Editing Charlie's Angels (section)

== Reception ==

===Critical reception===
[[File:Charlies angels 1977.JPG|thumb|180px|Cast for seasons 2–3 (left to right): Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, and Kate Jackson]]
''Charlie's Angels'' became known as "[[Jiggle television|Jiggle TV]]". Jiggle TV was also called "[[Breast|Tits]] & [[Buttocks|Ass]] Television" or "T&A" for short<ref>The Gatekeeper: My Thirty Years as TV Censor. Alfred R. Schneider, Kaye Pullen. Syracuse University Press, 1 May 2001</ref> and in the 1970s the amount of sex on television increased, as did its ratings,<ref name="Semonche">Censoring Sex: A Historical Journey Through American Media. John E. Semonche, Rowman & Littlefield, 15 Aug 2007</ref> creating social controversies and consequences,<ref>Condom Nation: The U.S. Government's Sex Education Campaign from World War I to the Internet. Alexandra M. Lord. JHU Press, 23 Nov 2009</ref> by critics who believed that the TV series had no intelligence or substance. These characterizations stemmed from the fact that the lead actresses frequently dressed scantily or provocatively as part of their undercover characters (including roller derby girl, beauty pageant contestant, maid, female prisoner, or just bikini-clad), and the belief that their clothing was a means of attracting viewers.<ref>Jiggle Tv: Charlie's Angels and Aaron Spelling's Television Legacy. Courtney Hutton. BiblioBazaar, 2010. {{ISBN|1240062885}}.</ref> "Jiggle TV" is seen as trashy and escapist entertainment.<ref name="Jezierski">Television Everywhere: How Hollywood Can Take Back the Internet and Turn Digital Dimes Into Dollars. Andrei Jezierski. i2 Partners LLC, 12 Oct 2010</ref> Farrah Fawcett once attributed the TV show's success to this fact: "When the show was number three, I figured it was our acting. When it got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/charlies-timeless-angels-women-who-transformed-television-413911.html |title=Charlie's timeless angels: Women who transformed television |publisher=Independent.co.uk |date=2006-08-30 |access-date=2010-11-11}}</ref> Contrariwise on ''TV Tales'', Cheryl Ladd said "I'm just saying, personally, I wore a bra"; Shelley Hack stated: "I don't jiggle much, so I didn't have anything to worry about"; and Jaclyn Smith said, "Jiggle TV. I thought it was ridiculous".<ref name="TVTales"/>

Reflecting on the 1970s female-driven drama, Jaclyn Smith, who was the only 'Angel' to star on all five seasons, states how ''Charlie's Angels'' changed her – and TV audiences across America: "It was ground-breaking. It was about three emotionally and financially independent women. We shot at beautiful locations with fancy fast cars, and they cared about each other, so there was a heart to the show. Critics said that as actresses we were sexually exploited, but it was a nursery rhyme. We were in a bathing suit at the beach, and if there was a hint of a love scene, it was so proper. I think the producers were smart. They wanted to bring in that younger audience and did want families to watch together".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://people.com/tv/charlies-angels-turns-40-jaclyn-smith-reflects-on-groundbreaking-series/|title=Charlie's Angels Turns 40: Jaclyn Smith Reflects on the 'Groundbreaking' Series That Had a $20,000 Per Episode Wardrobe Budget|website=PEOPLE.com}}</ref> Smith adds: "Each of our characters had their own unique personality, yet the show was all very cohesive - it just worked. We really were all good friends and that showed on the screen".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/exclusive-jaclyn-smith-talks-aging-love-charlie-s-angels-19076/|title=EXCLUSIVE: Jaclyn Smith Talks Aging, Love & Charlie's Angels!|date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>

Ladd believed the TV series was "inspirational" to women despite the critics calling it a "jiggle show". She noted, "there hadn't been a show like this on the air [with] three powerful women who had the latest hairdos, wore the coolest clothes and could walk around in a bikini. We were very inspirational to a lot of young women. Young women would write us and say, 'I want to be like you. I want to be a cop when I grow up and taking chances to be something else other than the acceptable school teacher or secretary'".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://people.com/tv/cheryl-ladd-on-charlies-angels-who-would-try-and-replace-farrah-fawcett/|title=Cheryl Ladd on Charlie's Angels: Who Would Try and Replace Farrah Fawcett?|website=People.com|access-date=19 November 2017}}</ref> In reference to the show being called "Jiggle TV", Ladd said: "Which made me laugh, I never went braless, and I was married and the mother of a 2-year-old. The 'Angels' were grown-up Girl Scouts. We never slept with anyone; my most 'Aaron Spelling' moment was wrestling an alligator. With the feminist movement, we were kind of half-heroes, half-goats".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/aaron-spelling-ruled-television-an-823391|title=When Aaron Spelling Ruled Television: An Oral History of Entertainment's Prolific, Populist Producer|website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|date=September 18, 2015 |access-date=19 November 2017}}</ref>

