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Once Upon A Time |OT| Happy Endings Gone Forever More

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Sunday Nights - 8 Eastern / 7 Central on ABC | Two Minute Trailer (YouTube)

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Synopsis: (spoilers for episode 1)

On the wedding day of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin), and Prince Charming (Joshua Dallas), the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) arrives and delivers an ominous threat about a powerful curse she intends to release upon them. Some time later, a pregnant Snow White is worried about the curse and visits Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) who issues a prophecy that the Queen's curse will take them all someplace terrible where there will be no happy endings. He also reveals that Snow White's unborn daughter, Emma, will return when she is 28 years old to rescue them, thus beginning the final battle with the Queen. On advice from the Blue Fairy, Geppetto (Tony Amendola) and Pinocchio create a magical cupboard which will allow one person to escape the Queen's curse. On the day Snow White gives birth to her daughter, the Queen's curse strikes. Prince Charming places their daughter in the magic cupboard, but is mortally wounded in the process. The Queen stands triumphantly over Snow White and Prince Charming as the curse takes them to "someplace horrible".

In present day Boston, Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) lives a lonely existence working as a bail bondsman and bounty hunter. She is approached by a ten year old boy, Henry, who identifies himself as her son, who she had given up for adoption as a teenager. Not wanting a relationship with him, Emma agrees to drive him back to his home in Storybrooke, Maine. Along the way, Henry shows her a large book of fairy tales he has, insisting that all of the stories in it are real. When they arrive in Storybrooke, Henry informs her that everyone in town is in reality a fairy tale character, exiled by the curse and with no memory of their real identities. This includes his therapist, who is really Jiminy Cricket, and his teacher Mary Margaret Blanchard, who is really Snow White. He claims that time is frozen in Storybrooke and the people are unable to leave, but that the curse will be broken by Emma. A skeptical Emma returns Henry to his adopted mother, the town Mayor, who is really the Evil Queen. When Henry soon runs away again, Emma finds him and decides to stay in Storybrooke temporarily. This decision causes the hands of the town clock, previously frozen, to begin moving again.

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Production:

Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis conceived Once Upon A Time seven years prior joining the writing staff of Lost, but wanted to wait until that series was over to focus on this project. The script was picked up to pilot on February 4, 2011. ABC commissioned a series, airing from fall 2011 on Sundays at 8/7 Central.

In May 2011, Jane Espenson was added as a co-executive producer and Liz Tigelaar was brought on as a consulting producer. Damon Lindelof served as a consultant on the show's pilot. Kitsis described Lindelof as his and Horowitz's "godfather", while Horowitz said that Lindelof's "name isn't on the show, but his DNA is in it," and that he will continue to advise the two. They also noted that Disney has allowed them access to their fairy tale characters for use in the series. "They've given us license," Kitsis said. "I could be wrong, but I think this is the first time anyone's shown Snow White with a sword, or pregnant."

Both Horowitz and Kitsis later emphasized that the series will focus more on the characters themselves and won't feature a "complex" storyline, which reportedly was the primary focus. "We don't want this to be a mythology show," said Kitsis. "It's about characters and characters first."

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Reason why you might like this:

- It has Breaking Bad's Gus as a Magic Frikkin' Mirror
- Robert Carlyle as is goddamn Rumplestiltskin
- No other reasons are needed

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CAST: (probably more episode 1 spoilers :/)

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Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan: a 28-year-old bail bonds collector who learns that she holds the key to saving the Real World and the Enchanted Forest. Emma is the daughter of Prince Charming/John Doe and Snow White/Sister Mary Margaret Blanchard, and is Henry's real mother. Emma was sent from the Enchanted Forest because Prince Charming and Snow White wanted to protect her from the curse made by the Evil Queen.

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Jared Gilmore as Henry: Emma's son whom she gave up for adoption ten years earlier. Henry learns the truth behind Storybrooke from a book of fairy tales and finds his biological mother with the hopes of convincing her to save the Enchanted Forest. He is the grandson of Prince Charming and Snow White/John Doe and Sister Mary Margaret Blanchard. He is the foster son of The Evil Queen/Regina Mills who cursed his grandparents and everyone else.

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Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Sister Mary Margaret Blanchard: the eponymous character and main protagonist from the fairy tale and Emma's biological mother who becomes Henry's elementary school teacher in the Real World. Snow White is also Henry's grandmother because Emma is her daughter with her husband Prince Charming/John Doe.

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Joshua Dallas as Prince Charming/John Doe: the hero of the Snow White fairy tale, the leader of the Enchanted Forest's War Council and Emma's biological father who becomes an unknown comatose patient at Storybrooke General Hospital in the Real World. Prince Charming is also Henry's grandfather because Emma is his daughter with his wife Snow White/Sister Mary Maragaret Blanchard.

