Farrah Fawcett star Lee Majors, were frequent tennis partners with producer Aaron Spelling. Spelling and his business partner eventually chose Fawcett to play Jill Munroe in their upcoming made-for-TV movie, "Charlie's Angels", a movie of the week which aired on March 21, 1976, on ABC. The movie starred Fawcett (then billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors), Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith as private investigators for Townsend Associates, a detective agency run by a reclusive multimillionaire whom the women had never met. Voiced by John Forsythe, the Charles Townsend character presented cases and dispensed advice via a speakerphone to his core team of three female
Farrah Fawcett had worked for Motown Records in the 1960s and 70s, and she had also played a major part in the development of The Jackson 5 which included lead singer Michael Jackson. NBC aired a "Dateline NBC" special "Farrah Fawcett: The Life and Death of an Angel" the following evening, June 26, preceded by a rebroadcast of "Farrah's Story" in prime time. That weekend and the following week, television tributes continued. MSNBC aired back-to-back episodes of its "Headliners and Legends" episodes featuring Fawcett and Jackson. TV Land aired a mini-marathon of "Charlie's Angels" and "Chasing Farrah" episodes. E! aired "Michael &