(first posted 7/26/2017) Once upon a time, there was a phenomenally popular TV show called Charlie’s Angels, about three very attractive female sleuths who worked at the L.A.-based Charles Townsend Detective Agency. For the inaugural season, two of the Angels drove Ford Mustang IIs, while the third drove a 1977 Ford Pinto. How did one poor Angel get stuck with the non-sexy subcompact? Well for 1977, Ford had made a series of updates to the Pinto, which they were looking to show off. So, naturally they included the freshened filly in the deal with producer Aaron Spelling to fill his show with an array of Blue Oval products. There’s no question Ford Motor Company struck product placement gold with Charlie’s Angels—but how good was the updated Pinto?
First let’s look at some of the Ford-based car casting for Charlie’s Angels. For the twenty-something heroines, the Mustang II and Décor-package Pinto were Dearborn, Michigan’s vision of the “upscale” small cars that successful young career women would drive. Never mind that in real-life Los Angeles, California in the late 1970s, young professional types were snapping up Honda Accords, Toyota Celicas and Datsun 280Zs…
But we’re talking TV fantasy land here. So one Angel, Jill Munroe (played by Farrah Fawcett), drove a Ford Mustang II Cobra II.
Another Angel, Kelly Garrett (played by Jaclyn Smith), drove a Mustang II Ghia, equipped with the newly introduced Ghia Sports Package.
The third Angel, Sabrina Duncan (played by Kate Jackson), drove the mildly face-lifted Pinto, naturally larded-up with all the new model-year ’77 appearance options that FoMoCo wanted to showcase (this shot shows the car looking slightly worse for wear after a run-in with a “bad guy” in a ’75 Mercury Cougar).
The Ford products featured in the show certainly got a lot of exposure. Charlie’s Angels quickly became a top-10 rated show (pulling in 59% of the total TV audience for its timeslot in the first year). Plus, the TV series turned out to be the rocket fuel that launched the career of producer Aaron Spelling into a whole new orbit. His brand of low brow, escapist TV fare caught the public’s imagination, and Spelling churned out hit after hit in the late-1970s and early-1980s, including The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, T.J. Hooker and Dynasty for the ABC television network (which for a time was jokingly referred to as “Aaron’s Broadcast Channel”). In addition to becoming (in)famous for “jiggle TV,” Spelling also became (in)famous for vulgar real estate displays.
In 1983, in the best Dynasty fashion, Aaron and his wife Candy purchased a stunning estate in ultra-exclusive Holmby Hills abutting the golf course at the Los Angeles Country Club. The 4.5-acre property at 594 South Mapleton Drive featured a 15,000 square foot mansion designed by noted architect Gordon B. Kaufmann (famous not only for his many beautiful residential and commercial commissions in Southern California, but also for his work as the lead architectural designer of the Hoover Dam).
The house had been built in the early 1930s for The Broadway Department Store magnate Malcolm McNaghten, and was considered a particularly fine example of architect Kaufmann’s considerable skills. As California Arts & Architecture was to write in 1934, “the architect has achieved a happy result – a large house, but not pretentious, all within good scale,” and it was built with the finest materials and craftsmanship available. Plus, the mansion had a celebrity ownership pedigree: beloved entertainer Bing Crosby had owned the estate for some twenty years. So clearly it was the perfect home for the leading Hollywood television producer of the 70s and 80s, right? But what did Aaron and Candy do with their newly acquired masterpiece?
They demolished it!
Thus Spelling supercharged another notorious trend of the 1980s: tear downs and monster houses. Obviously, the Kaufmann-designed “little old house” was too small and plain for the Spelling’s family of four, so the new colossus that rose on the site—pretentiously dubbed “The Manor”—was almost 4 times bigger, at well over 50,000 square feet. Looking more like a gaudy hotel than a home, the vaguely “French”-style monstrosity was shocking even to the denizens of the West Side of Los Angeles, who were normally quite immune to even the tawdriest displays of excess. “Candyland” was the largest and most expensive residence in Los Angeles, though for a while it seemed like something of a white elephant: after Aaron passed away and Candy decided to sell the property, “The Manor” languished on the market for years until it received an “automotive injection.”
That’s right, there’s a car story in all this! Petra Ecclestone, daughter of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone (shown above standing between her father and her mother Slavika—a Serbian supermodel who no doubt married the diminutive multi-billionaire for his looks and charming personality), decided that she needed a little pied-à-terre in L.A.
What better choice for a cozy family home than “The Manor”? So Petra bought the place for a mere $85 million (it had been listed for $150 million) and set about redecorating it for her husband, James Stunt and their two children. Out went all of Candy’s 80s-style decorating excess, to be replaced with 21st Century-style decorating excess. So now, rather than looking like an ostentatious medley of over-the-top Pierre Deux furnishings in a Parisian brothel, the interior of “The Manor” presently looks like an ostentatious medley of over-the-top Christopher Guy furnishings in a tacky London nightclub.
But enough about Petra’s palace, we’re talking Pintos!
And in 1977 Ford was trying to enhance the Pinto’s plebeian bones with some visual enhancements and added features in an attempt to make it feel “new” even though it wasn’t (a bit like Petra’s refresh of “The Manor”).
The September 1976 issue of Road Test Magazine took an advance look at the updated 1977 Pinto. The editors noted the minor appearance changes, with a new sloping grille and headlamp surround plus new bumpers, taillights and an optional “all glass” hatch for the Runabout. Hardly earth shaking stuff, and it certainly couldn’t disguise the aging design, which was entering its 7th model year. Actually, this was a deliberate strategy on Ford’s part—they specifically stated that only “real” enhancements would be added year-by-year to the Pinto, in an attempt to emulate Volkswagen’s strategy with the Beetle. Unlike the VW Bug, however, the Pinto was not known for its robust construction and high quality materials. Oh well, at least it was cheap…
… Or maybe not. Part of the Ford’s Pinto plan for 1977 included adding all sorts of pricey options and packages. The humble economy car could now be tricked out with Décor Packages inside and out, a Sports Rallye Package (including suspension upgrades and a tachometer plus ancillary gauges) as well as those Seventies’ favorites, the half-vinyl top and wire wheel covers. Even loaded with options, Road Test acknowledged that the Pinto was still no Mustang (of course, neither was the Mustang II), but felt that the car was at least more fun-to-drive than previous versions.
The editors at Consumer Guide also reviewed the new Pinto for Auto ’77.
