Why Farrah Fawcett got stuck mostly with TV movies ?!!

She was in her 30s, mature and had proved her talent as a decent serious actress, yet, all her work was TV films that were quickly forgotten and couldn't withstand the test of time .

Was it the lack of offers or talent?!

Discuss

Television was her most popular medium.

I think she had terminally low self-esteem. It was the same lack of belief in her own fundamental worth that kept her with Ryan O'Neal. Just my opinion.

Extremities and The Burning Bed were pretty good. Those that weren't were still entertainingly camp.

Between Two Women and Small Sacrifices were also good.

Three strikes, she was out:

Somebody Killed Her Husband

Sunburn

Saturn 3

She was too problematic because she asked for a huge raise and equity after the first season of Charlie's Angels and back then, it seems like that was enough.

R3 R4 Yes, these were good movies but still TV movies that wouldn't have longevity. Why didn't she branch out to cinema when she made a good name for herself in the theatre and TV, while she was still in her 30s?

I was able to get big screen movie roles (Kings of Comedy, The Stepfather, Troll) and played the lead character in 2 network series (Cutter to Houston and Jack & Mike) after Charlie’s Angels.

She didn’t scream Big Screen. She’s a TV presence. She’s a Mariska Hargitay or a Kelsey Grammer, not a Meg Ryan or a George Clooney.

Kate is still bitter that she didn't get Kramer vs Kramer.

Cheryl is still bitter she didn't get Dirty Tricks.

R12 That is a celluloid nightmare with Kate Jackson an Elliott Gould, makes "Somebody Killed Her Husband" look like a masterpiece !

She didn’t even ask for that R6. She wanted to quit so she could make movies. They offered her a significant bump in salary, a bigger cut of the merchandise profits and the lead in foul play but she still said no. In addition to the 3 flop movies she was sued by the shows producers and that made her radioactive. By 1980 the zeitgeist surrounding her had dimmed.

Plus hubby at the time Lee Majors didn’t want her working. At least on a series, so she could make him dinner every night at a prompt time when he came home from his show. CA was certainly more popular than her three flop films. If she would’ve rode CA out and told Majors to go to hell, her chances at a film career might’ve been better.

Extremities was not a TV movie.

Farrah was fabulous. And far more beautiful than remembered. Before the drugs and Ryan she was well spoken, glorious to behold, naturally sexy and far from dumb. With a confident and very feminine speaking voice. She really epitomized the healthy athletic beauty of her time.

Small Sacrifices was made in Canada, so one must put up with Jane Eastwood and John Shea, but Farrah is chilling and mesmerizing as Diane Downs. It's on YouTube and couldn't be more watchable. Please give her an Emmy. Farrah is in her mid forties playing a woman in her late twenties but it's not much of a distraction.

Farrah as Barbara Hutton is too much to ask for. Really it's too much. But she's glorious to behold.

The Burning Bed is not just take off your makeup stunt casting. She is every bit as great and heartbreaking in it as people say she is. Farrah was a better actress than Ann-Margret, Sharon Stone or Natalie Wood. She would have been great in The Dollmaker or The Cracker Factory or The Two Mrs. Grenvilles. She just let too much time go by and deferred to all the wrong men. She was a TV star, not a movie star. Far too wholesome AND sexy and yes, intelligent. With time she became a good actress. Movies didn't offer her that chance. TV did.

Perhaps because she couldn’t really act her way out of a box? Just a guess.

r18 You don't think she was good in The Burning Bed, Small Sacrifices, Murder in Texas, etc.?

She never looked as good as she did on Charlie’s Angels. She needed the big hair and should have kept that look another couple of years.

Farrah Fawcett was breathtakingly beautiful and her acting skills became better as she coasted along. All in all she had a decent career in both TV and the Big Screen. She was a beautiful force of nature.

I could see her in some of Sigourney's roles like Working Girl or Gorillas in the Mist if she had some more confidence.

Angelica Huston's part in The Grifters and Crimes and Misemeanors too.

(I'm looking at late 80s films assuming she had some heat off of Extremeties in 1986.)

She wouldn't have been as good as G but I could see her putting an interesting spin on Fatal Attraction. (especially in her later years when she was a bit crazy herself.)

Farrah had a great kind light about her

R24 Yes she did. Actor Charles Grodin said that she was one of the nicest people that he ever worked with.

Jaclyn Smith says she cries every day about Farah.

Smith also said how it's odd that all three of the original angels got cancer.

She says she wonders if it was something they sprayed on them. (I"m assuming she meant hairspray or tanning stuff.)

The story about majors wanting her to quit and by home to fix dinner was made up by majors at the time as a way for him to take the blame for Farrah quitting and taking the heat off of her. She wanted to make movies.

Part of her settlement with the producers of Charlie’s angels was appear as a guest star in a certain number of episodes. By 1980 her star had waned and the show’s producers let her off the hook on the last few shows she was to appear on since ratings didn’t go up with her guest starring .

You'd think having ABC tell her they'll sue her would have convinced her to show up for season 2. Make movies on your hiatus.

She was the original choice for the title role in MAME, but a wise Lee Majors told her to turn it down.

She bombed with the three films someone listed above ("Somebody Killed Her Husband," "Saturn 3," and "Sunburn"), and so the studios became convinced she could not carry a big motion picture after that, they never forgot it. Part of the problem was that those movies made her seem like an empty beauty, which the public already thought of her from the nipple poster and "Charlie's Angels" (let's not forget, the press originally called it "jiggle TV").

She went to off-Broadway to prove she could act, and rreplaced Susan sarandon in the de-glamorized, physically and emotionally lead role in "extremities, taking over from Susan Sarandon. Critics took notice of her, and she was able to play the part in the small independent movie when Sarandon didn't want it. But no one went to see the movie.

