I’m spending a lot of time looking for a new job, so there aren’t many new updates to share this week.

One that I wanted to highlight specifically was an addition to the shop, a rare, third soundtrack CD containing music by Dan Davis, who did the majority of orchestration for Beauty and the Beast after Lee Holdridge orchestrated the theme song and soundtrack for the first episode.

It contains oddball tracks attributed to Paracelsus and Gabriel, in minor, sad, pensive, evil keys that won’t warm anyone’s heart. But for the fan who must have everything, or are simply curious, order info is now available in the shop.

In 1987, television was evolving. Thanks to Hill Street Blues, the way dramatic stories were presented became more complex, the storytelling more diverse and the stories more compressed. The subject matter was also starting to broaden, moving beyond cops, lawyers and doctors. It was just before the SF wave kicked off with Star Trek: The Next Generation but that didn’t stop CBS from trying something a little different.

On a Friday night, September 25, 1987, audiences were treated to a different look at the classic Beauty and the Beast tale. The series starred Ron Perlman as Vincent, the beast, a mutant of some sort, who comes to the rescue of Linda Hamilton’s Catherine, a rich girl turned assistant district attorney. Their connection became the stuff of fairy tale and from that pilot episode, their fates became inextricable.

It had all the lush romance of a Harlequin book and the action to keep spouses by their side. The series had its ups and downs, making a star out of Hamilton who left the series after just two seasons, derailing the eternal romance. Jo Anderson was brought in for the third season but that, coupled with CBS’s insistence on increased action for the males, hurt and the series came to an end in January 1990 (although the final two were run that summer). Its 56 episodes remain a testament to the creative vision of creator Ron Koslow and fantasist George R.R. Martin who wound up penning 13 of the episodes.

Paramount Home Video has released a 16-disc box set of the complete series and it shows its age. Beauty and the Beast has the look and feel of the 1980s without fully embracing the changing storytelling in television. The storytelling is slow, almost plodding at times, and each week they seemed to focus on some new social ill without really offering long-term solutions. The threats were fairly standard stuff for the most part, intertwined with the poetry between the characters. Complete with lush music, long, lingering gazes into character’s eyes, it was truly a romance novel brought to the screen.

On the other hand, one is reminded all over again about how the show worked with the characters and was probably the first prime time series to introduce a unique mythology. Much of this unfolds during season two and strengthened the series overall.

Vincent came from the world below. Across the first season we got glimpses of where Vincent was raised and at first it appeared to be a place where the homeless gathered in the tunnels under the city. But, as we got to know Father (Roy Dotrice) and the other denizens, we learned there was so much more to the series. They communicated by tapping on the pipes with Pascal as the operator. (The series also gave us the first real glimpse of Armin Shimmerman’s gifts.) But not everyone who came to live below was as benevolent. No, there was John Pater, come to be known as Paracelsus, who helped build the society with Father, only to find they had different goals and Paracelsus was exiled and became a recurring threat to the entire civilization.

The World Below was clearly an idealized society, welcoming to all including the “deformed” Vincent, and people in need of help. We learned that they had tangible support from “Helpers” from Above, making their worlds interconnected in interesting ways.

Through it all, Vincent and Catherine saved one another, discussed their feelings with one another, and did everything in soft tones with strings playing in the background. Catherine wasn’t all weepy, though. After her attack, Catherine learned self-defense and became scrappy in a fight until she needed too-often saving by the feral Vincent.

The World Above had threats of its own including Stephen McHattie’s Gabriel who ran the drug running operation that led to Catherine’s death. He also took the love child of Vincent and Catherine which became the running line for the shortened third season.

Rewatching the series is mixed. Some of it is slow and meandering, while the romance remains strong. The DVDs come with little in the way of extras. Hamilton and Perelman introduce six of the season two episodes, taken from the original season set. A bonus disc has Vincent’s love letters to Catherine broken out with stock footage and superimposed florid script. Newly constructed letters are read by someone other than Perelman. An interactive game completes the disc but it’s largely a trivia game disguised as a quest to save Catherine (an all too common plot from the series).

