Beastly is in the Eye of the Beholder - Part V

Finally, just in case you’re thinking that Beauty & the Beast stories always have to be supernatural in nature, there is one more couple that bears mention on this topic.  Far from the genres of Science Fiction or Paranormal Romance, is the Daytime Drama. John and Evangeline were characters on the drama “One Life to Live.”  Working with much more realistic situations, these writers were still able to create a story line that quite stunningly mirrored Vincent and Catherine.

John is our very human Beast.  He stands out sharply in a town of well dressed people who some would say talk way too much about their feelings.  John, who wears only black, is a man of very few words.  He has Vincent’s striking and soulful blue eyes and a quiet, raspy voice. He is the dark and brooding resident of Llanview.  But John is not your typical “Bad Boy” character which abounds in Daytime and elsewhere.  He has never made a conscious choice to be involved with bad things.  He’s not a reformed criminal.  He is, in fact, a former FBI agent and a dedicated cop.   What makes him Beastly is, like Vincent, largely out of his control. 

Events in John’s past contribute to his Beastly behavior.  First, his dad, also a cop, was killed in the line of duty when John was just 10 years old.  He was then forced to assume the role of man-of-the-house for his younger brother and mother.  This engendered a very serious attitude and an exaggerated sense of responsibility in him at a young age. His father’s murder case was never solved and it haunts him. Whenever something goes wrong, John is usually ready to take the blame for it. He is at least has hard on himself as Vincent would be for things that he has little or no control over.  He sees his job, at least in part, as “Protector” and will race to the rescue of anyone he feels is in his charge. 

In addition to all this, once, while he worked diligently on a serial killer case, his fiancé was captured and became the killer’s next victim.    He felt responsible for her death happening on his watch.  As a result, John is seriously handicapped in his ability to have a normal loving relationship.  But his unspoken feelings for his Beauty, like Vincent’s, were always quite obvious to anyone who was paying attention.

Evangeline was the Beauty.  She was a very classy attorney who even had some associations with the DA’s office.  She oozed a refined “Park Avenue” style in just about everything she said and did, and especially in what she wore.  Her apartment was done in delicate pastels. (John lived in a cheap motel in a bad part of town.)  Even her hair was worn straight and smooth in a Catherine-like cut and she, of course, was very beautiful. 

She loved John and she suspected that he felt the same way, but his lack of ability to express it upset her.  Evangeline was very idealistic, with a strong sense of right and wrong and she argued very convincingly – much as Catherine would – using her lawyer’s training.  Eventually, she broke up with him, emphasizing the fact that in healthy relationships there should be communication, and if she was the right one for him, he should be able to tell her he loved her. 

At the time, this was intended to be a plot device to keep them apart a little longer.  But unfortunately, Daytime politics got in the way.  The actress left the show while John and Evangeline were apart.  The-Powers-That-Be didn’t feel that they could replace her because she had been extremely popular.  So Evangeline was eventually killed off in a very horrible and senseless way.  It was more than a little déjà vu, to be sure! 
 
When “One Life to Live” ended earlier this year, John did have his happy ending…with Natalie.  She was a good match for him, and there was even some chemistry, but she was most certainly not a Beauty to his Beast.  John and Natalie were much too similar to fit this category.  They were from the same “world” – a tough neighborhood in Atlantic City, NJ.  They met playing pool in a bar – an activity that it doesn’t seem likely Evangeline or Catherine would ever be found doing. The point is that not every good couple, nor every popular romance, fits this category.   I’m not seeing Vincent and Catherine in every couple out there, only a select few, but they have been popping up with some consistency over the years.

As we all know, it was never meant for Clark and Lana to be together forever.  It remains to be seen what will ultimately happen between Stefan and Elena.  Max and Liz were the only Beauty & the Beast couple to actually be granted their happy ending. But, I think it’s important to note, that in all these cases, you get the intense romance of a Beauty & the Beast story minus the accusations of impropriety when the two do, in fact, get together.  All of these relationships were consummated, whether they worked out or not.  

While we love Vincent exactly as he is and know in our hearts that there could never be a more perfect Beast, Hollywood is probably congratulating themselves on finding a solution to a sticky TV problem – how to bring the Beauty and the Beast together - and stay on the air.

One last thought: Having a normal - or even far above normal - looking Beast may seem like a cheapening of the Beauty & the Beast story in some ways.  But, with the help of good writing – something that all these shows had - it really can take the symbolism to a new level.

In life, it’s easy to assume the other person has it all together.  We especially think this of extremely good looking people.  But the truth is we all have our Beastly side – the side that we wish we could just ignore or run away from.  I have always found it quite amusing to imagine what Vincent would say if he knew that some of the very best looking guys there are could experience so much of the very same obstacles and insecurities that he has gone through with Catherine! 

