From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Touched by an Angel
Genre	Drama
Creator(s)	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
Links
IMDb profile

Touched by an Angel was an American drama television series created by John Masius and Martha Williamson that ran on CBS for nine seasons, from September 21st, 1994 to April 27th, 2003, and aired in many countries all around the world. Its 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 on ION Television (formerly i: Independent Television and PAX TV) and Hallmark Channel.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 2.1 Regular Cast and Character Descriptions 2.2 Occasional Cast 3 Music 4 Reactions 5 Trivia 6 DVD Releases 7 Special Guest Stars 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

The show usually revolves around a person or group of people that stumble upon a crossroad in their lives, like 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 in their needs and questions.

In the series premiere, Tess (played by actress and singer Della Reese) guides Monica (played by an unrecognizable Irish actress 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 it can be applied directly to Jesus Christ. Monica is finally promoted.

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, 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. 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 also a full caseworker until he failed to convert Abraham Lincoln's killers. He still helps the other angels 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.

• 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.

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.

There has been a lot of talk about the show, both praising and criticizing the premise. Some people have classified it as 'the best inspirational series' ever, and it actually did build a large fan base. Christians especially had the show in high account, as it shared many biblical elements.

Christians as well, however, noticed a few questionable elements. The most prominent of these is the lack of Jesus Christ, who is mentioned extremely rarely, and there has been complaining about 'people dying and going to heaven without Christ'. However, His words (as recorded by the 'Bible') get quoted many times, and the show doesn't specifically say dying people aren't converted to Christianity. In fact, it leaves space for interpretation. The episodes that are more 'Christian' in this sense are the Christmas specials and the ones from the last season, especially the series finale. The executive producer also cites in the show's official website that she promised never to mention Jesus Christ until the end to reach a wider Christian audience.^{[citation needed]}; in the series finale, God ^[1] finally makes an appearance.

Contrary to many spiritually-oriented shows, many themes have been directed with an orthodox Biblical approach, for instance: hell, homosexuality, pre-marital sex, racism, creationism and intelligent design, among others.

There has also been a bit of doubt about the portrayal of the angels. They are shown sometimes in a very human-like way; they make mistakes and are always learning, and there are times like when Monica sings terribly and gets drunk. However, it has also been noted that, although these is not the exact representation of angels as according to the Bible, a show with perfect characters would be very boring to watch, because of the absence of conflict and emotions. Therefore the writers took some creative liberties to portray the angelic messengers.

• 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.
• 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".
• This show was parodied in the Family Guy episode "Ready, Willing, and Disabled".

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 with Season 4, Vol 1 being released on March, 27 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

• 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 who appears to have Down syndrome)
• Carol Burnett
• Kirk Cameron
• 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
• Neil Patrick Harris
• 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)
• Maureen McCormick
• 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
• Robert Pastorelli
• Mandy Patinkin (as Satan)
• Austin Pendleton
• Kyla Pratt
• Phylicia Rashad
• John Ritter
• Doris Roberts
• Alex Rocco
• Marion Ross
• David Selby
• 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 regained it again)
• Mare Winningham
• Evan Rachel Wood

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

• Touched by an Angel at the Internet Movie Database
• Touched by an Angel at TV Tome
• Touched.com