Faerie Tale Theatre facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Faerie Tale Theatre |
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The 6-DVD box set cover by former distributor Starmaker II.
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| Genre | Fairytale fantasy |
| Created by | Shelley Duvall |
| Presented by | Shelley Duvall |
| Starring | Various |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 27 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Shelley Duvall for Gaylord Productions, Lions Gate Films and Platypus Productions |
| Running time | 50 min. |
| Release | |
| Original network | Showtime |
| Original release | September 11, 1982 – November 14, 1987 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Tall Tales & Legends Nightmare Classics Shelley Duvall's 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) was a popular American TV show that brought classic fairy tales to life. It ran from 1982 to 1987 on the Showtime channel. The series had 27 episodes, each telling a different fairy tale. These included famous stories by The Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen. It even featured the poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin".
The show was created and hosted by Shelley Duvall. She was also an executive producer and sometimes appeared in the episodes. Many famous Hollywood actors starred in the different fairy tale stories. Directors like Francis Ford Coppola and Tim Burton also worked on the show. Faerie Tale Theatre was one of the first original shows made for cable TV.
After Faerie Tale Theatre, Shelley Duvall produced other similar shows. These included Tall Tales & Legends, which focused on American folk tales, and Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories.
How the Show Began
Shelley Duvall first thought of Faerie Tale Theatre while making the movie Popeye in 1980. She was reading "The Frog Prince" and asked her co-star, Robin Williams, what he thought of it. Robin Williams found the story funny. He later starred in the very first episode of the series, which was "The Frog Prince". This episode was written and directed by Monty Python's Eric Idle. Eric Idle also appeared in a later episode called "The Pied Piper of Hamelin".
Each episode of Faerie Tale Theatre started with Shelley Duvall introducing herself. She would then give a short summary of the fairy tale that was about to be shown. The stories were acted out by real people, often famous celebrities, in amazing costumes. Shelley Duvall herself appeared in three episodes and narrated three others.
Episode Stories
The show featured 27 different fairy tale episodes. Each one was a live-action adaptation, meaning real actors played the characters. You can find a full list of all the episodes and the stories they told here:
List of Faerie Tale Theatre episodes
Amazing Artwork and Design
The look of each episode was very special. The backgrounds and settings were often inspired by famous artists and children's book illustrators. For example:
- "The Frog Prince" looked like paintings by Maxfield Parrish.
- "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" was inspired by Norman Rockwell.
- "Hansel and Gretel" used ideas from Arthur Rackham.
- "The Nightingale" had the style of Edmund Dulac.
- "Rapunzel" was influenced by Gustav Klimt.
- "Sleeping Beauty" took inspiration from Kay Nielsen.
Filmmakers like Jean Cocteau also inspired the look of episodes such as "Beauty and the Beast". This attention to detail made each episode feel like a living storybook.
Awards and Reruns
Faerie Tale Theatre was a very successful show. It won a Peabody Award, a TCA Award, and a Golden CableACE Award. These awards show how much people loved the series.
After its original run, the show was shown again on other TV channels. You could watch edited versions on the Disney Channel. It also appeared on other stations like PBS and BookTelevision.
See also
In Spanish: Faerie Tale Theatre para niños
