Faerie Tale Theatre - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

Discuss Faerie Tale Theatre Here!

[weyrbunny]

So...I am watching Faerie Tale Theatre after discovering the DVDs at the library. I had watched some of them on PBS when I was a little kid, and I remembered loving them because they had that 'fractured fairy tale' aspect and were kinda strange. But, criminy, looking at them now as an adult, I realize that some episodes are nuts! And crackers! And other snack-food-related euphemisms!

 

Some of it can be attributed to 80's TV being less politically correct about race and sex, but other times...at other times Vanessa Redgrave's wicked stepmother in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is talking to the prince, she says something about spending time together, and then leans over, opens her legs and strokes her thigh. That's crossing over from subtext to text. I doubt most kids would notice the innuendo, and it's a fleeting image, but moments like that are all over the series. And I've only watched half of it so far. (Exhibit B: The prince sucking pearls off Bernadette Peter's chest in Sleeping Beauty.)

 

The biggest WTF in Snow White is actually the stepmother's giant, bushy nose-hair, though--seriously, I had to rewind just to make sure that I hadn't imagined it. And now it's an image I wish I could scrub out of my brain.

Edited August 10, 2014 by weyrbunny

[weyrbunny]

Peter Medak is the MVP here, IMO. His episodes seem less hammy, better put together, and there's a noticeable improvement to the acting when he's directing too. (Well, okay, there's still occasional overacting, but less than with other directors, it seems.)

 

For years I knew Medak as the director of Romeo is Bleeding (ultra-violent hard noir) and then Homicide: Life on the Street (gritty cop show), so I experienced cognitive dissonance when I realized that he also directed a batch of these fairy tales. I'm still less surprised that he's directing Hannibal these days, for example.

 

FYI, Medak directed Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Snow Queen, The Emperor's New Clothes and The Dancing Princesses.

[weyrbunny]

FYI, I'm watching these on DVD and they weren't released by season, they were organized into volumes based on theme, so The Dancing Princesses appears on the 'Princess Tales' DVD for example, and the other episodes are elsewhere. I'll guess that you can find the show by season online, on Hulu or somewhere.

 

Anyway, I'm here to talk about The Dancing Princesses, because it's my favorite episode so far. There's a wry wit and the actors manage to sell even the most cliched dialogue. Zelda Rubinstein ("that lady from Sixteen Candles" as I will always know her) as the witch/fairy has great line delivery. Peter Weller is really charming, too. I can't remember the last time I saw him in a comedy...he should do more. Roy Dotrice was also well-cast as the father, and the daughters....well, they're mostly comic relief, but each one gets a moment or two and none of them are cringe-worthy.

 

I also got a kick out of the fact that the princesses all look 30 yrs old. This might be the fault of their costumes, though: puffy, cotillion-esque dresses.

[KFC]

Oh, yes, this was one of my favorites as a child, too. 

 

I remember thinking how cool it was the way the bed turned into a portal to another world, ha. If I recall, wasn't the princesses' age part of the storyline? I recall Peter Weller's character saying to Lesley Ann Warren how "most women your age are already married" so maybe even Shelley knew the cast was a bit long in the tooth to be playing nubile young princesses. 

[KFC]

Snow White was pretty terrifying between the screechy violin music, Vanessa Redgrave as the evil queen, and that ending with her rolling on the floor.

 

Although I have to say the most WTF moment for me was Beauty and the Beast. There were a few scenes with Beast hunting, but that scene where Susan Sarandon opens her bedroom curtains to see Beast shrieking and covered in blood still freaks me out as an adult.

 

On the flip side, some of the innuendo-laden jokes still crack me up. The lines in Cinderella are hilarious. "I wish you would have been there when my stepsisters tied me to the banister..." Especially the way Jennifer Beals sort of dryly mumble-whines the line into her palm is something only an adult could appreciate.

[weyrbunny]

I agree there was a hint of meta about the princess' ages. I also took it as (further) affirmation that the show was probably more for adults than kids.