Like Road Test, CG also found the Pinto’s minor improvements to be worthwhile. The best features of the car were its economy and simplicity: with the standard 2.3L 2V 4-cylinder and 4-speed manual, the Pinto achieved 26 mpg city/37 mpg highway, putting it ahead of all other U.S. produced small cars in fuel economy, with the exception of the Chevrolet Chevette. In fact, Consumer Guide opined that the Pinto was the best American subcompact available. But that is a loaded statement, for several reasons: 1) the Subcompact Category was narrowly defined by Consumer Guide, which also ranked additional small cars in the booming “Minicar” Category 2) almost all of the imports outranked the Pinto in both the Subcompact and Minicar segments and 3) the primary domestic subcompact competitors were the Gremlin and Vega—so a very low bar! In Consumer Guide Auto Test 1977, the following charts were included for both the Subcompact and Minicar category:
When looking at the comparison tables, suddenly the Pinto didn’t really look so good after all. The majority of imported products outranked the Ford (only the ancient VW Beetle and quirky Subaru GL ranked a bit lower than the Ford), and the new Minicar segment offered more efficient/economical products like the VW Rabbit and Honda Civic. An old design from 1971 was really pretty stale by 1977, though at least it offered proven mechanicals and a low base price.
For FoMoCo and Charlie’s Angels, however, there would be no imports (Ford’s German Fiesta never made the cut to become an Angel’s wheels). So, the 1977 Pinto was assigned as Sabrina Duncan’s company car. After all, since Sabrina was positioned as the “smart” Angel, then it was logical for her to drive the “thrifty but stylish” Runabout. Was that a good thing for Sabrina? How did she fare in the company car derby when compared to Jill Munroe and Kelly Garrett with their Mustang IIs?
Well, maybe Sabrina didn’t fare as badly as you would have thought. According to Consumer Guide in their review of the 1977 Mustang II, Ford’s “sporty” car left a lot to be desired. For starters, the Mustang II base 2.3L 2V 4-cylinder and optional 2.8L 2V V6 were exactly the same engines offered in the Pinto (though the Mustang II could also be ordered with the 5.0L 2V V8). But the Mustang II’s variation of the Pinto platform made the car heavier, and fuel economy suffered—so it was no economy champ. Nor was the Mustang II a performance champ: CG reckoned that the GM sporty coupes (Camaro/Firebird) were far better choices for buyers seeking power and handling.
“Performance” packages like the 2+2 Cobra II (which could be had with any Mustang II engine, including the 4-cylinder!) were far more “show” than “go”—hence the need to add Jill Munroe!
The other Mustang II direction was “luxury” as embodied by the 2-door hardtop with the Ghia Sports Package, featuring a vinyl-landau top, luggage rack, upgraded interior and exterior trim and lacy spoke wheels. So Ms. Garrett simply got a mini-brougham.
How much was ol’ Charlie paying for his Angels’ company cars? Actually, even when loaded up with extras like the cars on the show, the gap between the Pinto and the Mustang II wasn’t as large as you’d expect.
| 1977 Pinto & Mustang II Prices (Adjusted) | |||
| Pinto Runabout | Mustang II Coupe | Mustang II Hatch | |
| Base Price (4-cylinder) | $3,353 ($14,040) | $3,702 ($15,501) | $3,901 ($16,335) |
| 2.8 2V V6 | $282 ($1,181) | $282 ($1,181) | $282 ($1,181) |
| 5.0 2V V8 | N/A | $234 ($980) | $234 ($980) |
| Selectshift Cruise-O-Matic | $248 ($1,038) | $248 ($1,038) | $248 ($1,038) |
| Selectaire Air Conditioner | $437 ($1,830) | $437 ($1,830) | $437 ($1,830) |
| Tinted Glass | $49 ($205) | $49 ($205) | $49 ($205) |
| AM/FM Stereo | $161 ($674) | $161 ($674) | $161 ($674) |
| Power Steering | $125 ($523) | $125 ($523) | $125 ($523) |
| Power Brakes | $57 ($239) | $57 ($239) | $57 ($239) |
| Cobra II Package | N/A | N/A | $514 ($2,152) |
| Ghia + Ghia Sports Group | N/A | $815 ($3,413) | N/A |
| Interior & Exterior Décor Group | $286 ($1,198) | N/A | N/A |
| Sports Rallye Package | $84 ($352) | $101 ($423) | $54 ($226) |
| Half Vinyl Roof | $125 ($523) | std. Ghia | N/A |
| 4-Way Manual Driver Seat | $30 ($126) | $30 ($126) | $30 ($126) |
| Wire Wheel Covers | $112 ($469) | N/A w/ GSG | N/A w/ Cobra II |
| Estimated Price with Key Options | $5,349 ($22,398) | $5,977 ($25,027) | $5,810 ($24,328) |
The tricked-out Pinto rang the register at around $5,349 ($22,398 adjusted) while the tarted-up Mustang IIs were only a bit more, with a loaded V6 Ghia being approximately $5,977 ($25,027 adjusted) and the V8 Cobra II going for about $5,810 ($24,328 adjusted). Of course, for Charlie’s Angels, FoMoCo was paying the bills to place the cars. Buyers in the real world, spending their own money, typically didn’t spring for quite so much optional equipment on these subcompacts. The average Pinto in 1977 probably sold for closer to $3,900 ($16,330) while the average Mustang II was likely closer to $5,000 ($20,936 adjusted). However, keep in mind the import competition at the time: remember that the Honda Accord with automatic stickered for $4,295 ($17,984 adjusted), the Toyota Celica GT started at $4,599 ($19,257 adjusted) and the Datsun 280Z sold for $6,999 ($29,307 adjusted). Even with added options, accessories and the inevitable dealer price gouging, the Japanese were hard to beat on price, while offering superior features and build quality.
When the 1977 model year came to a close, it was clear that buyers weren’t particularly impressed with either the Pinto or Mustang II, as sales dipped considerably versus 1976. Despite the nose job, Pinto sales tumbled 30%, from 290,132 to 202,546. Trim packages didn’t help the Mustang II either: sales declined 18% from 187,567 to 153,173. As for sales of the models driven by the Angels: Pinto Runabouts, like Sabrina’s, sold 74,234 compared with 29,510 Mustang II Ghias like Kelly’s (Ford did not break-out sales data for Jill’s Cobra II package, though the similar “sporty” Mach I sold a mere 6,719). So for single model sales popularity, if not overall desirability, Sabrina’s Pinto was the champ.
