The recent trend for TV has been to take things you liked in the past and bring them back in many different forms. Reboot or Remake the whole thing again, with varied effects and viewer reception, Hey you remember that show you watched in the 90's ? Let's bring that back with a new season , shows are never cancels now just really long hiatus I guess. The final thing is take a series you watched and now give them a years later spin off maybe focus on some other characters or something.
The Munsters experienced what "Girl Meets World". "Fuller House", and "Raven's Home" are today , they had a series continuation too called "The Munsters Today" which a) literally had the main characters come out from being knocked out for 22 years and waking up in 1988. (Imagine if they did that for Fuller House, everyone wakes up in 2015 exactly the same as they were in 1996 -- meaning different actors -- that would be something.) It did score one victory , it had two more episodes than the original series. We aren't talking about that this time. A few weeks ago there was a news report that someone is interested in remaking the Munsters, hopefully they won't be waking up from a 25 year slumber. In 2012, which was 21 years after "The Munsters Today" ended NBC decided to dip their toes into this series and well... that's our topic this time.
In 2012, NBC aired a pilot of a new "Munsters" concept they had called "Mockingbird Lane" named after the street the Munsters lived on. This may have been a sign. This pilot aired on October 26th , 2012 , The Friday before Halloween.
It starts with spooky music, then boy scouts. The boy scouts food has been all eaten up and they don't know why. ( I don't what this has to do with the Munsters) Apparently they think one of the kids ate the food until they see a random animal in the forest and attacks their Scout Master. (I'm sorry we must have picked up the wrong recording, this doesn't seem right.) The Werewolf ,as seen later, scares everyone (and the Scout master is alright so guess not too attacked) into a car one of the boys asks where's Eddie Munster? (I guess we are on the right show after all) The show plays a cut of the famous theme over a naked I guess that's Eddie Munster as it zooms into the show's title.
Meanwhile, a lady whom I guess is Marilyn is buying a house and apparently 1312 Mockingbird Lane she looks across the screen and really wants 1313. (Well they did that right.)
Up next they just get mean. They revival Herman Munster and in 5 seconds you go from oooh yeah to oh no!
oh Yes! Woo Hoo there's Herman / Copyright Universal television
oh come on! /Copyright Universal Television
This also goes along with Eddie not looking like a werewolf, but apparently he changes into one but doesn't seem aware of it. Since Eddie was that werewolf at the beginning, they decided to move before anyone figured it out. (That makes sense?) The house on the other hand does have the opening stair case so 5 points there. Eddie says his grandfather told him that he has a condition much like how they talk of Marilyn but Eddie wants to be normal. Even though Herman doesn't look like Herman he is made up of different people's body parts and has the stitch marks it just seems to be a more they found different head for him. They use more that old Munsters theme in there as the seen transitions.
Wonder what we can keep down here? / Copyright Universal Television
Grandpa shows up next apparently as a bunch of mice ( I guess that makes sense than just showing up in person. While Lilly also shows up as cloud and turns into herself and spiders dress her up. (What did I just write?) Herman doesn't want Eddie to know what he is while, Lilly does.
Another day , Eddie is starting his new school and his family tries to talk around him about his little issue , so he doesn't know and he goes to school and figures out that his father is lying to him about something. Herman turns around after seeing Eddie off and his heart does something and he collapses. (with some up beat background music.) The next scene , new fake out : they have this all set up where lightning is used and they make you think that they are maybe recharging Herman , but nope it's Grandpa's I-pad ( Apple is weird). Anyway in Grandpa's lab Herman wakes up and finds that Grandpa has replaced his heart with a robotic one , this displeases Herman who wants his regular heart back. Grandpa does so and says that he should tell Eddie the truth now.
First you tease us now you taunt us , show / copyright Universal Television
more after the jump come on over!
Grandpa decides to meet the neighbors and these are named Tim and Marie. Meanwhile in this scene I am not sure if Grandpa likes Marilyn being around even though he did say he saved her from being eaten by her mother. (Well that was nice... also dark.) Eddie found a new boy scout troop (I guess it saves on the clothing budget) Also they seem to really want to use a lot of effects on Lilly's entrances.
