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Fawcett proved she's more than an angel

Associated Press file photo

Actress Farrah Fawcett, one of the original 'Charlie's Angels,' died Thursday of cancer at age 62.

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By WALT BELCHER wbelcher

@tampatrib.com

Published: June 26, 2009

Those of us who lived through the 1970s remember the "Charlie's Angels" star with the golden layered hair.

Equally memorable is a 1975 pinup poster of Farrah Fawcett in a one-piece red bathing suit. It sold 12 million copies and adorned the walls of many college dorms.

The actress who died Thursday of cancer at age 62 left "Charlie's Angels" in the second season, but she spent much of her later career trying to shake that image.

She went on to portray strong women in films about Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld and photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White.

She proved she could be a serious actress in movies such as 1986's big-screen adaptation of the Broadway play "Extremities" (about a rape victim).

She got an Emmy nomination for the 1984 TV film "The Burning Bed" (about a battered wife). Her role in "Small Sacrifices" in 1989 got Emmy and Golden Globe nods.

But we never forgot "Charlie's Angels." Critics derided it as "jiggle TV." It was the "Baywatch" of its day.

The Angels (originally Kate Jackson, Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith) were sexy detectives for the Charles Townsend Agency. Their undercover work often had Fawcett's Jill Monroe character in bikinis or flimsy outfits.

With the passage of time, "Charlie's Angels" became fondly remembered as harmless fluff. And some media critics such as Susan J. Douglas ("Where the Girls Are") point out that although the Angels reinforced the traditional "feminine look," they also were budding feminists who worked together to bring down male bad guys.

MALE ANGST: When he was in high school, Ray Drecker's future looked bright. He was the star athlete who married the beauty queen.

After graduation, reality set in. A knee injury ended his dream of a pro career. Two children came along. The economy in his hometown of Detroit went sour. Drecker became the basketball coach of the losing team at his old high school.

When we catch up to Ray (Thomas Jane) on the opening episode of HBO's "Hung," his shrewish wife (Anne Hecht) has left him.

He has moved back in to his parents' deserted, dilapidated home. He's also worried about job security in the face of school budget cuts.

This series about a desperate man who becomes a male prostitute is the first to fully embrace the country's economic collapse. HBO is billing it as a comedy but there are precious few laughs.

Debuting at 10 p.m. Sunday, it's got some nudity, sexual situations and adult language, but it's also a commentary on tough times and middle-age angst.

After signing up for a how-to-be-a-millionaire course he seems destined to fail, Drecker reluctantly concludes that the only unique thing he has to sell is a physical attribute that has always impressed women.

He teams up with a former lover who, by coincidence, is foundering in the same motivational class. Tanya (Jane Adams) is an unpublished poet. Her economic status is on the skids because it's hard to get by on a fine arts degree.

She becomes his pimp and packages him as a "happiness consultant" to rich women. But he's a Neanderthal who knows nothing about women or romance. Presumably in future episodes, these two will stumble forward toward economic recovery and Drecker's evolution.

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