Whatever the debate between the Pinto and the Mustang II as the vehicle of choice for the Angels, there’s no question that Sabrina’s Light Orange Runabout saw plenty of action. It is seen here with the Angels on a road trip to jail (to solve a case of course!) in the seminal “Angels in Chains.” The episode featured a women’s prison filled with buxom young female inmates, who could toil in the fields or don evening gowns and work at a cathouse run by the warden for the exclusive benefit of prison suppliers. Naturally the Angels saved the day, including rescuing a character player by Kim Basinger (who was at the start of her career). So bad… but so good—Aaron Spelling was clearly strutting his producing powers!
For a boy (me) entering puberty during the run of Charlie’s Angels, the show had a profound impact. I can’t say it did anything to enhance my low opinion of Ford’s small car lineup from the late 1970s. But the series sure helped me appreciate…ahem…other things, making it “must see TV” for me and my buddies.
So as Charles Townsend would say (over the speaker box) at the end of every episode: “Great work Angels! Thanks for a job well done.”
In the early ’80s, I briefly owned one of these, only because I was selling a motorcycle to a friend. He didn’t have cash. But he had his wife’s ’77 4-speed Pinto Pony MPG hatchback to trade.
So I fixed up the Pinto to sell, and wound up making a modest profit over what I would’ve gotten for the bike at the time – helped no doubt by the Pinto’s working air-conditioner!
I never cared for the slope-nose on these, but had it been a wagon, I might’ve kept it – mainly for the AC, which my ’71 Audi wagon lacked.
But the Pony MPG gearing and gutless, emissions-strangled four made it a real penalty-box to drive in hilly Northern Virginia.
At least, when I wasn’t fixing it, my Audi wagon rewarded me with one of the most enjoyable driving vehicles I’ve ever owned.
Happy Motoring, Mark
I owned a 76 Pinto MPG (with automatic transmission) which I sold and then bought a 76 Chevy Nova. The gearing on Pinto MPGs must have been optimized for places like Florida and Texas that are flat as pancakes because my Pinto and my Nova got the same 23 mpg driving around Maryland and Pennsylvania. I had 2-3 tanks where I got into the low 30s. I drove from Maryland to Florida and really “feather-footed” it.
A most entertaining article, thank you, GN. I agree on all points. It all makes me a bit nostalgic for the 70’s. But I’m still wondering how you know what the interior of a Parisian brothel looks like.
We did get the TV show but not the cars though some are here Mustangs and Pintos were never sold here new, Small basic Fords on our market came from the UK In Escort and Cortina form and despite the shortcomings of performance in the Mustang four you really havent seen slow untill you experience a 1300 Cortina or 1100 cc Escort, Pretty girls on that TV show I was a teen when I watched it.
I swear there is no car ever produced who’s looks cannot be ruined by a vinyl roof. Those things were absolutely awful, the nadir of automotive styling.
Charlie’s Angels? I’ve never seen the show. Back in 1976, Erie had five or six ‘adult bookstores’ with coin operated film projectors. If I was in the mood for ‘jiggle’ I certainly wasn’t going to waste my time on the puerile PG-rated Aaron Spelling crap.
In fact, looking down that list, I’m pretty certain I’ve never see an episode of any show that Mr. Spelling produced. To me, Mustang II’s and Pinto’s of the era are products of an equal quality to his television programs.
I’m with you on the tv shows: I have never watched one of these shows except to the extent of being exposed to snippets of them. More than enough.
I’m not totally with you on the vinyl tops, since some of the earlier ones worked reasonably well, but not by the 70s. Or later.
Some cars look better with a vinyl top.
Heres mine
before:
maximum class
and after
this is a more recent pic minus white walls and I removed the fender skirts because of a tire blowout on the road.
The goal is battleship gray with the replacement marine grade black vinyl top I have in my closet.
You might be surprised by some of the tv shows that Aaron Spelling had a hand in. Honey West (the 1st popular female p.i. series), Burke’s Law, and I think there were even 1 or 2 westerns he worked on.
Like you, though, never could watch most of his…crap, as the plot lines were thin a cheap toilet paper.
Can’t say there’s anything really special about the house Spelling tore down. What replaced it is definitely worse though.
Too young to catch the Angels, though I do remember glimpses of Cheryl Ladd when sneaking a peek at Dad’s viewing, and that around then Farah Fawcett had a Majors appended to her name.
Yes, she was married to Lee Majors of “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Fall Guy” fame. “The Fall Guy” was another great show for car lovers because there were always car chases involving the title character’s 4×4 GMC/Chevy truck that he would make fly “General Lee” style! Lots of great 70’s and early 80’s car spotting in those shows!
Didn’t Majors give the eulogy at her funeral?
What I remember is that she passed the same day Michael Jackson did, talk about getting your thunder stolen.
With so little parking. I know someone in my car club whose home maybe around 5000 sq. ft. with two lakes, a swimming pool, and a tennis court but can park almost 100 cars in the gravel lot. Now that is a house!
Just yesterday,I spotted a pinto variant Mercury Bobcat parked in a shopping center with a for sale sign in the window. Same orange color as Kate’s ride but with all of the crappy plastic trim that FoMoCo used to lavish on the upmarket versions of their models. I didn’t bother to stop for a closer look but it did have one powder blue front fender. Any takers out there?
I used to read the Consumer Guide car magazine in the ’70s and ’80s. While not flashy like the big commercial magazines, they always seemed to be more honest about their opinions
I’ve started collecting Consumer Guide Auto issues but they definitely got better in the 1980s. The 1970s issues talk mostly about annual changes and do very little in the way of actually reviewing the cars. From at least 1983 onwards, the article on each car will talk about build quality, performance, handling etc.
I’m a big fan of the Consumer Guide Auto series — they’re full of information and much less biased than other magazines. It’s difficult to find detailed reviews of non-performance and non-luxury cars, so Consumer Guide seems to be an excellent resource for this.
I have quite a few of the Consumer Guide issues, and oddly when I was writing my recent Gran Torino article, I was surprised that Consumer Guide loved the Torino in 1972, but then hated it two years later. An odd example of inconsistency with Consumer Guide, but generally I find their comments and data very helpful.
Excellent article !!!
Everybody around the world loved Farrah.
The King Cobra? Not so much.
They kept using the exact same cars throughout the show´s 5 year run.
Sabrina-ish Pinto on ebay for US $ 6.500 ???
Wasnt a Pinto supposedly nothing but a POS ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1974-Ford-Pinto-2-door-Fastback-/152619697812
Of the cars here…give me a Pinto or Mustang hatch with the base 2.3, 4-speed, air conditioning, not much else. The V6 sucked rocks, the 302 was strangled by emission controls and turned the II into an understeering pig. The Lima four was and is a very good engine.
