Once upon a time there have been three little women who starred as non-public detectives answering to a never-seen boss in a present that become a popular culture phenomenon referred to as “Charlie’s Angels.”
Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd reunited to mark the present’s fiftieth anniversary at PaleyFest LA on Monday night time. They had been greeted with a standing ovation and whoops and cheers from an viewers on the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
The hour-long crime journey collection debuted on Sept. 22, 1976, in a pre-internet and streaming world when there have been simply three main tv networks. It was a top-10 hit for ABC in its first two of 5 seasons, ending in 1981.
“I knew the show was different, special and unique,” Smith advised the viewers. “Three women chasing danger instead of getting rescued.”
Jackson added, “We made an impact, I think.”
Farrah Fawcett-Majors grew to become a Seventies icon together with her feathered hair and horny swimsuit poster. She left after the primary season to pursue a movie profession. She died in 2009.
She was changed by Ladd, who confirmed up on her first day carrying a Farrah Fawcett Minor T-shirt. She had turned down producer Aaron Spelling thrice, understanding how beloved Fawcett had been.
“I knew that there was nobody that was going to replace Farrah, so I made a joke of myself,” Ladd mentioned on the purple carpet. “Everybody laughed. Farrah would have done something like that.”
Jackson added, “Cheryl stepped in and we didn’t miss a beat.”
Critics weren’t variety, nevertheless, calling the present “jiggle television” as a result of the ladies dressed scantily to go undercover and slamming it for vapid appearing.
“It didn’t bother me,” Jackson mentioned on the purple carpet. “I knew what we had been doing and Gloria Steinem knew what we had been doing, and another very spectacular folks knew what we had been doing. We had been serving to to punch a gap in that tumbler ceiling and that makes an enormous distinction.”
Five a long time later, the present stays standard in reruns and DVDs, having spawned a movie collection starring Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu.
“We had been giving folks an hour to take a seat again, put their ft up, overlook all the pieces and watch tv,” Jackson mentioned, “and then again just kind of subtly getting the message in there that women are just as capable, intelligent, can do anything that a man can do.”
The principally older viewers cheered and laughed as scenes from varied episodes had been performed. Included within the highlights had been Shelley Hack, who lasted one season after changing Jackson, and the late Tanya Roberts, who appeared within the ultimate season. Smith and the late David Doyle, who performed Charlie’s go-between, had been on the present’s total run.
Smith, who’s 80, and Ladd, who’s 74, went on to prolific careers in made-for-TV films and guesting on different exhibits. Jackson, who give up after three seasons, later starred within the CBS hit “Scarecrow and Mrs. King.”
Jackson left the enterprise almost 20 years in the past to lift her son. Now 77, she mentioned, “I’m ready to go back.”
The trio’s sisterhood consists of all of them overcoming breast most cancers, with Ladd revealing for the primary time publicly Monday that she had an aggressive type of the illness. She did not say when it occurred.
“When Cheryl called me,” Smith mentioned, “the first thing I did was send her my wigs.”
Smith was at Jackson’s bedside throughout her most cancers battle. Each of them urged the viewers to have common well being screenings.
In one in every of many lighter moments, the ladies had been requested to call their favourite outfits.
“I wore a lot of turtlenecks,” Jackson mentioned, drawing laughs.
Smith singled out her tiny white bikini seen within the opening credit.
Ladd recalled, “Bikinis, a lot of bikinis.”
Smith joked, “Our ratings went up.”
Jackson, Smith and Ladd will reunite once more on May 14 when they’re among the many recipients on the Paley Honors gala in New York. Smith’s memoir titled “I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie” comes out in September.
“I was really proud to be part of that show,” mentioned Ladd, who all the time welcomed followers expressing their fondness for the Angels. “I felt so beloved. You could not be in a nasty temper. It was all the time uplifting to listen to it.”
© Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.