There are probably more examples that could be discussed.   These have just stood out to me as being too much of a coincidence to be believed.  Vincent and Catherine’s influence was far reaching, indeed.  They can never, of course, be truly duplicated, not even by a so-called “reboot.”  But…if imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery, then we Vincent and Catherine fans should be delighted with all these new versions of the story being planned.  They might explore the “tale as old as time” in new and modern ways, but we will always know in our hearts that all over Television Land, our Vincent and Catherine live on through them…again and again and again.   

 

A reference used for this essay and a very good book for anyone who wants to read more is:  “The Meanings of ‘Beauty & the Beast’: A Handbook” by Jerry Griswold, Broadview Press, 2004.

Beastly is in the Eye of the Beholder - Part IV

While “Roswell” and “Smallville” fit neatly into the genre of Science Fiction, that category has always seemed too limiting for Vincent and Catherine.  Our story is a romance with supernatural and/or fantasy elements.  In more recent years, the Vampire Romance as been wildly popular.  When examined more closely, this “new” kind of paranormal romance is really just a slightly darker twist on the Beauty & the Beast theme.  The vampires at least started out as humans.  But, what could be more Beastly than a boyfriend who must drink blood to survive?  There is always the threat that he might lose control over himself and drink his love’s blood as well - much the same way Vincent feared losing control and hurting Catherine. The Beauty & the Beast elements we love are almost always present in these stories – it’s simply an adjustment in the symbolism.

In The Vampire Diaries, there are many Beauty & the Beast nuances.  Stefan comes into Elena’s life at a very difficult time, when she is grieving the death of her parents.  For Elena, this is the life-altering event that parallels Catherine’s attack.  It is later revealed that Stefan actually witnessed the crash that killed her parents.  He pulled over and rescued Elena from the car that was quickly becoming submerged in a lake and then vanished back to his solitary life.  She had no memory of the event and he had no intention of ever seeing her again.  But he then returns to Mystic Falls, in the same way Vincent returned to Catherine’s balcony eight months later, because, as he puts it, he “had to know her.”

As the title of this show would suggest, Elena keeps a diary.  At one point she misplaced it and Stefan found it and returned it to her.  He assured her that he didn’t read it.  When she asked why he didn’t take advantage of the obvious opportunity he responded, “I wouldn’t want anyone reading mine.”  The sensitive Stefan, like Vincent, also keeps a journal.

Towards the end of the first season, the show even managed to produce a very good recreation of The Trilogy.  Stefan does not normally drink human blood because he is against killing humans.  However, this makes him weaker than most vampires.  At one point, he was forced to drink a lot of human blood and it had the effect of bringing on an illness or “madness” very similar to what Vincent went through.  Stefan was slowing losing control of his more Beastly urges and we saw a side of him that, up until now, we would not have believed existed.  Not wanting to alarm Elena, he pretended for a time that all was well – but it was clear that he was coming unraveled.  When she confronts him about it, he snaps at her and tries to drive her away with a Beastly growl.  Then, in the next instant, he realizes how he has frightened her and collapses in her arms sobbing and apologizing profusely.  Through it all, Elena stands firm in her love for him and belief that he won’t hurt her.

It is interesting to also consider the Beauties in these stories.  Elena and Lana begin their respective series being the most popular girl in school.  They were most certainly the high school equivalent of Catherine’s Upper East Side socialite persona.  Lana and Elena were even both cheerleaders. Lana was dating the star of the football team. But they both make changes – such as quitting the cheerleading squad - after meeting Clark and Stefan.  They see the shallowness of their activities for the first time and decide they want to devote themselves to more meaningful things.  Lana became restless with her quarterback boyfriend and he was written out of the show in the first season.  But my feeling was that she would have stopped dating him eventually, for the same basic reasons Catherine ended things with Tom.

The female leads in these shows, Liz, Lana and Elena, play the role of the Beauty well by being unbelievably dedicated and understanding, as Catherine was, and loving him in spite of his differences – whatever they might be.  The Beauty’s job is to love the Beast in spite of the fact that he might not love or accept himself.  In a larger sense, it is what holds us back from love that makes us “Beastly,” that could be many things.  Likewise, it’s what gently brings us toward love that makes us “Beauty-full.”

Liz and Lana were more Catherine-like in that they held back and didn’t always say in so many words what they were surely thinking in some of the more obvious displays of Beastliness. Elena, on the other hand, is a bit more outspoken.  She puts herself in danger quite often and when questioned about it has declared, “If anyone is going to die in this [situation] it’s going to be me.”  It was very hard not to think of Catherine at that moment and how she is often put down for being “careless” when I believe this was always much closer to her true motivation.  That’s just how Beauties are – unselfish to a fault.  They would much rather put themselves in danger than have the people they love hurt because of them.  Didn’t the original Beauty of the fairytale volunteer to take her father’s place without giving any thought to herself or the danger that might be involved?