The Mustang Ghia was hideous.
My 1980 Pinto wagon was a base model with 2.3 Lima and 4-speed manual. How do you justify “very good engine?” Better only than the Vega 2.3 perhaps?
The Lima produced only 89bhp, vibrated like a paint shaker above 3000rpm, was very reluctant to rev, and was not particularly fuel efficient. Mine burned oil at a rate of 1qt per 1000 miles starting at 55, 000 miles.
The Lima may have been the best domestic US four pot at the time, but the difference in refinement when compared to the Honda CVCC in my girlfriend’s car was simply astonishing….there was no comparison…it was apples to caviar.
I am very grateful to the Japanese imports. If it wasn’t for their competition, we would all be driving $40,000 Pintos and Vegas today….
It was used for almost 30 years…and really liked boost!
My first car was a 1980 Ford Fairmont with the 2.3 liter and a 4-speed manual.
I’d say it was rough over 3,000 rpm. However, at 80,000 miles (when I sold it), it was buring about 0.75-1.0 quarts every 3,000 miles or so (between oil changes).
Refinement was lacking, yes. The somewhat tall gearing didn’t help—1st required slipping the clutch (had to replace at 40k miles), and the car would lug below 11 mph in second. And while the car didn’t have a tachometer, it went from a pleasant sound to loud and rough at 20mph in 1st, 60 in 3rd, and 80 in 4th, so I estimate around 3500 rpm, so it wasn’t fun to wind out.
Still, I really liked that car. The “poor man’s Volvo” or “tin can”, it served my family and later me quite well. In that era, we could have done worse–much worse.
I had a ’73 Pinto 2-door that I ordered from the factory (it was my 17th birthday present to myself) with the 2.0 (biggest engine available at the time), 4-speed stick, and an AM radio (supplemented almost immediately with a Clarion 8-track underdash unit and a cartridge-style FM stereo tuner).
Low weight, decent power. Cost me $1950 and a seven-year old Falcon in trade. Only had it a year and a half. In 1980, I got a Pinto wagon involuntarily as a rental. Hideous. Second-worst car I’ve ever rented. Worst was an ’84 Chevette.
As for the Angels, they should have skipped the product placement, put Kate Jackson in a Toyota Celica GT, Jaclyn Smith in a Capri II, and Farrah in a Datsun 280Z.
Of course, if the show had been made 10 years before, they all would have driven convertibles.
I well remember five years earlier that the killer car for running SCCA B-sedan autocross on a budget was a Pinto with the optional 2.0 liter engine and the four speed. Just beef up the suspension a bit, and you had a car that could go up against a BMW 2002 – in that format.
My understanding is that the 2.3 is a better engine than the 2.0, the car was essentially the same, other than added weight primarily from the bumpers.
I know every guy in the 1970s lusted after Farrah, but I always thought Jaclyn Smith was the most beautiful and the most elegant of all the (gorgeous) Angels. Truly a stunning actress.
I remember watching episodes now and then on TV1 (“Television’s Greatest Hits”). Obviously, the show was a bit before my time… I do recall thinking though how odd it was Sabrina was stuck with a Pinto!
Imagine if Chevy or Pontiac had sponsored the show. Farrah in a Camaro or Firebird – maybe an Esprit, because that was the “ladies'” Firebird, Jaclyn in a Nova Rally or Ventura SJ, Kate in a Monza or Sunbird.
Jaclyn sure was the most beautiful of the three angels.
But the athletic Farrah was the one that promised to be the most fun to hang out with.
Or, ahem, to stay in with.
…and do the dishes? Nah…not Farrah.
+2 on Jaclyn, William. She’s still a good looking woman even today.
I was also a teenager when this show first aired. Of the three cars, I have to go with the Cobra II, and would even pick that color combo. My fuzzy 57 year old memory however put Jaclyn Smith in that car. Favorite Car/Favorite Angel.
Personally I though that Sabrina should’ve been put in the all new for ’77 Ford Thunderbird, rather than sticking her with the Pinto, but as GN points out in the article, these are the cars Ford was marketing to younger girls like that at the time.
Oh, and I’m one of the rare Mustang enthusiasts that DOES NOT hate these cars. They were the right car for the times and sold very well. Although that Cobra II was all show and not much go, it was still a cool car for the mid to late 70’s.
In later years, Kate Jackson furthered her financial relationship with FoMoCo by hawking Mercury products. https://youtu.be/xjtULraCEyQ
Before Charlies Angels, Farrah was seen in Lincoln Mercury ads.
Early 90’s, selling the newly redesigned Mercury Grand Marquis? Makes sense, the practical middle aged family men who were the target market probably had fond memories of her from her work on CA, 15 years earlier.
in this scene Kelly is about to run away from her Mustang as its about to explode thanks to a bomb.
If you watch the scene in slow motion you can see that the cheap production company decided to blow up a first series Mustang with fake exterior Mustang II trim.
I read in some place that the producers churned out a whopping US $ 25.000 for the three ladies´ wardrobe (bikinis & crop tops) per episode though…
But they saved a lot of money by not buying bras for the actresses, so it was good.
outstanding
I was 13 in 77 so yeah…Charlie’s Angels was must see TV for me and even then I remember chuckling over the gratuitous Ford product placement (you forgot Bosley’s 77 T-Bird)
and again in another scene
This is going to sound crazy but… I kinda like that Mustang II-ified Mustang.
it DOES sound crazy !
here the stunt woman escapes out of the fake Mustang II
This has to be the only time in history a gen 1 stang was tarted up to resemble a II.
BOOM !
The sad part is…
Now, the 1964 1/2-68 Mustang is worth more, than the rubbish 1974-78 Mustang II…The producers are probably kicking themselves now, for blowing up the wrong car. 🙂
Back then, obviously, it wasn’t the case….Since the Mustang II was the new car in the scene, and 60’s Mustangs we’re plentiful, and just older used cars.
I know it’s just a base 2 door coupe, and not a 428 Cobra Jet Shelby, but still…
The Mustang II, in any iteration is a pile of dog crap. 😛
I would much rather have a II. Simply a better car…the only selling point for the older one (with its primitive chassis, nautical handling, buckboard ride, awful brakes, and wet-noodle structure) is “cute”.
“This has to be the only time in history a gen 1 stang was tarted up to resemble a II.”
Excellent point, Don. But we have to remember that by the mid 70s, original Mustangs were just old beaters driven by high school and college kids. When Charlie’s Angels was driving those fabulous new Fords, the original Mustang was a perfect beater for a flaky second-rate news reporter named Carl Kolchak in The Night Stalker. 🙂 The kind of guy who was so hopelessly out of style that he wore a straw fedora with a seersucker suit.
