History Main / OnceUponaTime

* Most, if not all [[RockyAndBullwinkle Fractured Fairy Tales]] begins with "Once upon a time."

* The ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'' ScreenToStageAdaptatation uses this phrase at the beginning of almost every verse of "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now".

*** [[AudienceParticipation God said]] [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow "let there be lips..."]]

-->"'''Once upon a time''', on the north shore of Long Island, some thirty miles from New York, there lived a small girl on a large estate. The estate was very large indeed, and had many servants. There were gardeners to take care of the gardens, and a tree surgeon on a retainer. There was a boatman to take care of the boats: to put them in the water in the spring, and scrape their bottoms in the winter. There were specialists to take care of the grounds: the outdoor tennis court and the indoor tennis court, the outdoor swimming pool and the indoor swimming pool. And there was a man of no particular title who took care of the small pool in the garden for a goldfish named George. Also on the estate there was a chauffeur by the name of Fairchild who had been imported from England years ago together with a new Rolls-Royce. Fairchild was a fine chauffeur of considerable polish, like the eight cars in his care, and he had a daughter by the name of Sabrina. It was the eve of the annual six-meter yacht races, and as had been traditional on Long Island for the past thirty years, the Larrabees were giving a party. It never rained on the night of the Larrabee party. The Larrabees wouldn't have stood for it. There were four Larrabees in all - father, mother, and two sons. Maude and Oliver Larrabee were married in nineteen hundred and six, and among their many wedding presents was the town house in New York and this estate for weekends. The town house has since been converted into Saks Fifth Avenue. Linus Larrabee, the elder son, graduated from Yale, where his classmates voted him The Man Most Likely To Leave His Alma Mater Fifty Million Dollars. His brother, David, went through several of the best eastern colleges for short periods of time, and through several marriages for even shorter periods of time. He is now a successful six-goal polo player and is listed on Linus's tax return as a six hundred dollar deduction. Life was pleasant among the Larrabees, for this was as close to heaven as one could get on Long Island."
** The remake uses this phrase in both the opening and closing narrations.

* At one point in ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'', Centipede begins reciting a poem that starts this way but nearly falls of the peach:

Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin. Once upon a time... [[note]]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 JustForFun/TropeTan. Together, they decided that perhaps this wasn't such a lonely place to be stuck. And so they lived and troped HappilyEverAfter.[[/note]]

It was a [[OmnipresentTropes very popular trope]]. In [[EveryThingSoundsSexierInFrench French]] it was ''il était une fois'' (Litteraly:"There was a time") 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. Russian fairy tales often start ''"Zhyl-byl..."'', that is, "Once there lived...". In Ireland it was " There was this man...."

* EdgarAllanPoe, ''Literature/TheRaven'':

* BillyJoel's "Falling of the Rain" begins:

* DonMcLean's "American Pie":

*** [[AudienceParticipation God said]] [[TheRockyHorrorPictureShow "let there be lips..."]]

-->'''Yahtzee:''' '''Once upon a time,''' a fresh-faced youngster saved up all his pennies and bought his first PS2, and with it he bought a game called Red Faction 1, and after rushing home to play he discovered that Red Faction 1 was not a very good game. Actually it was total shite on a crusty roll.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' appeared to use this trope at first, but lampshaded it and used it as toilet paper. Not surprising, since the movie is a DeconstructiveParody of fairy tales.

-->"'''Once upon a time,''' there was this brilliant, brilliant composer, not the best looking guy. And one day, this beautiful, young, chestnut-haired, singing and dancing ingenue floats into his life, and he falls in love with her. And he decides, 'I'm gonna take you under my wing, and tutor you, and compose this incredible masterwork for you to star in.' And she was enthralled at first, but then, in the end, it didn't work out too well. I'm talking, of course, about the tragic, torid tale of...Creator/AndrewLloydWebber and Music/SarahBrightman. During the creation of what would eventually become [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera the longest-running Broadway show in musical theater history]]!"

->''"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' lasts forever."''

-->"'''Once upon a time,''' there was this brilliant, brilliant composer, not the best looking guy. And one day, this beautiful, young, chestnut-haired, singing and dancing ingenue floats into his life, and he falls in love with her. And he decides, "I'm gonna take you under my wing, and tutor you, and compose this incredible masterwork for you to star in. And she was enthralled at first, but then, in the end, it didn't work out too well. I'm talking, of course, about the tragic, torid tale of...Creator/AndrewLloydWebber and Music/SarahBrightman. During the creation of what would eventually become [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera the longest-running Broadway show in musical theater history]]!"

-->'''Rachel''':"'''OnceUponATime''', there was a Black Beast."

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. Russian fairy tales often start ''"Zhyl-byl..."'', that is, "Once there lived...". In Ireland it was " There was this man...."

* ''Film/OnceUponAForest''

* In "The Voice on the Radio, the third in Caroline B. Cooney's "Literature/TheFaceOnTheMilkCarton" series.

* ''{{Blackadder}}'': In the third season, Baldrick reads the story he wrote:

* ''DeadLikeMe'':

* ''MarriedWithChildren'' "Buck Saves the Day":

* ''MyNameIsEarl'', "Creative Writing":

* ''TheDrewCareyShow'':

* ''{{Titus}}'', "The Smell of Success":

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

*** [[AudienceParticipation God said]] [[TheRockyHorrorPictureShow let there be lips]]