Deadline’s Comic-Con TV correspondent Gary Hodges files:
The Hilton just across the way from Comic-Con hosted its own share of panels this year, including one for ABC’s new reboot, Charlie’s Angels, due to hit this fall. The trailer for the series was shown introducing each of the angels and showing fast cuts of doors being kicked down, people being punched, cars being spun, and – of course – lots of the new cast. It closed with the words: “These ain’t your mama’s angels.”
Schneider then introduced the cast: Ramon Rodriguez (The Wire) as Bosley, reinterpreted as a hacker, and the three new angels: Annie Ilonzeh (General Hospital) as Kate, a dirty cop-turned; Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) as Eve, a former car thief; and Rachael Taylor (Grey’s Anatomy), a cat burglar. They were joined on stage by executive producers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough (both of Smallville).
Gough admitted some reluctance at first to take on another established and beloved property after Smallville. “There’s a car wreck mentality,” he said. “They’ll tune into the pilot, to see you fail.” But he said he hoped viewers would be turned into believers when they saw the show, with a whole host of changes to the traditional Angels mythology. Rather than originally a bunch of bored police cadets, now each of the ladies come from darker backstories. “We [also] made Bosley young and hot,” Gough said. “We wanted Bosley to be the fourth angel,” saying Rodriguez’s character will be much more active in the stories, and the one with the closest relationship to Charlie.”
The producers teased that Charlie would – per tradition – never been seen by the angels, but might be seen by the audience. In the pilot, Charlie is voiced by Robert Wagner, who was unable to commit to an entire series. So the show is currently hunting for a replacement, even asking any audience members participating in the Q&A to preface their question with a Charlie suggestion. Being the Comic-Con crowd, names were predictable: votes for Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Nathan Fillion (Firefly) got multiple nominations, along with Bill Murray, James Brolin, and amusingly, Gilbert Gottfried (“He is available,” Gough conceded of the recently fired from Aflac comic).
They also moved the show’s setting form Los Angeles to Miami, which Gough felt was more international and “had a sense of glamour.” Fashion will play a big part of the show, as it has in all the brand’s previous incarnations.
Gough also said executive producer Drew Barrymore was very involved in the show and casting, but was confusing when asked if former angels
– like Barrymore – would make any appearances on the show in guest appearances: “Maybe, but probably not,” saying he wanted the series to stand on its own… but then pointing out Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher (all involved in Superman movies or TV shows) made appearances on Smallville.


Dreadful. This show will be D.O.A., my prediction for one of the first cancellations of the season.
This sounds terrible. Even moreso than the movies, it seems to spit on everything Charlie’s Angels was about in the 70′s. So instead of having them all be former police officers (except Season 5′s Tanya Roberts, who was a model), they’re making them all former criminals. That’s our modern times for you. The original Angels were seen by little girls as role models at the same time as men saw them as sex symbols. The show proved you can do both. Now, well… what kind of a role model is a dirty cop or a car thief? How sad.
Some of the changes make sense. Moving to Miami makes sense; it gets the Angels in skimpier clothing like the first part of the original’s season 5 (which was spent in Hawaii). I can see making Bosley a hacker, a behind-the-scenes operator a la DC Comics’ Oracle. But why make him young? He was, in part, a mentor to the Angels. He was the teddy bear, and he occasionally romanced older women in a refreshing alternative to our youth-obsessed culture. If they want to give women some eye candy, do it with the various studs the Angels will undoubtedly meet on their adventures.
Lastly, and this is just conjecture, but with Barrymore as producer I think we expect to see another trio of unarmed Angels a la the films. I know Charlie’s Angels doesn’t exactly go for realism, but the notion that they should be wire-fu masters rather than experienced markswomen is just a symptom of Hollywood’s leftie anti-gun nonsense. The original Angels were former cops, trained professionals proficient in the use of firearms. These modern Angels taking on drug dealers, mob bosses or what-have-you just look silly kicking down doors and flipping through the air unarmed.
I may give this one episode to impress me, simply based on my love for the original series. But so far, all signs point to yuck!
Lefty gun nonsense??? You mean like all the cop shows, war movies, sci–fi, horror, etc? Jesus you people need to watch somethig aside from Faux News. Yeah, Quentin Tarantino is a real anti-gun nuy.
