20 Wild Details Only True Fans Know About Beauty And The Beast

Odds are, most everyone in the world knows of Beauty and the Beast from the 1991 classic animated Disney film. As any fan of the story will tell you, that was hardly the first (or last) adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s classic story of love, tolerance and inner beauty. Years before Disney released their hit film, the Beast graced our television sets on the critically acclaimed and still adored Beauty and the Beast, which aired for three seasons consisting of 56 episodes. The show was something of a gamble when it aired thanks to the heavy use of makeup accompanied with the change in format. Instead of being about a woman who finds herself imprisoned in the Beast’s castle, Beauty was a District Attorney in New York and the Beast existed in an underground community known as the World Below.

The series endures as one of the most successful procedural love stories of the 1980s. It helped to launch Ron Perlman to international stardom, but it was also an amazing opportunity for the genre. While romance series were nothing new, Beauty and the Beast managed to handle it in a different way. The series took a classic tale, gave it a modern spin and launched an entire world that still maintains an avid fanbase more than 30 years after the pilot aired. If you’re familiar with the show, odds are there are some details you may have missed or forgotten from when it was on. If you’re as detail-oriented as most in the World Below, you may already know these 20 Wild Details Only True Fans Know About Beauty And The Beast

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN WAS INVOLVED

These days, just about everyone in the world knows who George R. R. Martin is thanks to the success of HBO’s Game of Thrones. That series was based on his popular Song of Ice and Fire series, but those books were hardly the only thing Martin has worked on over the years. Back in the 1980s, Martin was involved in writing a little series called Beauty and the Beast.

When the series first launched, Martin was one of the writer’s on the show, but by the time the series came to an end, he moved up in the ranks. He continued to write, but also became the series’ supervising producer and likely learned a lot, which helped him go on to launch one of the most successful television series of all time with Game of Thrones.

MARTIN’S CREATIVITY WAS STIFLED

Ask any creative-type about working in television and they will have the same story to tell about the network stepping in where it isn’t wanted. In many cases, a television series is limited by what the network will allow when it comes to depictions of drugs, sex and violence, but in the case of Beauty and the Beast, the network executives were particularly problematic.

In an interview with the Rolling Stone, Martin discussed the pains of working on a show that featured the very minimum amounts of violence and depravity he preferred. There were constant limitations. It wore me down. There were battles over censorship, how sexual things could be, whether a scene was too ‘politically charged,’ how violent things could be. Don’t want to disturb anyone.”

THE SHOW HAD A CLASSIC INFLUENCE

The television series had a lot to take inspiration from when it went into development in the late 1980s. The one film that provided most of the inspiration for the fantasy elements was the original 1946 French version titled, La Belle et la Bête, which is French for Beauty and the Beast. That movie was a direct adaptation of the original work and is considered a classic of French cinema.

That movie and the associated book went a long way in influencing the fantasy aspects of the story, but they weren’t the only thing to provide inspiration for Beauty and the Beast. The other elements of the series more grounded in reality took inspiration from procedural police and detective shows, but overall, the series was all about the titular characters from the original film.

IT WASN’T SHOT IN NYC

For anyone who watched the series, one of the most important aspects was the setting. This wasn’t a tale told in a provincial town somewhere in France, it was set in the modern and gritty reality of New York City! The city itself was an important backdrop for the setting of the series, but like most television shows shot in the ’80s, none of it was actually filmed there.

Photography for the series took place entirely in California with most of the scenes shot at Walt Disney’s Golden Oak Ranch and the CBS Studio Center in LA. All of the shots like the one pictured above were fabricated in one way or another. This sad reality creates the problem of not being able to visit any of the real-world locations seen in the show for fans visiting the Big Apple.

PERLMAN REFUSED TO READ THE SCRIPT

It’s crazy to think of it, but Ron Perlman initially wanted nothing to do with Beauty and the Beast. Not only was he not interested, he yelled at his agent and forbade him from bringing it up further. Fortunately, his agent didn’t listed and he left the script on his doorstep for him to read. The reason Perlman wanted nothing to do with it is even crazier to imagine given his career; he didn’t want to wear any makeup covering his face!

Prior to taking the role, Perlman had established himself as an actor who was good at his craft, but especially so while wearing a mask. Most actors prefer to keep their faces out in the open and after so much work in makeup, Perlman was finished. Fortunately, he gave in and read the script, which he absolutely loved.

A MAKEUP MASTER CREATED THE BEAST

Most television series don’t pull in big names to tackle makeup and special effects… at least, they didn’t back in the ’80s. These days, the best of the best are all over shows like The Walking Dead, but in 1987, pulling in a huge special effects artist like Rick Baker was a big deal. Baker had already earned international attention for work on Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, but his biggest claim to fame at that point was an Academy Award.

