Think back to September, 1976, which is when Charlie's Angels debuted. There was almost no cable TV, no US weekly, no VCRs or netflix, no twitter or iphones. It all sounds so primitive - how did people actually become famous in those days, back when there were no cell phones to take videos with and no internet for those videos to go viral on? Strange as it sounds, Farrah became a phenom because of a poster. And remember - in 1976, "poster" did not mean "snarky writer saying mean things in a blog." I'm talking about an actual piece of paper that teen-age boys taped to their bedroom walls. It was a picture of Farrah, with big hair and a big smile, wearing a tame-by-today's-standards red bathing suit. What was it about the poster that caused such a fuss? Think wet T-shirt contest:
The merits of Charlie's Angels were debated endlessly at the time. In some ways the show was sexist and degrading, with paper-thin plots, sexual innuendo and lots of gratuitous shots of the stars in bikinis. Masterpiece Theatre it wasn't. On the other hand, the three girl detectives did work as a team. They always supported each other and didn't compete for the attention of potential dates. They solved cases together, and every now and then they got to shoot some bad guys and kick some butt. They always looked great doing it but still. They weren't wimps.
Farrah wasn't the world's greatest actress, but she had an impact on pop culture far beyond that of the current crop of here today/gone tomorrow It Girls. I can't imagine that we'll be talking about Heidi Montag in 30 years. At least I hope not.
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