Shelley Hack

Today (July 6) is the 64th birthday of Miss Hack, born in 1947. The small screen was never truly able to capture her greatness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY7_1MMHVRw&feature=related



• Sleuth Channel was running a marathon of the Shelley Hack episodes a couple weekends back and I watched a few. She was bad but really no worse than anyone else on the show. There was just no chemistry between her and the established characters. \ \ One funny thing I noticed - it must have been her first or second episode where they get taken to some island with wild animals loose and waiting to attack. In several scenes her dialogue has her professing her affection for Cheryl Ladd & Jacklyn Smith and saying how they mean as much to her now as her own family (never mind she barely knows them.) It was clearly written to endear her to the audience but the way it was shot made it look like she was declaring her love for Cheryl Ladd.

• I''ve been watching episodes of ''Charlie''s Angels'' from season 4 (the Shelley Hack season) on YouTube and I''ve really enjoyed quite a few of them. Shelley was really beautiful and charming (albeit a bit wooden) and she really raised the glamour quotient on the show. I definitely think she got a bad rap. As r1 said, she''s no better or worse than Jacklyn and Cheryl in the acting department. The problem was that it took too many episodes for them to really feature Tiffany and establish her relationship with the other girls, which is why her saying to Kris and Kelly that they were like family to her in that ''Angel Hunt'' episode was so weird and jarring. Still, they should have given her character a chance to grow and allow the audience to warm up to her before dropping her for that ditz Tanya Roberts.

  Bosley

• It''s sad that Shelley had that hair. She would have been a bigger star if nature hadn''t been so cruel on that front.

• As a regular viewer of the show at the time (I was 11 the first year - 1976), the problem seemed to be that too much had changed with the addition of Hack. Losing Farrah and Kate just seemed to be too much change. I don''t think anything could have saved the show after Jackson left.

  OP

• I saw her perform Vanities live in 1980 or 81. Meredith Baxter was also in the play about Texas cheerleaders and how they grow.\ \ I can''t comment on her acting because she was so thin, her hipbones stuck out far enough so they each separately reflected light. They mesmerized me, and remain all I recall of the evening, except Meredith was solid as the ditzy housewife who gets crushed by sorrow.

• I think you''re right, r4. Kate really grounded the show and when she left, it really left a void that couldn''t have been as easily filled as it was when Farrah left (and they got lucky with Cheryl Ladd who was the perfect fit).

  r2

• Could someone please tell me what the central Angel in the credits silhouette is supposed to be carrying? It looks like some strange kind of laser weapon.

• Also, why does it look like a thermonuclear bob was exploding behind the silhouettes?\ \ It''s so odd ow that the three actual actresses look so cool and elegant to our eyes--at the time, it was considered a bimbo show. But those three seem so much classier now than the three women from the movie version a few years back.

• I loathed the movie versions of this series. Just hated them. They changed too much.

• r7, I''m with you, I wonder the same thing about what the middle character in the credits is holding. I thought it was some kind of walkie talkie.%0D\ %0D\ The actresses from the series are really in a league of their own in regards to their beauty. Jacklyn Smith looks like she has the face of a porcelain doll, so perfect. Even though it was considered "jiggle TV" at the time, there was still some semblence of class and sophistication that just wasn''t captured in the CA movies. %0D\ %0D

• the movies were different; Drew produced them and cast herself and the others had to be cast around her.%0D\ %0D\ I was the biggest Kate Jackson/Sabrina fan, but thought they found a nice replacement for her in Hack, extremely likeable.%0D\ %0D\ They downplayed her too much early on, keeping Cheryl and Jaclyn in the forefront. It was unbalanced.%0D\ %0D\ Hack had a tough act to follow but did so nicely and was the fall guy (fall angel) to squeeze another year out of the series.%0D\ %0D\ I thought Tanya Roberts was awful; and they really had to butcher the opening to explain her character turning from model to private eye. %0D\ %0D\ I hope John Forsythe was paid by the word for that intro.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJC_GgjlBKw

• Kind of free, kind of now....