So awesome!! Thank you for posting these stills!
You think the car is bad, you should see Jaclyn Smith’s stunt double!
OMG, the CC Effect knows no bounds.
In Rich’s QOTD post the other day on “Egregious Car Switcheroos”, I had commented about this very scene! I even cited “this subject was brought up once before” here at CC, and BOOM (pun not intended) here it is!
At the time, I incorrectly identified the wrong angel. I said Jill, having forgotten that my favorite angel character’s name was Kelly. Funny how I forgot the angel’s name, but knew that it was this Mustang II Gia and NOT Jill’s Cobra II.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/cc-cinema-and-qotd-egregious-car-switcheroos-whats-the-worst-one-youve-ever-seen/#comments
Very interesting. I was 10 in 1977, although I didn’t watch the show regularly I was more of a Kate Jackson enthusiast.
I don’t recall any of the product placement but knowing that Sabrina had a Pinto wouldn’t have helped much. ick.
I wonder what the three ladies actually drove in real life? I’ll bet it wasn’t tarted up Mustangs and a Pinto.
Some years ago a realtor in Denver had a raffel for Farrah Fawcett’s personal car. While there was still way to confirm the cars provenence, it was a late 70’s Corvette with the interior and exterior tarted up in the Mustang II style. As a recall, the interior hey who had deep shag carpeting and a car phone!
GN, you’ve done it again! You’ve combined many disparate elements I like independent of one another and churned out another stellar piece. I have Season 1 of “Angels” on DVD, and as soon as I purchase and hook up another (working) DVD player, I’ve got to watch some more.
As for the ’77 Pinto restyle, I still really like it. A few, minor tweaks that you’ve pointed out made the Pinto, in my opinion, look a lot less cheap-looking. I especially liked the all-glass hatch. I remember riding along with Mom in traffic behind these, and her commenting about how “dangerous” one of those would be in a rear-impact collision… Not because of the fuel filler and tank issues, but because of all the shards of glass that would inevitably rain all over the interior of the car.
i was thinking that the Pinto with the all glass hatch would give every criminal the opportunity to check out the cars contents before deciding whether to smash the all glass panel.
And thanks for the Candy and Aaron Spelling photo- you can really see where the Spelling kids good looks come from
And the Mustang II Ghia with Sports package- so bad, so good
The reality is that other than the first year of the Runabout, there isn’t much more glass in the all glass version than the standard version. about 2″ of frame around the top and sides and maybe 3~4″ across the bottom so it was wide enough to put a badge on. Now the first year the glass only covered the top half of the hatch with the lower part being metal so that at a glance the sedan and Runabout looked the same, though most Runabouts if not all had some vertical trim strips that looked like the rub strips on vehicles with a roof rack.
This may be the best thing ever written about the 1977 Pinto. My mother and sister were huge Charlie’s Angels fans, I was not quite there, though Kate Jackson was my pick of the three just as with DougD.
By 1977 the Pinto was really yesterday’s news. With gas prices down and the economy booming, all the action at Ford dealers was from the Granada and the hot new Thunderbird. The Pinto lost me with the 1974 bumpers, which just ruined the car in my eyes, and this 1977 restyle just made me yawn. The imports were really starting to take a bite out of the US companies in this segment, but the US companies all but ignored it, smug with how much more profitable their bigger, more traditional cars were.
That grille always looked like it was warped in 3/4 angle shots as well. I hated it, JP. Then as now.
At least the 77 didn’t have the square headlights and black rubber cornered bumpers that only made it look worse.
This piece is a lot of fun, like a themed Google surf. Esteemed Los Angeles architect, Bing Crosby, road tests, Bernie Eccleston jokes, old bad taste and newer bad taste, money, sex, forbidden childhood tv show: GN, you’ve sure got my attention and so dizzied am I, I think you just sold me a fully optioned Mustang2 Ghia. Some achievement, as surely it has to be close to the nadir of ’70’s US cars for room, proportions, coherence, overhangs, performance, detailing and sheer poor taste. Great article, thankyou.
Ditto all
Well, here´s the car which Farrah drove in her real life up in Bel Air….
That was actually a cover photo, to the box of a model kit for The Farrah Foxy Vette.
Farrah´s clothing displayed much better taste though…
LOL, wow. TV and phone even.
Poor taste or not, pretty impressive for the time.
But at least she drove a manual.
Wonderful story! That house makes the Mustang II Ghiavwith Landau roof look like the pinnacle of refined taste!
As a 17 year old stud in ’77, I may have secretly lusted after all 3 angels, but was way too cool to admit it. With my platform shoes, big bells, wide belt, silk shirt, puka shell necklace and feathered hair I was a strutting testosterone billboa…holy Crap, I WAS an angel!
Tony Manero, is that you? De hair, watch de hair!
It’s a veritable CCC (Curbside Classic Cornucopia)! What a delightful read, that dredged up more than a wistful memory or two. CA wasn’t generally ‘allowed’ viewing at our house (four teen or pre-teen boys).
What caught my eye in the charts above was that the VW Beetle scored higher in braking, handling and steering than the Vega, which, at least for my ’71, were all excellent.
The braking is easy: rear engine cars are by nature excellent brakers, as their rear weight bias makes for better braking balance on all four wheels.
Steering on the VW was always light (as a consequence of its rear engine) and quite direct. Certainly more pleasant than a Vega with manual steering.
Handling? Well, by then the VW had a proper double-jointed IRS and wider track, and it handled quite competently. Essentially a slower 911.
This was a great read. It’s interesting to me though how often the MII Ghia is lambasted here. Yeah, it was a little over-the-top to tart up the already somewhat over-styled Mustang II with all that lipstick, but it was very in step with the times.
I had 2 high school and college aged female cousins who drove new Mustang II Ghias back in ’75-77. 2 of my uncles simultaneously bought their eldest daughters these things, as I suppose they were considered to be what a pretty young girl on an upward trajectory in life was supposed to drive (If she happened to be from a family opposed to imports, that is.) Both were bought in ’75 IIRC, so it was before the Angels were marketing them as such. I don’t think either of them were kept more than 2 years.
My cousin Sherri, who had a silver over silver Ghia with V8 and maroon crushed velour interior (the envy of all her friends, for sure) ended up marrying a recent law school grad and graduated herself…to a ’78 Monte Carlo.
Sue, whose M II was deep green with white half top and white vinyl interior ended up driving a Thunderbird sometime before 1980, although I don’t know the story behind that.
