Circus of Terror

SUMMARY

When a series of near-fatal “accidents” plague the family owned Barzak Circus, the Angels are hired to go undercover in the circus to find out who is trying to cut down on the competition from the big time big tops.

Right off the bat, Sabrina gets in tight with young and handsome David Barzak, who’s into liberated women but likes to wear dresses. Kelly and Bosley pull up in a van labeled ‘Go Go’ and loudmouthed Kelly starts trouble. Posing as a motorcycle stunt woman called GoGo Garrett, Kelly is made to audition to prove her mettle. A pair of shifty carnies set up her stunt ramp but rig it so that it collapses when she rides over it and wipes out. Despite her failure, Barzak agrees to give her a job.

Kelly: “How’d you like a swift kick in the shin?”

Meanwhile, Sabrina’s dreams of becoming a clown come true when she apprentices under a skeletal Euro mime. Never seen her so excited. Kris shows up looking pretty, and that’s her job pitch, too – she’s looking for a gig as a pretty showgirl. Barzak tells her she can take a stab at being a pretty knife-thrower’s target – no resume required.

Bosley loiters around the circus encountering nonsensical human oddities, including an elder love interest in the form of a flirtatious and hard drinking little person named Tinkle Bell. He treats her rudely. Later that night, Sabrina and David have a slow and slinky candlelit dinner with full star filters on as they discuss chicken and womens’ equality. The creepy skeleton mime plays Peeping Tom as he voyeuristically spies Bri making out with David.

Sabrina: “You’ll make somebody a great little wife someday.”

When she returns to her circus tent, Sabrina finds an angry rattlesnake curled up in her cot, ready to strike. After her screams(?) attract the attention of the rest of the camp, the snake is carried away and David, while wearing a kaftan, suggests that she stay in his room – on the couch.

Afterwards, Kelly (still in her GoGo Garrett jumpsuit) and Kris skulk around the darkened camp spying and eavesdropping on various gypsy conversations that are unintelligible to them. Kris very cleverly swipes a drinking glass riddled with one suspect’s fingerprints. When she brings it back to the tent to share with roommate Kelly, someone ties their flap shut and sets them on fire. They helplessly scream and flail at their canvas walls until someone slices the flap open with a knife and sets them free.

Next day, Bri trains with her creepy mime mentor, learning the tricks of the trade, and is allowed to play with clownman’s many prop fencing swords. Kris gets caught snooping in the wardrobe tent and her Bladed Boss forces her to dress up and practice their knife throwing act. But are the knives real? Bosley shows up just in time to rescue her.

As we peek in on a hushed conversation, we find that the two carnies are in cahoots with the creepy skeletonman who’s intuitive enough to realize the girls have been hired to investigate the goings-on, and through their discussion we learn that it is his desire to ruin the Barzak Circus as an act of revenge for the death of his performing niece. Worse yet – he intends to accidentally-on-purpose kill Sabrina with a real sword during their upcoming dress rehearsal.

Bosley discovers the knife thrower collapsed on the floor of his tent – he’d been knocked over the head by one of the carnies, who stole his performing outfit and is about to kill Kris by splitting her skull with REAL knives.

We are forced to watch the full rehearsal of Sabrina / Skeletor’s unfunny mime act, and Bosley and Kris rush to the scene just at the moment when Bri is about to be stabbed in the heart with a sword – thankfully, Skeletor has reconsidered and stabs her with a trick sword instead.

Meanwhile, Carnie #2 has taken all afternoon to set his sniper rifle’s sights on GoGo Garrett’s track, and when she makes her final run on wheels, it’s Kris who comes to the rescue, slamming the sniper and his rifle to the ground, and saving Kelly to ride again another day.

Mystery solved, the Angels join the rest of the gypsies in a cafeteria tent to enjoy dinner and dancing as Bosley is hit on again by the midget lady.

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  FASHION

Kelly spends most of the episode in an army-green GoGo Garrett jumpsuit, but manages to make it look sexy. She later changes into a glittering space age version of the jumpsuit for her dress rehearsal stunt. Kris makes an amazing appearance in a sexy, low-cut, midriff baring shirt and jeans, but this episode is best remembered for her fiery red showgirl number worn when she’s playing knife-thrower’s assistant. Sabrina’s decked out in a bright orange, belted, sleeveless, dentist-on-safari jumpsuit and under-blouse.

Wardrobe Repeats
Though best remembered on Kris, that famous red dress (or its identical twin) was first worn by Jill in Lady Killer. (Who wore it better? Don’t forget to vote over there > )

Sabrina dug up the orange monstrosity from last season’s The Blue Angels (although it does look better here without the turtleneck) and Kelly wears her brown dress again in Diamond in the Rough.

