Many considered a show like Charlie’s Angels to be more fantasy than fact. Of course, very few television shows rely on truth. The reality is, television serves as an escape for many people; an adventure to get away from the normalcy and boredom of their personal lives. Charlie’s Angels offered a peek into the life of someone more glamorous, and no one understood that better than series creator Aaron Spelling.

In his memoir, Aaron Spelling: A Prime-Time Life, the executive producer of Charlie’s Angels revealed that he had framed the Angels to be desired, in more ways than one. While male viewers saw them as romantic prospects, women tuned in to see their outfits.

“Men tuned in to see the girls, and women tuned in for the exact same reason,” wrote Spelling. “Each Angel had eight costume changes per show, and we bought them $20,000 worth of clothes every week. We hired Nolan Miller to design the clothes and give each woman her own look. As soon as a new fashion was out, such as thigh-high suede boots, we made sure the Angels were wearing them. Nolan always said that men watched to see the ladies, and women tuned in to see the clothes. He may have been right.”

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$20,000 is nothing to shake a stick at, and it’s certainly more than the average person spends on their own clothes. However, Spelling maintained that Charlie’s Angels wasn’t aspirational; it was fantastical

“If you really think that three of the most beautiful ladies in the world would work for a guy on the telephone whom they’ve never met, make $500 a week, and wear $5,000 Nolan Miller gowns, then you don’t understand what we were trying to do,” wrote Spelling.