Baker’s work on An American Werewolf in London was truly inspiring to the industry and his win of the inaugural Oscar in that category for that film solidified him in the industry. He was tasked with coming up with the look for the series and he tackled the project with his unique talents and a completely new perspective.

HOW DO YOU MAKE A BEAST SEXY?

When Rick Baker was brought on board to make the signature look for the series, he was given the instruction of making Vincent look scary, but above all else, sexy. How do you make someone described as a beast look sexy? According to Baker, you transform the elements of a lion into that of a man, add a gorgeous mane of blond hair and do everything possible to give him a regal look.

Anyone who’s seen the final design Baker came up with has to agree his makeup worked. Vincent’s appearance is certainly not human, but that doesn’t make him any less appealing. The feline look somehow pulls in the viewer to make him look less threatening than he was. Couple that with the words coming out of his mouth and people around the world fell in love with him.

THE BEAST MADE PERLMAN A SEX SYMBOL

One of the reasons Perlman was reticent to appear in the series was due to his desire to not cover up his face. Actors don’t just use their skills to play other characters to build their careers, their look has a lot to say in terms of which parts they can land. Hiding behind makeup or a mask isn’t ideal, which is why movies featuring superheros have the hero unmasked to reveal the actor’s face.

For Perlman, he wasn’t well-known prior to his casting in Beauty and the Beast though he had been working for many years. Despite this, he wasn’t a sex symbol… until he put on the mask and makeup to become Vincent. Ever since his portrayal as Vincent, Perlman has received thousands of letters from women who adore and admire him as an actor and as Vincent.

PERLMAN WAS CAST DUE TO QUEST FOR FIRE

Perlman’s initial decision to not read the script for the pilot had to do with his previous makeup acting work as we previously mentioned. Ironically, it was exactly that acting in his past that brought the script to his door. When Rick Baker was brought onto the production, he lobbied to have Perlman cast to play Vincent because he knew the man could not only act, but act well with a bunch of stuff glued to his face.

At the end of the day, that’s what casting for shows like Beauty and the Beast amount to. Will the actor be able to perform with a bunch of foam, rubber, and fur glued to their face or not? There are plenty of talented actors and actresses who can’t do that very well, but Ron Perlman is certainly not one of those.

MAKEUP TOOK FOUR HOURS TO APPLY EVERY DAY

For an average actor working on a television series, makeup is required, but it usually only takes around 30 minutes to apply. When you’re talking about a change as drastic as the one done to Perlman to make him into Vincent, there’s a lot more time needed to get the job done. To turn Perlman into the beloved character, it was necessary to keep the man in the chair for four hours each and every day.

Those four hours made up only the preliminary part of filming. While everyone else was doing their own thing, Perlman was sitting in the chair. If filming went on for 10 hours, that meant his day was 15 hours long. That last hour was the amount of time needed to take the makeup and prosthetics off of his face and body.

HE’S ACTUALLY ALLERGIC TO PROSTHETIC GLUE

It doesn’t make sense, but believe it or not, Ron Perlman is allergic to almost every type of prosthetic glue on the market! This one is certainly a head-scratcher seeing as the man has made a career out of playing heavily made up characters. It’s almost rare to see Perlman take on a role that doesn’t feature a heavy application of makeup, but back when he joined the cast to play Vincent, his allergy was a problem.

Rick Baker was the man who brought Perlman to the attention of the network, which put him into a bit of a corner when the allergy surfaced. The man he recruited to play Vincent couldn’t play the character! Fortunately, an alternative was found, which is apparently terrible for the environment and was discontinued at the time, but they managed to make it work!

THE SHOW SAVED PERLMANS CAREER

Perlman’s big break came in his first movie, Quest for Fire, but despite his performance and the film’s acclaim, the offers weren’t coming in. He took on two more roles in film including The Name of the Rose, which required a heavy application of makeup, but by this point in his career, the actor was somewhat despondent. He was finished with makeup work and wasn’t feeling great about his prospects.

When Beauty and the Beast became the instant success it was, things completely turned around for Perlman. The man was on the verge of quitting the game, but he received too much appreciation and love for his performance as Vincent to abandon his career. He has since gone on to play some of the most important roles in sci-fi and fantasy in movie history.

IT’S ONE OF PERLMAN’S FAVORITE PROJECTS

Perlman has had hundreds of roles in television and film over the years, but if you were to sit him down and ask him which was his favorite, he would tell you it was Vincent. When he came to the character, he was in a low place career-wise and it brought him out of that. Not only did it do wonders for his career, he completely identified with the character and drew from his own experiences to portray him.

The concept of playing a character whose physical appearance is unappealing, but has a beautiful and loving inner self was inspiring to the actor. “Here was something that deeply moved me about the juxtaposition of this thing that was ungodly on the outside, but inside was clearly the most precious, innocent, sweet, nurturing character in the whole pastiche of players.”

