Not long after its premiere in September of 1994, TV Guide described the ground breaking series TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL as "something so fresh that it catches us completely off-guard, overturns our assumptions and becomes an absolutely unexpected delight." This inspirational show has remained a critical success, while garnering the highest ratings of any drama series on CBS.

Emmy-nominated Roma Downey brings to life Monica, a soft-hearted angel dispatched from Heaven with a special mission: to help people facing sometimes unseen crossroads in their lives. Monica's well-intentioned, innocent enthusiasm often leads to unexpected problems. Fortunately, she receives guidance from Tess, her wise, tough, yet loving supervisor portrayed by Emmy nominated actress/singer Della Reese. John Dye joins the team as the Angel of Death, helping out as a caseworker on some assignments.


This angelic trio provides their Earthly charges with a fresh, inspirational point of view to help them conquer a crisis or, at the very least, gain renewed hope in life. Stellar guest appearances include Bill Cosby, Maya Angelou, Carol Burnett, Randy Travis, Lou Gossett Jr., Richard Gere, U.S. General Colin Powell and Barbara Mandrell.

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As TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, CBS's highest-rated drama series, continues to soar, angels are dispatched from heaven to inspire people who are at a crossroads in their lives, whether they know it or not. Monica (Roma Downey), an angel who at times still needs some guidance with her earthly assignments, reports to Tess (Della Reese), her tough, wise and always loving supervisor. Joining them is Andrew (John Dye), who in addition to his duties as the Angel of Death, now also helps out as a caseworker on various assignments, and Gloria (Valerie Bertinelli), the newest angel. While the angels may not bring answers to every problem, they always deliver a message of hope.

Visual Effects Secrets
Since the first episode of Touched By An Angel in 1994, each and every stunning visual effect was created by our own in-house team at CBS Animation. Each "Touched By An Angel" episode presents unique challenges and may require 2D compositing, morphing, matte paintings, rotoscoping, or 3D Animation. Some effects are utilized in every episode, such as angel glows or compositing flying doves into the beginning and end of each show. All of the episodes require special attention, due to the angelic nature of the show.

Episode 107 "Unsuspected Snow" had a particularly challenging effect at the end of the show. Monica and Tess are finished with their assignment and are walking away from camera, and toward a large chateau. The chateau is then supposed to naturally fade into a beautiful mountain side. The famous dove then flies into the scene and freezes to end the show. The first element needed was the chateau with the actors walking toward it. The next element was the background plate that the chateau would wipe to. Since there was no back plate shot for this element, one would have to be created by using a matte painting. Image processing software was then used to give the organic transition from chateau to mountain side. Finally, the dove was composited into the shot and a shadow was added to give the dove more depth.

In episode 410 "Charades", Monica and Andrew are sitting on top of the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles talking about their next assignment. The difficulty of this shot required special handling by the CBS Animation compositors. The first step was to shoot Roma and John sitting on a portion of a Hollywood sign set piece, against a green screen. The next step was to go to Hollywood and film the real Hollywood sign back plate. The two plates were then blended together for a seamless effect.

The challenge of episode 526 "Godspeed" was directly related to the location of the story - space. For the shot of Monica revealing herself to Josie, the two actresses were shot against green screen on stage. NASA footage of the Earth from space was used for the back plates. The two shots were then composited to create the effect.

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