Once upon a time, there were three women who'd gone through the Police Academy, but whose assignments were nothing more than glorified secretarial duties... but when the mysterious, reclusive Charlie hired them for his private detective agency, they got all the excitement they could have asked for.

Fluffy fun. That's what Charlie's Angels is all about. Whether you watched the show on its original run, or whiled away a rainy Saturday afternoon as a kid watching it in reruns (that would be me), The Best of Charlie's Angels brings back all the nostalgic goodness of 1970s cheesy adventure television. It's all here, from the original theme music to the memorable credits logo (you can even see the bell-bottoms and big hair in silhouette!).

The Best of Charlie's Angels: Season 1 presents five episodes from the hit TV show's first season (1976-1977), with the original three Angels: Sabrina (Kate Jackson), Jill (Farrah Fawcett), and Kelly (Jaclyn Smith). It's clear from the get-go that this isn't a show about acting or characterization, as both are pretty terrible; the three Angels have clear cardboard personalities, with Sabrina as "the smart one" (the only one who seems realistic as a private detective), Jill as "the fluff-head" (both literally and figuratively: look at her hair), and Kelly as "the quiet mouse." This was only season in which Farrah Fawcett appeared; she apparently didn't like the way her character was being presented, and was taken to court for breaking a five-year contract. In fact, the cast changed several times over the course of the show's run, and ironically only Jaclyn Smith, the least interesting of the three original Angels, remained with the show for its full five years.

The episodes included here start out with "Angels in Chains," in which the Angels go to jail to uncover a criminal conspiracy on the part of the prison authorities. Kim Basinger has a guest star role here. Of course, the extended sequence in which the Angels have to strip naked, shower, and parade around in skimpy towels was included purely for, um, character development, and doesn't have anything to do with appealing to a certain segment of the audience...and I have a bridge to sell you. At least the costume changes in the other episodes aren't quite so blatantly trying to show off as much bare skin as the network would allow. "The Séance" has the Angels investigating a "spiritual advisor" who may be pulling a fast one on rich widows; this episode is of note for its guest star turn by Rene Auberjonois, whom I knew as Odo on Star Trek Deep Space Nine. "Dancing in the Dark" puts the Angels on the case of a ballroom dancing extortion scheme, "Consenting Adults" confronts them with a computer dating service that may be a front for crime, and "Hellride" puts Sabrina in a race car driver's seat as the team investigates an possibly-not-accidental crash.

It's quite amusing in retrospect to see the mixture of utter sexism and nascent feminism in the show. On the one hand, these are Charlie's "angels," and are repeatedly referred to by all sorts of girly diminutives, like "girls," "angels," "cherubs," and so on, and it's presented as somewhat surprising that these "little girls" could possibly be genuine private detectives; they're also quite pointedly shown off in a variety of dress-up costumes. On the other hand... the Angels do go out and kick some butt, solving mysteries and crimes, putting themselves into dangerous situations with mostly just their own abilities to save them, and facing down the bad guys with guns or even some kung-fu in a pinch. Way to go, girls!

There's a lot of retro amusement value in the 1970s style of the show. Costume changes appear to have been a big thing for the Angels; even in the episodes where they're not undercover (like "Angels in Chains"), the Angels regularly model a variety of different outfits in any given episode. Wow! Those late-'70s fashions are quite a trip... not to mention the hair. Car chases are similarly livened up by appreciating the sheer hideousness of 1970s automotive styles. Even the filming style has quite a retro feel to it, with plenty of zoom shots and a variety of different fades from one scene to the next.

Charlie's Angels is the kind of show that's purely episodic, with each weekly story unrelated to what's gone before or will come after. In fact, the episodes aren't even presented here in the same order in which they were aired, but it doesn't matter; each stands alone perfectly fine. This "best of" compilation is a great way to get the highlights of the season (and go on an entertaining nostalgia trip) without going whole-hog on a full season of the show.

The DVD

Video

The episodes appear in their original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and they look just about how you'd expect a 1970s TV show to look, if it hasn't been given a whole lot of attention before transferring it to DVD. The overall look of the episodes is... very '70s, really. What is it about movies made in that decade that gives them that characteristic look? In any case, the Charlie's Angels episodes have a brownish tint to them, with colors looking fairly drab and bland. A considerable amount of grain is visible in the print, and some noise and the occasional print flaw raises its head as well. The end result is watchable, but with that tired TV-rerun appearance.

Audio

There's nothing to complain about on the audio front, with the Dolby 2.0 track offering adequate support for the episodes. Dialogue is clear, and the sound overall is clean and free of any distortion. It does tend to be quite flat, with no particular depth to it; overall, the sound is unmemorable but workable.

Extras

We get a pair of trailers: one for the upcoming theatrical release of the feature film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and another for the DVD of The Greatest '70s Cop Shows (billed as "TV Action Favorites!").

Final thoughts

I can't say that Charlie's Angels is exactly a high-quality television show, but hey, it's fun, especially if you watched the show years ago. Fluffy fun certainly has its place in every DVD collection; it's best in relatively small doses, though, so that it doesn't wear out its welcome. In this case, a "best of" compilation is really an excellent idea, and I'll recommend this five-episode selection from Season 1.