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Beauty and the Beast is a 1980s CBS TV series, loosely inspired by the fairy tale of the same name but set in modern-day New York City. The series lasted from September 1987 to August 1990. A total of 56 episodes in three seasons.
The premise was simple. Catherine Chandler (Linda Hamilton), a lawyer, is abducted, beaten, slashed and left to die in Central Park. She is then rescued by Vincent (Ron Perlman), a member of a secret community of outcasts living in tunnels under the city. The series then focused partly on the attraction between the two characters, and partly on the cases Catherine encountered in her new career. Said career being the role of Assistant District Attorney, facing crime drama situations.
Many of the episodes were penned by none other than George R. R. Martin, now famous for his A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels.
The CW commissioned a reboot of the series with a more urban super-hero spin and Kristin Kreuk as Catherine, which debuted in 2012 and had four seasons.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Sometimes it's the sewers. Sometimes it's the storm drains, and sometimes it's an abandoned section of the subways, the show wasn't very consistent about this.
- Almost Kiss
- Beast and Beauty: Obviously. But not uncreatively — although she's the beauty and he's the beast, a lot of the time it's him bringing out the best in her.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Subverted: Vincent is kind and sweet, and his appearance doesn't change, in the beginning Catherine was shallow and petty and Vincent's kindness gave her something more to live for.
- Beneath the Earth
- Big Damn Heroes: Vincent.
- Blind and the Beast: Catherine has her eyes covered with bandages when she first meets Vincent, and has fallen in love with him by the time her eyesight has been restored.
- Comet of Doom
- Death by Childbirth:
- Vincent's mother.
- Devin's mother, which keeps Father from acknowledging Devin as his son until he becomes an adult.
- Hell, even Catherine suffered this in the end. She didn't die directly afterwards but she never got to hold the kid and died in Vincent's arms.
- For Halloween I Am Going as Myself: Vincent gets to wander around in the episode "Masquerades", and he and Catherine almost kiss at dawn, until they are spotted by a jogger who comments, "Halloween was last night, man!"
- Gold Fever
- Heartbroken Badass
- Homage: Vincent's appearance resembles that of the Beast in Jean Cocteau's 1946 film version of the fairy tale.
- The Load: Catherine, at times, due to her tendency to get in trouble so Vincent can rescue her.
- Mindlink Mates
- Mr. Fanservice: Despite his appearance (or perhaps because of it) Vincent is dead sexy.
- Opening Narration
- Rescue Romance
- Re Tool: After Catherine dies, the show goes from a romantic narrative to a mystery/crime drama. This did not go over well with fans.
- Romantic False Lead: Wealthy developer Elliot Burch is briefly this for Catherine.
- Runaway Fiancée
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man
- Star-Crossed Lovers
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Diana Bennett replaces Catherine Chandler in the final season. Though in the new dynamic, Vincent had no romantic bond at all with Diana, while her budding attraction to him was mostly just suggested by her having a recurrent dream about him.
- Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats
- Unstoppable Rage
- Urban Fantasy