Original Charlie’s Angels star Kate Jackson has reflected on the long-running success of the series, which debuted 50 years ago.
Earlier this month, the actor reunited with her costars Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd at PaleyFest LA 2026. Their fellow star Farrah Fawcett died in 2009, at the age of 62.
In a new interview with People, Jackson recalled that she was initially met with a production company about a different show. “I was looking down, listening, thinking, ‘This is the worst thing I ever heard in my life,’ ” she remembered.
Rather than pursue that show, she said she helped conceive Charlie’s Angels based on her previous work on crime show The Rookies.
“It was really easy because The Rookies was about three young rookie cops. So just flip that and have three young women who go to the police academy, meet each other, become close friends [and] work their way up to plainclothes detectives,” explained Jackson.
It was Jackson who suggested the name Charlie’s Angels, after producer Aaron Spelling had suggested The Alley Cats.
She said she immediately knew the show would be a success, recalling: “We started shooting the pilot, and I never doubted. I don’t know why, but I never doubted that it was going to be a big hit. It was unique.”
Jackson attributed the show’s appeal to the chemistry between the stars, saying: “It was unusual. The three of us had chemistry that was … I mean, we’re still sisters today and you people are all so crazy that you’re still around after 50 years. I can’t believe it.”
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A standing ovation greeted Jackson, Smith, and Ladd when the trio reunited at PaleyFest LA on April 6.
The actors, who portrayed private detectives answering to a mysterious boss, were met with cheers from an enthusiastic audience at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Five decades on, Charlie’s Angels continues to find an audience through reruns and DVDs, having also inspired a film series starring Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu.
At the event, Jackson further elaborated on the show’s subtle impact: “We were giving people an hour to sit back, put their feet up, forget everything and watch television, and then again just kind of subtly getting the message in there that women are just as capable, intelligent, can do anything that a man can do.”
As for the impact the series had, she pushed back against critics who dismissed the show as “jiggle television” and said: “I knew what we were doing and Gloria Steinem knew what we doing, and some other very impressive people knew what we were doing. We were helping to punch a hole in that glass ceiling and that makes a big difference.”
