Galavant Series Premiere Preview [PHOTOS and VIDEO] 

Taking the Once Upon a Time Sunday night slot while its on hiatus is a new ABC series: Galavant.

It’s a musical comedy that’s considered a mixture of Monty Python and Princess Bride. It’s a fun show filled with songs and laughs.

For us, the biggest reason to watch Galavant is Timothy Omundson. He plays the doofus King Richard. But as the episodes roll along, we can’t help but grow to care about him and his odd notions about life and marriage. More importantly, we love his reactions as well as his character’s many other idiosyncracies. Here’s what you need to know about the show:

Extended Promo

Series Synopsis

Screenwriter/executive producer Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love, Tangled, Cars) teams up with Broadway and Hollywood award-winning musical team — composer Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast) and lyricist Glenn Slater (Tangled) — for a 4-week comedy extravaganza. Once upon a time, the dashing hero, Galavant (Joshua Sasse) lost the love of his life, Madalena (Mallory Jansen), to the evil King Richard (Timothy Omundson). Now, our fallen hero is ready to take revenge and restore his “happily ever after.” But it won’t be without a few twists and turns along the way.

The Cast/Characters

Joshua Sasse, Galavant

ABC Character Synopsis: Charming and handsome, Galavant is a gallant knight and hero so beloved he is known by just one name. When he goes to save the love of his life, Madalena, after she was kidnapped by the evil King Richard, she rejects Galavant when he proclaims all he has to offer her is his love. Since then, he has gone broke, stopped bathing and has gained weight – most likely due to his penchant for libations.

Character Assessment: Galavant is a bit of a mess. No, he’s a big mess. A hot mess, dare we say? He lost the supposed love of his life. And he doesn’t handle it well. What’s it going to take to get his confidence back?

The Actor: Joshua Sasse is new to us. His TV credits include the Direct TV series, Rogue, as well as the Dan Fogelman’s previous ABC series, The Neighbors.

Timothy Omundson, King Richard 

ABC Character Synopsis: King Richard is the evil king who kidnapped Madalena. He has a strong hatred and great disdain for Galavant, especially since his wife Madalena cannot stop talking about him. He sends Isabella to lure Galavant to him, with plans to kill the beloved hero. Notorious for his evil ways, King Richard indulges in such hobbies as raising taxes and tormenting the poor. The evil king isn’t as tough as one may think, though – one insult from Madalena and he bursts into tears. 

Character Assessment: King Richard is a bad guy. But he’s also an extremely flawed, insecure individual. At times he’s pathetic. But he’s almost always funny. He’s evil-licious but there are worse people in the kingdom, believe it or not.

The Actor: Love Omundson lots for playing Lassiter on USA Network’s Psych and Cain on the CW’s Supernatural. His other TV Credits include: Judging Amy, Jericho and Xena: Warrior Princess.

Mallory Jensen, Madalena

ABC Character Synopsis: A lady with long legs and glowing skin, Madalena is the love of Galavant’s life who gets kidnapped by King Richard. When Galavant comes to save her, she chooses the life of fame and fortune over him and marries King Richard instead. Rigid and demanding, she shows her true colors after becoming queen. She is also a bit of a nymphomaniac.

Character Assessment: She’s no damsel in distress. If anyone’s causing distress, it’s her. She puts the “mad” in Madalena. She’s mean, she’s despicable. She’s not anything you’d expect for someone whose relationship with the king started by being kidnapped.

The Actress: We know Mallory best from ABC Family”s Young and Hungry and Baby Daddy.

Karen David, Isabella

ABC Character Synopsis: Isabella is the spunky Princess of Valencia who seeks out and engages the once-gallant Galavant in order to save her people from King Richard. She is sent by the king to lure Galavant to him, as King Richard plans to kill Galavant in front of his former flame, Madalena. She is a great actress, as her kingdom is known for theater… and also, cabbage.

Character Assessment: Isabella has the longest name ever (Princess Isabella Lucia Maria Elizabetta of Valencia). She’s sassy and conflicted and has no problem telling Galavant what she thinks of him.

The Actress: Karen David is a singer/actress who’s appeared on stage and on TV. She’s guest starred on Cinemax’s Strike Back, FOX’s Touch and ABC’s Castle.

Luke Youngblood, Sid

ABC Character Synopsis: Sid is Galavant’s trusty squire who assists the fallen hero. He keeps Galavant’s life in order, especially after Madalena rejected Galavant, who hasn’t been himself since then. Sid is adopted; when he was a baby, an older couple found him on their doorstep and took him in.

Character Assessment: Sid is funny, loyal, likable and trustworthy. He has no problem trying to make sure Galavant gets — and keeps — his act together. Galavant needs Sid’s presence to help him get through the day.

The Actor: Don’t know why we didn’t recognize the British actor right away. We should have. Luke Youngblood is none other than Magnitude on the former NBC series, Community. Hope he appears on the show now that it’s moving over to Yahoo!Screen. Pop! Pop!

Vinnie Jones, Gareth

ABC Character Synopsis: Rough and tough, Gareth is King Richard’s right-hand henchman who does the king’s fighting for him. He is King Richard’s brawn and often has to instruct the king on how to be more manly in his ways.

Character Assessment: Gareth is a brute and while he’s tough and manly, he has a tiny bit of a soft side. Just don’t try to hug him. His loyalty to King Richard is actually refreshing.

The Actor: On the big screen, he was in the Guy Ritchie movies, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. On the small screen, he’s appeared in CBS’ Elementary, the CW’s Arrow and Psych. He was also in the short-lived series, The Cape.

The synopses for the first two episodes of Galavant:

“Pilot” (8:00-8:30 p.m., ET) – When heroic, charming and handsome Sir Galavant loses his true love, the beautiful Madalena, to evil King Richard’s wealth and power, he falls into a deep and drunken despair. Just as our hero hits rock bottom, Princess Isabella shows up with a quest to save her kingdom, defeat the despicable King Richard, and provide an opportunity for Galavant to reclaim Madalena. Galavant is off to become a hero again and strike a blow for true love…but first, Galavant has to fit into his old hero pants.

“Joust Friends” (8:30-9:00 p.m. ET) – Galavant enters a jousting tournament against a boastful rival, Sir Jean Hamm (guest star John Stamos), to test his return to heroic form (and win some much-needed traveling money and a really nice rooster). But it quickly becomes clear that Galavant is a long shot to win. Meanwhile, King Richard asks Gareth to help him become a bit more macho so that Madalena won’t despise him quite so much.

Guest Star Goodness

One of the other reasons to watch Galavant are for the guest stars. For once, we don’t have to spell things out. ABC does the job for us:

Yes, the name for John Stamos’ character is: Sir Jean Hamm. Jean (in French) means John. Classic.

Galavant premieres tonight on ABC at 8/7c.