Well, I'll be! Joining the ranks of Pernell Roberts in the category of "Actors who say derisive things about the show they're on," Shelley Hack was actually probably more in tune with the rest of the country. Sure, America was in love with Charlie's Angels. But were viewers there expecting award-winning screenwriting? Probably not. It was the series as a whole that folks responded to. The actors, the characters, the setting, the style, the action... These things are what drew the audience in. 

Someone who understood her assignment immediately was Shelley Hack, who played Tiffany Welles in the fourth season of Charlie's Angels in 1979. She was a supermodel, hawking perfume and showing up in just two movies before her big TV break. However, she knew enough about the business to understand her new role for what it was. Nobody was expecting Shakespeare.

"The series is a piece of fluff," Hack told The Roanoke Times in '79, "but it's a good piece of fluff. Nobody is saying Charlie's Angels is Dostoyevsky. However, I read Dostoyevsky. I also read Agatha Christie." 

We're not sure if this is meant to disparage Christie's murder mysteries, but we can all agree on her earlier sentiment. Charlie's Angels was a lot of things. 19th-century Russian literature it was not.

Hollywood has changed. There's no big studio system anymore, no corporate structure to give you exposure and continuous work. The way to do it now is to be on television, in a series. I'm even going one better: I'm in a HIT series. I'm not waiting around for the axe to fall."

Hack's only other recurring TV role was in 16 episodes of Jack and Mike. She was also in the horror-fantasy movie Troll.

"Fame could make you an eccentric," Hack declared in '79.

"Everybody has quirks. If, say, you like Heath bars, and you get famous, you find Heath bars at your breakfast table. People will cater to your quirks. So, without realizing it, you could start cultivating quirks you would not otherwise have had. And pretty soon, you would be a full-blown eccentric."

Hack hasn't acted since 1997, but has notably served as executive producer on a series of well-received Hallmark made-for-TV Christmas movies!