It’s a handsome box set and if you loved the show once upon a time, you’ll feel warm all over again. If you come seeing what all the fuss is about, bear in mind when it was made.On the other hand, one is reminded all over again about how the show worked with the characters and was probably the first prime time series to introduce a unique mythology. Much of this unfolds during season two and strengthened the series overall.

Vincent came from the world below. Across the first season we got glimpses of where Vincent was raised and at first it appeared to be a place where the homeless gathered in the tunnels under the city. But, as we got to know Father (Roy Dotrice) and the other denizens, we learned there was so much more to the series. They communicated by tapping on the pipes with Pascal as the operator. (The series also gave us the first real glimpse of Armin Shimmerman’s gifts.) But not everyone who came to live below was as benevolent. No, there was John Pater, come to be known as Paracelsus, who helped build the society with Father, only to find they had different goals and Paracelsus was exiled and became a recurring threat to the entire civilization.

The World Below was clearly an idealized society, welcoming to all including the “deformed” Vincent, and people in need of help. We learned that they had tangible support from “Helpers” from Above, making their worlds interconnected in interesting ways.

Through it all, Vincent and Catherine saved one another, discussed their feelings with one another, and did everything in soft tones with strings playing in the background. Catherine wasn’t all weepy, though. After her attack, Catherine learned self-defense and became scrappy in a fight until she needed too-often saving by the feral Vincent.

The World Above had threats of its own including Stephen McHattie’s Gabriel who ran the drug running operation that led to Catherine’s death. He also took the love child of Vincent and Catherine which became the running line for the shortened third season.

Rewatching the series is mixed. Some of it is slow and meandering, while the romance remains strong. The DVDs come with little in the way of extras. Hamilton and Perelman introduce six of the season two episodes, taken from the original season set. A bonus disc has Vincent’s love letters to Catherine broken out with stock footage and superimposed florid script. Newly constructed letters are read by someone other than Perelman. An interactive game completes the disc but it’s largely a trivia game disguised as a quest to save Catherine (an all too common plot from the series).

It’s a handsome box set and if you loved the show once upon a time, you’ll feel warm all over again. If you come seeing what all the fuss is about, bear in mind when it was made.

170 pages posted here so far, and I populated the right sidebar with all sorts of links. Whee!

I uploaded a few more articles and bios to the Meta Section, all attributed to their original authors and sorted by date, rather than alphabetically.

There’re some things I’ll “someday” finish–I’m either low on motivation, or am stuck on how to bring ideas to life:

• MMO. Someday I want to make a 3D representation of the worlds below and above, a persistant game that multiple people can log into, interact with themselves, and NPCs, have quests, and all that good stuff. You can thank too many years playing Asheron’s Call and Flyff for this persistant brainfart.
• Animated episodes. I bought Anime Studio Pro just for this idea.
• More Virtual Tunnels. It’s neat to have a clickable way to navigate through common areas depicted in the show. I’d like to stretch the tunnels much further, make forays into the world above. I’m trying to find a javascript that works with WordPress so that I can depict both day and night scenes, depending on the local time on one’s computer. I like making things like this more submersive than most would bother with.
• Games. It’s hard to find customizable Flash scripts that would pertain in even small ways to the Beauty and the Beast universe, and hard to find Javascript games that work on WordPress without “breaking” them.
• More videos. Of course I’m always looking for inspiration for more music videos. I also have goofy ideas like making “silent movie” episodes out of the entire series, or remixing words to make “new” episodes out of the old ones. Dunno, just another brainfart gone berzerk.
• I’d really like to make this place more interactive. Chat, or events, or polls, or contests, something that isn’t covered by other sites out there. I pride myself on using highly original ideas. There’s still a lot of stuff out there that hasn’t been done yet that I’d love to get into.

