Thanks to Ian Bethune over at Sox & Dawgs for suggesting this edition of Videos of the Week.
I was going to post Michael Jackson videos, but with everyone doing some type of tribute, I decided to go in another direction and I was stuck for a subject, then Ian tweeted me with the idea so thanks to him, I’ll take the opportunity to remember the person who had the misfortune of passing away on the same day as Michael, Farrah Fawcett.
As a kid growing up in the 1970’s, Farrah was the most beautiful woman on whom I had ever laid eyes. Most of my friends had this famous poster tacked up on their wall.
Gorgeous naturally, but I had to be different. I looked in a catalog and found this poster and tacked it up on my wall.
To me it was just as good. But the shot above it was the iconic one and became the best selling poster of all time. What can you say? It was great.
Farrah became famous during her one season on Charlie’s Angels in 1976-77. She was the reason that most people watched. And her hairstyle was copied all over. She left the show for a movie career that did not pan out, but she remained famous and after doing “The Burning Bed” and “Extremities,” she got the respect she was looking for.
I would give you clips of Farrah in Charlie’s Angels, but I can’t because they’re copyrighted. You can see entire episodes of the first season of Charlie’s Angels on YouTube. All of them are there. So you can see them at your leisure.
What I will do is embed some commercials and appearances that Farrah did before she hit it big and you will see how absolutely stunning she was.
This is the famous Noxema commercial she did with Joe Namath, I want to say this was done around 1970 or ’71.
This is from 1970 and there’s that famous smile in an Ultra Brite toothpaste commercial. You can hear a trace of Farrah’s Texas accent.
Also from the early 1970’s is an ad Farrah did for Lady Shick’s Speed Styler hair dryer. Angela Cartwright who was in the “Lost In Space” TV series is also in the ad.
The one ad that really got people’s attention was this ad Farrah did for the Mercury Cougar. This came out in 1975, the year before Charlie’s Angels debuted. And she still did Mercury Cougar ads until 1977.
After she hit it big with Charlie’s Angels, a lot of focus was on Farrah’s hair. So she signed with Faberge and naturally endorsed shampoo.
Do you want to see Farrah on a TV show before Charlie’s Angels? Here she is in an episode of “The Partridge Family”. Note a very young Danny Bonaduce before he became extremely crazy. And Farrah is gorgeous, of course.
And here’s Farrah from the Dating Game back in 1969. The host is Jim Lange. Note the three losers who try to get a date.
Finally, this is a CBS segment from some type of retrospective for 1978. The late Telly Savalas narrates and you’ll see Farrah’s ex-husband Lee Majors in there as well.
Farrah will definitely be missed. She exuded class and grace. It was sad to hear the news of her cancer and even sadder to hear of her passing. At 62, she still looked good. That concludes this look back at Farrah Fawcett’s early work.
