Faerie Tale Theatre (also known as "Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre") is a 1982-1987 American live-action fairytale fantasy anthology television series of 27 episodes, that originally aired on Showtime from September 11, 1982 until November 14, 1987. It is a retelling of 25 fairy tales, particularly those by The Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen, plus the poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin". Shelley Duvall is the series creator, host, executive producer alongside Bridget Terry and Fred Fuchs, occasional star and narrator, and voice of the animatronic Nightingale. The series, which featured numerous Hollywood stars in character roles, was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Ivan Passer, Emile Ardolino, Tim Burton and others. This is one of the first examples of cable original programming, alongside HBO's "Fraggle Rock".