She ran in the same social circle as Sally Kirkland and Cheryl Ladd, with Sally being a particularly close friend of hers. Claudia was reportedly Aaron Spelling's pick for the role, and there are some unfilmed episode scripts that describe Tiffany Welles as a redhead. The studio execs and sponsors decided against Claudia due to her Playboy past. Spelling allegedly told Claudia he would develop a character for her in Dynasty instead. The Dynasty character Claudia Blaisdel Carrington was created for her, and was given her first name as a memorial gesture after her untimely passing. Aaron Spelling, ever the gentleman. * The text in the photo is from the authorized biography of Claudia Jennings by Eric J. Karell *
Persis Khambatta pursued the role of Julie Rogers in the final season of Charlie's Angels (1980)