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In 1987, a new version of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast was developed for CBS. The following three seasons would give way to cult fan groups and a seemingly never ending rotation at the edge of pop culture, much in the way of Dark Shadows or The Highlander. Now all three seasons are released in a beautiful box set that comes with a few bonus goodies that should satisfy every fan of the show.

Catherine Chandler (Linda Hamilton, Terminator), a successful yuppie lawyer at the top of society is abducted one night, beaten and slashed with a knife, and left for dead in Central Park. Lucky for her, Vincent (Ron Pearlman, Hellboy) finds her and takes her to a secret underground sanctuary where many live separate from the rest of the world. And from there a fairy tale is born – Cathy, the beauty, and Vincent, the beast, fall in love and through three seasons have many detective pulp-ish adventures. Though the formula from this show takes a great deal from the fairy tale, it is notable that the love of Beauty never transforms the Beast – it is the other way around, in typical after school movie fashion, that the ugliness that needs transforming is Cathy’s shallowness in association with her society life in the World Above.

Like most cult shows, Beauty and the Beast was constantly battling with ratings. Though the first season’s detective story leanings worked well, a great deal of the second season focused so much on the characters that rating flailed. Linda Hamilton opted out of the show in the third season, and the loss of the show’s ‘Beauty’ killed it.

All three seasons, including the stunted third season, are here, as well as a handful of extras. Five episodes from season two feature introductions from (a bedraggled looking) Linda Hamilton and Ron Pearlman,  and the season three set includes an interactive trivia game called “Vincent’s Quest”. There are “Original Love Letters” and “Newly Reconstructed Love Letters” which are old bits of footage of Vincent writing with his voice-over reading letters. The new ones are simply that, newly added things in a much different and heavier voice. There are also thirteen episodic promos.

If you’re a fan, this is an excellent, very complete set. If not – well, I don’t believe this show stood the test of time very well. While one can easily giggle at the horrid eighties clothing, the show is so saccharine sweet that it’s hard to watch more than an episode or two at a time. But the die hard fans are still out there; they hold conventions, and through them this show refuses to die, so there must be something there.

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