The TV Sidekick Blogathon: A Love Letter to Bosley on Charlie's Angels

 
“Once upon a time there were three little girls who went to Police Academy…” 

… and a number cruncher named Bosley.

Scratchy voiced David Doyle came up in a family of lawyers, and even attended law school, but found acting was a lot more fun. In 1960 he made his debut on Broadway in a musical titled Beg, Borrow, or Steal, which just happened to coincide with his earliest television appearances (IMDb lists his first credit in 1959 as “Desk Clerk”). He certainly paid his dues, working his way up the ranks, appearing regularly on The Patty Duke Show, and Bridget Loves Bernie among others. And while he was a common small screen face, he didn’t become a household name until an offer to play the (originally) grumpy bookkeeping assistant to a never-seen Charlie on a landmark seventies action series came to his door. Charlie’s Angels would be unvaryingly lambasted by snooty critics, but loved by adoring fans like myself, who found Doyle’s John Bosley (referred to mostly as Bosley or “Boz”) a perfect companion to the lovely trio of detectives who solved mostly glamorous crimes on a weekly basis.

This is what I do. Answer the phone, while trying not to get knocked over by Angel hair.

Let’s be honest, the Angels, five in all, were uniformly perfect, and it may have seemed a given that Bosley would possess some form of lascivious middle-aged chauvinism, or come across as someone who was resentful of the power positions of his female co-workers. But in Doyle's confident shoes, Bosley was a lovable pragmatic assistant and friend. While many viewers saw him as a father figure to the women, Doyle thought he was more like the good-natured and goofy Uncle who might be a bit spinster-ish with the books, but whose ultimate desire was to see the Angels succeed.

Buddies 4 life!

With all this love for Bosley in the air, I dove into my research by flipping through the normally reliable Prime-Time Life by Aaron Spelling and scanned the chapter all about the Angels for Doyle anecdotes. But wait. Did my eyes just deceive me? Was there really no mention of the fabulous actor who portrayed Bosley and the role he played in making the series so great?

Curses Bosley! You’ve been foiled yet again!

Don't worry Boz, the fans love you!

But you know what? Isn’t that par for Bosley’s course? Doyle faced an uphill battle with the series, initially playing Bosley as a curmudgeon number cruncher in the pilot movie (alongside David Ogden Steirs who disappeared by the time the series began). Doyle did indeed have the unglamorous task of making his pencil pushing “secretary” character into someone likeable, and also someone who didn’t mind hanging around the background while his three female co-stars took the spotlight and better on-set stylists.

Is it just me, or is that gorgeous sweater trying to upstage Bosley?

And there is very little to Bosley, actually. He talks to Charlie, takes phones calls from the Angels, sometimes puts on a costume and/or accent to help his co-workers out, and then often finds himself the butt of the joke during the end call where Charlie wraps the whole affair up. Doyle could have easily leered at the lovely actresses, picked up his check and spent his days snorting coke in Bel Air (I’m just sayin’ for the sake of argument), but he chose to bring intelligence, humor and depth to the character. Also, he simply loved acting, and loved working with his co-stars. He once commented that working alongside three beautiful women or acting with three cigar smoking males was all the same to him, because it was the job that mattered and he saw his castmates as equals who wanted to work just as much as he did. I don’t mean to quote Aretha or anything, but R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

These are my partners, see?

Although he’d get a few love interests (who were usually bad guys in cashmere), and a couple of Bosley-centric episodes, Doyle was fully aware of his place in the series, stating in an interview “I don’t know a show that has three equal leads. So it gets harder and harder to add a further element of equality – me.” And while he publicly wished Bosley was a little more together, I grew up seeing him as quite the hero, probably in part because he readily set aside his ego to let the ladies shine. I also realize that despite that lack of spotlight, I still saw him as less of an assistant, and more a full-fledged partner. I mean, he even had his own silhouette!

You've arrived, Bosley!

What’s so interesting about ol’ Boz is that, while many critics derided the series for it’s jiggly charms and fluffy demeanor, it sometimes served as a space for some interesting gender bending storylines, where Bosley played the “girl” who needed rescuing. Angels in Waiting (OAD 3/21/79) is a prime example of this, featuring Doyle in the first of only a few Bosley-centric episodes, where he is a lovelorn, frustrated “secretary” who attempts to have a little adventure of his own. Of course, he’s fallen for the wrong lady, and inevitably has to be saved by the Angels. Switch the roles, and it would look like an episode of any other detective show, but in this bubblegum wrapper of a series, we’ve just predicted The Heat! Wut? I know. Cool, right?

Adventures always involve gunplay, you know...

