What is Touched By An Angel?

''Touched by an Angel ''
Created by	John Masius Martha Williamson
Starring	Roma Downey Della Reese John Dye Valerie Bertinelli
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	212
Production
Running time	1 hour per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 21, 1994 – April 27, 2003
External links
|/ IMDb profile

Touched by an Angel is an American fantasy drama television series created by John Masius and Martha Williamson that ran on CBS for nine seasons, from September 21, 1994 to April 27, 2003, and aired in many countries all around the world. Regular production was based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The show's premise was based heavily on non-denominational Christian concepts. During its run, it was one of the highest-rated shows on CBS, and acquired a substantial fan base. Since 1998, due to the show's popularity, the show was also featured in reruns in syndication and on ION Television (formerly i: Independent Television and PAX TV), Vision TV and Hallmark Channel. It is currently not airing anywhere nationally in syndication.

Plot

The show usually revolves around a person or group of people who come to a crossroad in their lives, such as a big problem or a tough decision. Then angels enter the scene, bringing messages directly from God and helping people in their problems. Monica, the main angel character, is always learning how to assist humans with their needs and questions.

In the series premiere, bold supervisor Tess (played by Gospel singer and actress Della Reese) guides Monica (played by Roma Downey) on her first assignment as a case worker after being promoted from search and rescue.

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 has been considered the most explicit Gospel message of all the series, as Christians believe it can be applied directly to Jesus. Monica is finally promoted.

Cast

Regular Cast and Character Descriptions

Monica (Roma Downey): Monica is the main character of the show. Sweet and tender, she was promoted from the Search and Rescue department to become a caseworker, with Tess, to help people, delivering them a message of hope from God. She also has a weakness for coffee, especially mocha lattes. Downey's natural accent is Irish. She was born in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Tess (Della Reese): Tess is the second protagonist of the show. She also happened to be 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, and an iguana, from a dying boy, which she tolerates. She is very frank and honest about the truth, and usually tells people what they have to hear, not what they want to hear.

Andrew (John Dye, 1996-2003, seasons 2-9): 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 a caseworker before he was promoted. He still helps the other angels, esp. Monica & Tess, in their casework. He hates being stereotyped as a Grim Reaper.

Gloria (Valerie Bertinelli, 2001-2003, seasons 8-9): 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.

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), the first featured angel of death, too tender-hearted to kill a Thanksgiving turkey, and who makes regular appearances in season one and occasionally later in the series.
• 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 "demoted" for failing in that mission one too many times, and Monica invited her to return to the side of God.
• Chris Burke - Taylor (2 episodes), an angel with apparent Down Syndrome
• Scott Wilkinson - D.A. John Tipton / Surgeon / others (8 episodes)
• Randy Travis - Wayne / Jed Winslow (7 episodes)
• Wynonna Judd - Audrey (3 episodes)

The show featured different guest actors in each episode.

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 (the one with the iguana) 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 second 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.

Trivia

• John Masius's original pilot script was much darker than that which was eventually shown on TV; Tess was portrayed as a chain-smoking angel who was frequently at Monica's throat.
• 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.
• 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".
• Della Reese and Roma Downey each missed only 2 episodes, separately, during the last season; throughout the entire run of the series they appeared in almost every episode together.
• The title of the show was spoofed by Colin Mochrie on an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway?. He introduced a scene by beginning, "We'll be right back to your regularly scheduled show, 'Touched by an Uncle,' in just a moment..."
• The TV show Family Guy had the family watching 'Touched by an Angel' in which a young boy is pointing at the crotch of a doll to show where the angel 'touched' him. The angel then responds by pointing out that he's more credible as he has a halo.
• The FOX sketch comedy show MadTV featured a parody called "Touched by an Atheist", where real-life atheist George Carlin walked into the angel's attempts to save a dying man, and tried to convince the man that God wasn't real. In the end, the angels got into a rift over Roma Downey earning twice as much as Della Reese, and Carlin brought the dying man to his idea of heaven (a topless bar near the airport).

DVD Releases

Paramount Home Entertainment has released the first 4 seasons of Touched by an Angel on DVD for the very first time. Seasons 3 & 4 have been split into 2 volumes because of multiple Promise Land crossovers; with Season 4, Vol 2 being released on December 4, 2007.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date	Additional Information
The Complete 1st Season	13	August 31, 2004
The Complete 2nd Season	22	May 3, 2005
The 3rd Season, Vol 1	16	February 7 2006
The 3rd Season, Vol 2	14	November 28, 2006
The 4th Season, Vol 1	13	March 27, 2007
The 4th Season, Vol 2	13	December 4th, 2007

Special Guest Stars

• Muhammad Ali
• Bruce Altman (as Henry, an Angel of Death in season 2)
• Maya Angelou
• Scott Bairstow
• Daniel Baldwin
• Ed Begley, Jr.
• Jack Black
• Ernest Borgnine
• Tom Bosley
• Chris Burke (as Taylor, an angel with Down syndrome)
• Carol Burnett
• Kirk Cameron
• Nell Carter
• Charlotte Church
• Natalie Cole
• Bill Cosby (the angel of reconciliation, but he has a poor sense of direction)
• Celine Dion
• Kevin Dobson
• Patrick Duffy
• Patty Duke
• Charles Durning
• Kirsten Dunst
• Melissa Gilbert
• Neil Patrick Harris
• Gregory Harrison
• Malcolm-Jamal Warner
• Melissa Joan Hart
• Faith Hill
• Naomi Judd
• Wynonna Judd
• Lainie Kazan
• Stacy Keach
• John de Lancie
• Angela Lansbury
• Cloris Leachman (as Ruth, an angel)
• Tara Lipinski
• Jonathan Lipnicki
• Hudson Leick (as Celeste, an angel new to human form in the season 3 episode 17)
• Patti LuPone
• Louis Mandylor
• David Marciano
• James Marsden (as Jimmy Marsden)
• Rue McClanahan
• Maureen McCormick
• Paul McCrane
• Gerald McRaney (as Russell Greene)
• Keb' Mo' (as Issac, The Angel Of Music)
• Rita Moreno
• Jennifer Morrison
• Joe Morton
• Boy band 'N Sync made an appearance in one episode as an a cappella group of street singers, singing their hit "(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time On You."
• Emily Osment
• Rosa Parks
• Robert Pastorelli
• Mandy Patinkin (as Satan)
• Austin Pendleton
• Wendy Phillips (as Claire Greene)
• Kyla Pratt
• Zachary Quinto
• Phylicia Rashad
• John Ritter
• Doris Roberts
• Alex Rocco
• Marion Ross
• Olesya Rulin
• William Russ
• David Selby (as Abraham Lincoln)
• Charlie Schlatter
• John Richard Schneider (as Satan)
• Ted Shackelford
• Charles Shaughnessy
• David Ogden Stiers (as Satan)
• Brenda Vaccaro (as Al, an angel in season 2)
• Joan Van Ark
• Luther Vandross
• Jessica Walter
• Cindy Williams (as Claire, an angel who lost her memory but regains it)
• Mare Winningham
• Evan Rachel Wood
• CeCe Winans

See also

• Highway to Heaven, an earlier TV series with the same premise.

References

External links

• Touched by an Angel at TV Tome
• Touched.com