Dial-a-Beast

Title:	Dial-a-Beast ("900 Number", "Vincent's Letters to Catherine," "Vincent's Letterline")
Creator:
Date(s):	1991
Medium:	audio
Fandom:	Beauty and the Beast
Language:	English
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Dial-a-Best was a for-profit Beauty and the Beast (TV) hotline where fans could call a phone number and listen to letters written by Ron Koslow and read by Ron Perlman as he portrayed the character of Vincent Wells.

"Dial-a-Beast" began the fall of 1991, when B&B became generally available for syndication, after it had had a year's run on the Family Channel first.

The 900 telephone number functioned just over 8 weeks. There were a total of eight letters, one for each of the first eight episodes. At the time the "Dial-a-Beast" creators did this, the first four eps had already been released on videotape. When they released the second set of four, they added the letters (the voice over, accompanied by a rather badly-transcribed crawl up the screen.

The hotline ceased functioning in part due to FCC and some state governments instituted new rulings regarding both the advertising and availability of 900 numbers.

Beauty and the Beast Hotlines

• Dial-a-Beast (info about the show, for-profit, run by TPTB)
• The Helpers' Network Hotline (info about the show, non-profit, run by Mark and Kimberly Hartman, then Nan Dibble)
• New England B&B Hotline (not-for-profit, fan-run, info on zines, run by Lyn Musacchio)

How Much Did It Cost?

Because fans paid to listen to this phone call by the minute, and the full presentation of the letter, including the introduction at the beginning and other padding, the "letter" cost a fan an average of about $7.00 to listen a single time.

Back in the Fall of 1991, we were treated to new material written by Ron Koslow and performed, in character, by Ron Perlman. Fans were to call a 900 number and listen to Vincent read letters he had written to Catherine that Catherine had saved and he had inherited after her death. It cost folks $1.95 the first minute and $.95 each additional minute and averaged about 6 minutes each "letter", which ranged from episode 1, Once Upon A Time In The City Of New York to episode 8, Song of Orpheus. The premise was that he had written these letters following the aired episodes.

For those of you unfamiliar with the way these were presented, each letter was prefaced with the announcer lines you see here. I only included them once, figuring that was enough heartache.

[...]

ANNOUNCER: Hello, and thank you for calling the Beauty and the Beast letter line. The Last Will and Testament of Catherine Chandler provided that the entirety of her estate be placed in trust for the benefit of Jacob Wells and the members of his community. Her only request was that Father deliver a hand-carved rosewood box to Vincent. The box contained Vincent's letters. All of his letters, written to Catherine over the course of their time together.

As a tribute to her memory, and a reminder of what is possible, here now are Vincent's letters to Catherine.

Cessation

After a run of 8 telephone messages starring on Perlman as the voice of Vincent, Republic Pictures has withdrawn its dial-a-beast 900 number. Whether it served to help the promotional effort isn't going to be clear. As has become a tradition with all things related to "Beauty and the Beast," Murphy's law continued to prevail. Pre-publicity faltered in the wake of some strange competition, apparently the Roman Catholic faith had a similar idea, i.e. a dial-the-Pope 900 number! How's that for competition? Even worse, within its first week, the FCC and some state governments instituted new rulings regarding both the advertising and availability of 900 numbers -- which drastically affected the project. In some places either the number could not be advertised, or could not be reached at all. Fans in those places were not happy campers.

Canon?

Fans debated: were the letters canon?

From a 2014 discussion among fans:

It's been a while since I've read them, and I have yet to really study them, but I lean toward canon. The reason is that is was Koslow who wrote them, whose vision was the guiding force behind the show. And even though it was after, it was his last chance to give voice to aspects of Vincent's character and relationship with Catherine. It's not as strongly cannon [sic] as the episodes, but it's a close second. :)

I don't know what to think of them. My first reaction is "no way," because they weren't written as part of each of those eight episodes in realtime, but after the show was canceled, like a marketing afterthought rather than part of the story. In this context, I always wonder how different their content would have been had they been written in realtime, when Koslow (the writer) didn't really know how the show would be written, how it would progress, since the writing and story development was still ongoing. This is why I have trouble considering them part of those eight episodes they belong to.