The point is, as GN has very accurately noted, these cars were very right for 5 minutes, but proved to be flashes in the pan, increasingly becoming the butt of jokes by the end of the decade.
A great article, but mostly on how badly the seventies (particularly television and cars) sucked, and Charlie’s Angels is a prime example. Between Aaron Spelling and Fred Silverman (and some might include Norman Leer), well, it was just bad.
I did enjoyed some others 1970s series like CHiPs, Bionic Woman, the Incredible Hulk.
And there’s still some Quinn Martin series who was still on the air, Streets of San Francisco was on its last season in 1977 and Barnaby Jones stayed until 1980.
Network TV always sucked as a whole, and still does. As if these Aaron spelling shows are any worse than the 27 iterations of “Chicago _______”. But there were good shows buried in the mix, Columbo instantly comes to mind as truly great television from the 70s.
As I remember it, the ABC network was the place where the lowest common denominator ruled. The shows on NBC and CBS seemed to be of higher quality, though a bit more old fashioned and watched by an older demographic.
Yeah, when Fox came along, new depths for trash tv were reached with stuff like Married With Children. In fact, I always marveled how art imitated life with the great movie Network from 1976 which foreshadowed how bad things would really get.
OTOH, at least there was a mid-seventies A-body Duster (misidentified as a Dart, of course) in Married With Children.
In the 80s, saw Kate Jackson at The Apple Pan in LA, picking up a bag o burgers.
Wasn’t driving a Pinto.
My fav Angel.
Another Kate Jackson fan here – The thinking man’s woman.
This was a superb piece, reaching far from its original premise and made all the better for it. What other way to make a Pinto interesting! The “research” that went into it, only a true aficionado would understand.
Very enjoyable, thank you!
In 1977 my 5-year-old ’72 Pinto was falling apart. I’ll swear the whole car was put together with sheet metal screws.
The ’77 Honda Civic CVCC 5-speed was the new car for me. I never even looked at anything else. Many of my friends got one too. I just adored that car and drove it like the Boston driver maniac I was. Nimble, fast and smooth on the highway in fifth gear. And so well made.
Indeed. I had a 1980 Pinto when my girlfriend (now wife!) drove an ’82 Accord with CVCC. The difference in quality and refinement was absolutely shocking! Hers was the first import car I ever drove…and it was an eye opener! Funny…I drive Asian cars now….
I was 20-21 when that show started and, yeah, I watched it. Kate Jackson was best. About 5 years later, had a series of women friends who drove older Pintos and Mustang II’s. By then, a 8-10 year old Pinto was pretty much an entry used car, if you didn’t want a big gas-guzzler. But at least in my circle of male friends, a 4 speed 2.0 or 2.3 Pinto was considered pretty sporty … Ford’s four cylinder racing heritage (Formula Ford, Sports 2000) rubbed off on these cars, similar to the Datsun 510, better than any Toyota or later Datsun (210, 610, 710), and cheaper than a Rabbit.
I’m not sure I can really thank you, GN, as most of what you covered I avoided like the plague at the time. But it did bring back some memories, for better or for worse.
Collectible Automobile did also once an feature article on the Ford Pinto (as well as the Chevrolet Vega and AMC Gremlin)
My neighbor in the 1980s drove a Mustang II Ghia notchback with the 2.8 V6.
Never in my life had I seen a man suffer so mightily with his car. The god-forsaken Variable Venturi carburetor installed on that thing NEVER worked right. It bucked, it idled poorly, it surged, it stalled, it backfired, and it emitted that awful sulfur-smelling exhaust. Countless dealer trips, constant hassle, and no improvement prompted him to sell it for a steep loss.
He traded it to the Nissan dealer and drove home in lovely new Maxima…which performed flawlessly for the next 10 years.
The Mustang II with the 4 banger wasn’t all sweetness and light, either. A friend of my mother bought one, a fastback with an automatic. It was a snazzy looking car. She let me drive it. It was *the* slowest thing I had ever experienced. A stick certainly would have helped it (a buddy’s 74 MII stick was tolerable). About 1978 she replaced it with a 6 cylinder Granada. All I could think was how she must have wished she had never gotten rid of the 56 Chevy Bel Air she had when I was a little kid.
“[Pinto] It is seen here with the Angels on a road trip to jail (to solve a case of course!) in the seminal “Angels in Chains.” ”
As someone pointed out on the defunct IMDB message boards. “Did the Angels really drive that Pinto 1000 some miles from California to deep South Louisiana “Pine Parish”?
Also, for the show, supposedly they kept the three 1977 cars until 1981 cancellation. Stock footage of them parked in front of the office was used til then,
I always wondered why Ford didn’t want to supply newer Fox Mustangs for the women and even a new Panther LTD for Bosley?
Good question, I think having newer Fox Mustangs as well as Fairmonts, Panther LTD and 1st-gen Escort might had gived the show 2 or 3 more seasons?
Newer cars wouldn’t have saved the show. Ratings were already dropping by the time Farrah left, and Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts appeared.
Actually the ratings even picked up upon Farrahs departure after season 1 thanks to Cherly Ladd. The shows ratings nose dived after Kates departure at the end of season 3.
I knew Cheryl Ladd boosted publicity, *and* she could sing. But the show ‘jumped the shark’ by the time Tanya Roberts appeared.
Ladd had a Top 40 hit in 1978 with ‘Think It Over’.
I think Ford realized soon that no one was tuning in because of the cars. It was all about jiggles, nipples, flipping hair and skimpy bikinis ?
I would guess that the money saved by splicing old footage into scenes would have swamped any perceived benefit of newer cars. And besides, who was looking at the cars? 🙂
I remember seeing the big new Panther Ford LTDs in some episodes in 1979. I was 15 then and really into car spotting so I was eagerly looking for new cars in the shows I watched.
What I got out of this is the Pinto/Mustang II were the Aaron Spelling of cars. Simple structure and a whole lot of tacky/tasteless flash sums up all his shows and the Cobra II in a nutshell.
If you wanna go for tacky / tasteless flesh you Should rather turn to today’s stars. Miley Cyrus anyone?
Note that I said fl*a*sh, I wasn’t taking a dig at the actors.
Not to go off topic, but while some Spelling shows were flash, he did do critically acclaimed fare, like shows “Family” and “Mod Squad”.
