Credit: Dangerous Minds / NBC Television

Back in 2004, I watched the original airing of the TV movie Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie’s Angels with a couple of friends. Expecting it would be mostly terrible, we were surprised to find it was actually trashy good fun. I liked it so much that I later picked up the DVD, which I watched again recently. I still found it highly enjoyable, and let me tell you, it was certainly better than it needed to be.

The movie was the second in a series of NBC productions focused on the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding popular 1970s TV programs. The first centred on the sitcom Three’s Company, while the third was about the show that made Robin Williams a star, Mork & Mindy. However, don’t bother searching them out—like I did—as neither is worth your time, frustratingly.

Charlie’s Angels was a surprise hit for ABC during its first season in 1976, and made one of its three female leads, Farrah Fawcett, a massive star. It was slammed by many critics for lacking substance and exploiting women (one reviewer called the program “family-style porn”), but there were others who viewed it as a groundbreaking show centered around three strong female characters.

Behind the Camera explores the controversial aspects of the show, but there are also a lot of interesting details regarding how Charlie’s Angels got made, and it examines how its stars, especially Fawcett, handled their fame. But the movie never gets too heavy, keeping things light in a knowing way. Lines like, “We must stop nipple protrusion on ABC,” and “We’re private dicks, not purring pussies,” are a total riot and deliberately trashy. Forced camp almost never works, but it absolutely does here.

Some of the casting is noteworthy. It’s remarkable how much Christina Chambers (Jaclyn Smith) and Lauren Stamile (Kate Jackson) resemble the actresses they’re portraying, given that they not only look just like Smith and Jackson, but nail their cadences, too. On the other hand, Tricia Helfer doesn’t look that much like Farrah Fawcett, but she still does a fine job. Then there’s Dan Castellaneta (best known as the voice of Homer Simpson), who’s a tour de force as the legendary pipe-chewing producer, Aaron Spelling.

In a just world, Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie’s Angels would be looped endlessly on some godforsaken digital channel at 2am, filed under ‘Essential Viewing’ next to reruns of Battle of the Network Stars and those old Columbia House commercials.

It’s a trash relic, sure, but one that knows exactly what it is. Not prestige, not parody—more like a fever dream churned out on a Hollywood soundstage where everything smells faintly of Fresca, Aquanet, and ego. You don’t watch this movie for historical accuracy. You watch it because it slaps a glittery halo on the junk culture of your youth and sells it back to you with a smirk.

By the time Dan Castellaneta’s pipe-chomping Aaron Spelling barks his last line, you’ve witnessed a miracle of sorts: a made-for-TV biopic that doesn’t pretend it’s too good for the material. It wallows in the mythos of the ‘Angels’ with the right mix of sleaze and sincerity. There are no heroes here, just executives with cocaine eyes and actresses fighting wardrobe malfunctions with the weight of the world on their shoulder pads.

It’s not art. It’s not even trying. And maybe that’s why it works so bloody well.