Touched by an Angel

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Touched by an Angel
Image:Touched_by_an_angel_cast.jpg
Genre Drama
Running time 1 hour per episode
Creator(s) John Masius
Martha Williamson
Starring Roma Downey
Della Reese
John Dye
Valerie Bertinelli
Country of origin United States
Original channel CBS
Original run September 21, 1994–April 27, 2003
No. of episodes 212
IMDb profile

Touched by an Angel was an American television series created by John Masius and Martha Williamson that ran on CBS (Disney Channel and Hallmark Channel in the UK) from September 21, 1994, until April 27, 2003. It shared strong, non-denominational Christian values. During its run, it was one of the highest rated shows on CBS.

Touched by an Angel spawned a spin-off, Promised Land. Like some other dramas in the past with concurrent spin-offs, sometimes an episode begun on "Angel" was concluded less than a week later on "Promised Land".

Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] Regular Cast and Character Descriptions

Monica (Roma Downey): Monica is the main character of the show. Sweet and tender, this angel was promoted from the Search and Rescue department to become a case worker, to help people, delivering them a message of hope from God. Downey's natural accent is Irish. She was born in Derry, Northern Ireland. She once also had a demon taking the same human form as her in a casino episode who called herself Monique to confuse Monica's current assignment. Monique returned later, posing again as Monica in an attempt to sabotage Gloria's assignment. Previous to Search and Rescue, Monica was in annunciations and, like all angels, spent at least some time in the choir in Heaven. However, she does not seem to have a good singing voice, something Monica bemoans more than once. Monica's biggest weakness is coffee, especially mocha lattes.

Tess (Della Reese): Tess is Monica's angelic supervisor. Sometimes tough but always compassionate, she would eventually brighten everyone's spirits by singing with her melodic voice. A car and a dog were both given to her, both of which she values dearly. She is very frank and honest about her feelings, sometimes to a brutal extent.

Andrew (John Dye): Andrew became an all-episode character in the third season. He is an Angel of Death, that is, one of the angels that takes people who die to their eternal fate, heaven or hell. Andrew was also a full case worker until he failed to convert Abraham Lincoln's killers. He still helps the other angels in their case work. He hates being stereotyped as a Grim Reaper.

Gloria (Valerie Bertinelli): Gloria is an inexperienced angel, because she was created by God during one of Monica's assignments (in the seventh season). But she's highly intelligent and constantly learns new things, like human strength and weakness. She's good with technology, as well. Although initially shy, she adds a lot of humor to the show.

[edit] Occasional Cast

  • Sam Dalton - Stage Manager
  • Alexis Cruz - Rafael (16 episodes), one of the "specialty angels" called in from time to time
  • Paul Winfield - Sam (13 episodes), a senior supervisor at a rank above Tess
  • Charles Rocket - Adam (10 episodes), another angel currently serving as an angel of death, and who makes regular appearances in season one and occasionally later in the series run.
  • Jasmine Guy - Kathleen, Monica's arch-nemesis, an angel and former cohort of Monica's who had turned to the side of the Devil. Kathleen's assignments usually involved trying to somehow derail Monica's assignments, but although she came dangerously close to succeeding more than once, Monica always triumphed in the end. Eventually Kathleen was "fired" for failing in her mission one too many times, and Monica invited her to return to the side of God.
  • Scott Wilkinson - D.A. John Tipton / Surgeon / others (8 episodes)
  • Randy Travis - Wayne / Jed Winslow (7 episodes)

The show featured different guest actors in every single episode.

[edit] Special Guest Stars

[edit] Series Premiere

Tess guides Monica on her first assignment as a case worker after being promoted from search and rescue.

[edit] Series Finale

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The series finale shows Monica, who is up for promotion, defending Zack, an innocent drifter accused of blowing up a school full of children. The prosecutor is actually the Devil, played by David Ogden Stiers. Despite Monica's best efforts, Zack is convicted.

Visiting him in the prison, Monica offers herself to be his guardian angel for the rest of his life, protecting him from the dangers of the federal prison.

Later the citizens find out the truth: it was the prosecutor who blew up the school and framed Zack. Monica makes the citizens see that there's still hope to rebuild the life in the town and helps them to free themselves of the anger.

Before Zack can be sent to jail, however, he disappears. Monica then finds out that Zack was actually God. Defending Him was a test, and she succeeds: according to His words, "There's no greater love than to give your life away for someone else." This is a strong and powerful Gospel message. Monica is finally promoted.

[edit] Music

As the show's resident songbird, Della Reese performed the theme song to Touched By An Angel, "Walk With You."

When you walk down the road
Heavy burden, heavy load
I will rise, and I will walk with you
I'll walk with you till the sun don't even shine
Walk with you, every time
I'll tell ya, I'll walk with you
Believe me, I'll walk with you

A full-length version of "Walk With You," recorded with the Verity All-Stars, was included on the show's soundtrack album, which was released in November 1998 and went platinum. The album came out on the heels of the episode Psalm 151, broadcast November 15, 1998, which starred Wynonna Judd as the mother of a terminally ill boy and featured a guest performance by Celine Dion of "Love Can Move Mountains" (the boy's best friend, played by Mika Boorem, was a huge fan of Dion's and even nicknamed herself Celine). Dion recorded a new version of "Love Can Move Mountains" (originally a #36 Pop hit in 1993 from her self-titled sophomore English album) with gospel group God's Property for the soundtrack. The song Wynonna's character performed at the end of the episode, "Testify To Love," was also featured on the soundtrack album, as was Wynonna's cover of Whitney Houston's "You Were Loved" (from Houston's movie The Preacher's Wife). "Testify To Love" was also a Contemporary Christian radio hit for the group Avalon.

The soundtrack album was comprised of other songs featured on the show that season, including tracks by Shawn Colvin, Bob Dylan, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Amy Grant, and Jaci Velasquez. One other track from the album, "Somebody's Out There Watching," was a moderate country hit for The Kinleys, and Amanda Marshall's "Believe In You" was a hit on Canadian adult contemporary radio.

[edit] Trivia

  • The show was cancelled during its first season. It was brought back the next year after the fans staged a letter-writing campaign and went on to make eight more seasons before ending in 2003.
  • John Masius's original pilot script was much darker than that which was eventually shown on TV (In the original pilot, Tess was a chain-smoking angel who was frequently at Monica's throat.)
  • Regular production for the show was based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
  • Early posters for the 1999 comedy film Dogma featured the tagline "Get 'touched' by an angel". CBS took legal action to force Lions Gate Films to change the tagline.
  • In Family Guy, in one episode the show is parodied with the 'Angel' being charged in court for "touching" a boy sexually. The prosecutor asks the little boy where exactly the angel touched him, to which the angel's response is "Who you gonna believe? I've got a freakin' halo for God's sake!"

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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