I was staring at the Youtube screen watching my second episode of "Charlie's Angels". Pure bliss. All was right with the world. "La la la la la la lahhh la la la la la la la la laaaah la la l a la lal alll tinckle tinckle tinckle tinckle" -- What IS it about these old T.V. shows that just slay me?

The obvious reason is nostalgia. I'm looking back nostalgically at a time of my life that wasn't necessarily easier, but I can dream, can't I? Charlie's Angels is up there as one of my favorites right now. The production was glitzy and glamorous. Farrah Fawcett, Jacyln Smith and Kate Jackson were the original cast. Farrah was replaced by three equally beautiful women in Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts. The women were intelligent, classy and fabulous..

Sure, their invisible "Sugar Daddy" on the intercom was a little cheesy. Bosley was a tad pervy and asexual. Kate may have been a little "tomboyish", shall we say. And of course, we always yearned for the glorious Farrah after she jumped ship. Did I see any of the negatives in this show?

Not at all. Perhaps this is why I watch these old shows. I watch in an effort to bring myself back to a time when I wasn't a jaded consumer of entertainment. I didn't switch the three channels continuously in an effort to find something more dramatic, edgy, or realistic. What could be better than Charlie's Angels?

What more could I possibly want?

The idea that women could be both glamorous and career-oriented was a relatively new concept in TV-land in 1976. The Women's Liberation movement was in full-swing. Mary Tyler-Moore was an independent single woman, but did not embrace her sexuality like these Angels.

Truth be told, Charlie as their Sugar Daddy Boss, didn't promote Women's Liberation in an ideal way. He lounged by the pool being served by a succession of blonde beauties a la Playboy's Hugh Hefner. But, just as Hugh Hefner's empire was embracing the "girl next door's healthy sexuality", so was Charlie and his lovely attendants.

Charlie's Angels weren't "slutty", they were simply "sexy".

As the series progressed, the relationship between Charlie and the Angels took on a more collegiate feel than in the beginning episodes. As their characters developed, the Angels were not addressed in a blatant patronizing tone from Charlie. Their crime-fighting investigations evolved into a team-effort as Charlie left more of the deductive reasoning to the Angels.

Back in the day, the angels represented a freedom for women that somehow seemed attainable. These were the girls next door. They were lovely, but with a simple and breezy fashion. Farrah's hair exemplified this style. Her loose, blonde, flowing tresses looked virtually maintenance-free. Jacyln Smith's hair also had the same low-maintenance look to it.

With the right layered "feathers", a good shampoo, a blow-dryer or some hot-rollers, the women of the 1970s tried to emulate these lovely "angels".

Who does the average thirteen year old girl admire todayin crime-dramas? I ask myself, what female role models are they absorbing into their young psyches while they sit and watch CSI? Furthermore, the increasing portrayal of violence against women in today's crime dramas is reaching an unacceptable fever pitch. Do we really need to see women brutalized so savagely in scenes reminiscent of horror movies? These are supposed to be weekly t.v. shows!

I look at the women in series such as Law and Order. Their sexuality seems repressed in these hard-nosed worlds of law-enforcement and criminal prosecution. Why does the sexuality have to be so hard-edged? If not sadistic, then women are portrayed as masochistic victims. Is this a return to the age-old Madonna/Whore conflict in crime-dramas?

Scan your channels and take a good, hard look at what these kids are watching. Now, remember what you watched at that age. What impression did they leave on you? Did Columbo really freak you out? Charlie's Angels will never compete with the crime-dramas of today, at least on American television. But, I ask myself, does that necessarily mean that they are better? Years from now, these kids will look back, as I do, to CSI, the Closer, Dexter, or Medium. Will their nostalgic memories include a legacy of post-traumatic-stress-disorders? Will we be blamed for not giving them what we had? How often did you have to change the channel when you were their age because the contect was just too horrific?

The answers may not include a return to the time when charlie had angels and feathers had wings, but let's hope that our desire to shock ourselves won't leave a generation at a loss to grieve for a lovely actress with a beautiful smile. We'll miss you Farrah. ♥

Farrah's image was pinned to my brother's closet door. The tangerine bathing-beauty surrounded me with her beautiful, toothy, wide smile and luscious, blonde locks. Some say that this poster may have been the last of the iconic pin-ups of the 20th century. Taken before her "Charlie's Angels" role as Kelly Garrett, the poster was amazingly popular in the late '70s. Every red-blooded American boy went to sleep every night with her confident sexuality beaming down on them in their lumpy single beds. But. Farrah had a way with both men and women. Women loved her breezy, unassuming beauty. There wasn't a manipulative bone in her beautiful body. She captured the admiration of a generation and she will be sadly missed.♥