Angel Guest Stars--I wish

As a companion piece to my previous post about guest stars, I was thinking about all of the guest stars that have crossed paths with the ladies of Charlie’s Angels and some that should have. I could name plenty of actors I would love to have seen on the show, but just a random appearance wouldn’t be enough. They would need a script that fits with their style and I decided that I would list a few people. In addition, I’ve made a quick synopsis of episodes they could have appeared in.


Let’s start off with season one and the original Angels. The first season had Sabrina, Jill, and Kelly played by Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, and Jaclyn Smith.


Mother’s Day
Charlotte Hudson is the matriarch of a family of bank robbers in the vein of Ma Barker. She has three children, two sons—Matt and C.J., and a daughter named Cathy, who have robbed four banks in the L.A. area. The police know they’ve robbed the banks, but have not been able to get enough evidence or recover the loot. The Angels set out to capture Ma Hudson and her gang. Bette Davis guest stars as Charlotte Hudson.



Angels Go To Camp
Summer camp is the destination of the Angels when a counselor mysteriously drowns. Trying to find clues to the identity of the killer becomes easier when they get the lowdown on the suspects from Jerry, the head counselor. There are plenty of suspects, too, like the bus driver Hannah Bennett, the cook Nate Cochran, and groundskeeper Vern Latham. Paul Bartel guest stars as Jerry Carson.



Old Friends
The ladies and gentlemen of a retirement community are the victims of a scam that is taking their money, but they won’t open up about it. Some of the children of the victims get together to hire the Angels to find out what is happening to their parents. When the Angels arrive to investigate, the residents refuse to speak to them. Charlie contacts a friend and former investigator Roland Chambers and convinces him to come out of retirement to assist the Angels. In between trying to solve the case, the Angels pump Roland for information regarding what Charlie looks like. Vincent Price guest stars as Roland Chambers.



Season two began when Kris played by Cheryl Ladd joined the team. Jill had left to race cars in Europe, so her little sister, Kris, became the rookie Angel.


Family Matters
Sabrina’s cousin, Maggie, calls to ask for help. It seems her nightclub has been besieged by unexplained accidents and now someone has died. Power outages, small fires, and busted water pipes didn’t concern her, but when the D.J. is electrocuted in his booth, she is sure there is more going on. Kelly and Kris pretend to be patrons, while Sabrina uses the cover of visiting a relative. Adrienne Barbeau guest stars as Margaret Duncan.



Between the Covers
Authors are committing suicide left and right, or are they? The Angels investigate the deaths and discover that they were in fact murdered. The common link is the same publishing house. It seems publisher Constance Vaughn wanted to increase the sales of books to save her failing company. Sabrina goes undercover as a novelist and Bosley pretends to be a rival publisher looking to sign Sabrina. Constance signs Sabrina and the other Angels try to protect Sabrina from the evil publisher. Carrie Nye guest stars as Constance Vaughn.



Angels a la Carte
Ruthless food critic Theodore Schubert has received death threats. He's destroyed many restaurant owners with his articles and now the Angels must discover which is the guilty party. Trying to find the culprit is hard enough, but dealing with the client tests the limits of the Angels. Victor Buono guest stars as Theodore Schubert.



By season three, Kris was more experienced and sister Jill returned for a few visits.


Suburban Angels
Edna Davenport’s life has been in turmoil for quite some time. Her husband was killed in a car accident, her home was vandalized, and now she’s been receiving phone calls asking her for “the package”. Edna has no idea what package they are talking about and is now convinced her husband’s death was not an accident. As the threats and phone calls increase, Edna calls the Townsend Agency for help. Divine guest stars as Edna Davenport.



Undercover Angel
The murder of a prostitute leads the Angels to a brothel to discover why she was killed when it’s discovered she was from a rich family. Suspects are easy to find, but the most suspicious is a new girl in the house who suddenly appeared at about the same time as the girl’s death. The mysterious Coco is very evasive when questioned by the Angels. It turns out Coco is really Laura King, an undercover cop who works with the Angels to bring in the killer. Pam Grier guest stars as Laura “Coco” King.



At the beginning of season four we learned that Sabrina left the Agency to get married and was expecting a baby. The daughter of an old friend of Charlie’s graduated from the Police Academy in Boston and was assigned the normal hazardous duties that led the other Angels to the Townsend Agency. Tiffany Welles played by Shelley Hack was a classy, intelligent, and stylish addition to the team.


The Bounty Hunter
Cliff Ketchum is on the trail of a bail jumper heading through L.A. Seeking assistance in tracking him down, Cliff contacts the Angels. During the hunt, Tiffany begins working closely with Cliff and is taken in by his tough yet charming persona. Can a romance build when after the case Cliff will leave for another bounty? Jan-Michael Vincent guest stars as Cliff Ketchum.



