It’s never a good sign when a network shows TV critics clips of a new drama series — and the critics burst out laughing. That’s what happened when The CW previewed “Beauty and the Beast.”

It’s not a good sign when the first question asked of the “Beauty and the Beast” producers was, “Traditionally, in this fairy tale, the core of it is the Beauty needing to overcome the aesthetic disadvantages of the Beast. If you have a story in which the beast looks like Jay Ryan with a very small scar on his cheek, are you losing something crucial to this story?”