History Series / FaerieTaleTheatre

** In ''Literature/PussInBoots'', Edgar's dead father the miller allegedly beat him all the time, for any slight mistake. He also did the same to his cat, Puss. Edgar only realizes his father loved him because he fed him, which he didn't bother to do for Puss.

** Buck Wolf in "The Three Little Pigs"; the whole reason he's trying to capture one of the pigs is that his seen-but-not-heard wife Nadine demands one since a coyote couple is coming over for dinner and "They like pork!"

* NotWhatItLooksLike: In "The Tale of [[Literature/TheFrogPrince", when the king discovers his daughter [[ItMakesSenseInContext in bed with a naked man]].

* RomanticComedy: Two different kiddie video critics in TheEighties pointed out that the ''[[Literature/ThePrincessAndThePea Princess and the Pea']]' adaptation, which toplines Creator/LizaMinnelli, is effectively a fairy tale version of the then-recent romantic comedy hit ''Film/{{Arthur 1981}}'' -- not least because she was the leading lady in that too!

* PlayedForLaughs: Quite a few episodes, such as "The Tale of [[Literature/TheFrogPrince", "Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs", and "Literature/{{Pinocchio}}". In general, the simpler the original story is, the more likely it ends up played as comedy. It's also common for the adaptations of stories that prominently feature anthropomorphic animals to play up the humor.

** In the climactic scene of ''Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamlin'', a girl's voice is heard saying [[Film/Poltergeist1982 "He's here..."]] just as the town's children begin to be entranced by the Piper's music.

* PragmaticVillainy: This is one of the few versions of "Literature{{Cinderella}}" where the stepmother realizes she'd still be in-laws with the Prince if Cinderella marries him. [[spoiler:The Fairy Godmother immediately turns her and the stepsisters (temporarily) into rabbits.]]

-->'''Beauty'sFather''': ''([[spoiler: taking Beauty's magic ring out of his pocket and giving it to Jacques]])'' Now get rid of the damn thing.

* TheIgor: Attila from ''[Literature/TheStoryOfTheYouthWhoWentForthToLearnWhatFearWas The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers]]''.

** ''The Tale of [[Literature/TheFrogPrince'' omits the title character's servant Faithful Henry, as most adaptations do.

** At the beginning of ''The Princess Who Had Never Laughed'', the narrator says that the King's only child was raised "as a serious-minded young prince." The opening scene then shows the royal court celebrating the 21st birthday of the heir, whom the King addresses as "Hank." Hank is dressed in a full-body suit of armor, a "princely" birthday gift from the King, and finally [[FaceplantingIntoFood faceplants into the birthday cake]] because the armor is too heavy. The king has the helmet taken off... and reveals that Hank is actually [[SamusIsAGirl a pretty girl with long blonde hair]], who asks her father to stop calling her [[TomboyishName Hank]] because she prefers her real name, Henrietta.

* DownerEnding: "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", as it is a direct adaptation of the Robert Browning poem down to all the narration and dialogue being in rhyme. (A man implied to be Browning telling the poem to a young boy is the FramingDevice.) This is probably why it's one of two episodes available on DVD only in the full-series set (the other being the creepy-fun "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers"), rather than any of the compilation discs -- it's tough to match it with others thematically.

In ''The Princess Who Had Never Laughed'', the King [[WantedASonInstead tries to compensate for his lack of a son]] by giving his daughter Princess Henrietta a masculine upbringing. In the opening scene, for her 21st birthday, he gives her a suit of armor, which is too heavy for her to wear and causes her to faceplant into the birthday cake.

* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: In the original tale of ''Literature/ThePrincessAndThePea'', the titular princess doesn't arrive at the castle until after the prince has searched for a bride and been dissatisfied with all the princesses he's met. In this adaptation, she arrives near the beginning and spends several days at the castle recovering from a twisted ankle, during which she and the prince gradually fall in love, while the prince's meetings with other the princesses take place simultaneously.

* RelatedInTheAdaptation: In Villeneuve's original version of ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'', Beauty was the daughter of a king and a good fairy. A wicked fairy had tried to murder baby Beauty so she could marry her father, and Beauty was put in the place of the merchant's deceased daughter to protect her. In this version, as in most retellings starting with Beaumont's, this backstory is cut and Beauty is the merchant's biological daughter.

* GRatedSex: The series as a whole does not shy away from implied sexuality, but there is one odd example in "Rapunzel" where the title character apparently manages to give birth to twins after ''one'' visit with the Prince where they merely confessed their love for each-other and made out for a bit. Although by the time the Witch finds out, Rapunzel is almost finished making the ladder to escape with the Prince, so presumably some time has passed that could have included more visits where the twins were conceived.

* HandBlast: [[spoiler: King Vladimir]] in ''The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers'' has this power and tries to use it against Martin at the climax, but Martin deflects the beams back at him with a metal plate, temporarily blinding him.

* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: In "LiteratureBeautyAndTheBeast", her name really is "Beauty"! Her two sisters are understandably resentful.
* TheIgor: Attila from ''The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers''.
* InformedAttractiveness: Creator/KlausKinski as a handsome prince in "Beauty and the Beast".

* AntiVillain: [[spoiler:King Vladimir]] from "[[Literature/TheStoryOfTheYouthWhoWentForthToLearnWhatFearWas The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers]]" is only doing what he does because [[spoiler:he does not want to lose his daughter.]]

* AntiVillain: [[spoiler:King Vladimir]] from "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers" is only doing what he does because [[spoiler:he does not want to lose his daughter.]]

* BedlahBabe: In "Literature/SleepingBeauty", the prince is at one point being flirted with by a princess called Debbie, who wears this kind of outfit.

The show brings to life many traditional {{fairy tale}}s, from standbys like "Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs", "Literature/{{Cinderella}}" and "Literature/SnowWhite" to more obscure ones like "Literature/TheSnowQueen", "[[Literature/TheStoryOfTheYouthWhoWentForthToLearnWhatFearWas The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers]]" and "The Dancing Princesses". Some adaptations are PlayedForDrama, others are PlayedForLaughs; some are extremely faithful to the original stories, some are playfully loose. Many were directed by such luminaries as (then a mere upstart) Creator/TimBurton and (then certainly well-known!) Creator/FrancisFordCoppola, and -- owing to Duvall's professional and friendly associations with many major Hollywood performers -- often featured an AllStarCast.

** In ''The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers'', [[spoiler: the "haunting" of the castle turns out to have been staged by King Vladimir to get rid of his daughter's suitors.]]

* {{Dracula}}: A variation in "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers": Not actually a vampire, but the sorcerer son of the original Dracula (UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler) played by none other than Creator/ChristopherLee himself, complete with [[TheIgor a hunchbacked servant]], and a coffin scene.

** In ''The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers'', Princess Amanda faints when a giant axe swings from the ceiling in the haunted castle.

* HereWeGoAgain: The ending of ''The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers'': Martin and Princess Amanda are living HappilyEverAfter, when one day Amanda is depressed and says she has "the blues." Martin realizes he's never experienced this before, so he sets off on another journey, "to find out about the blues."

** ''Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs'' fleshes out the pigs' and the wolf's personalities and adds a female pig love interest.