It's possible that no series in TV history bounced back from the loss of beloved original characters as successfully as CHARLIE'S ANGELS...in the little picture, at least. Cheryl and Shelley Hack paled next to Farrah and Kate, but the premiere episodes of seasons 2 and 4 were barn-burners. In this case, that's admittedly with a stacked deck, with a two-parter on...the Love Boat! Plus Bert Convy as a Robin Hood bad guy, Dick Sargent as an antsy insurance investigator, and Judy Landers as a red herring replacement for Kate. Anyone care to guess how many LOVE BOAT appearances Bert and Judy had between them, not including this one? A candy cheroot to anyone who guessed FIFTEEN!! Yup (Mr. Sargent, obviously lacking ambition, had only one). And while we're on the subject of arcane ANGELS/LOVE BOAT trivia, Shelley would appear this year in a LOVE BOAT episode filmed before she got the ANGELS gig. Anyway, Sabrina had a busy summer, marrying and getting pregnant (possibly with some guy named "Scarecrow"). Kate, we loved you. The LOVE BOAT crew is only around for the first fifteen minutes...but it's enough for howls aplenty. New Angel Tiffany Welles is kept in the background, but she's fine, particularly in an insecure scene with Bosley. Cheryl gets the lion's share, and responds with her fantasticalest performance ever. She becomes involved with Bert, who rises miles above game show host. He's a Vietnam vet who has taken to crime to finance the rescue of refugees. The mystery of chemistry can be easy or impossible to track, but Bert and Cheryl pop, with a big "P". I don't know whether she was just at a lovely point in her life, or whether she and Bert were close, or perhaps the absence of Kate freed her energy...but she's just luminous. This being the Love Boat, the feminine form is abundant, especially within Cheryl's white bikini. And three seasons after Farrah, nipples finally return, in an unforgettable underwater scene.
Review of Love Boat Angels