Family was awesome. Had a huge crush on Kristy McNichol
These cars (70’s American compacts) are what me and most of my friends drove when I was old enough (mid-late 80’s). Where I lived (rural Wisconsin) imports were kind of thin on the ground to begin with. Everything rusted, but Japanese cars rusted twice as fast. So people looking for a cheap first car tended to get American ones . (To say nothing about having to go to Madison or maybe Eau Claire to get it worked on, the repair shop in my town had a big “NO IMPORTS” sign by the door) Anyway a friend had his mother’s Pinto hand-me-down, I had a Sunbird and another friend had a Mustang 2. The Pinto (4 cyl/4speed)was the fastest of the three, the M2 was next (V6/auto) and mine was the slowest. (Burned out clutch and plugged cat didn’t help it) The Mustang was also broken more often, the poster above talking about the crummy carburetor brought up lots of memories of us fiddling with it to get it to work… Another friend had a series of Asian cars, all scrapped due to rust, not mechanical issues. Man are cars SO much better made these days!
GN, you really know your 70s pop culture. Besides your already well established automotive acumen from that era. Aaron Spelling was to television, what Irwin Allen was to movies. 😉 As the family oriented television of the early to mid 70s was replaced with shows like this. What Gloria Steinem did for feminism, Aaron Spelling did for sexism.
I remember many CBC affiliates in Canada used to show ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Saturday nights at 7pm. Hoping they would draw the mostly men viewership before the legendary ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ aired at 8pm. It wasn’t by chance that Ford of Canada was the major sponsor of HNIC.
I remember ‘Charlie’s Angels’ trading cards were popular at the time. But die cast versions of the Angel’s Mustang IIs or Pinto were never offered. Rather, Corgi sold a ‘Charlie’s Angels’ die cast Chevy Van. And Revell offered a kit ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Chev van as well.
The ‘women in prison’ theme was a genre in itself in the late 70s. I remember CBS promoted the TV movie ‘Nightmare in Badham County’ around this time. Which starred a young Deborah Raffin, and Chuck Connors. As a number of bad movies followed this premise.
What car did the protagonists of the movie drive? A Mustang II.
A few comments:
Pia Zadora did the same thing to Pickfair, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr’s estate. Hollywood loves to plow it’s history asunder. So many lost buildings from the golden age of Hollywood.
The Garden of Allah [ Crescent Heights & Sunset ]: gone, now a parking lot with a bank and a strip mall. Hollywood Cemetery’s wide green space “re-imagined as a strip mall/automotive center that looks like it belongs in an industrial section near the railroad tracks. Schwabs, across from the Garden of Allah gone in place of a multiplex.
Lots of ugly modern stuff going up there now as well.
Interesting that CG ranked the Subaru higher in front seat room over the Gremlin, which was based on a larger compact car. And simply not true. I have a 78 Subaru and a 71 Gremlin and can tell you: not even close. But the back seats were equally miserable. I rode hundreds of miles as a teenager and as an adult in the back of both.
My parents bought a 66 Mercury Montclair four door sedan for $3600. 11 years later that would buy a Pinto.
Iacocca predicted in the early 70s that the cost of regulation would double the price of a Pinto. He was partially correct, but I think the rate of inflation was more of a factor.
GN: the retro reviews are pure gold and the commentary is fantastic. Tying in architecture, TV and automobiles was inspired.
I was wondering where you were going with Spelling. Nicely done, enjoyed reading this.
Sigh…
Yes.
Indeed….
Kate Jackson was my favorite ‘Angel’. I wasn’t a fan of most of Spelling’s TV fluff during their first runs. However today, I catch a rerun every now and then, not only to re-live the tackiness, but also enjoy some nostalgia for simpler times!
The ’77 slope-nose spoiled the Pinto for me more than the 5-mile bumpers, which at least provided some extra protection for the infamous gas-tank.
My ’77 Pony MPG also had the plastic gas-tank shield, but only the standard steel-frame hatch.
The MPG axle gearing made the 4-speed feel like driving a five-speed with no first gear. That was a real pain on hills! I sold it to an elderly woman who lived in flat country on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. She enjoyed the car and it’s air-conditioning, until she passed away several years later.
Happy Motoring, Mark
100 comments so far!
Jill was built for speed, the Mustang II – not so much
The original ’71 Pinto was mediocre, but by ’77 it had put on several hundred more pounds in the name of safety.
Back when Charlie’s Angels was prime time TV, I never really noticed the shit boxes the angels drove, of course, I wasn’t watching it for the automotive eye candy. Kate Jackson was seriously hot.
PINTO: It didn’t change much after the ’77 restyle. My ’80 wagon with the stick and 2.3 was, really, everything the review said it was, upside/downside. Dependable it was and simple and economical to fix. Mileage quite respectable, and it wasn’t the slowest car I ever had—that was the slushbox Gen1 Escort “World Car,” which was scary on on-ramps. I do scout eBay for the late Pinto wagons now and then, and might be tempted…
MUSTANG II: There doesn’t seem to be much love for it, above or pretty much anywhere. My dad had a ’76 that came with the 302 by mistake–surprisingly fast and quick off the line even in stock/automatic form, though obviously front-heavy.
ANGELS: I’m Paul’s age, so I was “aware” of it culturally without probably ever having watched a complete episode. Network TV had definitely started to change, that’s for sure…..
Aaron Spelling had a brief career as an actor in the 1950s before going onto producing. I always thought it was interesting that his first wife was the late actress, Carolyn Jones, who was quite a beauty in the 1950s and 1960s. Carolyn was best known for playing the part of Morticia Addams on “The Addams Family” in the 1960s.
After sensible angel, Sabrina Duncan (Kate Jackson), retired to get married and have a baby, the Charlie’s Angels Ford Pinto was inherited by her replacements, angels Tiffany Welles (Shelley Hack) and then Julie Rogers (Tonya Roberts).
Ford Pintos were driven on TV by characters, Betty Jones (Lee Meriwether), daughter-in-law and secretary of the title character on the detective series “Barnaby Jones” and also by Valene Ewing (Joan Van Ark) during the second season of the prime-time soap “Knots Landing” (which was a spin-off of “Dallas”).
A Ford Pinto was also driven by the character, Kate Columbo (played by Kate Mulgrew), who was later known as Kate Callahan after she divorced her detective husband on the confusing Columbo-spinoff that went by the names of “Mrs. Columbo,” “Kate Columbo,” “Kate the Detective,” and “Kate Loves a Mystery.” Although Peter Falk never appeared on the show, opening credits of the first shows featured Kate’s Pinto parked behind her husband’s Peugoet 403 convertible and featured Kate playing with “Dog,” their pet basset hound.
Finally, no story about Ford Pintos in entertainment would be complete without mentioning the one driven by Donna Trenton (Dee Wallace) in the Steven King thriller, “Cujo.”