Another interesting parallel between our show and these others is the question of how to deal with The Secret. It was very clearly understood, and never challenged, that Catherine could not tell anyone about Vincent and the Tunnels.  Poor Catherine was very much alone with The Secret.

Liz tried to keep the secret with all good intentions, but her best friend, Maria, soon knew that something was wrong and coaxed it out of her, as any best friend would.  Maria was a bubbly Jenny-like personality that contrasted sharply with Liz’s more elegant Catherine personality.  Maria wound up being drawn into the alien drama and even dated the other alien, Michael.

Once again, Elena was a bit bolder on this issue as well.  She made a conscious decision to tell her best friend in the first couple of episodes!  Then she went straight to Stefan and told him that she had shared his secret with Bonnie.  In response to his look of surprise she said, “I can’t do this alone.”  To which he relented, “You shouldn’t have to.”  It’s difficult to not feel Catherine’s influence on these two.

(continued...)

Beastly is in the Eye of the Beholder - Part III

The first program that I remember seeing this in was “Roswell.”  It’s the story of the small town in New Mexico where aliens are believed to have crash-landed.  In the series, the aliens take the form of three teenagers, a girl and two boys, who are living with adoptive parents.  They believe they must keep their alien identities hidden, even from their parents, or face being “hunted” and/or “studied” in laboratories.

Liz is the girl next door who works at the local café.  One day, Max and his friends are eating in the café.  While they are there, the café is held up and Liz is shot.  In the confusion that follows, the three aliens would normally just slip away.  They are used to keeping a very low profile in town, not wanting to draw any unnecessary attention to their lives.  But Max can’t leave; he has admired Liz from afar for a long time and cannot let her die.  Going against everything his instincts for survival, and the other two, are telling him he uses his alien power to save Liz’s life.  His healing leaves a hand print on her body and so there are lots of questions afterward.  Eventually, Max tells Liz the whole truth and asks her to keep his secret.

The main mistake that this show made was having it be all about the teens.  The parents (one of whom was played by Jo Anderson) were 100% clueless to all that was going on right under their noses, and this got annoying very fast.

Right around the time this show ended, “Smallville” premiered and improved on the concepts that “Roswell” had started.  “Smallville” corrected the adults-are-all-stupid flaw in the “Roswell” premise. Clark’s parents were fully aware of their unusual child.  Jonathan and Martha Kent were the most intelligent and supportive parents you ever wanted to meet, and this went a long way toward giving the show appeal to a much wider adult audience. 

The main underlying theme that both these shows shared was the idea of an alien in the role of the Beast.  Both Max and Clark were secretly in love with the most beautiful girl in town.  But they knew they were Different.  They both had a big secret.  Max felt that his secret was a burden for Liz to share.  Clark feared telling Lana the truth for the same reason.  Clark believed he too would be rejected by everyone he loved if they knew the truth about him.  There was also a lot of guilt.  Clark knew that Lana’s parents had been killed in the meteor shower that brought him to earth.  In essence, he blamed himself for her pain.  In addition, both Max and Clark knew nothing about their planet of origin and that made them doubt themselves even further.  In each case, they reacted much like Vincent would to the progression of a romantic relationship.

Of these two shows, granted, “Smallville” had a lot of themes going on, and especially when Lois came along, lost the Beauty & the Beast flavor.  “Roswell” was much more focused on the romance overall.  In what may have been one of the best TV theme songs ever, the singer Dido echoed Vincent’s words in “Nor Iron Bars a Cage” in haunting beautiful tones:

I am what I am…

I’ll do what I want, but I can’t hide.

I won’t go, I won’t sleep, I can’t breathe,

Until you’re resting here with me.

I won’t leave, I can’t hide, I cannot be,

Until you’re resting here with me.

 

 

 

(continued...)

Beastly is in the Eye of the Beholder - Part II

Versions of this story, which scholars like to categorize as “Animal Husband” stories, exist in all cultures and time periods throughout history.  As most of us know by now, the first written form is generally thought to be the Greek Myth of Cupid & Psyche.

But the version we would recognize as Beauty & the Beast was first published in France in 1740 by a woman named Gabrielle de Villeneuve.  She was a frequenter of the Paris salons where the telling of “Fairy Stories” was a popular form of entertainment.  Her version was long, complex and clearly geared toward an adult, aristocratic audience.

About twelve years later, another French woman named Madame Le Prince de Beaumont took that version and shortened and simplified it, with the idea of a children’s audience in mind.  In doing so, she helped to create the new concept of Children’s Literature, which really had not existed prior to that time.  So, contrary to what the library staff was thinking back in 1987, Beauty & the Beast started out as a story for adults.