Don’t stereotype me as a Fox News viewer. And I wasn’t talking about Quentin Tarantino, I was talking about Drew Barrymore and her specifically stated reasons for not giving the Angels guns in the films. And the only reason liberal Hollywood hasn’t taken away guns from cops on TV is that it would destroy any trace of realism they can still claim.
This show looks HORRIBLE. It will tank instantly. I’m sick to death of Hollywood hiring models that can’t act and Minka Kelly is the top of that horrible list.
There are pretty girls/women out there who CAN act. Why not hire them? And stop insulting our intelligence with this utter drek.
Will only last more than 2 episodes because Drew Barrymore is producing it.
Ha ha ha… This new version is an exact copy of a show called “She Spies” that NBC had a few years ago. It was some weird co production thing where they aired on Saturday nights but then sold into syndication with MGM.
Granted, that show was an obvious knockoff of the original Charlie’s Angels, but this is the EXACT way they did it, but making the three bad girls who were working for a younger “Bosley” type as a means to get redemption for their “dark past.”
Ha ha ha… Now we’re even getting recycled versions of recycled versions. Great.
These guys don’t get it and this reboot will fail just like Melrose Place. Making Bosley “hot” and saying he was the pervy Uncle in the orginal series and movies? Flop. Making the angels criminals? Dumb decisions. Double flop.
Why all the hate? I really, REALLY don’t care if CHARLIE’S ANGELS going to be a success or failure the way HAWAII FIVE-O did last year. I watched the trailer over and over again and it seems to be a show made for “built-in entertainment”. If you weren’t a fan of the original series or the movies, perhaps you would’ve care more or less about the NEW Angels. This show promise to be one of the buzzworthy new shows of the season if the rebooted Angels score big ratings in the premiere. Understand this if you want with the new season of HAWAII FIVE-O or perhaps watch the new CHARLIE’S ANGELS this is something you might want to try, not even the way WONDER WOMAN didn’t get picked up by NBC for the Fall TV season. So who cares if you’re going to watch ANGELS or not, if you don’t then don’t watch it whether it depends on the ratings. Don’t be such a critic if you don’t really matter about CHARLIE’S ANGELS ’cause this promise to be a “must watched” and of course women who wants to be role models for the new version rather than the original series.
Gough’s phone is ringing. Stop typing and answer it.
Let’s see…Robert Wagner “was unable to commit to an entire series…”
Wagner, who can pick and choose when he works, and who most recently did recurring guest stints on the top rated sitcom (Two and a Half Men) and drama (NCIS) on TV, passes on a job that would be almost entirely voiceover…?
What does that tell you about how bad this show may be?
(That said, Wganer also appears in those lame reverse-mortgage commercials, so maybe they just wouldn’t meet his quote…)
Yes, there is a story here — why didn’t Wagner commit to the series, performing the easiest job? Does he smell a bomb? Did the negotiations go south over per-episode-fees? Finally, what about the fallout from his long-ago, successful suit against Spelling-Goldberg Prods. which produced the original series and his “Hart to Hart?” Any lingering “bad blood?” Separately, the move to Miami might benefit. However, making Bosley a (young) hunk instead of the uncle figure and dis-arming the angels are dumb alterations. Yet, storywise, if the leads are ex-cons they’re not legally allowed to carry weapons. That kills the silhouette pose of the three Angels that girls and women have been spontaneously and joyfully imitating for decades.
I know everyone is busy attacking the show so excuse me while I make an off-topic suggestion for the voice of Bosley: Clancy Brown. His voice is perfect for these types of things.
While i haven’t seen any actual footage of this show…
if Hawaii Five-O can survive, i would imagine there’s room for something like Charlie’s Angels.
Charlies angels in miami oooh yeah! They better be hotties and wear skimpy outfits that will work for me
Alan Dale for Charlie. C’mon it’s a great fit (though that Clancy Brown suggestion Shelly had isn’t bad either).
CHARLIE’s ANGELS needs this “reboot” series to be saved and ABC depending on “ratings”. Wish this series can get picked up for a full season and perhaps get renewed for “Season Two’.
A HOT Bosley? Genius! Now I’ll watch. It fail. Miserably.
Boo.
What a bunch of haters. Don’t really care if it fails or succeed. But I know I will watch something before writing it off.
This might work only if there are plenty of girl-on-girl kissing scenes.