NBC Orders ‘The Munsters’ Reboot to Pilot

[Newsbot]

One might think that the high-profile flame-out of what was to have been this fall's "Wonder Woman" reboot (not to mention the relatively recent failures of 21st-century versions of "Knight Rider" and "The Bionic Woman") might have scared NBC off from revamping another TV hit of yesteryear. Evidently not: The network has made a commitment to redo "The Munsters."

Nellie Andreeva of Deadline.com reports that NBC has not only accepted a script from "Pushing Daisies" creator Bryan Fuller, but has ordered the production of a pilot. But fans of the 1960s sitcom hit shouldn't expect a retread of the original: According to Andreeva, Fuller's vision is for "a visually spectacular one-hour drama," a big departure from the laugh-tracked, sitcom original. (Perhaps Fuller was somewhat inspired by ABC's hour-long drama "Once Upon a Time," which places classic fairy-tale characters in a fairly dark contemporary setting — just like NBC's own "Grimm," minus the procedural trappings, plus viewers.) As my esteemed colleague Lindsay Robertson recently noted, NBC is very bullish on Fuller this year: It's also ordered a Hannibal Lecter pilot script from him.

As Andreeva tells it, the story elements of the new "Munsters" hew fairly closely to the sitcom. Grandpa Munster (played in the original by Al Lewis) is a vampire, as is his daughter Lily (originally played by Yvonne DeCarlo). Lily's husband Herman (a role originated by Fred Gwynne) is a Frankenstein's monster, constructed by Grandpa Munster to be his daughter's perfect mate. The couple also has a werewolf son, Eddie (played in the '60s by Butch Patrick); also living with the couple is niece Marilyn (played sequentially in the original by Beverley Owen and Pat Priest), who outwardly displays no monster attributes.

The original "Munsters" can't be discussed without a mention of "The Addams Family," another sitcom that portrayed a dark clan of...well, weirdos, for lack of a better word, and also aired from 1964-66. But "The Addams Family" TV series did beat "The Munsters" to market in one respect: It was based on a series of New Yorker cartoons by Charles Addams. And once again, "The Munsters" is coming late to the pop culture party: Not only has "The Addams Family" already spawned two successful feature-film adaptations; it's also inspired a hit musical on Broadway.

From "True Blood" to "Twilight" (and even stretching back to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), audiences have proved that it is basically not possible to fail with a project that revolves around fictional monsters. And MTV's "Teen Wolf" series also demonstrates that turning a comedy into a drama can work, too. Maybe pairing a time-tested property like "The Munsters" with the ambitious visual sensibility Fuller brought to the screen in "Pushing Daisies" will give NBC a "Once Upon a Time"-sized hit...which it could really use right now.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Wasn't there a syndicated Munsters show in the 90s?

[Ran]

It looks like there was. I don't remember seeing it, but by looking at the images on IMDB, I'm going to assume it was terrible.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094518/

[Rollo Tomassi]

The only reason I remember it is because the niece on the show, who was the non-monster 'normal' person in the family was marginally Giggity.

Hey, I did say marginally. It was 25 fuckin' years ago.

[Ran]

At one point I considered starting a thread called "Retro Who do you want to see nekkid?" that would cover things like that. Sort of a way to mention the women you wanted to liked 20 years ago back when we were teenagers*.

* - Obviously this soes not apply to JJL

[Rollo Tomassi]

At one point I considered starting a thread called "Retro Who do you want to see nekkid?" that would cover things like that. Sort of a way to mention the women you wanted to liked 20 years ago back when we were teenagers*.

* - Obviously this soes not apply to JJL

So we could bring up females who were underage back then and it wouldn't be creepy because we were also underage at the time?

Like Shawnee Smith in Who's Harry Crumb?
Or Danielle Harris in The Last Boyscout?

[Rollo Tomassi]

Or Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years.

[jjreason]

Sports Illustrated's website had Winnie Cooper as the Lovely Lady of the Day not too long ago - aged well, she has.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Sports Illustrated's website had Winnie Cooper as the Lovely Lady of the Day not too long ago - aged well, she has.

She has a giant head, but yeah. Also, she's super super smart and could beat me at strip Scrabble.

[Sleazer]

I forgot about The New Musters; I loved that show! I'm sure in hindsight, it sucked, but at the time I loved watching it.

Now I even recall the theme song, "We went to sleep twenty years ago, and we woke up with a brand new show."

[Diabolical]

Phoebe Cates still looks awesome too.

[Ran]

So we could bring up females who were underage back then and it wouldn't be creepy because we were also underage at the time?

You can take the ball and run in any direction you want with it.

I'll 2nd Winnie Cooper.

Allisa Milano. I haven't seen a recent picture of her, but she looked pretty good when she was modeling that NFL women's clothing line a year or two back.

[Rollo Tomassi]

The daughters from Just the Ten of Us we're all pretty hot. And I mean the four older daughters.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Now Bryan Fuller is making Hannibal! for NBC.
Is this instead of or in addition to Munsters?
And seriously? Hannibal Lechter in PrimeTime? Seriously?!

[Diabolical]

Now Bryan Fuller is making Hannibal! for NBC.
Is this instead of or in addition to Munsters?
And seriously? Hannibal Lechter in PrimeTime? Seriously?!

Which is one of two Silence of the Lambs shows, as someone is also developing a Clarice Starling series (A&E maybe?).