No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on February 8, 2007

Back in the late 1980s a TV show came on the air that was really not given a snowballs chance in a very hot place of last more than a couple of episodes and became a cult phenomenon. No one could every really put their finger on why it worked but it did. I think a lion’s share of the credit goes to the actor who played the male lead who really had an uphill slog to get his emotions to read on TV.

I am of course talking about Beauty and the Beast. A fun little tale of star crossed lovers in New York City. The casting was magnificent. The underground realm was well thought out as was the politics of the place. The writing was top notch. For me it was love at first episode. It was really the first show in a long time that brought a serious romance onto the small screen.

Ron Perlman was at the time known for one film called Quest for Fire where he had been cast as a caveman because of his visage. He really didn’t get to say much in the film. In the TV series he was able to use that magnificent voice of his to its fullest potential. Between that and his eyes, he conveyed so much of the character and became, much to both him and his wife, a sex symbol.

An entire fandom was formed overnight and a number of the groups still exist. Beauty and the Beast fans would speculate as to what was going to happen next in the story of our star crossed lovers. We waited for that kiss only to be informed that it was not going to happen (but they were very huggy). Then there was the episode that we were informed might have that kiss that we were anticipating but then maybe not. The show could be a tease.

Then Terminator hit and Linda Hamilton decided that film was more her thing so she wanted out or she wanted to spend more time with her child depending on who is telling the story. The last season of the series was either loved or hated by the fans and a number of groups split up over this point. It was my first experience with what I now know are called Flame Wars. Personally I didn’t mind the later half of the episodes. I even saw a couple that many fans missed during a really crazy summer rotation where they were burning off some episodes. I call them the “Father Episodes” so as not to be spoilery about them.

Since then I have met most of the actors on the series through both conventions and my professional work and a number of the writers again through the same means. Most if not all have pretty fond memories of that series. Ron Perlman jokes that Vincent got him ready to play Hellboy at least for the make-up chair time. The fans still exist as do the groups. There is still plenty of fanfic on the series to this day. The last convention that was run by fans was back in 2003 but that convention had been around for 14 years which is not bad for a 3 season TV show that is not science fiction based. There were even a couple of comic books and books based on the series. (Funny story about the painting that they used that Wendy Pini did for the cover of her graphic novel. She did the painting and they loved it so much that they did a story based on it even though it kind of gave the cover to the issue a different meaning since the public had seen it in the episode before the comic came out ….Got all that?)

Personally this series for me cemented a couple of friendships that I have to this day. It was a costume that I went for the win with at a convention and then spent the evening talking to George R.R. Martin about the series. He really loved how we did the make-up. We did the entire costume based on two episodes and a Starlog cover which was of course shot through that GD gauze which made it very hard to see detail. I was and am very proud of that costume.

I am grateful that this series finally made it to DVD.

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