Charlie's Angels was a fun TV show that was also a major pop culture phenomenon in the 1970s. It aired from 1976 to 1981 on ABC. The three actresses who played the glamorous crime-fighting trio - Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, and Farrah Fawcett - became household names. Of the three, Fawcett's career really took off. With her blonde, feathered coif and mega-watt smile, she was a fan favorite right away. Jackson and Smith followed suit. However, all was allegedly not happiness and hair spray behind the scenes. Jaclyn Smith spills the tea in her new book, I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie.
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Smith Contends That One Co-Star Could Get Ornery
At 80, Jaclyn Smith looks incredibly youthful. Now more blonde than she was in her Charlie's Angels days, she is radiant and charming as ever. In the tell-all book, she says that Kate Jackson was "a complex person" who flexed her temper sometimes. During one of Jackson's alleged snits, Smith claims she went off the rails.
"She climbed behind the wheel of her motor home, with me by her side, and just drove it in circles around the lot, over and over. It was funny at first, but the teamsters were not happy with us."
Smith also states in the book that Kate Jackson got really mad when the actresses had to forego their lunch break to do some publicity. Jackson, who played Sabrina Duncan on the series, allegedly locked herself, Farrah Fawcett, and Jaclyn Smith in her trailer as pushback.
She Claims That Kate Jackson Had a Unique Gripe
Jaclyn Smith asserts that Jackson had a beef with the show's higher-ups. It was different than the routine day-to-day tensions. Jackson supposedly helped craft the series' name. She also allegedly formulated the idea of having the three actresses get their marching orders from "Charlie" by remote means. He was never seen on camera but talked to them using a speaker phone, ratcheting up the sense of mystery. Jackson, states Smith, felt she deserved credit for those contributions, and a slice of the profits. She evidently did not get those things.
The Actress Also Writes About Others' Alleged Drug Use on the Set
Smith also alleges in the book that "People were doing drugs, in particular, cocaine ... with some people using it constantly. The more drug use I saw on set, the more time I spent in my motor home. I was in there a lot by the end of the series."
