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Just 10 days ago NBC passed on its Munsters reboot Mockingbird Lane, which had been in the works at NBC for two years under two regimes. But the network is not closing the door to bringing the family of monsters from the classic sitcom back. “I won’t say we won’t do another version of The Muensters again,” NBC chief Bob Greenblatt said after the network’s executive session at TCA. He addressed the reasons for the decision not to proceed with Bryan Fuller’s Mockingbird Lane despite the pilot, which carried a reported $10-million price tag, doing decent ratings business when it aired as a Halloween special in October.
“We just decided that it didn’t hold together well enough to yield a series,” Greenblatt said. “It looked beautiful and original and creative, but it just all ultimately didn’t come together…, it just didn’t ultimately creatively all work.” The pilot featured a cast led by Jerry O’Connell as family patriarch Herman Munster, Portia de Rossi as his wife Lily, Eddie Izzard as Grandpa, and Charity Wakefield as cousin Marilyn. “We felt great about that cast,” Greenblatt said. “But we tried to make it not just a sitcom. We tried to make it an hour, which ultimately has more dramatic weight than a half-hour. It’s hard to calibrate how much weirdness vs. supernatural vs. family story. I just think we didn’t get the mix right.”
Ray Richmond contributed to this report.
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“We just decided that it didn’t hold together well enough to yield a series,” Greenblatt said. “It looked beautiful and original and creative, but it just all ultimately didn’t come together…, it just didn’t ultimately creatively all work.”
– As he described every Bryan Fuller series ever.
You must be a network executive. Bryan Fuller’s writing is brilliant. And then the executives start giving notes…
At this point, maybe he should try writing novels and having them optioned for series. Then when a network screws them up, at least everyone knows what they were intended to be.
You must work for Bryan.
Hope it pays well.
@Casey: Your reply is a typical Deadline cliche. What bothers me is that I screwed up the subjunctive. It should have been: “at least everyone will know what they were intended to be.”
@AL: Interesting point. I haven’t read any of Piers Anthony’s novels. I’ll take a look, thanks!
Deadline cliche:
“You must be a network executive. (Insert name du article)’s writing (or acting, directing, show running, lip gloss-applying, whatever…) is brilliant.”
Withering name-calling retort followed by claiming something/anything is “brilliant.” Yawn…
Bryan doesn’t need to write novels when he has Piers Anthony’s to keep lifting from.
We have been keeping our eyes open for this series to start and are disappointed with the decision to not proceed.
give. it. up. NBC.
“– As he described every Bryan Fuller series ever.”
TOTALY BURN, BRO!
Loser.
What’s untrue about that statement. All of Fuller’s pilots have been beautiful, original and creative but ultimately didn’t come together as series. That’s just the way it’s worked out.
Agreed. Rebooting an one-note,vintage TV series that was popular in reruns (emphasis on reruns) shows a lot of desperation.
Well “The Munsters” isn’t going to come together when you try to make it as ‘The Addams Family”. When will execs and producers learn that a “reboot” isn’t completely changing it. If you don’t want a frankenstein dad, vampire grandpa, vampiress mom and wolf boy son then do NOT try to reboot ‘The Musters’.
They just did that already.
Fuller screwed up by reversing the whole concept of the original show where there were monsters but were a loving caring family and ultimately good people.
What Fuller produced was a bunch of monsters who really were monsters especially grandpa. Its hard to screw up the Munsters but Fuller did it.
Totally agree. He stripped out what people loved about the show and gave them some bland half-assed/half-scary monsters who were boring beyond compare. It’s a shame too because he could of made a campy, funny show and instead went for… well, I’m not sure what he was going for.
Now that O’Connell is unavailable, I would like to recommend Diedrich Bader for the role of Herman.
~another version of The Munsters again~ The munsters may not be the only ones who need a reboot IMO. Fact is the entire Nbc organization is in need of a reboot-this current version is getting stale fast. This network has made so many stupid decisions which have totally ruined the brand name of Nbc. Perhaps get rid of that godawful Whitney program & go from there. They are definitely in need of some better decisions at Nbc-definitely.
Avoid IMO. A post is an opinion – unnecessary acronym……it sounds like you don’t back up what you’re saying.