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Lana Parrilla as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills: the icily beautiful antagonist of the Snow White fairy tale who becomes Henry's foster mother and Storybrooke's mayor in the Real World. The Evil Queen/Regina knows that Emma is the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White/John Doe and Sister Mary Margaret Blacnhard who are also Henry's grandparents, and is determined to keep Emma away from Henry despite her neglect of the boy.

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Jamie Dornan as Sheriff Graham: Storybrooke's handsome and authoritative sheriff with a mysterious past.

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Raphael Sbarge as Jiminy Cricket/Archie Hopper: the cricket from Pinocchio who becomes Storybrooke's eccentric, yet bookish, human resident psychiatrist in the Real World. In animated form, he is Jiminy Cricket in The Enchanted Forest and a member of the War Council.

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Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold: the eponymous character and main antagonist from the fairy tale who becomes Storybrooke's wealthiest resident and pawnshop owner in the Real World. He also help build (and owns) the entire town.

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Giancarlo Esposito as the Magic Mirror/Sydney: A spirit imprisoned by the Evil Queen who becomes a reporter for Storybrooke's local newspaper The Daily Mirror in the Real World
 
Fusebox said:

Writers have said they are aware it, and "read a couple issues," but state that while the two concepts are "in the same playground," they believe they are "telling a different story."
 

Icicle

Member
Anybody interested in this show should definitely check out The 10th Kingdom.

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It was a mini-series on NBC that aired in 2000 with a fairly similar premise. It has since been released on DVD, so it's pretty easy to find. The whole thing is 7 hours long, replete with light-hearted humor, romance, and of course the fairy tales that tie everything together. One of my most watched movies of all time, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
 
blahblah...blah said:
Such a good cast, such a shit show :(

Why the hate? Seems like a god premise to me, and the pilot (streaming here) was good, setting up loads of stuff. Obviously, there is better stuff on stuff like some pay channels, but this seems like a great network show - and at the very least it is not goddamn all-out procedural.
 
Ultratech said:
Reading everything in the OP...this is wildly confusing.

The basic plot (which unfolds in the pilot) is that in
FairyTale Land (or whatever it is called) Prince Charming gets Snow White preggers, and the Evil Queen is pissed. So she casts a spell on them that means when the the child is born, there will be "no more happy endings"

This spell results in moving everyone in Fairy Tale Land to the real world, with non of them having any recollection of their past. For these people, time is also stuck forever at on point - so they have not aged since the move

However, Snow White's baby was moved to the real world before the spell kicked in, and she grew up in Boston and is now 28. She had a child when she was 18, but put it up for adoption, and he somehow ended up with Regina Mills (who is The Evil Witch that initially cast the spell).

Once you watch the pilot, the confusing premise kinda makes sense. It reminded me of Jounreyman because of this, as it had a similar crazy idea that makes sense as it explained well on the show.

The whole pilot is pretty much a set up to get the characters in the right locations to for the show to continue with a few procedural stories - although hopefully not too many.

I am hoping for good things.
 

CyReN

Member
The pilot was on my plane trip I took last week, wasn't that good from what I saw. I kinda expected more from it with some of the Lost guys behind it.
 

Momo

Banned
Again a show Robert Carlyle will out act his fellow cast members and put on a clinic. I loved the first ep
 

BluWacky

Member
I predict:

i) GAF will hate this as it skews to a female audience
ii) Viewers will drift away from it quickly after a big premiere
iii) It'll get a couple of seasons, max, a la Pushing Daisies (the show's not as good as Pushing Daisies was anyway)
iv) The length of the show's run will have nothing to do with its quality.

I liked the pilot a lot more than I thought I would, having seen the upfronts trailer which made it look ridiculously camp. Here's hoping the show ends up lasting at least a season.
 

ivysaur12

Banned
Jennifer Morrison should not have been cast as the main character. Bad, bad, bad decision.

The only reason I have any interest in this show at this point is because Jane Espenson and Liz Tigelaar are on the writing staff.


CyReN said:
The pilot was on my plane trip I took last week, wasn't that good from what I saw. I kinda expected more from it with some of the Lost guys behind it.

It's not the creators, just two of the executive producers of Lost.

Also, they wrote Tron: Legacy. So.
 

FoneBone

Member
It has a lot of potential, but the pilot was kind of a mess. And I don't think Jennifer Morrison is a very good actress.

On the other hand, at least it still looks better than Grimm. Though pretty much anything would.
 

ivysaur12

Banned
blahblah...blah said:
I may have overreacted, I saw the pilot a while back and was in a bad mood at the time so this may have skewed me reaction.

At the very least, it's ambitious and has an interesting premise. That's more than I can say for most shows this season.

EDIT: I forgot that the amount of camp is approaching Jessica Lange and Madeline Snow levels. God dammit.
 
