force me only to imagine what Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Jaclyn Smith looked like while carrying out their undercover investigations for Los Angeles’ Charles Townsend Agency.It wasn’t until after Fawcett’s death last Thursday that I happened across the cover of one of five Angels novels published between 1977 and 1978, and then went looking for the rest. These slender volumes were penned by “Max Franklin,” which was one of several pseudonyms employed by Richard Deming, a prolific writer of novels, short fiction, and stories for television. Deming/Franklin also composed novels based on episodes of Dragnet, Starsky & Hutch, The Mod Squad, and Vega$. The first four of his Charlie’s Angels books were adapted from Season One installments of that Wednesday-night series, though the fifth and last one, Charlie’s Angels: Angels on Ice, was based on an episode from Season Two, after Fawcett had left the show and been replaced by the equally blonde Cheryl Ladd.
These book covers offer nothing spectacular in the way of design. They’re simply decorated with photographs of the series’ three female investigators and catchy lines about “TV’s Troubletracking Trio” and the show’s “Three Curvaceous Crimestoppers.” But they are part of American TV crime-drama history--a history that seemed to become even more distant and gauzy last week.
Click on any of the covers for an enlargement.
READ MORE: “It’s All in the Game: TV P.I. Tie-ins” (The Thrilling Detective Web Site); “Spying, Anyone?” by Marty McKee (Johnny LaRue’s Crane Shot).
2 comments:
Richard Deming is worth checking out. He's one of the overlooked '50s hardboiled writers. May of his novels are at least as good, if not better, than many of the latest reprints, and he wrote many great stories for MANHUNT
Don't hold the TV tie-ins against him. Even Jim Thompson had to do 'em!
I think I have most of those titles mentioned. I loved collecting tie-ins way back then, not so much now.
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