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Portia de Rossi, known for her platinum blonde locks, is taking on one of TV’s best known brunettes — Lily Munster. The Arrested Development and Better Off Ted alumna is set to play the female lead in NBC’s Munsters reboot Mockingbird Lane.
Mariana Klaveno had previously been cast as Lily Munster but the deal was contingent on her being released from ABC’s pilot Devious Maids, where she was a regular. However, Devious Maids producer ABC Studios did not release Klaveno or agree to make her a recurring on the project, which is in consideration for a series pickup at Lifetime, sending NBC back to the drawing board.
Written by Bryan Fuller and to be directed by Bryan Singer, Mockingbird Lane is described as a reinvention of the 1960s sitcom about The Munsters, a family of “monsters” — vampires, werewolves and Frankenstein, and their “plain” cousin (Charity Wakefield) — that will feature striking visuals in the vein of Fuller’s ABC dramedy Pushing Daisies. Jerry O’Connell plays family patriarch Herman Munster, who is married to Lily (de Rossi), a vampire, with whom he has fathered a 10-year-old boy, Eddie (Mason Cook). Eddie Izzard plays Grandpa. The role of Lily was played by Yvonne De Carlo in the original Munsters sitcom. This marks de Rossi’s return to NBC, where she was attached to a comedy project, The Smart One, last development season. NBC ultimately passed on the script, which landed a pilot order at ABC but didn’t go to series.
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It’s hard to believe they would prevent an actress from earning a living. I hope lifetime pics up her show so at least she makes some money out of it.
So does this mean DEVIOUS MAIDS pick up chances are higher because they didnt let the actriz go?? i hope so!!! I want the show to air and hopefully and maybe lifetime also considers picking up GCB!!
That is totally unfair of ABC. From what I understand she didn’t even have a big role in Devious Maids so the worst that would have happened is that Mockingbird Lane would have been a hit and then Maids would have had use of an actress from a popular show. Idiots.
One of those rare times a holding deal actually works in a series favor. Nothing against Mariana Klaveno but NBC has to be thrilled to land a “name” in Portia de Rossi.
Portia de Rossi is a name? Why, because she’s Ellen’s girlfriend? This is terrible casting, de Rossi is not that good of an actress and certainly not a star.
The casting gets worse and worse by the day. Oh, it’s NBC, never mind.
That’s a little harsh. With a wig she might be absolutely PERFECT for this!
Singer’s not a chump and has some clout so even though it’s TV (a writer’s medium) I’m SURE he was consulted on this since he’s lending his name and rep to it.
Her “coldness” (no snark intended) kind of makes her a solid “go-to” for something like this.
Especially off of O’Connell’s gift for “goofiness.” (Again NO insult intended.
I think they’ll compliment each other well.
“The casting gets worse by the day” REALLY?
Name ONE thing Portia De Rossi has been horrible in.
Portia De Rossi deserves so much better than this.
No one is forcing her to take the role. And it’s not like she needs the money…
Or with Ellen passing the Baton to Bethanny, as part of being a team player, “F You NBC, my girl gets a series.”. Or not, but it makes for a passing thought.
Awesome. Portia was great on Arrested Development. Why is this being called Mockingbird Lane and not The Munsters? Seems kinda weird.
Because I believe this is gonna be an hour long dramedy as opposed to a half-hour multi-cam, and I’d imagine that they want to let viewers know this is a very different show than the original.
It’s not going to be a remake of The Munsters. From what I’ve heard, the only similarities are in the character’s names.
Why? Did all of the real actresses leave Hollywood? I would have watched it but not now!
Portia De Rossi is pretty amazing as shown on Arrested Development and Better Off Ted.
The weak link here continues to be 1. The overall idea that this is a necessary reboot or remake and 2. Jerry O Connell.
But Bryan Fuller did give us Pushing Daisies so maybe there is something here.
What does this mean for Portia and Arrested Development? Won’t both productions overlap?
Portia’s a good get for this show, but I still don’t understand the Jerry O’Connell decision at all.
Well if that doesn’t show you how ridiculous the tv business has become, I don’t know what else to say. They had a great script for a great show with her, but because it wasn’t a re-boot of something execs had watched when they were kids, they passed, and stuffed Portia into The Munsters. Jesus effing Christ…
I agree. The casting on this show is what’s making me interested.
Such a dark script, her lack of character warmth might be a good fit.
Just cancel this now. The casting is terrible. Way too obvious and filled with B-listers who can’t get good jobs. I think there was a version of this with less obvious, and interesting choices that might have worked but now this whole thing feels like a train wreck waiting to happen.
John, you should copyright that comment right now.
Because you could be using it again and again and again for a whole host of projects.
Good job!
If you had read the script you would see why theses casting choices make sense. They can’t replace the brilliance if the original cast they have to reinvent it. Ultimately it will sink or swim but remember the cast of Desperate housewives was way more D list and look how that turned out.
Jerry and Portia have already worked on screen together in Scream 2. Interesting…. haha
Good for Portia! And good for NBC! It’s a perfect match. Hope the pilot goes to series. I cannot wait to see ready product.
why does everyone keep saying how great Pushing Daisies was? It had a mildly clever pilot which was actually a huge fail in terms of story or setting up the rules of the world. Everything happened… “Just because” But since it was so pleasingly told to us by the mellifluous voice of the narrator — and because it was so stunning and interesting in its look, we went along with it.
But beyond the pilot — like all Bryan Fuller series ever — there was nothing there. No stories… No more money for that fabulous pilot look… No good character work… And as a result — no series…
I mean can anyone even remember an episode, hell a scene outside of the pilot?
This pilot is the jet on its ascendency. Episode 3 is where it bursts into flames and begins to crash. Especially given that Fuller — a guy who’s done nothing but fail in the TV world — has been given charge of two well known properties to run at the same time. GOOD LUCK.
Every time I see an article for this show I think about The Misfits Of Science
NBC it’s over.
I think it’s great casting actually.
I think Portia is very funny. She was great on Arrested.
Oooh!!! GCB, on that note why don’t we bring back Work It!
Lifetime=bad television
deRossi is great casting. She’s a wonderful comedic actress and I’m looking forward to this show which I had no idea was even in the pipeline.
Mariana Klavenko is an awesome actor that would have really made the show. While Portia is good, she doesn’t make that role spark IMO. NBC got screwed by ABC when Klavenko was hardly featured on Maids but not released. But then again with CBS dumping on ABC’s Glass House, I guess the network wars are quite interesting these days.