Hack said: "Of course it's fluff, but high-grade fluff. You don't compare Agatha Christie to Tolstoy".<ref name="auto"/> Additionally,  referring to the Revlon Charlie commercials and ''Charlie's Angels'', she stated on ''[[The Oprah Winfrey Show]]'': "I was lucky. There were two things I was in that were about making women feel a little more empowered".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200801/20080123/slide_20080123_350_101.jhtml|title=''Oprah'' show - Charlie Girl Shelley Hack|access-date=April 13, 2020|archive-date=February 26, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226222630/http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200801/20080123/slide_20080123_350_101.jhtml|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Kate Jackson has stated that she believes the first season of ''Charlie's Angels'' was the TV show's high point, and it was the most fun for herself, Smith, and Fawcett: "When you think about ''Charlie's Angels'', you think about three specific people".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/charlie-s-angels-even-got-glamorous-in-prison-1798244945|title=Charlie's Angels even got glamorous in prison|first=Gwen|last=Ihnat|website=TV Club|date=March 8, 2016 }}</ref> Jackson added: "I don't know what the connection that the three of us have is, but it is there, and it is something extremely special. I think that is the reason the show worked".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ew.com/article/2009/06/26/farrah-fawcett-kate-jackson/|title=Farrah Fawcett: Kate Jackson remembers her co-'Angel' -- EW Exclusive|website=EW.com}}</ref>

[[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] magazine called ''Charlie's Angels'' an "aesthetically ridiculous, commercially brilliant brainstorm surfing blithely atop the [[Zeitgeist]]'s seventh wave".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://people.com/archive/cover-story-when-angels-were-the-rage-vol-26-no-16/|title=Cover Story: When Angels Were the Rage – Vol. 26 No. 16|date=20 October 1986|website=People.com|access-date=19 November 2017}}</ref>

[[Camille Paglia]], an American academic and social critic, said that ''Charlie's Angels'' was an "effervescent action-adventure showing smart, bold women working side by side in fruitful collaboration".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/camille-paglia-takes-taylor-swift-845827|title=Camille Paglia Takes on Taylor Swift, Hollywood's #GirlSquad Culture|first=Camille|last=Paglia|date=10 December 2015|website=The Hollywood Reporter}}</ref>

===Public reception===
''Charlie's Angels'' proved to be a runaway hit in the 1976–1977 season in its first of five time slots, Wednesdays at 10:00pm, where it followed ''[[Baretta]]''. Facing little competition from [[CBS]] and [[NBC]], ''Charlie's Angels'' finished fifth in [[Nielsen ratings]] in the spring of 1977 with an average 26.0 rating. The three lead actresses were suddenly propelled to stardom, with [[Kate Jackson]] later commenting that the first few months were like being in the eye of a storm. [[Farrah Fawcett]] became hugely popular and was branded a phenomenon. However, the situation off screen was not as rewarding. The long working hours on set, combined with numerous calls for photo shoots, wardrobe fittings, and promotional interviews, took their toll on the trio. Jackson was especially unhappy as she felt the quality of scripts was declining and the format was now more "cop story of the week" rather than classy undercover drama, which had been the intention with the [[Pilot episode|pilot film]].

With season two, the series moved up an hour to the Wednesday 9:00pm time slot, where it stayed for three years. During that time, the series competed with such popular shows as ''[[One Day at a Time (1975 TV series)|One Day at a Time]]'', ''[[The Jeffersons]]'' (on CBS), and ''[[Diff'rent Strokes]]'' (on NBC). The transition from Fawcett to [[Cheryl Ladd]] in the second season proved to be popular with viewers. While viewership dipped marginally in the second season, the series still remained in the top five for the 1977&ndash;78 season, placing fourth in the ratings, tying with ''[[60 Minutes]]'' and ''[[All in the Family]]''. In the third season, viewership stabilized, but the series began losing traction as it ranked twelfth behind newcomers ''[[Mork & Mindy]]'', ''[[The Ropers]]'', and ''[[Taxi (TV series)|Taxi]]'' (all on ABC) for the 1978&ndash;79 season. With Jackson's departure and [[Shelley Hack]] entering the cast, the show's fourth season saw some ratings erosion as it ranked twentieth for the 1979&ndash;80 season, tying with ''[[Barney Miller]]''.

The fifth season saw the final cast change with Tanya Roberts. The final season was plagued by the [[1980 actors strike]], causing a delayed premier date. In addition, the series was shuffled around with three different time slots: Sundays at 8:00pm, Saturdays at 8:00pm, and finally Wednesdays at 8:00pm, where it remained for the remainder of its run. Despite generally receiving mild competition from its rival networks on these time slots, ''Charlie's Angels'' placed fifty-ninth out of sixty-five shows for the 1980&ndash;81 season. ABC thereby canceled the series after five seasons and 115 episodes.

===Nielsen ratings / broadcast history===
The ''Charlie's Angels'' seventy four minute pilot film that aired on March 21, 1976, received enormous ratings, but ABC network — who thought this was one of the worst ideas for a TV series they had ever heard — did not believe the figures and showed it again a week later to check.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/charlies-angels-was-tv-heaven/|title=Charlie's Angels was TV heaven... but network had dismissed it as 'worst idea' ever|first=Alan|last=Shaw|date=October 4, 2016 }}</ref> At the time of Spelling pitching the pilot of ''Charlie's Angels'' to the network, ABC executive Michael Eisner told Spelling that his pitch had to be "one of the worst ideas I've ever heard", and ABC executive Barry Diller claimed no one would ever watch it.<ref name="cbsnews.com"/> Despite the ABC network's disbelief in the project, the repeat ratings were just as high.<ref name="sundaypost.com"/>