So the best she could hope for was big miniseries and TV movie roles, which she made a lot of hay from. But she never was able to overcome the empty-headed jiggly blonde vision Hollywood had of her. Ryan O'Neal was also a terrible thing for her, and she disappeared after the mid-80s into his world of abuses, all of different kinds to her and to his kids and to himself.

Actually Karen Allen replaced Sarandon and then Farrah took over from Allen.

I'd never heard Sarandon turned down the film of Extremeties. Are you sure about that?

They tried getting her to return right up until filming on season 2 started. No offer or threats worked. They hired Cheryl Ladd many weeks earlier, but hoped Farrah would cave and return. If she did return, they planned on keeping Cheryl, but in a recurring basis.

TV movies were pretty well made back in the 80s and 90s. Decent budget and scripts, and ones with name stars like Farrah could attract big ratings.

A lot of actresses really wanted some of those roles Farrah got, like The Burning Bed and Small Sacrifices. For a while, Farrah got to pick and choose which projects she wanted. Not a lot of actresses have that luxury.

She was a poor man’s Suzanne Somers

How did Kate Jackson get out of her contract? I assume they all had like five or seven year deals. Isn't that standard back then?

R35 They fired Kate's ass for her trouble making.

[Quote] rreplaced Susan sarandon in the de-glamorized, physically and emotionally lead role in "extremities, taking over from Susan Sarandon.

I'm sorry, who did she replace?

Kate, Farrah and Jaclyn all had 5 year deals. Everyone was tired of Kate, so they fired her. She was always criticial of the scrips and the quality of the show, but it became even worse when they wouldn't let her out to do Kramer vs Kramer.

Funny that were so scared the show would bomb without Farrah, yet they did just fine with Cheryl. Lightning didn't strike twice when they replaced Kate.

I read Farrah lost the lead in Coma due to the Charlie's Angel contract stuff.

I guess that was for the best. I love how Genevive Bujold says they are "putting people into Cooooooomas"

(and the movie is sort of annoying in that it lets her have her apendix removed before Michael Douglas saves the day. Why didn't he bust up the operation and THEN go find the anesthesia line. Some boyfriend.)

Was Murder in Texas the first time she got good reviews?

She was probably the only good thing about "Myra Breckenridge".

R35 "She got fired" is old gossip. This is what really happened. It got explained in another thread: "Kate signed a seven-year contract with Spelling-Goldberg to do The Rookies. She was committed to do another series with them if The Rookies got canceled before then, which it did. That's why she was in on Charlie's Angels from the creation. She did four seasons of The Rookies and three of Charlie's Angels."

Kate Jackson invented "Charlie's Angels", the name and the whole concept were her ideas! (she never got paid a cent for her ideas though!) So without Kate Jackson, there would be no "Charlie's Angels". She was the only actress on the show and she knew the ropes. The other inexperienced angels learned a lot from her. She was the leader on and off screen, protecting the other girls from being overworked. Jackson also demanded better scripts because she had been promised a show with more depth. The executives didn't like for a woman to speak her mind. The 70's... That's where "she's difficult" started. A woman who wanted to improve the show! OMG... By early season 3, Spelling wouldn't let Kate do "Kramer vs. Kramer" and that's when she definitely wanted out. She fulfilled her contract and finished season 3 and told them she wanted to do other things. They tried to talk her into staying!! In a documentary Spelling recalls saying "hell, what next!!" after Jackson had told them she wanted to leave. So they were desperate because they were going to lose their anchor, the real actress with the extra something, who had been there from the beginning! Jaclyn said she hated to see Kate go. Which is no surprise. Kate, Farrah and Jaclyn had true chemistry, they were friends. Charlie's Angels was never the same after Kate Jackson left. Kate was the irreplaceable Angel.

Only a man who has never seen breasts would call those nipples “huge”, R40

They ice womne's nipples for those shoots.

Farrah had pencil eraser nipples.

Her nipples could cut glass.

[quote]R41 Was Murder in Texas the first time she got good reviews?

Yes. It’s not a demanding role, but she played it subtly and straight faced. (And she put her famous flowing locks back in a tight ponytail, which seemed kind of like acting at the time.)

She already had breast implants by Saturn 3. Was there a year in the 1970s when breast implant surgery "arrived"?

R48 she looks a bit like Sharon Stone there.

R49 haha id love to know that too. I always thought it was the 80s, but people here mentioned that MTM and Sally Field both got implants in the 70s, and I had no idea it was at mainstream back then.

Sandahl Bergman definitely had hers done in the 1970s as can be seen in the Air-otica number from "All That Jazz."

They must have started in the 70s. In the sixties Raquel Welch was know for her huge breasts. They seem quite average by today's standards.

Raquel’s rack looks natural IMO

Implants have been around since the early 60s, I read a book about warren Beatty a few years ago, and read about Julie Christie getting them in the early 70s

It's been claimed that first modern day breast augmentation was performed in the early 1960s on Timmie Jean Lindsey, who was persuaded to take part in the experimental surgery in exchange for removal of a chest tattoo. In the early 1900s, doctors had experimented with paraffin. In the 1950s, they'd tried sponge. The team who worked on Lindsey were inspired by the feel of blood bags when squeezed. They claimed that the feel was similarly soft as doing so to natural breasts.

Itty bitty titty committee

R28. Farrah completed all her mandatory episodes on Charlies Angels. But you are correct - No one cared by the 4th season. The stories all focused on Farrah, with little interaction with Kelly, Kris, or new angel Tiffany.

I had the Charlie's Angel board game. It came with a coupon you could send away to order Cheryl Ladd replacement figures when they were made to replace the Farah ones you got in the one I got.

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