Circus of Terror	Lady Killer	Circus of Terror	The Blue Angels
Circus of Terror	Diamond in the Rough

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  ACTION

Kelly rides high on her stunt motorcycle, and naturally looks amazing when she pulls off her helmet. Whether you’d classify Sabrina’s encounter with the rattlesnake as ‘action’ is up to you, but she IS almost killed with a sword later on. Kris takes down the carnie-sniper, still garbed in her showgirl costume; and knife-thrower Helmut expertly throws an axe which drops down a large net over the fleeing bad guy.

CURIOSITIES

• Why does Charlie’s train conductor bimbo act like she’s blind?

• This episode includes one of the few lines the girls ever utter about their parents. Kris mentions her mother in passing.

• TWO Angels, including the famed escape artist Kelly, are hopelessly trapped a canvas tent when somebody ties the little flaps shut? Please.

• Helmut pours clear liquid out of a Jaegermeister bottle (which is brown).

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REPEAT OFFENDERS

Ramon Bieri: Yanos Barzak later played Jake Garfield in Rosemary, For Remembrance.

Read Morgan: Bad guy Otis appeared as another miscellaneous goon in Love Boat Angels.

Cis Rundle, Cheryl Ladd’s friend, appeared many other times on the show as an extra, including the tai chi chick in Angel in Love, waitress in Angels in the Backfield, random crowd extra in Game, Set, Death, camera chick in Antique Angels, football chick in The Sandcastle Murders, random casino extra in Angels in Vegas, waitress in Angel Come Home, cheerleader in Pom Pom Angels, random dock extra in Love Boat Angels, and the librarian in An Angel’s Trail. This time she played Charlie’s train-themed bimbo.

Robert Janes also wrote Angels Go Truckin’, Fallen Angel, Angels on Skates, Angels on Campus, Cruising Angels, Of Ghosts and Angels, Toni’s Boys, Angels of the Deep, Waikiki Angels, and Hula Angels.

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ANGEL STATS:

Turtlenecks:	Sabrina 1, Kelly 1
Shots fired by Angels:	0
Shots fired at Angels:	1 (@ Kelly)
Snakes in Angels’ Beds:	1 (Sabrina)

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TOWNSEND AGENCY COMMENTARY

JOSHUA
Episode Rating:
This gets five stars from me simply because this is the first episode Cheryl filmed. Merit wise the plot is traditional of a 70s detective series. Angels are hired to uncover who is creating threatening incidents to shut down a family circus. This episode is brought to life by Garrett who is still the tough motorbike chick and not the emotional Garrett of the later seasons. The reaction when Bri realizes the clown wasn’t clowning around about killing her is a testament to the acting range of Kate Jackson. Kris is flawless in her knife-throwing assistant outfit and still very much the “rookie” I adore.

JO
Episode Rating:
Circus of Terror was the first episode filmed with Farrah’s replacement Cheryl Ladd and you can see and feel the producers pushing her into the spotlight. Her positive approach is completely infectious and armed with being Jill’s kid sister firmly in viewers minds, along with a killer smile all her own, she quickly won over their hearts as well.

Even wearing Jill’s sparkling red cocktail outfit from Lady Killer, Kris shines as the young member of the team, who while coquettishly posing for circus owner, Barzak, answers when asked what her talent is, “I’m doing it!.”

Crisp writing and some great stunt-related suspense really hold the audience. Knives tossed at Kris, Kelly Evel Knievel act, Sabrina’s unexpected turn as a clown, and Bosley’s 3-foot ball of dynamite, Tinklebell.

BROLLY
Episode Rating:
Very entertaining episode. Bike-stunts, knife-throwing, clowning, fake German accents, snakes, a guy in a dress and Bosley, John Bosley getting wooed by Tinklebell.

GREG
Episode Rating:
Oh for fun! Would never have guessed this was Ladd’s first filmed episode. All the Angels had interesting things to do, nice setting and an actual, age-appropriate, and cute love interest for Bri! All this and a rattlesnake?

HOLLY
Episode Rating:
This one is definitely fun – can’t beat GoGo Garrett and inane clown routines. The most disturbing part for me is when Kris and Bosley learn that the creepy mime is going to kill Sabrina with a sword. They rush to see the act’s finale and just stand there as Bri is run through with a sword and collapses to the ground. When it turns out Bri is only clowning around, Kris whispers “….ah, he didn’t go through with it.”

ANNA
Episode Rating:
Fun indeed. The half-star is for the fact that outside help was needed for the takedown instead of the Angels handling it themselves. Still, this is the second lineup’s Angels in Chains and one of those episodes that everybody remembers.

KENNY
Episode Rating:
This is one of my favorites from Season 2 of the series. This was the first episode they filmed with Cheryl Ladd but you would of thought Kris had always been there they way she fits in so perfectly. Someone is terrorizing the circus and it’s up to the Angels to find out who. I love Kelly’s Go Go Garrett and Sabrina playing a clown. Kris getting knives thrown at her makes for great Angel action. The first poster featuring Charlie’s second set of Angels was taken from this episode.