History Main / OnceUponaTime

* The James Taylor song "Our Town," used in the movie {{Cars}}, begins

* ''AChristmasCarol'' by Creator/CharlesDickens:

* KurtBusiek's ''Trinity'': Once a race of aliens is telling their creation myth, it starts:

* ''A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man'' by JamesJoyce:

It was a [[OmnipresentTropes very popular trope]]. In [[EveryThingSoundsSexierInFrench French]] it was ''il était une fois'' and in [[GratuitousGerman German]] it was ''es war einmal'', which literally meant "It was once." Sometimes it was translated as "Once there was" or "A long time ago," but most often, this trope was simply translated as "[[TitleDrop Once upon a time]]." Other languages have translated it directly - Polish has ''"Raz na czasie"'', which is a literal translation and may have a bit of [[BlindIdiotTranslation blind idiot]] in there. Russian fairy tales often start ''"Zhyl-byl..."'', that is, "Once there lived...".

-->"'''There wasa village, once,''' not very long ago for those with long memories."

* JRRTolkien's ''Literature/SmithOfWoottonMajor'': "not very long ago for those with long memories."

-->'''Once''' a jolly swagman camped by the billabong,\\

* ''BearInTheBigBlueHouse'' had a song titled this. "Once upon a time / That's the way the story goes / Now where it's gonna end up / No one knows."

* In ''BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger'', Hakumen's arcade ending is a telling of how the story of the BlazBlue franchise began.

Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin. Once upon a time... [[hottip:*:there was a boy who decided to stay up late and read TVTropes. Even though his parents had warned him that doing this was a bad thing, still he was compelled to do so. So, the lights of the screen illuminating his face, he carefully surfed the site, reading trope descriptions and examples, going over works pages and forum threads, until finally he looked at the clock and realized it was well past the reasonable amount of time one would surf the web. And then the boy knew his parents were right -- that by surfing TVTropes, he had ruined his life in such a way that he could now never go sleep. He was cursed to forever surf TVTropes, haunting the {{YKTTW}}, quietly drifting from page to page like a ghost in the machine; until one day, he met someone who had been similarly trapped. She was named {{Trope-Tan}}. Together, they decided that perhaps this wasn't such a lonely place to be stuck. And so they lived and troped HappilyEverAfter.]]

For the book series, click [[Literature/OnceUponATime here]] and for the {{ABC}} series, click [[Series/OnceUponATime here]].

Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin. Once upon a time[[labelnote:...]]there was a boy who decided to stay up late and read TVTropes. Even though his parents had warned him that doing this was a bad thing, still he was compelled to do so. So, the lights of the screen illuminating his face, he carefully surfed the site, reading trope descriptions and examples, going over works pages and forum threads, until finally he looked at the clock and realized it was well past the reasonable amount of time one would surf the web. And then the boy knew his parents were right -- that by surfing TVTropes, he had ruined his life in such a way that he could now never go sleep. He was cursed to forever surf TVTropes, haunting the {{YKTTW}}, quietly drifting from page to page like a ghost in the machine; until one day, he met someone who had been similarly trapped. She was named {{Trope-Tan}}. Together, they decided that perhaps this wasn't such a lonely place to be stuck. And so they lived and troped HappilyEverAfter.[[/labelnote]]

Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin. Once upon a time...[[hottip:*: Once upon a time there was a boy who decided to stay up late and read TVTropes. Even though his parents had warned him that doing this was a bad thing, still he was compelled to do so. So, the lights of the screen illuminating his face, he carefully surfed the site, reading trope descriptions and examples, going over works pages and forum threads, until finally he looked at the clock and realized it was well past the reasonable amount of time one would surf the web. And then the boy knew his parents were right -- that by surfing TVTropes, he had ruined his life in such a way that he could now never go sleep. He was cursed to forever surf TVTropes, haunting the {{YKTTW}}, quietly drifting from page to page like a ghost in the machine; until one day, he met someone who had been similarly trapped. She was named {{Trope-Tan}}. Together, they decided that perhaps this wasn't such a lonely place to be stuck. And so they lived and troped HappilyEverAfter.]]

Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin. Once upon a time...[[hottip:*: Once upon a time there was a boy who decided to stay up late and read TVTropes. Even though his parents had warned him that doing this was a bad thing, still he was compelled to do so. So, the lights of the screen illuminating his face, he carefully surfed the site, reading trope descriptions and examples, going over works pages and forum threads, until finally he looked at the clock and realized it was well past the reasonable amount of time one would surf the web. And then the boy knew his parents were right -- that by surfing TVTropes, he had [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife ruined his life]] in such a way that he could now never go sleep. He was cursed to forever surf TVTropes, haunting the {{YKTTW}}, quietly drifting from page to page like a ghost in the machine; until one day, he met someone who had been similarly trapped. She was named {{Trope-Tan}}. Together, they decided that perhaps this wasn't such a lonely place to be stuck. And so they lived and troped HappilyEverAfter.

* ''TheEyesOfTheDragon'' by StephenKing:

->''We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. '[[AnAesop Thou shalt not]]' is soon forgotten, but '[[OnceUponATime Once upon a time]]' lasts forever.''\\

Now, stories that began with "[[OnceUponATime Once upon a time]]" often ended with "...and they all lived [[HappilyEverAfter happily ever after]]." But [[FanNickname Once]] never got to the end of the stories -- he always stayed at the [[BeginningTropes beginning]]. And that is where he will always be.

* TheBible:

* Lord Dunsany in ''Time and the Gods'':

* ''Midnight's Children'' by Salman Rushdie:

* ''A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man'' by JamesJoyce:

* ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' by Creator/RobertAHeinlein:

* ''AChristmasCarol'' by Creator/CharlesDickens:

* Creator/FriedrichNietzsche, ''On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense'':

* ''WinnieThePooh'':

* From ''The King's Chessboard'':

* ''TheEyesOfTheDragon'' by StephenKing:

* ''MisterRogersNeighborhood'': The opera "Spoon Mountain" begins:

* The James Taylor song "Our Town," used in the movie {{Cars}}, begins

* In ''{{Exalted}}'', {{Koan}}s and sutras associated with the Sidereals inevitably begin this way:

* ''IntoTheWoods'' opens with this line being spoken by the Narrator before the music starts. The second act begins similarly:

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' begins its very first episode with a narration from Princess Celestia.

[[/folder]]

* ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' by RobertHeinlein:

* In Brian Henson's ''Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story'', the opening narration begins with "Once upon a time... [[BreakingTheFourthWall yes, this sounds like a fairytale. A little something for the children.]]"

* ''{{Blackadder}}'':
-->In the third season, Baldrick reads the story he wrote: "'''Once upon a time''', there was a happy sausage named Baldrick. And he lived happily ever after. The end."

* Inverted in Emir Kusturica's ''Underground'' - the final words in the film are ''"'''once upon a time''' there was a country called Yugoslavia..."''

-->"'''Once upon a time,''' in the mysterious land of Toronto, Canada, Scott Pilgrim was dating a high schooler...

* TheBible: "'''In the beginning...'''"
* Lord Dunsany in ''Time and the Gods'': "'''Upon an evening of the forgotten years''' the gods were seated on the hills."
* ''Midnight's Children'' by Salman Rushdie: "I was born in the city of Bombay...'''once upon a time'''."
* ''A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man'' by JamesJoyce: "'''Once upon a time''' and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo..."
* ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' by RobertHeinlein: "'''Once upon a time''' when the world was young there was a Martian named Smith."
* ''AChristmasCarol'' by Creator/CharlesDickens: "'''Once upon a time''' -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house."

* Creator/FriedrichNietzsche, ''On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense'': "'''Once upon a time''', in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing."
* ''WinnieThePooh'': "'''Once upon a time''', a very long time ago, about last Friday..."
* From ''The King's Chessboard'': "'''Once, long ago in what is now India''' there was a wise man who performed a service for the king of Deccan..."