And further to Boz's charms, despite being mostly a flashback episode, in the very last Charlie's Angels, Let Our Angel Live (OAD 6/24/1981), Bosley got to show off some insanely amazing chops after Kelly is shot by a suspect. I can't even put into words how much he goes into a tour de force of badassery, so I'll just do it in pictures:

But despite all that male feminism and working for the love acting, David Doyle was the best simply because made me smile. It’s not that the Angels weren’t funny (although they really weren’t, let’s be honest) but Doyle had terrific comic timing, and was never afraid to be the silly odd man out. After Kate Jackson left and the ratings began to dip, one forward thinking television columnist suggested that Bosley was the Angel’s Fonzie, and that his role should be expanded to exploit his character to its fullest potential. Bosley in a bikini with a holster? I’m in.

This is how I will always remember David Doyle, and with love.

This post is part of the TV Sidekick Blogathon, which is hosted by the fine folks over at the Classic Film and TV Cafe. Check out the rest of the amazing entries by clicking here.

TV Spot Tuesday: Fantasy Island

In celebration of mid-terms, I'm kind of cheating this week (ha!) by throwing together something that deserves a lot more attention. Time is becoming less and less of an option for my blog this semester. Ugh. I'm surprised it even still speaks to me.

While I was procrastinating (which I do pretty well), I stumbled across some great promos for Fantasy Island when it became part of ABC's late night roster. I adored Fantasy Island. Still do. For whatever reason, I recently had a memory of how exciting my Saturday nights seemed once Love Boat got rolling (hey, I was an easy-to-please kinda kid!), but after all the frivolity and hijinks on the high seas ended it always seemed something dark was looming over Mr. Roarke's island. Not that I minded, but I did have to shift gears every so often when some weird fantasy backfired. Looking back, the show could not have been lighter, and many of the episodes were every bit as silly as the Love Boat, but I dunno, my 8 year old brain processed it like I was watching a David Lynch movie or something!

Image from Vintage Toledo TV

Anyone else remember when Roarke went toe to toe with Satan (Roddy McDowall)? Or when Tenille sans Captain headed to the island in search of her true love only to find out he was half-dog/half-man? Or what about when Annette Funicello brought her ventriloquist doll to life, only to find out she was a lot leggier and way more dangerous?

I know! This is good TV peeps.

Rawr... literally

Ricardo Montalban was simply perfect as Mr. Roarke. Sexy and enigmatic, I remember a friend of mine once saying, "He could fulfill my fantasies any day." We were racy kids. Apparently Aaron Spelling was determined to get Montalban as the star on one of his shows, after guesting on some of Spelling's other projects. Montalban thought he was joking, but Fantasy Island would become the first series for the actor. The show was a hit and lasted seven seasons, running from 1977 - 1984. Montalban's partner in crime, Herve Villechaize left the series in 1983, and the show did not last to much longer after his exit. I think Fantasy Island has held up rather well because it's charming and deceptively simple.What better way to escape from something like... oh, I don't know... midterms, than with this slice of TV heaven? That's a rhetorical question, but I'm sure you know the answer.

Image from Vintage Toledo TV

Enjoy the following promos:

A Moxey Twofer: A Taste of Evil (1971) and The Strange and Deadly Occurrence (1974)

A Taste of Evil:
Network: ABC
Original Air Date: October 12th, 1971

The Strange and Deadly Occurrence:
Network: NBC
Original Air Date: September 12th, 1974

Jimmy Sangster let the cat out of the bag when he admitted on a DVD commentary track for the Horror of Frankenstein that he lifted the story from his Taste of Fear screenplay (aka Scream of Fear, 1971) and used it to write the TVM A Taste of Evil (also 1971). Aaron Spelling recognized the story and for giggles I’ll assume director John Llewellyn Moxey did as well. Since Evil seems to be a remake, it’s slightly ironic that Moxey redid it again (sorta) in 1974 with The Strange and Deadly Occurrence (written by TV vet Sandor Stern). Without knowing the backstory to these films or even that Moxey had directed both (well, maybe I did know that somewhere inside my little IMDb friendly brain but had somehow forgotten, most likely when I saw something shiny), I watched both Evil and Occurrence back to back recently.

Most of you probably know that here at Made for TV Mayhem I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve. I mean, isn’t that what blogs are for? I’ve never made it a secret that I simply adore John Llewellyn Moxey. He’s a small screen horror movie magic maker, creating little universes filled with suspense and sometimes straight up terror. And I won’t even get into his work on Magnum P.I. (OK, maybe I will… Way of the Stalking Horse is excellent!). I also love that he’s made about a gazillion things so I’m still discovering a lot of his films. I was really struck with the similarities between Evil and Occurrence and I found that I had a hard time mulling over one film without thinking of the other, so I thought I’d do a Moxey twofer and review them together.











The most obvious resemblance lies within the premise. Let’s briefly go over the themes, shall we? Evil definitely falls under the is-she-or-isn’t-she-insane plot, which was so popular in the 70s (and almost completely worn out by the end of the decade). Occurrence is more of a is-it-or-isn’t-it-haunted story and both films have fairly predictable conclusions to these questions. While the guesswork for both is child’s play, a little past the halfway point of Evil there is this really great twist, and it almost becomes another film. A little less predictable, the bulk of the energy comes from this turn of events (although if you've seen enough of these then you probably will guess the whole shebang).