 

I've since watched Rip Van Winkle and The Little Mermaid. I liked both, though The Dancing Princesses is still my favorite.

 

Rip Van Winkle had a fairly different tone from other episodes--creepy and ghostly--and I'm not sure how faithful it was to the book. There's social commentary on civil rights and voting that struck me as a stab at 80's politics, for example. It was still well-directed by Francis Ford Coppola and Harry Dean Stanton conveyed the right level of sleepy for the role, I guess. It bugged me that the wife was just a one-dimensional nag though, but that part may actually be faithful to the book.

 

And I had totally forgotten that the Little Mermaid dies--it's like the Disney version scrubbed it from my memory. (I think it was the one Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale I never read as a child, too.) How odd also to see a version where the prince chooses (arranged?) political marriage over fantasy love. This was the first time that I'd ever thought about the Little Mermaid story in terms of class warfare, too. Meaning, the mermaid-human differences become an allegory for upper class-lower class intermarriage, which the story ultimately rejects.

 

All of this is going on while the actors are wearing long wigs held up by wires (which you can see) and enduring wind machines to make it look like they're underwater, of course. I guess the mermaid production design options were limited back then, but there's still a "criminy, will you look at that" aspect to the episode.

 

The true star of The Little Mermaid though was, um, Treat Williams' pants. Just sayin'. Also, Helen Mirren has clearly been awesome since the beginning of time.

[weyrbunny]

Although I have to say the most WTF moment for me was Beauty and the Beast. There were a few scenes with Beast hunting, but that scene where Susan Sarandon opens her bedroom curtains to see Beast shrieking and covered in blood still freaks me out as an adult.

I was underwhelmed by this Beauty and the Beast, actually. It seemed enervated or like Beauty's part was underwritten. A stolid, adult Beauty was appropriate for the adaptation of course, but I just kept wishing she was even a little resistant to her family's oppression, for example.

 

It was practically an Ever After audition tape for Angelica Huston, though. The arch mannerisms, the eyebrow acting--yeah, this was where she tried them out first, I think. Huston was fun here but also really overacting. I now consider her Ever After performance toned down, if you can believe it.

[KFC]

Re: The Little Mermaid wind machine. It's so funny you mention that, because I just watched the episode on YT the other night, and it struck me how it's almost part of the charm of this series. Namely the way the sets and visual effects have an almost community playhouse feel to them.

 

Little Mermaid as an allegory for class warfare also makes sense given that Hans Christian Anderson was a devout Christian who had to suppress his homosexuality (it's been documented that he wrote love letters to a younger man, IIRC), so the story takes on an interesting twist with its commentary on forbidden love. 

 

Treat Williams was so beautiful in this. I'm not surprised Pam Dawber fell for him at first sight. ;-)

[KFC]

Speaking of the sisters in Beauty and the Beast, I like how Shelley Duvall cast Nancy Lenehan in this and also in Cinderella as the winking princess. Neither role was particularly big, but Nancy was a lot of fun in both episodes. And I actually, Beauty and the Beast was not one of my favorites, although that might be because it's basically just a condensed version of the Cocteau film.

 

My favorite episode of S3 was definitely Snow White. Vanessa Redgrave was so good at playing vain and creepy as the evil queen, and I adore Vincent Price as the mirror. Elizabeth McGovern was solid as Snow, not too cloying despite the naivete of the character.

[weyrbunny]

I forgot to mention about Beauty & the Beast that I cracked up when someone offscreen clearly threw/pushed geese into the shot.

 

And I enjoyed Snow White, too. Vincent Price rolling his eyes as the magic mirror was kinda perfect. I also liked that they styled Elizabeth McGovern like Disney’s Snow White, just because the rest of the episode was so…naughty. Nice subversion of a classic!

 

[weyrbunny]

Watched a few more...

 

Aladdin & His Wonderful Lamp is most noteworthy because it was directed by Tim Burton between Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice. The bits of macabre humor and some of the quirky, spooky visuals make it easy to see Burton’s influence, I think—it’s more of his “funny, with skeletons.”

