Five years ago today on October 23, 2011, ABC premiered a new television series that changed everything we knew about fairy tales. That series was Once Upon a Time.

In Once Upon a Time, a bounty hunter named Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) learns that not only was she the long-lost daughter of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), but she must also break the spell that The Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) placed on the people of The Enchanted Forest causing them to forget their lives there as they began new ones in the town of StoryBrooke.  Emma was The Savior.  Additionally, her son Henry (Jared Gilmore) was the adopted son of Regina Mills a/k/a The Evil Queen. And to add to this intriguing family tree, Henry’s father Neal a/k/a Baelfire was the son of Rumpelstiltskin a/k/a Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle).  And The Evil Queen’s sister was none other than The Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz. This show was definitely not your childhood fairytale!

As the seasons progressed, more fairy tale and non-fairy tale characters would make an appearance. Viewers would see Disney characters and others from literary works such Peter Pan, King Arthur and The Knights of The Roundtable, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as mythological characters like Hades.  This was a bold move of the writers to have these characters interact. I still find it interesting that Emma is in love with Captain Hook.

So, thank you Once Upon a Time was giving us an exciting world to visit every Sunday night.  Congrats on 5 years and here’s to 5 many more.

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