- Title: Charlie’s Angels – Angels on Horseback
- IMDb: link
Throwback Tuesday takes us back to the tale of three beautiful former police officers turned private detectives working for a faceless boss known as Charlie. Murder on a bus on the way to the Sunwest Dude Rach leads the Angels and Bosley (David Doyle) undercover as separate guests at the ranch with Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) playing up the big city girl getting over failed marriage, Sabrina (Kate Jackson) playing up her knowledge of horses as a rodeo rider, and Kris (Cheryl Ladd) who quickly abandons her role as the buttoned up accountant from Iowa. As the title of the episode suggests, it’s mainly an excuse to get the Angels in to western wear and on horseback solving a crime including the climax of Kelly and Chris racing after the killers who have taken Sabrina hostage.
The suspects involve a PI (William Phipps), a plumber (James Sikking) who is more than he seems, one of ranch hands (Ted Markland) who dies from an apparent suicide a day later, and a woman (Angel Tompkins) who like the hired hand had a connection to the dead man on a former con scheme. The twist comes when the dead man on the bus turns out not to be the real Joseph Frish and the murder on the bus, and that of the ranch hand, was done by the real Fish to hide and throw suspicion off the syndicate men on his tail.
The episode also leans in hard with over-the-top comedy including Woodrow Parfrey as a small town sheriff without much in the way of deductive sense (or police skills) who the Angels are forced to lead to obvious conclusions and Bosley’s various horse-riding misadventures. It’s not one of the stronger episodes of the series, but the setting works well enough in a murder mystery that quickly runs out of suspects. Other notable aspects include the ranch hand seeing through the Angels far earlier than in most of their cases and the opening sequence in which the Angels are disappointed that a case in the tropics fell through (presenting the opportunity to get both Kris and Kelly in swimsuits for the first few minutes of the episode).