Anyway, there’s a rather lengthy, scary look inside my head. :D

(source: an official press release from Witt-Thomas Productions in 1989.)

Ron Koslow is creator and executive consultant for “Beauty and the Beast,” the contemporary fable filled with action, suspense and romance, which airs Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM (ET) on the CBS Television Network.

Born in Denver, Ron spent his early life in St. Louis and moved to Los Angeles with his family when he was ten years old. He attended the University of California at Berkeley and the UCLA film school and became a member of the California Bar after earning a law degree at Loyola University.

While still in college, Koslow wrote and sold the screenplay for “Lifeguard,” the 1976 Paramount feature starring Sam Elliott and Anne Archer. Among his other film credits are “Firstborn,” featuring Teri Garr and Peter Weller, which he wrote and co-produced in 1984 with Peter Junger Witt and Tony Thomas, and “Into the Night,” starring Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dan Aykroyd and David Bowie, which he wrote and produced the following year.

His TV writing credits include the motion-pictures-for-television “Lady of the House,” starring Dyan Cannon, and “Swan Song,” starring David Soul.

Koslow currently makes his home in Santa Monica.

(source: an official press release from Witt-Thomas Productions in 1989.)

Jo Anderson stars as Diana Bennett, a maverick homicide detective who is called upon by the District Attorney’s office to solve some of New York City’s most difficult cases on “Beauty and the Beast,” a contemporary fable filled with action, suspense and romance, airing Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM (ET) on the CBS Television Network. In the hour-long dramatic series, Bennett is a highly respected member of the city’s Special Crimes unit who prefers to work alone. Willing to take on impossible cases that no one else will touch, she pursues the mystery of Catherine Chandler’s disappearance and death.

Jo Anderson recently starred in the NBC series “Dream Street,” n which she portrayed Marianne McKinney, a teacher and single mother in a blue-collar town. “Dream Street’s” producers, Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, also cast Anderson in last year’s premiere episode of their Emmy-winning drama “Thirty-Something” as the ghost of a woman who Hope reads about in a journal.

Born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, Anderson was one of four children in a creative family, and studied dance for years while growing up. She attended Adelphi University on Long Island, after which she studied mime and other theater arts at the Valley studio in Winsconsin. She established herself as an actress in New York, and began studying with the actor Michael Moriarty, who claims she is “as gifted as any actress of her generation and, what’s even more surprising, she writes as beautifully as she performs.” Working with Moriarty proved to be the turning point in Jo’s professional career, and she continues to study with him.

Anderson starred in a number of theatrical productions in New York, and was also a writer/poet who participated in readings throughout the city. Her writing culminated in a one-woman show she wrote and performed under Moriarty’s guidance in 1985 called “Marie,” in which she portrayed Madame Curie. This was a work-in-progress which she later performed at the Actor’s Studio in Los Angeles.

Jo Anderson moved to Los Angeles two-and-a-half years ago from New York.

(source: an official press release from Witt-Thomas Productions in 1989.)

Edward Albert portrays Elliot Burch, self-made real estate tycoon and former suitor of Catherine, in “Beauty and the Beast,” the hour-long fantasy-drama filled with action, suspense and romance, airing Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM (ET) on the CBS Television Network.

A gifted actor and accomplished musician, Albert rose to fame at the age of 21, when he starred opposite Goldie Hawn in the highly successful feature “Butterflies Are Free.” The role brought him national recognition and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

Since that time, Albert has worked practically non-stop on stage, screen, and television. He has enjoyed a wide range of starring roles in such recent features as Touchstone Films’ “The Rescue,” the phsychological thriller “Mind Games,” and the free-wheeling comedy “Night School.” Among his other film credits are “The Domino Principle,” “Forty Carats,” “Midway,” “The Greek Tycoon,” “When Time Ran Out” and “The Squeeze.” Fluent in Spanish, Italian and French, he has starred in motion pictures all over the world, and his work has been recognized with several prestigious international awards, including two Golden Eagles and a Golden Palm.

