Good morning Angels! Ready for a @charlies3sexysleuths exclusive???
Let's discuss the path to "Charlie's Angels" a little more in-depth.
As far as I have been able to determine, The Alley Cats was a verbal pitch by Spelling-Goldberg about three policewomen turned leather-clad crimefighters, who were named Alison, Lee, and Catherine. This approach was inspired by Emma Peel of The Avengers. A vigilante edge with whips and chains for weapons. It was fetishistic and not the type of fare sponsors would like. But that didn't matter, because everyone shot the concept down. This was never a script (as far as I can tell), just a verbal pitch.
Then, Spelling-Goldberg hired Ernest Tidyman to write a script for Harry's Angels. He titled the pilot episode "An Honest Day's Work". In Tidyman's pilot script, a London museum heist triggers a lethal trail of betrayal leading to a San Diego wellness resort. The scam is: return forgeries to insurance companies for half the value, then sell the originals on the black market for the full price. When the conspirators begin "cleaning house," it’s up to Harry—a wealthy, "compact" retired investigator—to stop them. With his three daughters, each born to a different Hollywood starlet during his three whirlwind marriages, Harry must expose the resort’s deadly secrets before the syndicate cuts their final tie.
Harry's Angels are Angela, Karen, and Dorie. Harry is mid-50s, and his wardrobe (yes, we see him) is early gangster, wide lapels, wing-tip oxfords, panama hat, and white hair. He is retired, and has married and divorced three different beautiful actresses, and had a daughter with each in quick succession. Karen is 25 years old, extremely well built, athletic, california redhead, expert swimmer, fencer, skier, rally driver (car and cycle), equestrian, tennis player, and black belt karate instructor (she teaches police cadets karate!). Dorie is late 20s, brunette, slender, long-legged, extremely attractive, intelligent. She owns a chic art boutique. Angela is a mid-20s socialite, luscious blonde, with champagne wishes, caviar dreams, and a taste for Cary Grant (but Robert Redford would do). Harry has a mid 60s chauffer / "man-Friday" named Tom, who adds a touch of slapstick.
Harry seems to have been written for actor James Cagney. Dorie was obviously written for Kate Jackson. For anyone familiar, Karen seems to be written specifically for Sondra Currie based on the similarities to her character Lacy Bond in "Policewomen" (1974), however, I heard recently that Currie was "not pretty enough" for Spelling-Goldberg during the casting (make that make sense - Sondra has always been stunningly beautiful!). Of course, you already know I think Claudia Jennings would have been perfect in this role as well. This script was hardboiled, darker, and character-driven. Spelling-Goldberg (and Kate) rejected this script, so they hired Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts to pen the script that eventually became the pilot telefilm...a massive hit when it aired in March 1976. Goff & Roberts pilot was more palatable to sponsors and the social climate, taking a middle of the road approach. Not as fetishistic as Alley Cats, but not dark like the hardboiled Harry's Angels by Tidyman.
The timeline for all of this still confuses me quite a bit. The Alley Cats was pitched in 1974. Tidyman was hired to pen the first pilot script in late 1974 or early 1975. By summer 1975, Goff and Roberts had been hired to pen their fresh take on the pilot, which was approved and filmed in October 1975. But the draft of Harry's Angels by Tidyman I have is a second draft, dated 12/12/1975 (two months after the pilot by Goff and Roberts was filmed)! This likely means that Tidyman had a deal that required he submit two drafts to collect payment for the work, effectively making this a "zombie script". His premise was not what we came to know as Charlie's Angels by any means, but it could have been compelling enough for Spelling-Goldberg or ABC to want the second draft as a potential script to retitle or retool later as well.
