Touched by an Angel was a show that touched many people, including churchgoers and non-believers alike. Using a light-hearted, relatable cast, the show tackled plenty of issues that were happening around the world.
The series followed Tess (Della Reese), Monica (Roma Downey), and Andrew (John Dye), three angels sent from Heaven to help people, causing them to think about their actions, and eventually save their souls before shuffling off the mortal coil. Since the show was based in a religious light, there proved to be much to talk about behind the camera. Here are ten bits of behind-the-scenes facts that you may not have known.
Guest Stars A-Plenty
Like most serialized shows, Touched by an Angel took the episodic approach to storytelling. Each episode, save for a few multi-part stories, focused on a different character that needed to be saved. More often than not, these characters were played by well-known and established actors, activists, and artists, with guests like Rosa Parks, Gavin MacLeod, Maya Angelou, and Thora Birch.
While a fair amount of the guest cast were already big names, many more were guests just before launching into major careers. James Marsden and Jack Black appeared in an episode alongside a pre-Sabrina Melissa Joan Hart. A pre-Even Stevens Shia LaBeouf appeared as an angry kid on Halloween, and a very young Brie Larson portrayed a member of a cult.
Utah’s Set Paradise
While most television shows are filmed are usually filmed in Vancouver, Los Angeles or New York, that wasn’t the case back in the late ’90s. Touched by an Angel was filmed in Salt Lake City, Utah for its whole run. It was eventually called home by several of the cast members.
Through extensive set design, the location was turned into many places for that week’s story, including Tiananmen Square in a story set during the uprising. One of the main reasons for choosing the filming location was that the overall religious vibe of the show mixed well with the perceived religious attitudes of Salt Lake City.
Touched By God
From the start of the show, it seemed like divine intervention was coming in at all ends. The main cast had all been involved in religion in some way, but over the course of their lives, some had stopped believing in the teachings of Christ.
Both Della Reese and Roma Downey are notable examples, as they were born again Christians. This did make an impact on both actors, as the characters they played were also coined as born again before ascending. Della especially believed God was behind the show in some way. While she had been a believer for some time, she has stated that some force drew her to the show after a horrible initial experience.
Cancelled
As the series ended its first season, fans were surprised to find that the show had actually been cancelled by the network. The first season pulled in 8.9 million viewers, but that wasn’t enough. There were many reasons for the cancellation and the show itself wasn’t responsible for many of them; it was CBS.
Thanks to poor planning, the show was rescheduled in three different time slots: Wednesdays at 9 pm for the first eight episodes, then Sunday at 8 pm for Episode 9, then Saturday at 9 pm for the final two episodes. That many time shifts to a show today typically leads to a cancellation, so it isn’t surprising that Touched by an Angel almost didn’t make it. The only reason the show kept going was the fan outcry to the network, sending letters asking for the show not to be cancelled.
Controversy That Never Happened
A lot of events did take place during the filming of the show, but one of the major controversies of the show actually never happened. A letter, seemingly written by well-known atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, was shot around in emails. The letter was a demand for the end of religious television programs on public broadcasts. However, this turned out to be a hoax, as O'Hair passed away shortly after the show aired.
Spin-off
In 1996, shortly after the end of the second season, a spin-off series called Promised Land began airing. The series followed the Greene family, recurring characters on Touched by Angel, as they set off across the country to do a human version of saving people. The series was set as a more human story to be relatable to the average person watching.
Though there were some issues with casting, with some previous guest stars not coming back for the starring roles in the spin-off, there were several actors who joined the project to boost the viewership. Most notable was the addition of Last Action Hero and My Girl 2 star Austin O’Brien as son Josh Greene. The series lasted for 3 seasons.
Original Pilot
The version of Touched By An Angel we have now is a sweet, emotional take on what a perceived angel is. The sad thing is that wasn’t how the original show was pitched. In countless interviews, executive producer Martha Williamson, Della Reese, and Roma Downey have expressed a dislike toward the unaired pilot. Reese even stated in one interview that the pilot cost $2 million to make, only to be scrapped.
The original pilot was meaner and darker than the show turned out to be. Reese’s Tess was a chain smoker who originally died from lung cancer and continued smoking because she couldn’t die again, while Downey’s Monica owed Tess money.
Martha Williamson’s Intervention
Speaking of Martha Williamson, there were huge changes that she made to the show to get it going properly. A devout Christian, Williamson was brought onto the project after the shooting of the original pilot. During a meeting about the show, she expressed her discomfort with the portrayal of angels.
At the time, she was in talks to produce a medical drama, a lucrative deal at the time, but after watching the pilot she couldn’t stop thinking about the show. When she signed on, the series was shifted to focus on Tess and Monica as the main, good characters, unlike the original pilot..
Roma and Della
There are plenty of shows that have horror stories behind the scenes, where the cast just cannot get along off-camera. Luckily, Touched by an Angel is not one of these shows; in fact, it was just the opposite. After their first meeting, Roma Downey and Della Reese hit it off, becoming almost instant friends. For both, they became closer than family as time went on.
Reese stepped into a motherly role for Downey, who had lost her own mother at the age of 10. Working alongside Reese made a difference in her life, even leading Downey to call Reese her mother at times. Downey also named Reese her child’s godmother as a sign of respect.
Della’s Power
In both emotional power, like with her kinship with Roma Downey, and star power, Della Reese was essentially the backbone of the show. For starters, instead of hiring another artist, the well-known gospel singer took on the show’s theme song.
She frequently acted as the head of the cast in terms of compensation. Just before the fourth season began filming, she took the initiative to publicly demand a deserved higher pay from Martha Williamson and CBS; otherwise, she would leave. CBS folded and gave her an increase, though she was still paid less than Downey. Even though she suffered several medical issues, including a collapse on set in 2002 that led to her diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, Reese continued performing until she passed in 2017.