Replacing Farrah Fawcett on the hottest show on TV was a colossal task, but the radiant blonde with the girl-next-door appeal and bikini body more than adequately filled the role as Jill Munroe's kid sister Kris.
Farrah departed "Charlie's Angels" when she was a phenomenal pop culture icon, and when Cheryl signed on to become the fourth Angel, all eyes focused on the alluring five-foot-four beauty who soon became a household name.
"I turned down the role twice. Farrah was all that!" Cheryl said in an interview with www.charliesangels.com. "I thought people would hate me if I took over for her.
"(Executive Producer) Aaron (Spelling) finally got me in his office for a meeting. Together we worked on a character who would become more of a comedic 'Angel' and not just a replacement for Farrah.
"Kris became the underdog, who could make mistakes but end up on top. It was Aaron who thought that my character should be Jill's little sister. The audience loved me and took me under their wings!”
Although the superstar Farrah had left the series, “Charlie's Angels” didn't exactly fall apart. The recipe of three beautiful women wearing skimpy outfits while fighting crime still proved to appeal to American TV audiences. The ratings actually improved from No. 5 to No. 4 the second season
“It was sheer entertainment. Three young women who could karate-chop 200 pound guys,” Cheryl said, “[Women] who could pull guns out of who knows where – in this outfit where did she hide that? – but all that silliness is what made it fun.”
“I've been an actress for seven years and I have been just about as good as I am [now]...[Ladd] is a great guy but he couldn't get me any job. You get work on your own merits.”
A native of Huron, South Dakota, Cheryl got her first break as the singing voice of Melody in the animated series “Josie and the Pussycats.”
She said she “ate peanut butter sandwiches three times a day” after she moved to California, but she eventually began finding steady work.
She appeared in TV series such as “The Partridge Family,” “Happy Days,” “Switch,” and “Police Woman.” Cheryl caught the eye of producer Aaron Spelling when she guest-starred in “The Rookies” and when she auditioned for a part in “Family.” That role that went to Meredith Baxter.
Cheryl told www.charliesangels.com"Overnight I was the most interesting person in the world. I had not changed at all, but everyone cared what I ate, said, and wore."
She was labeled an overnight sensation but she called herself a “seven-year overnight success.”
Cheryl defended her acting ability when Douglas asked if her brother-in-law at the time, Alan Ladd, Jr., president at 20th Century Fox, pressured the producers of “Charlie's Angels” to hire her.
Cheryl got her revenge. When the next script called for her to wear a swimsuit she bought the smallest bikini she could find. After the bikini scenes were shot, the editors had to crop “above things that weren't supposed to be seen,” she said.
Until she joined the cast of “Charlie's Angels,” Cheryl was a relatively unknown actress who had no clue of the bright spotlight that would shine on her.
“The whole shampoo-poster mentality and the popularity of the show was pretty overwhelming,” she said on “The Mike Douglas Show” when “Charlie's Angels” was at its peak. “Nobody gives you lessons on how to cope with instant success. It can enhance your life but you have to have a pretty good sense of yourself.”
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Classic TV Beauties 1970s Countdown
CHERYL LADD as Kris Munroe in "Charlie's Angels"
Although Cheryl was well aware that “Charlie's Angels” was a “jiggle” show that focused on the Angels wearing revealing outfits, she had her limits with showing too much skin too often.
"At one point I had to take a stand and talk to Aaron about the whole bathing suit issue,” she said in a United Kingdom TV documentary on the show. “I said to him, 'I know this is part of the show, but could I be on a boat... on the water... at the beach... somewhere appropriate where somebody would be wearing a bathing suit?'
“And he said 'I understand, don't worry, it won't happen again.' And it didn't happen for five or six episodes...But then, [I had a scene where] I started out at the swimming pool, then I'm running through the hotel, in the streets... in a bathing suit and it seemed a bit unnecessary to me."
During “Charlie's Angels” run, Cheryl took advantage of her immense popularity by releasing a debut singing album that produced a top 40 single, “Think It Over.” Cheryl sang the national anthem at the 1980 Super Bowl.
After “Charlie's Angels” was canceled in 1981, Cheryl acted in more than 30 made for TV movies, including a biopic of Grace Kelly. She said her one regret was turning down the lead in “The Burning Bed,” a story that brought national attention to battered wives That role was taken by Farrah, who received an Emmy nomination.
Cheryl acted in the cult favorite “Poison Ivy,” in 1993, and had a recurring role as James Caan's wife Jillian Deline in the TV series “Las Vegas” (2003-2008).
A golfing aficionado, Cheryl released the book "Token Chick: A Woman's Guide to Golfing with the Boys," in 2005, recounting her experiences on the links.