THE WORLD BELOW NEARLY CONSISTED OF JUST VINCENT

One of the principal concepts of Beauty and the Beast involves the World Below. The subterranean community of social outcasts made up a population of people who many viewers could relate to and their various stories helped to flesh out numerous subplots of the show. It’s difficult to imagine it looking any differently than what made it to air, but the initial concept was far different.

If the network executives had their way, the one and only occupant of the World Below would have been Vincent. In the original series concept, Vincent was a loner who would emerge periodically to render aid to Catherine and beat up some bad guys before heading back down to be by himself. Fortunately, writers like Martin changed their minds and the series was fleshed out with a community instead of a lone denizen.

LINDA HAMILTON LEFT THE SHOW TO RAISE HER SON

The first two seasons of the series followed the same basic format revolving around the relationship between Catherine (Beauty) and Vincent (The Beast). When the third season came around, things were done a little differently and it all had to do with one of the principal actors leaving. Linda Hamilton was pregnant with her son, Dalton when season 2 wrapped and she decided it would be her last.

Hamilton left the series to raise Dalton, her first child, which left a huge gap in the series. Sadly, her first husband, Bruce Abbott, left Hamilton while she was still pregnant, which likely pushed her into making the decision to leave. Her departure was catastrophic to the series dynamic and had lasting repercussions on the production.

THE 3RD SEASON CAME FROM A PETITION

Like many series beloved by fans and critics, but watched by less people that a network would like, Beauty and the Beast was set for cancellation after the end of the second season. That would have been a major blow to fans seeing as it ended with a cliffhanger. To solve the problem, fans did what they always do; they organized a petition to keep the series alive.

In most cases, a fan petition has little to no impact on a network’s decision to axe a series, but in this case, it worked. The group of fans loyal to the series, who call themselves Helpers or The Tunnel Community, managed to send CBS 4,200 letters “urging – no, demanding – the reinstatement of the program.” The campaign didn’t work immediately, but after some time, the show popped back onto CBS’ lineup for a third season.

SEASON 3 WAS WILDLY UNPOPULAR

While it took a legion of Helpers to bring about the third seasons, that doesn’t mean it was loved by all. The show had to take on a new format due to the loss of Catherine’s character and many of the fans didn’t care for the alterations. Instead of featuring a love story between the titular beauty and her beast, the show dealt with a baby and the quest to find it.

This was a massive blow to the fans who wanted to keep things going the way they were and being the vocal community the Helpers were, they didn’t remain quiet about it. That being said, it wasn’t necessarily hated by the community, but it wasn’t helping to keep the show alive either. The ratings declined and CBS axed the show for good when the third season ended.

BEAST COULDN’T KEEP THE SHOW GOING WITHOUT BEAUTY

Let’s face it, this was a show based on and completely about beauty and her beast. When you only have one half of that duo on the screen, it’s not the same story you started with. Catherine was taken out of the series to accommodate Hamilton’s pregnancy, which left the show missing its beauty. Not too many people wanted to tune in to the Beast Show, which is why a replacement of sorts was brought in.

Jo Anderson was brought in to portray Diana Bennett as a replacement character for Catherine, but it wasn’t the same. She wasn’t there to replace Catherine in the same sense, which removed the romance element from the series. Seeing as that was the main reason people tuned in for seasons one and two, losing it meant the end of the series.

IT WON NUMEROUS AWARDS

It’s easy to say Beauty and the Beast had an avid fan base when the series was on the air, but it wasn’t just the viewers who took notice of the show. The series was lauded by critics for the show’s overall quality, the performance of the actors, art direction, music composition (which was exceptional for a television series), costume design, makeup, and many other categories.

All told, the cast and crew of Beauty and the Beast pulled in a total of 25 award nominations and 11 wins from the Young Artist Awards, Quality Television Awards, Romy Gala, Australia, the Casting Society of America, the American Society of Cinematographers, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, the Golden Globes, and the Primetime Emmy Awards. That’s a significant amount of accolades for such a short-lived television series.

THE WORLD BELOW EXISTS 30+ YEARS LATER

Since the series debuted in 1987, it earned a large group of fans who refer to themselves as Helpers. These people have created a fanbase and community of followers who still, to this very day, love and appreciate the show for its insights, costumes, acting, setting, music, and much more. The World Below still exists, but instead of a group of social outcasts living beneath the world in a major city, they are all around us.

The series aired more than thirty years ago, but that hasn’t diminished the love for Vincent, Catherine, and all the rest of the characters from Beauty and the Beast. Cosplayers long ago mastered the look for Vincent and many of the other characters from this much beloved series. They still hold fan conventions and even hold an annual virtual convention called Winterfest Online.

—

This article and all contents within are the property of Valnet, Inc. and may appear on any of their websites now or in the future.