The '70's was a golden age for U.S. television with groundbreaking shows such as 'Roots', 'Holocaust', 'M.A.S.H.' and 'All In The Family'. Created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, 'Charlie's Angels' was a huge step backwards. Even as a testosterone-fuelled teenager, I found it both mindless and demeaning to women. Very much a male creation. <br /><br />The 'Angels' were three ex-policewomen recruited by a mysterious individual named 'Charlie' ( John Forsythe ) for covert missions. You can see how this idea happened. "Hey, guys!", some hot-shot executive probably yelled one day over an expensive lunch: "Why don't we do 'Mission: Impossible' with an all-girl cast?".<br /><br />If the 'Angels' had been strong characters, fine. But they were bimbos. Nobody could act, the violence was cartoon-like, the marshmallow theme tune made my teeth itch, and the Identikit plots rarely rose above the tenth-rate.<br /><br />Each week, the animated 'Barbie' dolls which composed three-quarters of the regular cast went undercover to trap some one-dimensional villain, which of course was nothing more than a pathetic excuse to get them into make-up and sexy clothes. <br /><br />Farrah Fawcett was the first to jump ship. She later matured into a fine actress. Cheryl Ladd was her replacement. Her debut episode featured one of the most ridiculous scenes ever broadcast on television - Ms.Ladd stripping naked in the middle of a street so as to gain entry to an exclusive nudist camp, while an elderly security guard chortled with glee.<br /><br />The girls came and went, but the show's entertainment value remained zero. It is amazingly now regarded in some quarters as a proto-feminist tract. 'Cagney & Lacey' it was definitely not!