I reminded that ABC had a sitcom about fairytale characters in the modern world many years ago.

The premise was this:
Once upon a time there was a vain queen who was so jealous of her beautiful stepdaughter, Snow White, that she poisoned her with an apple. But a handsome prince came along and broke the spell. Snow White and Prince Charming threw the wicked stepmother down a bottomless pit and lived happily ever after. But, it turns out the pit wasn't bottomless - just very deep. And now, the queen was very mad. With a spell so powerful even she couldn't control it, she put the Charmings asleep for a thousand years. She also got herself and one dwarf. Eventually they woke up.

The show was called "The Charmings".
 

netguy503

Member
'She also got herself and one dwarf. Eventually they woke up."

That shit doesn't even make sense. And it was a sitcom!? Where's the funny?
 
netguy503 said:
'She also got herself and one dwarf. Eventually they woke up."

That shit doesn't even make sense. And it was a sitcom!? Where's the funny?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRLYJHUeoFE

It was an 80s sitcom. I wouldn't consider any of them to be particularly watchable nowadays with the exception of Cheers.

As far as Storybrooke goes, I suppose I'm a little bothered by the fact that they chose Snow White to be the heroine since she's probably one of the more boring fairytale characters.
 

netguy503

Member
RatskyWatsky said:
I won't watch this unless it improves drastically, but I just wanted to say that I love Ginnifer Goodwin. <3

Yes but I HATE that she kept her Big Love short hair from like the last two seasons of that show. Why would she do that to herself? She's beautiful.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
netguy503 said:
Yes but I HATE that she kept her short Big Love short hair from like the last two seasons of that show. Why would she do that to herself? She's beautiful.

*shrug* I think it really suits her. She looks good either way.
 

ultron87

Member
That was pretty enjoyable.

From the preview it looks like they will do flashbacks to fairy tale land. Seeing more of that stuff is something I can get behind.
 

mjc

Member
I thought it was pretty good. The only thing that bugged me was the way the witch glided across the ground in the beginning when she was walking haha.
 
mjc said:
I thought it was pretty good. The only thing that bugged me was the way the witch glided across the ground in the beginning when she was walking haha.
Yeah, I couldn't tell if that's what was suppose to happen or they couldn't make the cg ground move at the same speed as the witch. Either way it looked bad.
 

mjc

Member
Kud Dukan said:
So it wasn't too bad? Maybe I'll check it out tonight when it's on then.

Its not gonna take TV by storm, but it was definitely entertaining IMO. It would be a shame if it got canceled.
 
Keyser Soze said:
The basic plot (which unfolds in the pilot) is that in
FairyTale Land (or whatever it is called) Prince Charming gets Snow White preggers, and the Evil Queen is pissed. So she casts a spell on them that means when the the child is born, there will be "no more happy endings"

This spell results in moving everyone in Fairy Tale Land to the real world, with non of them having any recollection of their past. For these people, time is also stuck forever at on point - so they have not aged since the move

However, Snow White's baby was moved to the real world before the spell kicked in, and she grew up in Boston and is now 28. She had a child when she was 18, but put it up for adoption, and he somehow ended up with Regina Mills (who is The Evil Witch that initially cast the spell).

Once you watch the pilot, the confusing premise kinda makes sense. It reminded me of Jounreyman because of this
, as it had a similar crazy idea that makes sense as it explained well on the show.

The whole pilot is pretty much a set up to get the characters in the right locations to for the show to continue with a few procedural stories - although hopefully not too many.

I am hoping for good things.
Brah don't make me cry....
 

Asbel

Member
mjc said:
It's decent so far but it's reminding me how awesome a Fables show would be.
Show is too serious when fairy tale elements can't help but be corny with a real world setting. Should have added humor purposely like fables.
 
ErasureAcer said:
Good premiere.

Saw 2 Lost references. One, the close-up of the eye opening. Two, the Mayor's address was 108.

Apparently the Black Smoke of the the curse/spell was another one, and the town clock was stuck at 8:15.
 
Keyser Soze said:
Apparently the Black Smoke of the the curse/spell was another one, and the town clock was stuck at 8:15.

Wow, can't believe I didn't get the 815 reference. I was thinking OMD's 'Enola Gay'. "8:15 and that's the time that it's always been."
 
Crazy cheesy, but that's to be expected. The real world parts were better than the fairy tale scenes. (The costumes & styling need a lot of work, only the prince looked alright.)

But despite that and the sometimes stilted dialogue, it was enjoyable. It has potential anyway and I'm hoping they'll be able to refine the concept. I'll keep watching.
 

jax (old)

Banned
Thought this thread was about the comedy getting cancelled. Happy endings. But it's not....

Premise seems cool. Want fables movie more though....
 
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