Faerie Tale Theatre


Faerie Tale Theatre is a 1982-1987 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 Fred Fuchs, occasional star and narrator, and voice of the animatronic Nightingale. The series was directed by luminaries such as Francis Ford Coppola, Emile Ardolino, and Tim Burton, and features numerous Hollywood stars in character roles. This is one of the first examples of cable original programming, alongside HBO's Fraggle Rock.
The series was followed by two other less successful shorter anthology series produced by Duvall: Tall Tales & Legends, which follows the same format as Faerie Tale Theatre and focuses on classic American folk tales, and Nightmare Classics.

Background

Shelley Duvall began conception of Faerie Tale Theatre while filming the live-action 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. 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.
Episodes open 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 3 episodes and narrates three others.

Episodes

Artwork

Many episodes feature backdrops and settings inspired by specific artists and children's book illustrators, including Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Aubrey Beardsley and Harry Clarke Gustav Klimt, N. C. Wyeth, Kay Nielsen, Brueghel and Dürer, Jennie Harbour, and George Cruikshank, as well as filmmakers, such as Jean Cocteau.

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, and later Razz Ma Tazz Entertainment/Cabin Fever Entertainment.
Starmaker II held the rights to the series from 2004 to 2006, and at first released 26 episodes as individual DVDs. 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 to the British company 3DD Entertainment. A new remastered 7-disc box set, including the lost "Greatest Moments" episode, was released by Koch Vision on September 2, 2008. In 2009, Koch Vision released the episodes by theme on six DVD compilations: Tales from the Brothers Grimm, Funny Tales, Tales from Hans Christian Andersen, Princess Tales, Magical Tales and Bedtime Tales.
When released on DVD by Starmaker II and Koch Vision, the following scenes were cut from the series:
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 as well as in syndication on various television stations, including PBS and BookTelevision.