Another strong reason for me to dismiss them is that in canon, Catherine shows no sign - neither in action nor attitude - of knowing their content, of ever having received them.

In some of the similar sense, kind of, probably trailing the letters. The reason I don't totally dismiss it is because it can reveal patterns of thought in Koslow's mind which may not have fit, or been a direction that he decided against, or would revisit later. The more I can learn about his thoughts and thought-processes, maybe the more sense of things I can make!

Even with scripts that are not written by Ron, but were many times re-written with GRR Martin's help, can tell us what was acceptable and what was not, clarifying characters, themes, etc. Again, not canon, but close behind.

Inspired Fanworks

Fiction

• The Ninth Letter by Trisha Kehoe (1992)
• Songs of the Dream (1994)

Non-Fiction

• The Annotated Beast by Beth Blighton (A series of 8 essays in issues of Lionheart. "The purpose of this continuing column will be to take a look at the different letters to Catherine that were read by Vincent on the now defunct 900 number. Since these messages were written by Ron Koslow and were performed for public consumption, in character by Ron Perlman, I do consider them to be a part of the "Beauty and the Beast" canon. With that in mind, what "The Annotated Beast" seeks to bring into conversation is how these letters affect the "Beauty and the Beast" storyline as we know it and possibly, in the process, shed more light on the character of Vincent.") (1992)

Vids

• Beauty and the Beast "Vincent's Letters to Catherine" (2014)

Fan Comments

1992

One of the features I have most enjoyed over the past two years has been "The Annotated Beast," [the regular feature in issues of Lionheart, and I've wanted to write something about the questions raised for quite some time. But something held me back, something kept nagging at me that I couldn't put my finger on. And I finally realized what it was. Granted, Vincent's letters to Catherine were written after the fact; however, we have been told that the letters were given to Catherine by Vincent "during the course of their time together." Are we supposed to believe that Catherine neither opened them nor read them? Because that's the only way I can accept her subsequent lack of action. We heard the words that came from Vincent's soul, revealing the depths of his feelings, trying to come to terms with all of the new thoughts and sensations he was experiencing because of Catherine's entrance into his life. And what sort of response do we get from her? DUH? Or was there supposed to be some sort of unspoken understanding between them that the contents of the letters were never to be referred to? Or perhaps, sometime in the future we will be permitted to see Catherine's letters to Vincent, letters in which her heart would be opened to him. Then the contents of Vincent's letters wouldn't annoy me so much. As it is, my feelings for Catherine are of the love-hate variety, and without any kind of reasonable explanation for her apparent indifference to his words, my reaction is of the profoundly negative variety.

1994

Nan still has "Dial-A-Beast" (Vincent's Letters to Catherine) audiotapes...not for sale, respecting Republic's wishes, but to give away. If you're so minded, include a small donation to cover tape cost and mailing. A handsome transcript, on parchment, comes with the tape. On request, Don Davis' Hyperspace (the B&B portion) can be put on the other side.

2014

We in the States never saw Vincent reading the letters on TV either - those were extras put on some of the tapes that were sold in stores. The letters originally were voice-only and you called a special telephone number (that charged you by the minute) to listen to them. Since they had those audio tapes, when they put the VHS episodes out on tape to sell, they just added some footage and made them into video segments.

That bonus DVD... sort of dreadful as well, if I may say. It included some episode promos from back in the day, the eight "Vincent's letters to Catherine" read by some announcer with some background music, and again four of the letters read by Vincent (because the other four weren't available, the only copy that exists seem to be of a fan who has recorded them from the phone at the time of the 0800 hotline).

The Letters

• audio
• text
• text, ^{Archived version}