The Princess Who Had Never Laughed

The Land of Faerie Tales

The Princess Who Had Never Laughed

Starring Howie Mandel, Ellen Barkin, and Sofia Coppola

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"Bring me somebody to make me laugh."

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Yellow Spinning 5 Point Star

An uneventfull retelling that doesn't add anything new. The actors do appear to be trying, but this is one fairy tale that has the sense of being stretched too thin. There just wasn't enough plot to justify an hour-long episode.

There really is a great cast assembled here: Ellen Barkin, who can add sparkle to anything she's in, Howard Hessman, and a very young Sofia Coppola and Howie Mandel. Mandel is a good comic, but even his charm isn't enough here. It doesn't help that he's carrying around a pig (literally) the whole time.

The drab sets and costumes are certainly no help. True, the point of the tale is to add laughter to boring lives, but frankly, I couldn't see enough in the "Royal Laugh Off" to save it. A good effort, but nothing special.

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HENRIETTA: When's recess?

TUTOR: Recess? How cute. No child, recess is for peasants. Homework is for princesses.

GOVERNESS: Your Seriousness, maybe you could make her laugh.

KING: Me? Would you laugh at me?

TUTOR: Well, we’re paid, so it wouldn’t count.

GUARD:The King is holding a palace laugh off tomorrow night. He wants to make his daughter, the princess laugh. She’s in some sort of royal funk. I don’t understand it myself. But the first guy that can make her laugh wins her hand in marriage. And I think there’s some big bucks in there too.

LIONEL: What do runners up get?

GUARD: Ten years in the dungeon.

SILAS: That seems rather stiff.

GUARD: Hey, that’s show biz.

HENRIETTA: Dad, I’m a girl, and girls just wanna ... they want to uh… well see, that’s the problem. I don’t know what it is girls want.

KING: Hank...

HENRIETTA: I think it has something to do with ribbons or something.

LIONEL: I’m Lionel, a serious scholar and entrepreneur. That’s my father Silas, a serious and dedicated farmer. That’s my little sister Gwendolyn, who plans to be serious when she grows up. And that’s Waldo, a very distant cousin.

GUARD: Do you know any jokes, riddles, limericks, impressions, monologues, one liners, double-entrendres, puns, pantomimes, schtick?

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Episode 24 (5-2)
Air Date: August 11, 1986

Ellen Barkin .......................... Princess

Howard Hesseman ...................... King

Howie Mandel ........ Weinerhead Waldo

Barrie Ingham ............................ Tutor

Sofia Coppola .................... Gwendolyn

William Daniels ...................... Narrator

Directed by

Mark Cullingham