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...)