Faerie Tale Theatre

Faerie Tale Theatre
The 6-DVD Starmaker II box set cover
Also known as	Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre
Genre	Anthology Fairytale fantasy
Created by	Shelley Duvall
Presented by	Shelley Duvall
Starring	see below
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	27 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Shelley Duvall for Gaylord Production Company, Lions Gate Films and Platypus Productions Frederic E. Fuchs
Running time	39–58 minutes
Production companies	Gaylord Production Company Lion's Gate Films
Release
Original network	Showtime
Original release	September 11, 1982 (1982-09-11) – November 14, 1987 (1987-11-14)
Chronology
Followed by	Tall Tales & Legends Nightmare Classics Bedtime Stories
Related shows	Shirley Temple's Storybook Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child

Faerie Tale Theatre (also known as Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre) is an American live-action fairytale fantasy anthology television series of 27 episodes, that originally aired on Showtime from September 11, 1982 until November 14, 1987. It is a retelling of 25 fairy tales, particularly those by The Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and Hans Christian Andersen, plus the poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin". Shelley Duvall is the series creator, host, executive producer alongside Bridget Terry and Frederic E. Fuchs, occasional star and narrator, and voice of the animatronic Nightingale. Episodes, which featured numerous Hollywood stars in character roles, were directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Ivan Passer, Emile Ardolino and Tim Burton, among others. It is one of the first examples of cable original programming, alongside HBO's Fraggle Rock.^[1]

The series was followed by three other less successful shorter anthologies produced by Duvall: Tall Tales & Legends (9 episodes), which follows the same format as Faerie Tale Theatre and focuses on classic American folk tales, Nightmare Classics (4 episodes produced of the intended 6), aimed at a young adult audience, and Bedtime Stories (12 episodes).

Background[]

Shelley Duvall began conception of Faerie Tale Theatre while filming the live-action 1980 film Popeye in Malta. She reportedly asked her co-star, Robin Williams, his opinion on "The Frog Prince", a fairy tale she was reading during production.^[2] Williams thought it was funny and would later star in the namesake pilot episode of the series, written, narrated and directed by Monty Python's Eric Idle, who himself would appear in the future episode "The Pied Piper of Hamelin". Many of the episodes produced by Fred Fuchs in association with Duvall, were written by Rod Ash, Mark Curtiss, Maryedith Burrell and Robert C. Jones. All of the episodes were produced and shot from 1982 to 1985 and videotaped mostly at the ABC Television Studios in Hollywood, California.

Every episode opened with Duvall introducing herself and giving a brief synopsis of the fairy tale to follow. Each episode features live-action adaptations, with celebrities from the performance world in costume. Duvall features in three episodes playing various characters and narrates three others.

Episodes[]

Artwork[]

Many episodes feature backdrops and settings inspired by specific artists and children's book illustrators,^[3] including Maxfield Parrish ("The Frog Prince"), Norman Rockwell ("Goldilocks and the Three Bears"), Arthur Rackham ("Hansel and Gretel"), Edmund Dulac ("The Nightingale"), Aubrey Beardsley and Harry Clarke ("The Princess and the Pea") Gustav Klimt ("Rapunzel"), N. C. Wyeth ("Rumpelstiltskin", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"), Kay Nielsen ("Sleeping Beauty"), Brueghel and Dürer ("The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers"), Jennie Harbour ("Little Red Riding Hood"), and George Cruikshank ("Thumbelina"), as well as filmmakers, such as Jean Cocteau ("Beauty and the Beast").

Home media[]

Faerie Tale Theatre was released on VHS, Betamax, CED, and Laserdisc in the 1980s through mid 1990s, initially by CBS/FOX Video, followed by Playhouse Video (an extended label under CBS/FOX), and later Razz Ma Tazz Entertainment/Cabin Fever Entertainment. While in the UK it was released by MGM-UA Home Video

Starmaker II held the rights to the series from 2004 to 2006, and at first released 26 episodes as individual DVDs.^[4] This was followed by a double-sided 4-disc box set and then a 6-disc box set, each version containing the same 26 episodes. The "Greatest Moments" episode was not included in this release.

After 2006, Koch Vision held the series' distribution rights, and in November 2006 licensed the rights worldwide (excluding DVDs in North America) to the British company 3DD Entertainment.^[5][6] A new remastered 7-disc box set, including the lost "Greatest Moments" episode, was released by Koch Vision on September 2, 2008.^[7] In 2009, Koch Vision released the episodes by theme on six DVD compilations: Tales from the Brothers Grimm ("Hansel and Gretel", "Rapunzel", "Rumpelstiltskin", and "Little Red Riding Hood"), Funny Tales ("The Tale of The Frog Prince", "Pinocchio", "The Three Little Pigs" and "The Princess Who Had Never Laughed"), Tales from Hans Christian Andersen ("The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Nightingale", "The Snow Queen" and "Thumbelina"), Princess Tales ("Cinderella", "The Little Mermaid", "The Dancing Princesses" and "The Princess and the Pea"), Magical Tales ("Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp", "Beauty and the Beast", "Puss in Boots" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs") and Bedtime Tales ("Jack and the Beanstalk", "Sleeping Beauty", "Rip Van Winkle" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears").^[8]

When released on DVD by Starmaker II and Koch Vision, the following scenes were cut from the series:^{[citation needed]}

• "Goldilocks and the Three Bears": Papa Bear and Mama Bear trying to fix Cubby Bear's chair; the Charades scene is shortened.
• "The Pied Piper of Hamelin": Julius Caesar Rat's monologue.
• "Rumpelstiltskin": the Miller's daughter singing with the animals in the forest (this scene was also unavailable on the VHS releases)^{[citation needed]}

Awards[]

Faerie Tale Theatre won a Peabody Award, a TCA Award, and a Golden CableACE Award. It later aired as edited re-runs on the Disney Channel^[9] as well as in syndication on various television stations,^[10] including PBS^[11][12] and BookTelevision.^[13]

See also[]

• Cannon Movie Tales
• Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme
• Shirley Temple's Storybook
• Tall Tales & Legends
• Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child

References[]

External links[]

• Faerie Tale Theatre at IMDb
• Faerie Tale Theatre at epguides.com