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sn8H42FZcI

• I once worked with this lady who once owned a hair salon. She said she styled Shelley Hack''s hair for miss whatever it was, I forgot. She said Shelley was a real bitch. She said she bumped into Shelley around the time when she was working on Charlie''s Angles. She said Hi Shelley, remember me? I styled your hair for you at the beauty pageant when you were younger. Shelley said, I never was in any pageant! and I don''t know you either! I''m an actress! She thought she was hot stuff and had her nose up in the air like a real snobby bitch. Also, for some reason, she didn%E2%80%99t want anyone to know she was in a pageant at one time.

• I read the "Charlie''s Angels Casebook" (yeah, I know - MARY!) and several different behind-the-scenes people mention how cool and unconcerned Shelley Hack was about taking over for Kate Jackson. Dick "Bewitched" Sargent was a guest star on one of her first shows and asked her if she was at all nervous about suddenly being thrust into the spotlight. She said, "No, not really." She refused offers of acting lessons. Even at the end of the season when she was told she wouldn''t be coming back they said she showed no emotion.

• [quote] Even at the end of the season when she was told she wouldn''t be coming back they said she showed no emotion.\ \ Beamish must have gotten to her too.

• I''m on of the few who actually liked Hack on Charlie''s Angels.\ \ She had that whole "You''re bullshitting me, right?" vibe going on the entire time and it was hilarious.\ \ Certainly far more fun and entertaining than Roberts.

• I love that only on DL can Charlie''s Angels be dissected as if it were a production offered up by the Moscow Art Theatre.%0D\ %0D\ This is why I love DL.

• Whatever happened to Farrah Fawcett? You never hear about her anymore.

  Michael Jackson

• When someone refers to a bad actor as a "hack"... why is that?

  Shelley, thinking I should have changed my last name

• the problem with season4 Kate was gone and Tiffany wasn't really given much to do and remember they went from team story's to solo and Shelley wasn't given her esp until 10th angels on campus which she was great . but the producers didn't know what to do with her character and instead of improving they blamed the she cant act and replaced with Tanya Roberts worst angel ever

  jacob%20lee

• I loved CA growing up. I was only 12 when Hack replaced Jackson and I never noticed a differece. As a little gaylet,I was intrigued by Tiffany's different hairstyles. I also saw the Tiffany episodes marathon, and looking back they barely featurd her as the season progressed. I guess they knew from the start she wasn't working out. Oh, and I always thought that was hair dryer she was holding in the closing credits. I know it's not, but every time I see it, that's what it reminds me of.

• He's your FAther now and YOU'll reSPECT him!

  Shelley%20Hack%2C%20Thespian%2C%20in%20%27The%20Stepfather%27

• She was excellent in "Annie Hall". It may have only been a very brief role but she was fucking excellent.

• I remember enjoying the TV show Jack and Mike that she starred in. I can barely recall what it was about, I know it didn't last long, but I enjoyed it. I appreciate the fact that she's not clamoring to get back in he spotlight. According to wikipedia, she's got other work happening. She had her time in the bright lights and such and has moved on. If only other actors and actresses were as smart.

• I think I'm the only person in the world who loved Tanya Roberts in this show.

• Damn you, R22! I was gonna post that! Absolutely the best emoting on screen since Lynda Day George's sublime "BASTARD!" line reading in "Pieces"

• YES.

  Miss Barbara Stanwyck, of "Toni's Boys"

• I loved that shot of Hack in the opening where she's wearing a red dress, she's giggling, and her hair is totally straight. I used to stand in front of the mirror trying to get my hair just so. Oh and by the way, I'm a guy. And I'm gay.

• "Oh no, it was an allergy. I'm allergic to working in potato fields."

  J.%20Munroe

• "Hello, I'm Tara White...reporter for Roller Disco magazine? May I ask you a few questions?"

  Tiffany Welles posing as yet another reporter.

• I'm very shallow and empty and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say.

• Well, welcome Shelley at R31!

• I'd forgotten how really, really pretty she was.

• It's a walkie talkie.

  http://epguides.com/CharliesAngels/logo.jpg