Evil opens up with a harrowing sequence featuring the attack and rape of a young girl. After being sent away to a sanatorium, Susan (Barbara Parkins) returns many years later to face her demons and rejoin her mother Miriam (Barbara Stanwyck) who is now married to an old family friend and heavy boozer named Harold (William Windom). Despite feeling fairly grounded, Susan starts seeing things which may or may not be there. Miriam enlists the help from her doctor friend Michael Lomas (Roddy McDowall) and he worries that Susan isn’t as well adjusted as they thought.











Occurrence takes a little more time to get going, focusing a bit more on the family as a happy bunch living out in the middle of nowhere (they are played by Robert Stack, Vera Miles and Margaret Willock). There is no opening trauma but once it kicks off things begin to build quickly. Creepy things start happening to the teenage daughter who is either having bad dreams or dealing with someone coming into her room at night (yikes!). There are other little issues as well, such as a bathtub overflowing when no one ran it, and whatever or whoever is wreaking havoc continues to elevate their reign of terror until the family considers leaving.

Both films begin with the mental demise of the daughter. It starts much earlier for the character in Evil, but whatever is preying on the family in Occurrence first sets out to destroy the emotional stability of the teenager in the house. Both films have an outsider who is their rational thinker. For Evil it’s Dr. Lomas, while Occurrence employs the local sheriff (played by the terrifically macho L.Q. Jones) and they are there to offset what we think might be happening. It’s one of the most common additions to these kinds of films where the intention is to throw the viewer off their center. It works better in Evil, but I really like Jones as the forever annoyed law enforcement officer. And strangely enough, both films feature dead bodies in water. I know, crazy, right?










The unfortunate downfall of the TV movie is that it often has a been-there-done-that kind of feeling to it. The premise of a mental patient trying to ease themselves back into society only to find they may indeed be a total loony is an old foundation for films. Even by the early 70s it was pretty cliché, but Evil relies heavily on atmosphere and it does a good job of making the whole affair lush and creepy, which allows the tired story to finds life through the setting and the earnest performances. Stanwyck is especially good (as if anyone had any doubt), but the cast as a whole seems really intent on making the schtick feel more fresh and alive. Occurrence is also aware of its well-worn premise but continues to concentrate on the build-up rather than working up a twist(ed) ending. In fact, the last couple of scenes almost feel like an afterthought, since the important information is withheld until the climax. Still, the majority of the film is intense, and the actors are game, so I found the outcome easy to forgive.











Evil is gothic, claustrophobic horror, featuring a grandiose locale and it feels a little more dated if only because there aren’t enough flowing nightgowns in modern thrillers (tsk, tsk). Occurrence has a more modern feel simply by giving the characters a middle class dynamic. I felt the family in Occurrence was easier to relate to, while the ostentatious broken family in Evil seemed more unreachable. That’s not a ding against Evil, but it is the one major difference between the two films, aside from the conclusions. But while Occurrence is peppered with the type of people many of us would know (although it’s doubtful anyone else really has the same to-die-for cheekbones of Miss Vera Miles), Evil has some more meat behind its story. Both harken back to the days when horror preferred suggestion over visceral thrills and they make wonderful companions walking together along the long and winding TV movie road.










As luck would have it, Kindertrauma just reviewed Taste of Fear so stop by and see where the madness started!

TV Trivia: Nightingales

After being ABC's golden child for two decades, Aaron Spelling's contract with the network was cancelled in the late 80s (ABC was jokingly called the Aaron Broadcasting Channel for a time). Spelling still had two shows airing, Dynasty and Hotel, but the network felt he was becoming a thing of the past. Brandon Tartikoff who ran NBC approached Spelling for an idea for a new series. NBC was known for their higher tier programing such as Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere and Tartikoff thought something more escapist would help balance the lineup. Spelling gave him a one sentence pitch:

"Student nurses in Dallas in the summer and the air conditioning doesn't work so they sweat a lot!"

Tartikoff loved it! When he brought Spelling to NBC to discuss the new project he actually rolled out a red carpet to his office, gave Spelling flowers and there was even a marching band to perform The Yellow Rose of Texas!

The show would be called Nightingales and it would have a pilot movie and then a 13 episode run. It failed miserably, but points to Tartikoff for not just respecting Spelling's talent but for treating the king of television like the royalty he truly was.

I've never seen Nightingales, and in fact had only heard of it when I recently picked up a copy of the book Three Blind Mice by Ken Auletta (which is where I got this story). Here is the main title sequence, which features aerobics, surgery and Suzanne Pleshette:



Before it aired, when everyone knew it would be a hit, the show was dubbed "the silver nipple!" Gotta love 80s TV!

One more bit of trivia: Nightingales starred Suzanne Pleshette and Barry Newman who also appeared together in the 1982 TV movie Fantasies. You can read my reviews here and here.

By the way, the above TV ad came from Vintage Toledo TV. Check them out, they have lots of great pics.