Brad Garrett and Mariana Klaveno should play Herman and Lilly Munster.
“I won’t say we won’t do another version of The Muensters again,” NBC chief Bob Greenblatt said.
Making old sitcoms modern isn’t really a cottage industry.
Bob should try again and make the show cheddar. I bet it be gouda if NBC really put effort into it.
LOL. I was going to make post about this, but yours can’t be topped.
Perhaps “The Muensters” would have sold well to cheese advertisers!
Hell, the title, alone, would be more intriguing than the generic “Mockingbird Lane”.
God let it die, already. IT’S OVER
Am I hearing this correctly? They want to try and make this show a series again? They just killed it not too long ago but this just wreacks of desperation again at NBC. NBC seriously needs to focus on the present and stop with the Zucker-like thinking mentality or Greenbladt is going to be looking for another job down the road.
There is just a glimmer of original creativity left on network TV. 95% of programming is pure garbage, the only good stuff is on cable (FX,AMC,etc). The problem is that MBA’s think they took film studies and film theory classes in school. How can someone ‘give notes’ to a filmmaker WHO HAS NEVER MADE A FILM HIM/HERSELF?!!
The truth of the matter is that all failures are due to executive meddling. Successes are just things that fell through the cracks.
Well you’re either a pompous film student or a plumber as no one who really works in the film industry would ever believe that.
We will never give up on The Munsters we will spend another 10 million next year to make another failed pilot and after that we will try again spending even more Comcast money. We are going to force America to fall in love with The Munsters if it’s the last thing we ever do!
““It looked beautiful and original and creative, but it just all ultimately didn’t come together…”
*Hork* I think I’m going to be ill..
Has this man seen even a few minutes of even the weakest of the original shows? You can’t buy screen chemistry, Greenblatt. Nor can you pay mediocre writers to suddenly become good ones. Do a whole generation (and I mean the current one) of TV lovers a favor and just let this one die. Why don’t you and your crew toddle along and “re-tool” “Father knows Best” or “My Little Margie”? That seems to be more your speed.
“‘I won’t say we won’t do another version of The Muensters [sic] again,’ NBC chief Bob Greenblatt said after the network’s executive session at TCA.”
They’re going to try it again as “The Gorgonzolas,” with a new character, “Jack Monterey,” as the wacky neighbor.
This is interesting, because the original concept of “The Munsters” was very different, more like “The Addams Family.” According to John Astin, Gomez Addams on the show, he (yes, he) was called in to help make “The Munsters” a different show than his show. If you have seen the original pilot, a lot of things changed, including the characters of Lily and Eddie, played by different actors. The show was going to be less slapsticky than it turned out to be, but according to Astin, he helped the producers make the show unique. Again, this came from Astin’s mouth, but it might have some credibility, since the original Munsters pilot is so different than what we ended up seeing. As far as the reboot, they should simply let it die. “The Munsters” was classic television, and there is no need to bring it up to date. Generations have loved the show just the way it is, why make it into something it isn’t?
They could have made ten GREAT little films for that cash…
Greeny should be embarrassed as shit. It was his call all the way from script to screen. And he actually aired the dammed thing.
Finally something original!
The key to the Munsters is simple- While they are archetypal of something that society “knows” it is supposed to fear, THEY believe they are typical, just like everyone else…and in spite of their nature, THEY ARE.
If you want to use fantasy and humor to make a social comment, that is the core of this property, the heart that speaks to everyone in the audience.
The old Munsters each had real personalities. Eddie, the weirdo kid who didnt understand himself. Marilyn, the ugly cousin. Lily was Mom not a sexy model of a woman. She believed she was normal. Her normal was just not ours. Herman was loving slow minded. He had no clue he frightened the outside world. He was innocent acting. Grandpa was the only one who accepted himself, the crazy mad scientist that understood the world as it was and tried to keep his family from ridicule and harm even though he was always blowing up things and flying away to drink as a vampire. And where is Spot. And the house has no cobwebs. Lily was always knitting with cobwebs. Now take that and bring it forward. The characters personalities ruined this but I believe it could be done and popular. Thanks