On television, he has appeared in a number of movies and miniseries, including “Walking Tall,” “Kung Fu,” “Blood Feud,” “The Last Convertible” and “Black Beauty,” and was a series regular on “Falcon Crest,” “Brothers” and “The Yellow Rose.” In addition, he starred in the Emmy Award-winning AfterSchool special, “Daddy Can’t Read,” which dealt with the problem of adult illiteracy.

Born Edward Laurence Albert, he was named after his famed actor father, Eddie Albert, and godfather, Sir Laurence Olivier. After making his acting debut at age 11 with a starring role opposite Hal Holbrook in the film “The Fool Killer,” Albert spent his formative years developing his skills as a musician. He went on to study Shakespeare on scholarship, both at Oxford and Stratford-on-Avon, and enrolled at UCLA as a psychology major upon his return to California. During this time, he supported himself working as a session drummer for Ry Cooder, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez and Booker T., before landing his role in “Butterflies Are Free.”

For almost 20 years, Albert has made his home on a ranch with a panoramic view of the Pacific, far from the madding crowd of Hollywood. He and his wife, English actress Kate Woodville, and their daughter Thais, share their land with a menagerie of animals. recently, they launched Hawks Ranch Sport Horses, a combined breeding, showing and training facility run by Kate. Edward contributes a significant amount of time to fundraising activities, notably Plaza De La Raza, a bi-lingual cultural center for Hispanic children, started by his late mother, famed Hispanic actress Margo.

(source: an official press release from Witt-Thomas Productions in 1989.)

Jay Acovone returns as straight-talking Deputy District Attorney Joe Maxwell in “Beauty and the Beast,” a contemporary fable filled with acton, suspense and romance, airing Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM (ET) on the CBS Television Network.”

Acovone was born in Mahopac, New York, 50 miles north of New York City. He began his career in local theater and later studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

While working in New York, he landed the roles of Cliff Matson on “As the World Turns” and Brian Emerson on “Search for Tomorrow.”

In 1985, he moved to Los Angeles after being cast as Jack Rado in the Spelling/Kramer production, “Hollywood Beat.” He has since made guest appearances on such television series as “Wolf,” “Matlock,” “Werewolf,” and “Down and Out in Bevery Hills,” and co-starred in the CBS telefilm “Parole.”

He co-starred with Susan Sarandon in the CBS movie “Women of Valor,” and was seen as Quartermaster Maselli in ABC’s “War and Remembrance.”

Jay’s feature film credits include a co-starring role in “Cruising,” with “Al Pacino, and a starring role in “Cold Steel,” with Brad Davis and Sharon Stone. This past summer, Jay starred in “On Tina Tuna Walk,” a play directed by Peter Pope of “Torch Song Trilogy” fame.

Taking time out of his busy schedule, Jay plays second base for the Hollywood All-Stars softball team. In addition, he is a founding member of hte Friends of Karen, an organization that helps raise funds to aid families with terminally ill members. Jay and his wife, manager Fonda St. Paul, currently make their home in Los Angeles.

(source: an official press release from Witt-Thomas Productions in 1989.)

Roy Dotrice stars as Father, the brilliant recluse who has given up life Above for a home in the secret chambers and tunnels beneath New York City in “Beauty and the Beast,” a contemporary fable filled with action, suspense and romance airing Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM (ET) on the CBS Television Network. In this hour-long fantasy-drama series, Father is Vincent’s wise and protective surrogate parent, having raised him underground from the time he was abandoned as an infant. He is the founder of the utopian society which exists Below, and serves as mentor and guide to all the inhabitants of this subterranean world.

A native of England, Dotrice did not even consider acting until his capture by the Germans in World War II. Only 16 years of age and already a member of the armed forces, he was assigned to play Mio in Maxwell Anderson’s “Winterset” during his internment in Stalag Luft III. A POW for 3 1/2 years, he continued to act and play the game of baseball as taught to him by his American fellow prisoners.

