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This CBS drama, which ran from 1994-2003, follows the adventures of angel Monica. Under the tutelage of supervisor Tess, and with the frequent assistance of Andrew (an angel of death), she's a "caseworker" who goes from place to place to help various people overcome their problems by steering them towards God. Late in the seventh season, a fourth main character, Gloria, is introduced. As she is a newly created angel, she tags along with the others to learn how to help people.
This show has been mocked for its insistently heartwarming, tearjerking nature, but its nine year run is proof it has plenty of fans, and one can't fault its good intentions and wholesomeness. It also defied many stereotypes about religion, having episodes that declared, among other things, that God is perfectly okay with you being gay (and AIDS is most definitely not some sort of punishment), that the trappings of religion are less important than faith itself, and that you're not going to Hell for doing drugs or committing suicide.
This series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: The angels had to face off against these several times, and even occasionally try to redeem them.
- Anvilicious, though whether or not any of these anvils were necessary depends on who you ask.
- Away In A Manger ("An Angel on the Roof")
- Beethoven Was An Alien Spy - The angels being immortal, there are a few episodes that show them in earlier time periods, sometimes helping historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, and Albert Einstein. The stories are often told to present-day assignments to help them through their own problems. For instance, Einstein's struggle with guilt over how his discoveries allowed for the development of the atomic bomb and the destruction of Hiroshima is told to a scientist to dissuade her from cloning a human being. (Only one of these was, in fact, a Christian: Mark Twain was an atheist who mocked religion openly, and Einstein believed God was nothing more than a metaphor for the wonders of the universe. In recent times, some have also raised questions about Lincoln's piety, though he was, in all probability, a Christian.)
- Cassandra Truth - Monica was once institutionalized when she claimed to be an angel, though this was part of her assignment to save another angel who'd suffered a Heroic BSOD.
- Celebrity Star - Many Special Guest stars, whether they appear as themselves or not, have the plot configured around them and/or their talents.
- Christmas Episode - Several, sometimes involving a Christmas Miracle. In the final two seasons, 9/11 figured into the plots of their respective Christmas episodes.
- Clip Show - Several, the first aptly titled "Clipped Wings".
- Creator Breakdown - Used in-story in "Restoration"
 , in which a silent movie director recut his happy Redemption into the grim Damnation after his pregnant wife, the lead actress, died in a botched stunt.
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming - If not in every single episode, then damn near it.
- Cult - The angels save the members of a doomsday cult in one episode.
- Deader Than Disco - This was a Top 10 show at the height of its run, even outdrawing The Simpsons in its Sunday night time slot, but after a schedule switch to Saturdays, the ratings plummeted.
- Drugs Are Bad - Though there were several anti-substance abuse episodes, they tended to avoid the idea that the substances themselves were somehow intrinsically evil... rather, that their use and abuse was often the result of some other problem that needed fixing.
- Evil Counterpart - Kathleen, a fallen angel who faces Monica several times. She returns to the side of God at the end of "Clipped Wings".
- Evil Twin - Monique, a Monica lookalike and "dark angel".
- Executive Meddling - The original concept toed the line between "God Is Evil" and "Humans are just another of God's Wonderful Toys", but CBS fired the creator when he refused to write more idealistic episodes.
- Used in-story in "The Medium and the Message" (a Clip Show): Monica tries to pitch a show about angels to a cynical TV exec and his staff, but they want to change her ideas to something less uplifting and wholesome (for instance, they want to take the idea of an angel of death in more of an action/horror direction).
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven - One episode opened with a monologue by Monica expressing her amusement with human depictions of Heaven such as this.
- Glurge - The whole point of the show.
- God Was My Copilot - In the two-part Grand Finale, Monica serves as a lawyer to defend a destitute man in court, accused of killing all the children in a school by way of an explosion. He turns out to be the Almighty Himself, but Monica doesn't learn this until He's convicted and she vows to protect Him in prison (it's a Secret Test Of Character). He was actually at the school to take all the kids to Heaven.
- Grand Finale
- The Grim Reaper - Andrew, the Angel of Death, who doesn't actually reap people, just helps them along in their journey, and is pretty cheerful as far as Angels of Death go. Since that's his job and angels don't get vacations, his appearance in any episode is a guarantee that somebody's going to die, be exposed to the risk of death, or have to get over someone else's death (and the other angels thus need background data from him). At least he didn't have to do escort duty in every show.
- Actually, in at least one case he did in fact get to act like a regular angel, simply helping a couple with trust issues resolve their bitterness towards each other. Maybe the occasional non-escort assignment is his way of having a vacation.
- And in another episode, he specifically states he's on vacation (going to Paris on holiday). But in the end, he had to work, anyway, when one of the passengers on his flight passed away (it's up in the air whether this was planned or not, as the whole sequence of events started when Monica bungled her own assignment).
- Also, in episodes where he isn't handling anything related to death, it's mentioned that he was a case worker prior to his assignment as Angel of Death, and is using his experience in the field to lend a hand.
- Have A Gay Old Time - The title of the show has inspired many "inappropriate touching" jokes (Family Guy's take might be the best known).
- Heartwarming Orphan - Several are encountered over the course of the series.
- Heroic BSOD - "May Day", an angel who's put herself into the loony bin after she thought she had failed the girl she was guardian over. Turns out God had different plans.
