Terrible Shows I Like: The Charmings

I haven't done one of these pieces in a while. But in the wake of the recent crash-and-burn of Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White, it seemed like a fitting time to look back at an earlier attempt to put a contemporary spin on that classic fairy tale. It wasn’t successful either – just 21 episodes over two abbreviated seasons – but at least it didn’t cost $300 million to make.

The premise of The Charmings was explained in the opening credits: Snow White and Prince Charming (aka “Eric”) were married with two kids, but her wicked stepmother Lillian cast a spell that put them to sleep for a thousand years. The spell also affected Lillian and one dwarf the same way, and when they all woke up they found themselves living in the same house in the Los Angeles suburbs, circa 1987.

The first episode opens not long after that event, with everyone still wearing fairy tale appropriate clothes, and struggling to adjust to life in modern-day America. What follows are many of the same fish-out-of-water tropes that were delightfully portrayed in the 2007 Disney film Enchanted.

Caitlin O’Heaney played Snow White in the six episodes that comprised the show’s first season but was replaced by Carol Huston in season two. Not a good switch in my view, as O’Heaney brought more of the wide-eyed innocence that Amy Adams brought to Giselle in Enchanted.

Christopher Rich played Eric, always balancing along the fine line between worthily steadfast and blissfully clueless. In the first episode, one of his sons is sent home from school after claiming his father once dated Cinderella. When someone from the school arrives to check out the kid’s home life, Eric is tempted to lie, and tell the counselor what he expects to hear, but this would be a bad example to set for his children. Instead, he gladly recounts his dating history: “Rapunzel, she’d let her hair down for anyone. Now, Cindy, she could get a little wild at a party and forget a shoe, but…”

In an upstairs bedroom, Lillian (Judy Parfitt) schemes with occasional help from her sharp-tongued magic mirror, played by Paul Winfield, likely causing many viewers to wonder what an Academy Award nominee is doing in this series. But Winfield seems to be having a great time slumming in such a silly show.

Episodes explore how the Charmings learn about everything from Halloween to credit cards. And as expected with this premise we get the outsider’s perspective on our culture – sometimes seen as one filled with delights and miracles, and other times one hopelessly confusing and misguided. But you’ve never seen a family more excited about adding call waiting to their landline.

It's not an overlooked classic or a series that deserved a better fate. But it establishes the territory it wants to play in and makes the most of it. Snow and Eric are sweet but not too sweet, naïve but not dumb. And Lillian is mean but never really nasty, even when her mirror keeps giving different answers to her “who’s the fairest of them all” question, none of which she wants to hear (“That Christie Brinkley is looking pretty fine!”). My favorite is when he holds up a phone book to list all the women better looking than her (“These are just the ones from the greater Los Angeles area”).

If you’re interested the whole series has been uploaded to YouTube by some kindhearted soul. No, it’s never as wonderful as Enchanted, but given the choice I’d much rather watch The Charmings again than Rachel Ziegler’s girl-boss princess and her nightmare fuel dwarves.