What makes this story so attractive and versatile is its symbolism.  Beauty & the Beast asks big, timeless questions like: What is Beauty? And, maybe more importantly: What is Beastly?  These are questions that could be debated endlessly, and can be changed and adapted quite easily, as Madame Beaumont did, to just about any audience.

This idea was brought home to me in 2006, while doing research for a Beauty & the Beast themed English paper.  I came across a critique of Jean Cocteau’s 1946 French movie version “La Belle et la Bête.” It spoke about how there is more to the Beast than just his physical appearance.  He has little of the social refinement that would have been expected of someone in his class and time period.  This Beastly lack of social graces is lost on contemporary audiences. 

Another example is Disney’s Beast.  When you think about it, he basically behaves like a naughty child.  This is evident in how he is repeatedly told he must learn to “control his temper.”  There is also the sweet scene in which Belle tries to teach him how to have more acceptable table manners. 

In contrast to Cocteau and Disney, our Vincent certainly does not need to learn better manners. Yet, he is still the Beast of the story.  The definition of Beast here is much more a comment on our society than on Vincent himself.  After all, we claim to value the princely traits Vincent possesses on the inside – but most people miss them – because of how he looks on the outside. 

It is true that in all of these versions the Beast does look the part – other than human.  Vincent conforms to how a Beast should look, but not how he should act.  Vincent is also the first Beast to remain as he is and not turn into someone more human looking.  This is due, as least in part, to the medium that gave birth to Vincent - television. 

A book or a movie simply ends at a given time. You can hint at the “happily ever after” but you don’t necessarily have to see it.  In television, the end is much harder to pinpoint.  You have to plan for a next week and a next season.  As a result, Vincent and Catherine were the first Beauty and Beast that we really got to know in an on-going and personal way. The more we knew them, the more we loved them – and the more we wanted them to have their version of the traditional “happily ever after” ending. 

These factors created a unique situation in Beauty & the Beast history.  Ron Koslow didn’t intend a “happily ever after” ending.  He didn’t even think it was possible.  Those in charge completely underestimated the power of this story – the very power of love itself!  When they realized what had happened it was almost too late to “fix” it.  Censors would surely pass judgment on Vincent and Catherine having their happily ever after.  Many misguided souls would call it “bestiality.”  There was no easy solution to this dilemma.  But there was no denying the appeal of the story. 

So with Vincent having been the first Beast to step outside the box of expectations, it makes sense that future attempts would have a Beast that doesn’t even look the part at all. In order to have their cake and eat it too, television writers found other ways to create the Beast.

(continued...)

 

Beastly is in the Eye of the Beholder - Part I

This essay began as a speech that I wrote and presented at a Toastmasters Club meeting in 2010.  With the news of the new CW series (based on the 80's original series) I was inspired to update it.

It was a Saturday in the fall of 1987, just weeks after the premier of Beauty & the Beast.  My first impulse, after falling head over heels in love with Vincent and Catherine, was to find out more about the original fairytale. I headed to the public library, where I found nothing at all in the main adult library. I decided to try the separate children’s library next door.  As I walked in, I felt more than a little foolish because I obviously hadn’t been inside that building in ages.

But I had to know more.  I knew almost nothing about Beauty & the Beast at that point. I grew up with many fairytales: the Disney versions of Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and others. I had even seen a version of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid with its horribly sad ending.  But my only childhood memory of Beauty & the Beast was being shown a quick slide show presentation of the story one day in grammar school.

The book I found that day in the children’s library was nothing special.  The illustrations were very gloomy and vague – not at all like you would expect to find in a good children’s book.  After reading through it, I noticed that the last page of the book had a brief summary of the story’s origins.  This was before the ubiquitous phrase, “a tale as old as time,” and I was fascinated to learn that this show that had me so mesmerized was, in fact, nothing that new, but a story that has had many, many incarnations over the centuries.  You could say that from that moment on, the history of Beauty & the Beast became a passion of mine – every bit as much as the CBS series.

While the Beauty & the Beast story had a long history before Vincent and Catherine, they were still a most unique interpretation for many reasons.  We know that they had a major impact on us as fans, but I’ve had suspicions for years now that they also had a major impact on the medium of television.  I’d like to suggest that our Vincent and Catherine forever altered the concept of Beauty & the Beast and television romance in general. 

Since our show ended, there have been a myriad of other stories that were Beauty & the Beast-like. These are love stories that are special or unique in the same way that Vincent and Catherine were.  These couples have a special soulful connection - with each other - and with the viewers.  I guess it’s possible that such a category of romance could have existed before 1987, but I never noticed it.  And back then, I was a lot less discriminating in the television that I watched.  Now, keep in mind, these characters and the shows they belong to may look nothing like our Beauty & the Beast on the outside, but we fans should know not to judge by appearances. 

It helps to first think about the following question: Why is the Beauty & the Beast story so popular and enduring?

(continued...)