Once
an Angel, you’re an Angel for life. Not that being thought of first
and foremost as a former Charlie’s Angel is a bad thing.
“Oh, I love it,”
Jaclyn Smith says. “’Charlie’s Angels’ is a part of my life.
But a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, we can’t bring it up.’ I don’t
know why people assume that, but they do.”
Smith, now starring in
the Hallmark Channel Original Mother’s Day movie “Ordinary
Miracles,” was the only cast member to appear in every episode
during the show’s five-year run. When people greet her, some even
address her as Kelly, the name of her character, one of the three
beautiful women P.I.s working for a boss they had never seen. Many
critics dismissed the show as a sexist male fantasy, but viewers loved
it.
“It was really the
first show of its kind,” Smith says. “Most shows up to that point
- action shows and detective shows - almost all had men as the leads.
And here, all of a sudden, three girls came along. That’s feminist,
not sexist. In that respect, in our own small way, maybe we helped
open the door a little bit for women.”
The show certainly
opened doors for Smith. Since “Charlie’s Angels” wrapped, she
starred in more than 30 TV movies and miniseries, started a family and
became a heavy hitter in the clothing industry. Amazingly, she deftly
manages to keep all three balls - commitments to careers, marriage and
motherhood - in the air.
In her Hallmark
Channel movie, Smith plays a tough and unyielding judge who,
despite weathering a number of personal crises, welcomes a troubled
teen into her home. The ensuing relationship heals both of them. It’s
the kind of movie Smith believes we need more of.
“We need more
positive messages,” she says. “I’ve seen what people are
watching and I’m not too pleased with a lot of it. Our children are
getting desensitized. I want something positive for a change instead
of a front-page murder or a disease-of-the-week. Let’s have more
things that are uplifting, with a message and a moral.”