NBC presents "Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of ‘Charlie's Angels’," the story of how the sexy girls-with-guns television drama series began and ended its tumultuous first season. The television movie offers a behind-the-scenes-peek at the classic TV drama that has spawned two hit feature films.
“Charlie’s Angels” became an instant cultural phenomenon and shot to the top of the Nielsen ratings after premiering on September 22, 1976. It made overnight stars of its original crime-fighting “Angels,” Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith. The trio even made the cover of Time magazine that fall when TV celebrities rarely graced the covers of newsmagazines.
"Behind The Camera: The Unauthorized Story of ‘Charlie's Angels’" stars Emmy Award winner Dan Castellaneta (“The Simpsons”) as Aaron Spelling, Dan Lauria as Fred Silverman, Wallace Langham who reprises his role from NBC’s “Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of ‘Three’s Company’” as Jay Bernstein, and relatively unknown actresses Tricia Helfer as Farah Fawcett-Majors, Christina Chambers as Jaclyn Smith and Lauren Stamile as Kate Jackson.
"'Charlie's Angels' was the original 'jiggle TV' show, and Farrah Fawcett was the original blonde bombshell of television," said writer-executive producer Matt Dorff ("Growing Up Brady," "Mr. Rock 'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story"). "It was extremely influential in empowering female characters in action-oriented hour dramas and beyond."
As the former head of VH1 movies, Michael G. Larkin (“Red Water”, “Murder in the Heartland”) was responsible for over a dozen pop-culture TV movies, including TV movies on The Monkees, Ricky Nelson and Meat Loaf. Larkin also said "The dramatic story behind the show's first season makes this a perfect fit with NBC's direction for movies. Love it or hate it, the impact of this show is still with us 27 years later.”
The main source consulted for the movie is the book “Charlie’s Angel’s Casebook” by Jack Condon and David Hofstede. Condon, who is considered to have the world’s largest collection of “Charlie’s Angels” memorabilia, topping off at more than 8,000 items, has interviewed all six “Angels” series actresses and counts several of the women as personal friends.
"Behind The Camera: The Unauthorized Story of ‘Charlie's Angels’" is executive produced by Dorff and Larkin in association with Jaffe/Braunstein Films.