- Monica had one "Netherlands", when viewing a terrorist attack and Gloria's subsequent seeming indifference to it came extremely close to making her lose her faith, and accept a Deal With The Devil. As noted below, this episode wound up hitting a little close to home for many.
- Gloria herself had one, in the aftermath of trying Ecstasy. The resulting "crash" compounded with feelings of guilt for lying to Tess almost led her to allowing herself and her charge to drive over a cliff.
- Hollywood Tone Deaf - Monica is revealed to be this in "Voice of an Angel". She has a hard time fulfilling her assignment to help a young singer (played by Celebrity Star Charlotte Church) because the girl's a bit of a brat yet her voice is so beautiful, making the angel jealous.
- Holy Backlight - Whenever the angels reveal themselves, they get a spotlight shone on them.
- Ill Girl - Several episodes have a dying kid central to the plot, including the 100th episode "Psalm 151", where little Petey is definitely Too Good For This Sinful Earth and the angels have to help him fulfill his list of last wishes, many of which are for others.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged - Assignments occasionally involve people who are physically challenged or autistic/mentally challenged. The trope really lives up to its name with Taylor, an angel with Down's Syndrome (played by Chris Burke, Corky on Life Goes On).
- Isnt It Ironic - Reversed! In "Netherlands", Monica has a crisis of faith and is tempted by Satan to become mortal. At one point, he promises he's there for her by way of the song "No One Is Alone", which is from Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. In the show it's performed by the humbled good guys; here, because Satan's singing it, it's more akin to a Villain Love Song. Note that Satan here is played by Mandy Patinkin, who frequently performs in Sondheim musicals; this may be another example of Celebrity Star in action.
- Jesus Taboo - Christians of all denominations make appearances, and a two-parter deals with the persecution of Chinese believers, but the man himself is never name-dropped until the final episode. This may be in part because the show worked to be inclusive; some episodes specifically focus on Jewish people, and "Fight the Good Fight" is built around an appearance by (Muslim) Muhammad Ali.
- Littlest Cancer Patient
- Magical Negro - Tess.
- The Masquerade - Angels pose as humans when they're on assignment, and are otherwise invisible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, dark angels and Satan himself have the same abilities, and they can fool good angels.
- Meganekko - Gloria.
- Moral Of The Story - The angels almost always reveal themselves to give the lesson and reassure everyone that God loves them, no matter how badly they've messed up or been messed up by life.
- Near Death Experience - One episode dealt with a man trying to turn his life around after a particularly terrifying NDE gave him a vision of Hell; others have near-death visions in brief.
- New Media Are Evil - Subverted. "Pandora's Box" has a family threatened by the dangers of online pedophiles and whatnot, but Monica explains at the end that the Internet is not inherently bad and is in fact a gift from God that can and should be used for good.
- Played straight in "Virtual Reality" where violent video games are apparently tools of hatred and of Satan that make children evil bastards with little regard for human life.
- Nice Job Breaking It Hero
- Once An Episode - Each episode ended with a dove appearing somewhere in the area the final scene took place in, usually flying by and cooing.
- Our Angels Are Different - None of the angels in the show have wings, and they are just about indistinguishable from humans until they drop The Masquerade. (At one point Tess was even put on time-out for having a hateful attitude towards Satan, and Monica got one for lying.)
- Recurring Character - Several other angels. Out of the many "assignments" the angels take on, mentally challenged Joey and his brother Wayne show up multiple times after their introduction in Season One, and appear in the Grand Finale.
- Rousseau Was Right - One of the repeated themes was that humans are born with a great capacity for love, forgiveness, mercy, and charity, and simply need to be reminded of it occasionally.
- Satan - Several appearances, each time in a different form. In the Grand Finale, he's the prosecuting lawyer at the trial, and was actually responsible for the death of the kids — he tricked Joey into setting the boiler in the school basement too high, and that's how the explosion occured.
- Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism - Firmly on the Idealistic side.
- Spin Off - Promised Land, the further adventures of one of the families the angels helped.
- Spiritual Successor - Seen by many as the spiritual successor to the earlier Highway To Heaven
- Straw Vulcan - Gloria several times came close to being this, especially in her first full episode, as she's brand new and it's explained that her brain works like a computer. (She's the first angel created in the 21st century, and God apparently wanted to try something new.) Her flat, unemotional response to a tragedy, combined with the tragedy itself, gives Monica a Heroic BSOD, and thereafter occasionally infuriates Tess too, but that's actually part of the point... she's there to make them reexamine why they react to certain things the way they do.
- Too Soon - See Unfunny Aneurysm Moment below.
- The Troubles - "Life Before Death" has Monica (who was "born" in Ireland) convincing a group of Protestant and Catholic teens from Northern Ireland to foster peace between themselves and others.
- Unfunny Aneurysm Moment - Monica's crisis of faith and temptation by Satan in "Netherlands" is the direct result of her witnessing a building being destroyed by a bomb, killing many. It aired May 6, 2001, and a repeat had to be pulled from CBS's schedule in the wake of 9/11 later that year.
- Very Special Episode - Quite a few; most notably the Grand Finale, and when Tess gets Alzheimer's.
- Walking The Earth
- What Could Have Been - Bill Cosby was originally going to make a guest appearance as the "Angel of Fun", but this was cancelled when his son Ennis was murdered. He subsequently appeared in two episodes as the Angel of Reconciliation.
- What Year Is This? - Subverted.
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