Short-Lived Shows: The Charmings

There's a whole sub-genre of sitcoms which I suppose could be called the "fish out of water" sub-genre. These were sitcoms whose whole comedic premise was based on taking the main characters out of their element and putting them into an entirely new one with the hope that comedy would ensue. The 1980s were rife with these types of shows. Some found an audience, such as ALF, and others, like The Charmings, well, didn't.

Perhaps viewers weren't quite ready for a sitcom about Snow White and her husband Prince Charming being put under a spell and waking up in late 1980s Los Angeles, even if this version of Snow White was a hundred times hotter than anything Disney ever came up with. Now instead of living in an enchanted land, Snow and Eric Charming live in an apartment with their evil stepmother now living next door with her magic mirror, played by Paul Winfield.

Now, I was eleven when this show aired, which was probably the perfect age to enjoy something with such limited comedic possibilities. After all, how many new gadgets and bizarre social situations could you throw at these characters before it started to get old? The answer, apparently, was "about two season's worth." Also, they switched the actress who played Snow White after the first season, which isn't always a good sign, either. Nevertheless, I think the show did the best it could to pit the storybook existence of the main characters against the harsh realities of everyday life, but it was a premise that would only allow itself to be stretched so far.