Between 1945 and 1958, Dotrice acted in and/or directed more than 500 repertory productions. In 1959, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where he performed with such highly acclaimed artists as Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, John Gielgud, Paul Scofield and Paul Robeson. He also brought his love of baseball to the troupe by putting together a team comprised of his fellow actors.

After playing lead roles for eight years in both Stratford and London, he went on to appear in more than 20 productions in the West End, and in numerous Broadway plays including the record-breaking one-man show “Brief Lives,” which ran for 1700 performances. Dotrice received a Tony nomination for his acclaimed work in “A Life.”

A veteran of more than a dozen films, he was cast as Leopold Mozart in the Oscar-winning feature “Amadeus.”

His television credits include the one-man productions of “Mister Lincoln” and PBS’ highly acclaimed “Dickens of London,” as well as a recurring roll in the CBS-TV series, “The Wizard,” and guest appearance on “Magnum P.I.,” “Remington Steele,” “The A-Team,” and “Hart to Hart.”

He appeared in the telefilm, “Family Reunion,” starring Bette Davis, and played the Tramp in Pinter’s Emmy Award-winning production “The Caretaker.” In 1968, he was voted Television Actor of the Year for “Brief Lives.”

Over the recent hiatus, Dotrice starred in “The Lady Forgets,” a CBS movie-for-television, and had a lead role in a “Nightmore Classics” production for Showtime.

Married for 43 years to actress Kay Newman, Dotrice and his wife have three daughters, all of whom are actresses, and is the father-in-law of Edward Woodward, star of CBS Television’s “The Equalizer.” He and his wife currently maintain homes in London and Los Angeles.

(source: an official press release from Witt-Thomas Productions in 1989.)

Linda Hamilton stars as Catherine Chandler, the beautiful and strong-willed attorney who renounces her place in Manhattan’s high society to become an investigator for the New York District Attorney’s Office in “Beauty and the Beast,” a contemporary fable filled with action, suspense and romance airing Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM (ET) on the CBS Television Network. The role brought Ms. Hamilton a 1989 Emmy Award nomination and a 1988 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series.

Widely recognized for her starring performance opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Orion’s hit feature “The Terminator,” Miss Hamilton also starred in the motion picture “Black Moon Rising” with Tommy Lee Jones, and in Stephen King’s “Children of the Corn.” In 1988, she starred in the CBS-TV movie “Go Toward the Light” with Richard Thomas and Piper Laurie, in which she played the mother of a hemophiliac child who contracts AIDS. Her additional credits include the television movie “Secret Weapons” and guest-starring roles on several episodes of “Hill Street Blues.”

Linda was born on September 26, 1956 in Salisbury, on the Maryland Eastern Shore, where she lived until she went off to college. She became involved in acting as a child, working with children’s theater groups. Following high school, she studied for two years at Washington College in Maryland, after which she moved to New York City to study acting. She was admitted to workshops at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, and also studied with Nicholas Ray. She appeared in student productions of “Richard III” and “A View from the Bridge” and made her professional bow with an appearance in the daytime television drama “Search for Tomorrow.”

In the summer of 1979, she moved to Hollywood where she starred in the CBS motion pictures-for-television “Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case” with Mickey Rourke, and “Country Gold.” During production of the feature film “T.A.G.–The Assassination Game,” she met Bruce Abbott, an actor who was playing a psychopath trying to kill her on camera. Off camera, he wound up marrying her on December 19, 1982.

Miss Hamilton has an older sister, an identical twin sister (who is a registered nurse) and a younger brother. Her father, who died when she was five years old, was a physician. Her stepfather, now retired, was the police chief of Salisbury.

Away from work, Linda relaxes by reading, interior decorating and playing Scrabble. She’s a red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers fan and a lifelong lover of horses. She and her husband and their infant son, Dalton Abbott, make their home in Los Angeles.