 

But I wasn’t charmed by Aladdin, because the production has never seemed more distractingly sloppy. And for all the obvious, quirky humor, it wasn't funny. Well, OK, I laughed at the genie’s “May I scare him?” thanks to James Earl Jones’ line delivery. But that was it.

 

Some of the acting is truly terrible, too. Robert Carradine and Valerie Bertinelli were miscast, I guess: they’re both too jokey and too sincere. James Earl Jones and Leonard Nimoy at least went full-on, over-the-top camp in their performances.

 

It was also distracting that multiple actors were caked in bronzer and glitter to look Middle Eastern. It was the 80’s equivalent of Cheeto-tanning Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia, I guess.

 

I liked that the sultan was massaged by a woman painted/camouflaged to blend in with his chair, at least. It was also nice to see Ray Sharkey. Made me want to look up Wiseguy.

[weyrbunny]

Hansel & Gretel strikes me as the best-written episode that I’ve watched so far. Not my favorite—that’s still The Dancing Princesses. But not once did Hansel & Gretel feel like it was struggling to fill the hour, unlike other episodes have. Scenes make sense for the story also, and the characters even ask logical questions. Not all episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre concern themselves with such things, so the change was nice.

 

Joan Collins was also a great Wicked Stepmother. Her performance makes you realize that the recent trend to humanize and flesh out fairy tale villains—Maleficent, Snow White & the Huntsman, etc.—is rendering the characters bland and just as stereotypical. Collin’s Stepmother is neither. She manages to be human and villainous at the same time seemingly with ease, and more importantly, with personality.

 

The acting is very naturalistic here and not just from Collins. Ricky Schroder and Bridgette Andersen, who play the kids, are really good as well.

 

The ‘White Pidgeon of Doom’ cracked me up, though.

[Actionmage]

I just found this thread! I was going through and inventorying my dvds ( after our not-so-new move) and I have the complete series on dvd! I now have a reason to rewatch!  

 

Christopher Reeve as any Prince was no-brainer territory, imo.  Art Carney and Alan Arkin, as the Conmen, in The Emperor's New Clothes made me laugh almost as much as Taylor Negron's original army of one  and Dick Shawn as the Emperor!

 

To be honest, most of the cast was fun. I wouldn't have thought of Mick Jagger for The Nightingale's Emperor, but he was fine.    There were so many performances I enjoyed, I'd be here all day gushing.

[Actionmage]

I saw all of these episodes except for Puss In Boots and Grimm Party.

 

I especially liked The Three Little Pigs, The Snow Queen and The Emperor's New Clothes. I even owned The Emperor's New Clothes as a single episode on VHS; the single element that got me to pay? Taylor Negron. He was fantastic with little or no dialogue. He always makes me smile in that episode.

 

While The Snow Queen had Melissa Gilbert and Lance Kerwin, I will always forget whoever else was cast because Lee Remick was glorious. 

 

The Three Little Pigs was a dream because it had a killer comic cast; it was appropriately silly and fun. Stephen Furst is also one of my favorite actors, so there's that too.

[KFC]

Vanessa Redgrave was deliciously campy and creepy as the Evil Queen in Snow White. And Vincent Price really had a lot of physicality in his performance out of just his face.

[weyrbunny]

I will forever associate Faerie Tale Theatre with Robin Williams, though he was only in the first episode (The Tale of the Frog Prince). I think the Frog Prince appeared in the opening credits for a while, so that could be why I always think of him.

 

Eric Idle narrated the Frog Prince, BTW. He also appeared in/narrated The Pied Piper of Hamelin in Season 4. 

 

Did anyone else notice Don Swayze as a dancing extra in Cinderella? He's uncredited, but he danced by enough times to be recognizable.

 

I didn't know that Taylor Negron had passed away in January until looking him up just now. That's too bad. 

[Spartan Girl]

The Cinderella episode was good. Jennifer Beals as Cinderella and Matthew Broderick as the prince....yup, this was definitely an 80s show.

