Charlie's Angels has inspired many remakes and reinterpretations throughout the years and in different countries. Did you know that the Fox Network and Aaron Spelling Productions interviewed more than 8,000 women in 1988 for roles in a reprised version of Charlie's Angels? The proposed series, which was to be called Angels '88 would have been about four actresses who started a detectives agency after their TV detective show was canceled. Four women were selected to be in the show: Tea Leoni (The Naked Truth, Flirting With Disaster), Claire Yarlett (The Colbys, Robin's Hoods), Karen Kopins (Dallas) and Sandra Canning. The show was later named Angels '89 after production delays, but the show ultimately never aired.
Angeles
From 1998–1999, Telemundo and Sony produced a Spanish-language version of Charlie's Angels called Angeles. Mexico's Patricia Manterola played Angel Adriana Vega, Argentina's Sandra Vidal played Angel Elena Sanchez and Colombia's Magali Caicedo played Angel Gina Navarro. The weekly hour format did not catch on with Hispanic viewers, who are accustom to watch telenovelas nightly & the series was soon cancelled. For fans of the original Charlie's Angels, or anyone who likes fine quality television that involves hot Hispanic chicks in bikinis, "Angeles" is a must-see.
The opening credits are a wonderland of nostalgia, complete with a synth-pop version of the old Charlie's Angels theme, and those great gun-pointing merged silhouettes that have inspired many a sweaty night of adolescent foursome fantasies. The ladies, as described in the opening voice-over by Charlie, are Adriana "The Brunette" (Patricia Manterola), Elena "The Blonde" (Sandra Vidal), and Gina "The Ebony Beauty" (Magali Caicedo), I guess because there are no Hispanic redheads.
Even by the standard of acting established by Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith, these ladies are no Ralph Richardsons. In this first episode, as the distraught husband describes the disappearance of his wife, the ladies try to look thoughtful and sympathetic mostly by cocking their heads and shaking the hair out of their eyes.
In addition to being translated into Spanish, the show has been updated with a more modern feel--instead of the old-fashioned intercom, Charlie now communicates with the Angels via cyberspace, appearing on a large video screen in front of their computer console. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that he appears in a large window in the wall above their computer console. There's a fishbowl on his desk.
The plot of the first episode involves a masked killer who is offing a lot of half-naked models. In order to find one of the missing girls, The Brunette must go undercover as a model. The other ladies occupy their time with their respective specialties, The Blonde handling the high-tech stuff, and The Ebony Beauty sneaking around in Mission Impossible garb, and periodically reading the tarot and crossing herself. (She may be into voodoo, but she's no bimbo--encountering a corpse lying stiff, its eyes wide open, jaw hanging slack, and lips pale blue, the first thing she does is feel for a pulse.) Dialogue is mostly on the level of the Chandleresque "If you think that your barking scares me, darling, you and I can dance any time," and other equally cogent metaphors, but let's face it: we didn't tune in to see these ladies talk and solve crimes. We tuned in to see them go undercover as fashion models, or cheerleaders, or foxy boxers, or whatever else the deviant scriptwriters can think up each week.
I know I for one will be waiting with bated breath, or maybe raspy breath, each week to see what sexy adventures the Angeles will be getting into next. And I recommend all lovers of nostalgia, or classic television, or naked Hispanic flesh, do the same.
' 'Wilde Engel - Wild Angels
In 2002, a German version of Charlie's Angels, Wilde Engel, was produced by the German channel RTL. The show was produced by Hermann Joha, Angela Strunck, and Melanie Mohr. The show was known as "Anges de Choc" in French-speaking countries, and as "Three Wild Angels" in English-speaking ones.
RTL Television presented on the 28th of February 2002 for the first time the pilot of an action-series with female heroes. Three young women in a fight against the criminality and to survive. They came together against their will with life-stories which couldn't be more different. Only together the Wild Angels can survive their deadly assignments.
A series full of spectacular body-action, wild chases, crashes, explosions, helicopter- and water sport acrobatic. But the Wild Angels don't only let it bang: they also have their female qualities, like sex appeal, charm, attractiveness, smartness and intuition, which delivers them advantages in their fight against the criminals.
In the pilot you can see how these three woman meet each other and how they have to fight against a group of criminals. However they do some things which the police doesn't accept.