How we dress around here/ Copyright Universal Television
Eddie found a new boy scout troop (I guess it saves on the clothing budget) Also they seem to really want to use a lot of effects on Lilly's entrances.
It's another day we get to see a deer get eaten by a lion. (well that got dark) Then Grandpa eats the lion as pterodactyl. (Well I just wrote that, and someone wrote that then made that scene.) Lilly and Eddie talk a little. Also more Apple promo work. Herman talks to grandpa and theme that appears is that Herman feels like he doesn't have a place that there's really nothing that makes him him except maybe Eddie. Grandpa had Tim paint their house and then he falls down and dies. (This show is dark ) Well nevermind , he's alive.
I like a good entrance , I should teach you that / Copyright Universal Television
Grandpa talks to the scout master and it seems that either he wants the man's heart or to have him marry Lilly with Herman dead. Anyway , it's dinner time it's strange. Lilly calls Herman away and wonders why the man is in the house, and apparently it was first one : Their plan was to have the scoutmaster die so Herman can have his heart and Grandpa can eat him. ( this show is dark) Eddie says he doesn't eat meat this annoys Grandpa and then Eddie tells the scoutmaster that Grandpa is going to eat him. (I hate when that happens)
You : It's what for dinner / Copyright Universal Television
Lilly tells Herman that she's not going to let Grandpa eat Steve the scoutmaster because Eddie doesn't have enough role models. Grandpa turns into some sort of freaky monster thing and when Marilyn tries to stop him she accidentally pushes Steve down the stairs. (Oops) Herman decides to talk to Eddie about him being a werewolf. Eddie is heart broken by this news , Herman tells him that he can be he who wants to be , like a vegetarian and that they'll get through it. Herman's heart then stops and he falls off the roof. Grandpa gave Herman , Steve's heart and the background music is old blues music. Lilly and Herman got Eddie a pet , they say that he is there to help Eddie when he turns into a werewolf.
Bad creature ! Don't burn up the moon / Copyright Universal
This article can also fall into the short lived series zone as well because this was the only thing that aired. NBC decided not to go with the whole series after all. NBC's chief said :
source : Deadline
“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 and probably what would have been the seires if it had made it starred Jerry O O'Connell as Herman, Portia de Rossi as Lilly, English actress Charity Wakefield as Marilyn , Mason Cook as Eddie Munster , and Eddie Izzard as Grandpa.
Since this is a pilot that was hoping to be a full series it did have some things that I felt would have been melded into a full series . The whole episode is bulding up to seeing how Eddie would handle being a werewolf, Herman's feelings about who he is as feels he's lost parts of himself, and possibly more on the family relationship altogether.
I am a big fan of the Munsters and honestly this kind of didn't feel very Munsters and maybe that's why the did a different name for it. Does that mean it's awful , no not really. Herman's character is maybe a little smarter than the original but it still has him being a loving person, gentle, kind and very much devoted to his wife and son. I would have loved to see more Herman and Lilly dynamic but the hints in this were that they have a great love of each other. Grandpa is less trickster in this and more kind of a jerk , again we never will know how his character could have developed over the series though. He does seem adversarial to Marilyn but maybe he does care for her. Marilyn didn't seem too fleshed out yet. Eddie was alright, his character was given a much bigger role here than in the original series , and he was alright. I am guessing the series dynamic would have been him trying to deal with both being a werewolf and his normal self. That's really over done thing , but it would have been interesting to see how they executed it.
I will say the effects were alright but not too over done, even though they did have Lilly do some weird entrances which seemed to be a "Hey! Look at our effects!" thing. The pacing was not to dragged out and very evenly spaced which is nice for an hour long episode. It's darker than the original series but it did have some humor, though it did seem at times it was taunting Munsters fans.
I won't say it was great , I won't say it was awful it was strange and different and kind of daring that it was made, but it just didn't feel Munsters, I think the idea of it being more drama is a little off putting for a lot compared to just the comedy style. Anyway that it for us, tune in next time ,when we wake up from our 22 year nap and feel confused as heck.
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