[KFC]

Eve Arden was hilarious as the Stepmother, as were Edie McClurg and Jane Alden as Bertha and Arlene. And of course a Southern Fairy Godmother was pretty funny too.

[KFC]

The final scene with Vanessa's screaming and rolling around on the ground used to terrify me as a child. It still does.

[Jeebus Cripes]

On 1/4/2015 at 6:42 PM, weyrbunny said:

It was also distracting that multiple actors were caked in bronzer and glitter to look Middle Eastern. It was the 80’s equivalent of Cheeto-tanning Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia, I guess.

"Cheeto-tanning" is hilarious! This forum makes me want to rewatch all these episodes. I don't remember half of them.

[Jeebus Cripes]

I used to love this show! The stranger the episodes, the better. Also, Jim Henson's The Storyteller was really fantastic. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of this. Part of me wishes they would make fantasy shows like this right now, but all the '80s charm would be lost.

[Rinaldo]

I have to say that I was disappointed with The Snow Queen, because this is a really epic Andersen story -- really almost a mini-novella, with multiple chapters -- and one of the rare ones that doesn't end in misery, death, and damnation. And it's never been properly dramatized. But they didn't even try, barely more than Frozen did (which its authors acknowledge is a brand-new story). Instead, the queen has to be nice-ified just like all former villains these days, and the whole scope and spirit of the story are missing. A lost opportunity.

[bmoore4026]

On 6/24/2015 at 6:42 PM, Spartan Girl said:

The Cinderella episode was good. Jennifer Beals as Cinderella and Matthew Broderick as the prince....yup, this was definitely an 80s show.

Shoulderpads for days and a dress that could survive reentry!  Loved it :D

Also, the Jimmy Webb score is perfection.  It's been in my head ever since I was tiny.

[bmoore4026]

On 11/22/2016 at 0:13 PM, Rinaldo said:

I have to say that I was disappointed with The Snow Queen, because this is a really epic Andersen story -- really almost a mini-novella, with multiple chapters -- and one of the rare ones that doesn't end in misery, death, and damnation. And it's never been properly dramatized. But they didn't even try, barely more than Frozen did (which its authors acknowledge is a brand-new story). Instead, the queen has to be nice-ified just like all former villains these days, and the whole scope and spirit of the story are missing. A lost opportunity.

You're right, it does come across like a novella.  Gerda meets with so many people in trying to find Kay - a bandit girl, an elegant princess, and I think a woman where it's always summer at her home.  Also, the Snow Queen is less a villain and more of a force of nature.  She's there to serve a purpose - those who have been tainted by a shard of The Devil's Mirror cannot live in a Godfearing world, so she takes them to her palace where they must figure out the riddle to be a loving person again.  At least, that's what I take from it.

Anyway, I remember seeing the ending of The Pied Piper of Hamelin a long time ago and remember the little boy Robert Browning is telling the poem to with tears coming down his cheeks and the sad music playing at the end.  Stayed with me to this day.

Never saw The Nightingale episode because the preview of that episode that used to show at the end of Faerie Tale Theater tapes, with Death jumping on top of the emperor and laughing evilly scared the shit of me.  Still does.

[bmoore4026]

Now The Princess Who Never Laughed.  I think that was a plot point in The Golden Goose story.  Which makes me wonder why they just never made a Golden Goose episode.

[Spartan Girl]

The Little Mermaid was the first episode I ever watched. It was also the first time I ever saw a version with the sad ending.

Treat Williams was good looking back in the day, but that doesn't make up for Prince Andrew being such an oblivious dolt. He probably didn't mean to lead Pearl on, and he does deserve credit for trying to let her down gently with his "I love you, but I'm not in love with you" speech, but still, he was kind of patronizing to her. That's how the prince acted in the original HCA story, which has always irked me. Just because she's mute doesn't mean you have to treat her like a child. Kind of a parallel to how some people talk down to people with disabilities.

[Jacqs]

@weyrbunny Bridgette Andersen should have become a star but never did.

[weyrbunny]

I know nothing about Andersen except for Faerie Tale Theatre. I'll have to IMDB her some time.