Does anyone remember Spellings other big hit show “Family” from 1976?
The mother, played by Sada Thompson, would drag around Pasadena in a Ford Pinto Squire Wagon with plastic wood side panels…
(the images shows the son)
How much easier it must be to strap a Christmas tree to the roof rack of a Pinto wagon than to, say, a RAV4…
Hated that show. What a drippy bunch. But a perfect example of 70s “malaise”.
“Family” those people were as “real” as the Cleavers.
For me, Aaron Spelling’s shows were unwatchable at the time and haven’t improved over the years even on a “time capsule” level.
need I say more?
Anyone else notice the horrible fit of the doors of Road Test’s Pinto ? Awful even for the 70s.
This was most likely a pre-production model.
I actually had a Kate Jackson poster, remember when cheescake posters were all the rage? Of course, she had a turtleneck or a parka in every picture, but she was still beautiful.
I heard that the last generation of Pinto’s turned out to be very reliable, the Post Office bought a bunch and used them for years.
Peggy Bundy had a brown Pinto in Married With Children.
She did? I don’t recall her having a car at all…they just had Al’s “Dodge” (Plymouth Gold Duster).
It was only seen in the garage in one of the early episodes where Al installed the radio from his car in hers and their song – War – came on the radio.
Also, Darlene from Roseanne had a Pinto. It was a hand me down from Roseanne, to Becky and then she got it for her 16th birthday.
My wife and I visited Los Angeles in late 2006. I remember seeing the former Spelling house and thinking it was a hospital or even a museum. Then our tour guide identified it as the Spelling house!
As for the Pinto – my aunt had a sliver 1977 sedan that only had a radio and automatic transmission. The AM radio had the best reception and sound quality of any AM radio I have ever heard.
A friend’s mother had a loaded dark blue 1977 hatchback – V-6, automatic, AM/FM radio, air conditioning, plaid upholstery and the all-glass hatch.
I don’t recall either one as being problematic. The main problem was that, by 1977, the basic design was past its sell-by date, particularly in regards to space efficiency and ease of entry and exit.
The beginning of the end for the brougham epoch?
A homeowner outside Ottawa, Canada, had a regularly driven orange late ’70s Pinto in his driveway, for a number of years. Along with the early ’80s Tercel Wagon. Both, since replaced by a mid ’60s four door Valiant.
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.1031559,-75.9729003,3a,30y,114.84h,80.32t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sz4d9qy0_72CbBh0ytwiA8w!2e0!5s20090601T000000!7i13312!8i6656?authuser=0&entry=ttu
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.1031357,-75.9728623,3a,37.5y,100.23h,82.33t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFsCqKMccW7HUjxFJ8_lVww!2e0!5s20120701T000000!7i13312!8i6656?authuser=0&entry=ttu
I don’t know why anyone would have bought a 1977 Pinto – unless it was for a fleet or just the only possible deal in town. Look at that front end. It looks like it came off another car and then grafted on! There are huge gaps above and below the “new grille”. The shape of the hood isn’t even matched. It is an abomination. The one-piece glass tailgate was lame. What was important was the better ride, fuel efficiency and fewer manufacturing flaws on a seven year old car.
My father had a poop brown 1974 and he kept it on the road for a decade and he fixed it constantly. He is just from another generation of American men who never expected their rides to not have problems. My dad had a heated garage, spotless floors, and tools labeled and in their proper place. Every Saturday, it seemed, he fixed something on one of our cars. So – he replaced the head gasket of that Pinto more than once. A big job.
There was a scene referenced to the Angels traveling to a jail in the Pinto. WHO SAT IN THAT BACK SEAT? Either those actresses were the size of a pre-pubescent girl (which we all knew they had reach puberty) – or someone was paid battle-pay for using one of those Pinto rear butt-cups. Pintos didn’t even have a flat rear seat – Ford thought it was cool to turn them into mini-bucket seats the size of cat-boxes, scrunched down between the transmission hump and the side of the rear fenders. With your knees up around your ears, you felt like Morris the Cat using his litter box.
That Pinto probably had more rear seat room than my ’23 Camaro.
I worked for Hertz in ’77 and ’78 as a transporter, but I never drove a Pinto nor Mustang II (for that matter, no Maverick in ’77).
I was an undergraduate those years, and also drove a boring car (’74 Datsun 710 sedan). Wasn’t exciting, but it was perfect at the time, pretty reliable (only failed to start during the blizzard of ’78 despite being parked outdoors in Vermont) and was easy to work on, despite being an import it was still an old school kind of car, much of my experience working on cars came from working on it. Plus it was slow, didn’t have good winter traction (light RWD car) so just keeping it on the road was enough of a challenge, didn’t need many HP when your tires were the limiting factor for much of the year.
Wasn’t really interested in a Pinto or even a Mustang II, but did get to drive a Pinto once, when staying with my Grandparents a couple weeks in 1975 (we never lived close to either set of Grandparents). One of my Grandmother’s brothers had a cottage on the Susquehanna, and we were invited to spend the day with them. Her sister-in-law had a Pinto, and for some reason they wanted to have someone go to a nearby farm to buy some unpasturized milk. I’d just gotten my license the year before, and I took their son (who was actually a year or so younger than I) since he knew where it was..The Pinto was an automatic, it drove OK, hard to evaluate on a short trip, but you sat really low in it, I preferred my Datsun.
Didn’t watch Charlie’s Angels much, during the school year I was pretty busy with my studies and other things. I do remember watching reruns (and I guess some current shows) of the TV show “Emergency” which was more interesting to me…I still sometimes watch episodes on one of the oldie TV stations. Back then we had 1 TV set, which my Dad pretty much controlled what was on when he was home, if it was fall and a Monday night or weekend, it would be football for sure independent of what was on the other channels.
Charlie’s Angels in one of my favorite “junk food” shows, although I much prefer Cheryl Ladd over Farrah, and really dig the orange Pinto. Contrarian tastes!
One of my sisters friends/co workers got a “Mustang II,mpg” in this color “orange’.
Was, as I recall, black inside.
She had it about eight-nine years.
Think it had a garage for the first 5-7 years she owned it.
Where did they all go ? .
Pintos were decent fleet cars that only had front seat users .
-Nate
The “Ford dealer”, in my home town, had an ‘all orange:, Pinto in the center of then showroom round that time.
A blue “Mustang II and a green “Granada” were on either side of it.
Remember a “hulking, red, Tbird” there right before or after. Oh, and a yellow “Maverick”.
H’mm. Why can i picture that window so well??