Just read an interesting article over at the MeTV website about an all-male version of Charlie’s Angels. The potential series even had a backdoor pilot episode during season 4 of the original show, but was never picked up by the network. Episode 24 of Charlie’s Angels, titled “Toni’s Boys,” featured actress Barbara Stanwyck as Antonia “Toni” Blake, whose husband ran a private detective agency similar to the Townsend Agency. When he passed away, Toni took over and three handsome men handle the day-to-day cases.

Toni’s group is introduced to the original Angels after an attempt is made on their lives, leaving Charlie to hires the rival agency run by his old friend Toni, to protect the girls and help them find out who’s behind the attempted murder. By this time, the Angel’s lineup included Jaclyn Smith as Kelly Garrett, Cheryl Ladd as Kris Munroe, and Shelley Hack as Tiffany Welles.

Toni’s male counterparts included: Stephen Shortridge as Cotton Harper, a champion rodeo rider, roper and tracker; Bob Seagren as Bob Sorensen, a former U.S. Olympic track & field champion; and Bruce Bauer as Matt Parrish, a master of disguises and weapons expert.

According to Charlie’s Angels executive producer Aaron Spelling, “we thought it would be a campy idea to do the flip side of Charlie’s Angels.”

The possible series launch episode was directed by Ron Satlof and also stars Robert Loggia as Michael Durano, a crooked businessman behind the attempts on the Angels’ lives. Actress Roz Kelly from Happy Days also briefly appears as Jade Allen, the manager of a male strip club formerly owned by Durano. Toni’s agency even had their own John Bosley character, named Rolph, was played by James Brodhead.

Unfortunately, Toni’s Boys went no further than the episode and ABC didn’t pick up the show. But you can still enjoy classic episodes of the campy original action drama Charlie’s Angels on MeTV, TUBI and other streaming platforms.

Source: MeTV