"Have you ever known Charlie
to be wrong?" -Kris
"I've never known Charlie. Have you?" -Jill ("Fallen Angel")
On the surface it is easy to assume that Charlie Townsend is nothing more than a
sexist, chauvinistic pig who lives the life of the gold-plated bachelor to the hilt.
With his bevy of bikini clad beauties prancing around him at all times, it seems unlikely that Charlie would have time
to help the Angels on their cases. While they're out living dangerously, Charlie
is on the phone with his huge list of connections and providing the Angels with more information to help solve the mysteries. The biggest mystery the Angels never bothered to solve is, who are they really working
for?
Calling the Angels from his luxurious mansion, his mammoth yacht, or his latest vacation
spot, Charlie gives the Angels some leads and sends them out to do good deeds. Bosley
is the only member of the agency that actually gets to see him face to face. Apparently
Charlie is worried about his safety due to the number of criminals he has put away.
In the episode "Target Angels", viewers learn that Charlie never gets physically involved in an investigation and hasn't
for seven years. The reason Charlie hides from his Angels is to protect them
from his many enemies. This is perhaps one of the most ridiculous aspects of
the show, because Charlie's foes could not possibly know that the Angels have never seen him.
And anyhow, his plan to protect them doesn't even work. In "Target Angels"
for example, the Angels are terrorized by an assassin in order to bait Charlie to come out of hiding. In even a more drastic case, "Angel Hunt" shows the beautiful detectives being taken to a deserted island
to be hunted down by
a big game hunter in order
to lure Charlie to show up so that he can be killed also.
Through various episodes, audiences learn that Charlie has quite an impressive list
of friends and connections. Since Charlie has so many acquaintances at the police
department, it can be assumed that he started out at the bottom and worked his way to the top.
After years as a police officer, he possibly moved up the status of lieutenant and from there he would go on to open
his very own detective agency. Townsend Associates is one of the most renowned
detective agencies in America. With
offices in Beverly Hills, Hawaii, and Paris, the Angels certainly aren't the only ones working for him. Considering the many cases that Charlie did not receive compensation on (see "Charity Angels"), he most
definitely must have had many side ventures (like the Venus Trucking Company in "Angels go Truckin'"), and had made great
investments, for he is no doubt a multi-millionaire.
Television viewers really don't know much more about Charlie than his employees do. He was once married but confessed to not be the monogamous type, and it is never indicated
whether or not he has any legitimate children. His interest in the arts, however,
is exposed. He once co-starred with stage legend Eve LeDeux in a production of
A Mid-Summer Night's Dream ("Angels in Springtime"). His association with film
star Gloria Gibson ("I Will Be Remembered") and country singer Amy Waters ("Angel Blues") show Charlie to be somewhat of a
social butterfly.
Charlie may seem like a chauvinist who puts his women in demeaning situations, but
actually he is quite the feminist. If Charlie looked down on the female population,
he would have never hired three women and one male to work for him, it would have been just the opposite. Detective work was chiefly done by men and Charlie realized just how resourceful women could be by hiring
Sabrina, Jill, and Kelly. It may be argued that he was just a pervert who wanted
to look at them, but since he is almost never around the Angels, that seems quite unlikely.
Anyhow, he was never short of female company by his side. On only one
occasion did Charlie ever suggest that the Angels use their sexuality to help solve a case.
In "Lady Killer", he reminded Kelly that "when you took this job you knew there would be a lot of undercover work". The "undercover work" in
question was that of a Feline centerfold! Other than that, the Angels themselves
sometimes used their sexuality to help further along the case. It was their decision,
not Charlie's.
Charlie's interest in the female gender was of course very sexually oriented, but
he also did other things for females that have mostly gone unnoticed. He contributed
money regularly to the Barkley School
for Girls ("The Mexican Connection") and enlisted an entire crew of female truck drivers to run and operate his Venus Trucking
Company ("Angels go Truckin'"). Between the double entendres and sex jokes, Charlie
was not all that bad. Note how generous he was to his employees by sending them
off on exotic vacations as bonuses and giving them time off to recuperate from broken hearts. Charlie's biggest flaw was not
hiring a book keeper and making his detectives do it for him instead (see "Angels in Waiting" for example).
An occasional viewer of CHARLIE'S ANGELS could only see Charles Townsend in one light,
but true fans know that he isn't just living out some macho fantasy. Charlie
seems genuinely concerned for the Angels. In the episode "Hula Angels", Charlie
offers to pay a million dollar ransom for a man he doesn't even know, just to ensure Julie's safety after she's been kidnapped
too. Also, the fact that he gave Julie Rogers, a woman with a criminal record,
a second chance by hiring her onto his acclaimed staff is yet another indication of just how kind-hearted Charlie really is. When Charlie allows the Angels to work on a case with no foreseeable financial rewards
in "The Sandcastle Murders", Sabrina tells him, "You're a good man, Charlie. I'd
like to tell it to your face sometime!" Whether Charlie's intentions are genuinely
altruistic or purely to satisfy his own sexual desires may remain, like he himself, a mystery!