Angels Back East
Tiffany’s former instructor at the Boston Police Academy is being framed for taking bribes, so the Angels head back east to find the truth. Marty has made many enemies during his years on the force, so the Angels look for possible suspects in his case files, but it’s possible that it’s someone else in the squad room. Ernest Borgnine guest stars as Sgt. Martin O’Reilly.



At the beginning of season five, we learned that Tiffany stayed back east, so Kelly and Kris work with Bosley on a case that leads them to meeting Julie Rogers played by Tanya Roberts. Julie wasn’t a Police Academy graduate, but did graduate from a top school for models. After assisting the Angels on a case, she joined them and now works with the Angels on a temporary investigator’s license.


Angel and the Mob
Julie has been dating a nice young man named Sam Tucker who has charmed Kris, Kelly and Bosley. The relationship seems to be getting serious, but while on a date, Julie and Sam are walking along the sidewalk, when a van pulls up and grabs Sam then drives away. As Julie and the others begin investigating why anyone would want to kidnap him, they begin to discover Sam isn’t who appeared to be. Sam Tucker is the son of Joseph Tucker, the kingpin of one of the largest crime syndicates in the city. Now they have to team up with people they would normally seek to bring to justice to save the man Julie loves. David Naughton guest stars as Sam Tucker.



Runway Angels
Lady Edwina Knight owns and runs one of the most famous fashion houses, Knight Fashions. Someone has been trying to stop her Fall collection from reaching the runway. Julie used to model for Lady Edwina and wants to do all she can to help. Kris gets a job as a seamstress at a rival designer’s fashion studio, while Julie and Kelly become runway models for Knight Fashions. Diana Rigg guest stars as Lady Edwina Knight.



It’s great to imagine who could have guest starred, but there were many who did. Mom Smackley doesn’t like Charlie’s Angels as much as I do, so the fact that three of his favorite actresses did guest star (Mary Woronov, Shirley Stoler, and Nancy Parsons) allows me to share episodes with him.

After Dark May 1978 (Next to the last part)

That's right, I'm almost finished with this issue. It's been a long road to get everything I wanted to feature from the issue. Stars from early Hollywood and new Hollywood, to people yet to become stars, and finally to those that should have been stars, but just never had the luck to be famous. I say luck, because recently I was watching some Dick Cavett interviews with Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis. Each talked about their discipline and the work they were able to accomplish, but each also mentioned "luck". It seems that even they realized that sometimes the most talented person could not be famous without a little luck on their side. Speaking of Miss Davis, there were some other recent (as of 1978) movies that were featured in this issue. Bette Davis and David Niven were two of the many stars in the film version of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile.

Also in the cast playing the unfortunate victim was the future Bond girl Lois Chiles.

The surfing movie Big Wednesday starred William Katt and Jan-Michael Vincent.

The film Looking for Mr. Goodbar featured Tom Berenger. In Praise of Older Women would pair him with Karen Black.

The film version of Broadway's A Little Night Music is one of my favorite films. Why? Well, it starred Diana Rigg and Elizabeth Taylor. Where else could you see Elizabeth Taylor sing "Send in the Clowns"? The other leading ladies were Hermione Gingold and Lesley Ann Down. Lesley had recently also gotten noticed for her role in The Betsy.

A Jackie playing a Jackie. The Greek Tycoon uses fictitious names, but the parallels between the lives Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy and the characters in the film are hard to ignore. In the Jackie-like role is the beautiful Jacqueline Bissett.

While hot pants are the rule of the day in 1978,

There was a time when a well-placed scarf was all you needed whether you were a woman...

...or a man.

Vegas showgirl Barbara Beverly knows a thing about well-placed articles of clothing. she was appearing at the Stardust Hotel in the 12th edition of Lido de Paris.

Out in New Jersey at the Paper Mill Playhouse you would find Rip Torn and Sandy Dennis in a production of Little Foxes, but playing the evil Regina Giddens was Geraldine Page.

While in London at the Globe Theatre, Jeremy Irons and Simon Ward were starring in Simon Gray's The Rear Column.

Before closing out this post, I wanted to show the way photos are often reused. Of course, only the best photos are reused, like this one of Randy Jones from the Village People. It was used in a previous issue for a fashion layout. The reused the photo for an ad to businesses to have them advertise in their magazine to reach a certain demographic. That demographic was the After Dark reader. I am surprised that 85.2% of the readers were single. I would have thought it would have been higher, like 99.44%.