* ''TheEyesOfTheDragon'' by StephenKing: "'''Once, in a kingdom called Delain''', there was a King with two sons."

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}: [[TheMovie The Peacekeeper Wars]]'': "For the 89th time...'''once upon a time''' there was a boy named John and John was an astronaut. He lived in a far away place called Earth which is so far away you've never heard of it. One day when John was out doing astronaut things a big, blue wormhole gobbled him up and spat him out at the far end of the universe. Things were looking grim in Mudville, till our hero met an amazing living ship, made some nice new friends, and he hooked up with his dream girl. We could've lived happily ever after, but the Peacekeepers raped, chased and tortured us for years on end. And two months ago, we got our asses shot off again."
* ''MisterRogersNeighborhood'': The opera "Spoon Mountain" begins "'''Once upon a time''', not so very long ago. Not so very long ago."

* In ''{{Exalted}}'', {{Koan}}s and sutras associated with the Sidereals inevitably begin this way: "'''Once, there was a maiden...'''"

* ''IntoTheWoods'' opens with this line being spoken by the Narrator before the music starts. The second act begins similarly, with the Narrator saying, "'''Once upon a time'''-- ''[music starts]'' --later..."

* In ''BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger'', Hakumen's arcade ending is a telling of how the story of the BlazBlue franchise began, and it even begins with Rachel narrating, "'''OnceUponATime''', there was a Black Beast."

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' begins its very first episode with a narration from Princess Celestia. "'''Once upon a time,''' in the magical land of Equestria..."

-->[[ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...]]

-->''Once upon a time... in the Swamp.''

* The James Taylor song "Our Town," used in the movie {{Cars}}, begins "'''Long ago''', but not so very long ago..."

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' begins its very first episode with a narration from Princess Celestia. "Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria..."

Once upon a time there was a {{trope}}. This trope was a {{stock phrase}} and a [[OlderThanPrint very old one]]. In fact, according to Webster's, it goes back at least to 1380. It began almost every {{fairy tale}} there ever was.

Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin. Once upon a time...[[hottip:*: Once upon a time there was a boy who decided to stay up late and read TVTropes. Even though his parents had warned him that doing this was a bad thing, still he was compelled to do so. So, the lights of the screen illuminating his face, he carefully surfed the site, reading trope descriptions and examples, going over works pages and forum threads, until finally he looked at the clock and realized it was well past the reasonable amount of time one would surf the web. And then the boy knew his parents were right -- that by surfing TVTropes, he had [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife ruined his life]] in such a way that he could now never go sleep. He was cursed to forever surf TVTropes, haunting the {{YKTTW}}, quietly drifting from page to page like a ghost in the machine; until one day, he met someone who had been similarly trapped. She was named {{Trope-Tan}}. Together, they decided that perhaps this wasn't such a lonely place to be stuck. And so they lived and troped {{happily ever after}}.

* FriedrichNietzsche, ''On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense'': "'''Once upon a time''', in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing."

* {{Billy Joel}}'s "Falling of the Rain" begins:

Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin. Once upon a time...[[hottip:*: Once upon a time there was a boy who decided to stay up late and read TVTropes. Even though his parents had warned him that doing this was a bad thing, still he was compelled to do so. So, the lights of the screen illuminating his face, he carefully surfed the site, reading trope descriptions and examples, going over works pages and forum threads, until finally he looked at the clock and realized it was well past the reasonable amount of time one would surf the web. And then the boy knew his parents were right -- that by surfing TVTropes, he had [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife ruined his life]] in such a way that he could now never go sleep. He was cursed to forever surf TVTropes, haunting the YKTTW, quietly drifting from page to page like a ghost in the machine; until one day, he met someone who had been similarly trapped. She was named {{Trope-Tan}}. Together, they decided that perhaps this wasn't such a lonely place to be stuck. And so they lived and troped {{happily ever after}}.]]

* ''ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'':