Charmings Boned the Fish When...

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http://www.bonethefish.com/viewtopics.php?1870

The Charmings is an American fantasy sitcom that aired from March, 1987 to February, 1988 on ABC. The series' plot was that fairy tale characters Snow White and Prince Charming were magically transported to a 20th century suburb in California. Each episode shows the Charmings trying adapt to their new life while Lillian, the wicked stepmother, and her wise cracking Magic Mirror watch from upstairs. After the first season, Caitlin O'Heaney (who portrayed Snow White), was replaced by Carol Huston.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070225...ptheshark.com/

• Other Thoughts:
  
  This show lasted one season on ABC. It was, I will admit, a fairly stupid show. But it was still better than 75% of the crap that was on at the time (or since). For those who don't remember: The concept was that back in the storybook days, Prince Charming married Snow White, and before they had a chance to live happily ever after, Snow's wicked stepmother, the evil queen, put a curse on them to make them sleep a thousand years - and accidentally hit herself and one of the dwarves in the process. They all woke up in the 1980's and moved to suburbia. If nothing else, this show had the balls to complain ON THE AIR when the network screwed it: When ABC moved it to another time slot, they advertised the move with one of those silly ads where the characters comment on their own show. Only in this ad, the silliness was dead serious. The queen stepmother (who was named Lillian) announces proudly: "Guess What? I've used my magic to move our show to a new day & time!" After she announces the new time slot, Prince Charming angrily yells, "Lillian! That's opposite The Cosby's!" Probably the only time in the history of television where an ad for a TV show was also a complaint about the network it was on.
  Wow, I didn't think I'd find this show on here. I thought it was pretty cute. In one episode, Bernie Kopel (Doc, from Love Boat) guest stars as a... DOCTOR! So he is making a house call, and on the way out, he notices Mr. Charming (who was TOTALLY HOT) watching The Love Boat. So Doc stops and says, "Oh, the Love Boat. Sheesh. Grown men in knee-socks, how ridiculous." Now that's FUNNY! I loved this banal, stupid show. Guess it tells ya sumthin' 'bout me, huh?
  I enjoyed this show back in the day (I was only 12) and I thought that no one ever remembered it. I especially enjoyed the episode where the Charmings rang up a ton of consumer debt and then when they found they couldn't pay for it they were screwed...until they found that gold was worth money and they had a bunch of gold bars in the closet. Such a clever plot twist wouldn't ya say.
  I liked this show a lot, it was sweet and the prince was HOT!! There should be a category on this site for shows that were killed by being scheduled during The Cosby Show in the 80s. Man, EVERYONE watched that show! But yeah, I remember the Charmings and appreciated it for it's originality.
  The Charmings was one of the most creative ideas on TV--a dumb concept that actually worked in execution. Our family still enjoys watching it on tape and would love to find more of the old episodes. Maybe TV Land will pick it up? It's timeless--it could run today. It never jumped! It died too soon.
  When Caitlin O'Heany was replaced as Snow White. The second Snow, I don't even remember her name, Just didn't seem as funny or as sexy as Caitlin. Up until then this was one of the funniest shows that most people never saw. An amusing concept played very straight which made it even funnier. I wish tv land or someone would rerun this forgotten gem.
  The Charmings is my all time favorite television show. I have all 21 episodes on tape and still love watching them. This show needs to get on TV Land soon, Columbia TriStar television own it and it is up for syndication! I preferred Carol Huston in the role of Snow White, but Judy Parfitt and Paul Winfield stole the show as Lillian and her magic Mirror!
  I am forever indebted to the Webmasters of this site for proving my memory correct. No one knew what I was talking about, and I've been known to dream of imaginary shows before, but this had been bothering me for years (although I seem to remember the show being syndicated). Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
  I'm also glad to know that I'm not crazy and imagining things. I was only 7-8 years old when I used to watch this show. It's amazing that I understood the humor, because it seems as if adults were the main audience (which is surprising). To the person who has "all 21 episodes", can we hook up? I wanna get/buy them from you...
  When Snow White was replaced. I hate that. They did that to Diff'rent Strokes as well. It was cancelled shortly after that. Coincidence? I doubt it.
  Fairy tale creations in the modern day world? What the heck were they thinking? I mean c'mon 1 dwarf who wore hawaiian shirts and the guy from Murphy Brown as Prince Charming. That was a DUMB, DUMB, DUMB show. I remember the the set up and the promotional ads and how they tried to make it feel like the Munsters even though it really stunk. I only remember one set in the whole show. And why would they let the mother-in-law who hated Snow White move in with them. DUMB!!!!!!!
