Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: It looks like NBC‘s Mockingbird Lane pilot won’t be going to series. There is no final decision, but I hear that the network brass are leaning toward passing on the project, a reboot of the classic 1960s sitcom The Munsters. The project from Bryan Fuller had been in the works at NBC for a couple of seasons, originally developed by the previous regime during the 2010-11 development cycle. Fuller’s script was one of very few Bob Greenblatt kept in play when he took over the network in January 2011. It was redeveloped and, in November 2011, it was ordered to pilot around the same time another Fuller-written drama, Hannibal, landed a script-to-series deal at NBC.

Like Fuller’s previous series Pushing Daisies, Munsters was to feature striking visuals mixed with all the classic Munsters archetypes. Rolled to June, the pilot landed Bryan Singer as director and assembled a cast led by Jerry O’Connell as family patriarch Herman Munster, Portia de Rossi as his wife Lily, and Eddie Izzard as Grandpa. The pilot was lauded for its visual style but pulling off the high-concept premise — a show about a family of “monsters” — was always considered a risky proposition. In the end, I hear it didn’t quite work. Meanwhile, Fuller is busy working on Hannibal, a series based on the Hannibal Lecter character that has a 13-episode midseason order.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.