The New "Charlie's Angels" Feels Like the Love Child of Carrie Bradshaw and Jack Bauer

Rachael Taylor, Minka Kelly, Annie Ilonzeh

One major reason to tune in to the Charlie's Angels remake this fall on ABC: Puerto Rican dreamboat Ramon Rodriguez as the new Bosley. You may not know him yet, but once you get a load of him stepping out of a spa in the pilot that’s probably gonna change.

Of course, the Angels franchise has always had much to offer gay audiences. The original series' appeal lay in its undeniable "camp" value – the flashy outfits, the feathered hair, the silly '70s soundtrack. And while the creators of this reboot are clearly attempting to de-emphasize that aspect in updating the series, new Angel Rachael Taylor (character name: Abigail Sampson, master thief) stands by it anyway.

"Well, I've been…chastised for using the word 'camp', but I'm still gonna use it," said the Aussie actress when I approached her following the show's TCA panel in Los Angeles. "I think there is something inherently spirited and fun about Charlie's Angels. I think that's just part of what the brand is, that it has a reflexive kind of wink at itself. You know, everything's done with a degree of glamour and there's this kind of aspirational quality to it.

"Having said that," she continued, "what is really important to our writers and to us is to make the show credible. But I think our gay audience, which I have a lot of love and respect for, should be suitably satisfied."

Another obvious part of the franchise's appeal, for both gay and straight audiences, is its "empowerment" of the three gorgeous lead females. With her natural athleticism and great beauty, former General Hospital cast member and new Angel Annie Ilonzeh at least has the toughness and looks required for the part. I doubt she’s a favorite of the stunt performers, however.

"Every single stunt person I've beat up," said the actress, who plays former cop and current Angel Kate Prince. "On accident, on accident! I'm just super physical, and sometimes my mind goes faster, and my arms might go faster than my mind, or whatever, vice versa. To learn choreography in 20 minutes and then have to do it right on the spot, it's tough. …I'm a super athlete, but it can get the best of me sometimes. I can get a little too rough and really hurt somebody!"

The third Angel in the equation is Minka Kelly, whose last series regular role on TV was as cheerleader Lyla Garrity on NBC's Friday Night Lights. Her character Eve French, a street racer, is plagued by a dark past spent as a child orphan in Central America.

"The thing about Eve is that, because she was an orphan and she was on her own her entire life and she had to fight for herself…I think I have a lot in common with her in that aspect," said Kelly, an only child who was raised by a single mother (she is also the biological daughter of former Aerosmith guitarist Rick Dufay). "I also understand what it is to create your own family. And I’m really attracted to that aspect of the show, as far as making these girls and Bosley my family. …Along with the eye candy and it all being so beautiful to watch, there’s also a lot of depth and emotion as well."

Ramon Rodriguez

Rodriguez’s Bosley, who was referred to multiple times as “the fourth Angel” during the panel, also won’t be merely standing around looking pretty (not that we’d mind). As opposed to David Doyle’s fatherly incarnation in the original series, the new series will delve into his backstory and actually develop him as a character.

“We’re going to figure out a lot, who Bosley is, what he’s about. And I think a lot of that is going to come through Charlie,” said Rodriguez, who couldn’t have been better suited for the role given his upbringing. 

“I was raised by three older sisters, and they thought they were the Angels,” he said. “So they basically said I’ve been preparing for this my whole life. ‘You were born to be Bosley. This is great.’ So it’s a great transition from three sisters to three other sisters.”

As for Charlie, he was originally set to be voiced by Robert Wagner before the actor dropped out due to “scheduling issues.” Producers are now searching for a replacement.

“I think what we’re looking for in the voice of Charlie is someone who brings sort of a paternal nature to it, someone who brings a certain amount of authority and mystery, because what we’ve also tried to do in this reboot is to make the mythology of Charlie more interesting,” said Alfred Gough, who co-created and serves as an executive producer on the reboot.

Former Angel Drew Barrymore, who serves as executive producer here, is playing a somewhat limited role in this incarnation, though the panel noted she was “hugely” involved in the casting process.

“Drew’s sort of the archangel of Charlie’s Angels,” said Gough. “Obviously she’s busy. She’s prepping movies. But she and her company are involved. They read the scripts. They give notes. She sends emails of encouragement. So she’s been great.”

As opposed to the two films Barrymore was so instrumental in getting off the ground, however, the TV reboot takes all the jiggly action on screen a bit more seriously.

“In their era, ten years ago, [the movies] were kind of like superhero movies for girls,” said Gough. “What we sort of wanted to bring to the table was making it more grounded, making these women feel real, giving them sort of backstories. …The show’s really about Charlie giving them a second chance, and it’s about redemption. I think Rachael actually had the best description of the show. She said ‘if Jack Bauer and Carrie Bradshaw had a love child, it would be Charlie’s Angels.’”

Finding the three women to fill the lead roles proved a taxing process for the producers, who knew how important it was to choose actresses with chemistry that would spark on screen. At one point, Aaron Spelling’s former producing partner Leonard Goldberg, also an executive producer on the reboot, fought to have one of the roles reconceived for Kelly.

“We had one Angel that wasn’t working, and Leonard stood up in a room and said, ‘That girl is an Angel. Unfortunately, boys, she’s not one of the Angels you’ve written, but we need to get her’,” recalled Gough. “And we sat with Minka and sort of pitched out the Eve character. …You know, I think for all of these ladies, they always go, ‘Well, who was your second choice?’ There were no second choices. It was these guys, and then you fall of a cliff. That was it.”

So which one of them is filling the Farrah role? Taylor has one physical asset that makes her an obvious fit.

“Blondeness,” she joked when the question arose. “I bring blondeness.”

Though the late Fawcett sadly isn’t around to make any cameos in the reboot, the producers wouldn’t rule out the possibility of other former cast members appearing – if the show hits, of course.

“I think once we establish our show in terms of what our series is, there is definitely room down the line for, you know, those appearances by people and characters from other iterations,” said Gough. “We did the same thing on Smallville. Season 2 we brought in Chris Reeve and then Margot Kidder and Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher eventually and Terence Stamp. So I think very much in a way to kind of honor what’s come before and finding a new twist.”

Given the number of failed TV remakes that have gone before, the question of course remains whether the cast and creators of this reboot can recapture the magic of the old series. ABC has a lot riding on the show and cynicism among critics is high, but if the gamble pays off Goldberg may end up experiencing a bit of welcome déjà vu.

“We didn’t get great reviews for the [original] show, but it was interesting that [after the show became a success] Time magazine called and said, ‘Well, we’d like to do a special shoot for Charlie’s Angels,’ and I said, ‘Well, we’re really heavy into production,’”, Goldberg recalled. “And they said, ‘Well, this is Time magazine for the cover.’…In other words, a lot of the publications, the New York Times included, gave us very bad reviews, but as soon as the show hit, they were very quick to put us on the cover of everything they could find.”

Charlie's Angels premieres Thursday, September 22nd at 8 PM on ABC.