  A vastly, nigh-*criminally* underrated program, sacrificed on the pitiless ratings altar of the (then-)almighty "Huxtable" family of COSBY infamy. The grumpy dwarf character -- played, if I remember correctly, by underutilized comedian Corky Hubert -- was a particular favorite!
  I also can't believe that I found this show on the site, but if it was going to be found anywhere, this would be the place. Did anyone else notice that when The Fresh Prince of Bel Air came one, Geoffrey the Butler was the same actor as the "Mirror Mirror on the Wall" guy?
  I too agree that the show never jumped. (It was never on long enough to.) I just wanted to correct a previous post; Joseph Marcel played Geoffrey on Fresh Prince while Paul Winfield played the mirror on the Charmings.
  This was a great show. I loved it when Eric said, "That Cindy (Cinderella) sure could party". Anyway the show was killed by a huge corporation that I'll call Dis-Stone. These money grubbing scum, filed lawsuits against the show, claiming that THEY owed "Snow White". In reality, Dis-Stone took the idea from the Brothers Grimm.
  I was so in love with this show. I was only 6 when it came out, but I still annoy my family talking about it. I am glad to see there still people out there who enjoyed it as much as I did. To the person out there with all 21 episodes, have you considered selling a copy of it on ebay? I would buy it!
  This show wasn't really on long enough to jump. It was pretty decent despite a silly premise. Judy Parfitt and Paul Winfield were excellent as the Evil Queen and her Mirror on the Wall.
  Never jumped, and, unless Disney wises up and realizes what a little goldmine it has in its archives, never will. The Charmings was my wife's all-time favorite sitcom, and snippets of dialog from the show still make her laugh. (When Eric the prince wanted to cuss, he always said "Fee-fie-foh-fum" -- when one of his kids told Snow what "daddy said," her response was "The F-Word!" Still makes me chuckle. I'm on the side of those who would love to see this on one of the classic TV cable nets. "The Charmings" surely were.
  Granted, this was a silly show. But at least it had originality, heart, and strong moral lessons about how important family is (despite the rather cliched mother-in-law as witch stereotype--no one could do it as well as Agnes Moorehead in Bewitched). I recently found some of these shows on unmarked tapes in my VCR collection. One was the show about the Charmings getting robbed by two teenagers, and this was shown on Channel 8 in Dallas. The others I videotaped from Ha!, which eventually joined the Comedy Channel to form Comedy Central. Ha! did this show as part of their sitcom sanctuary afternoon line-up. It must have had some kind of audience because the shows that followed the Charmings were When Things Were Rotten (at first) and then Tabitha became the follow-up show. They still kept the Charmings until the merge into Comedy Central. My favorite episode is when Lillian turns the boys into wooden statues and can't remember how to change them back. Good silly interplay between her and the Mirror. Judy Parfitt was a national treasure in England with her appearances on Yes, Minister and The Avengers. This role helped her gain an American audience, and she became a breakout supporting actress in Delores Claiborne (as the bitchy rich woman who gives Delores the idea to kill her husband) and on ER (as the Englishwoman's mother). Any show that can give Americans the chance to see such an outstanding actress can't be all bad (and only Judy could have played Lillian).
  A fairy tale family living in modern times should've been a disaster but I remember liking this show a lot. The evil queen and magic mirror played by very gifted veteran actors, a raven named Quoth and the possibility of guest-stars from other fairy tales...great stuff. The actress who played Cindy was sooo hot. Shame she never got her own show. Switching actresses as Snow must not have been a big deal as I only remembered when reading previous posts. I would also love to get my hands on tapes of this series.
  This show never had a chance to jump. It was on too short. It was a very funny premise about fairy tale characters living in the "real" world (actually, that sounds like most sitcoms!) Very funny and cute if you have a wacky sense of humor. I thought the Mirror was the coolest.
  I loved this show when i was really young, but one episode scared the bejesus out of me: the Devil was staying at their house and only Mr charming thought that there was something strange about him. He was warned 'beware of the man with no reflection'- that left me psychologically scarred!
  I loved this show, I thought it was absolutely hilarious, all the cast were good, especially the wicked Queen and her Mirror. I wish it had lasted more than one series. I wish they'd repeat it again in the UK, I have seven episodes on video but would love to record the rest.