Sunday, October 15, 2017

IS 'THE MUNSTERS' REALLY RETURNING TO TV?


Announced recently was a plan for the 60's monster sitcom, THE MUNSTERS, to be resurrected at NBC. Now, many are hesitant to embrace this idea, and for good reason. All attempts at subsequent returns have been more dismal than the front yard at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. Still, I have my hopes up, as this could -- and should -- be an opportunity to give viewers a fresh, new take on modern comedy, and not the usual, offensive and insulting fare served up on show after show. In my opinion, that is not comedy.

So, I await further news on this project, and, if it does make it to the small screen, I hope it shows some respect for one of the things that made 60's Monster Mania so fun. I'm all in for this new show, but at the first sign of political bashing (on either side) or a deluge of insults on our institutions, I'm all out.

‘The Munsters’ Reboot In Works At NBC From Jill Kargman & Seth Meyers

by Nellie Andreeva August 10, 2017

EXCLUSIVE: The Munsters are back! NBC is rebooting the 1960s comedy series about a family of lovable monsters with Odd Mom Out creator Jill Kargman and Seth Meyers.

Inspired by the original series, the half-hour single-camera The Munsters, now in development, follows members of an offbeat family who are determined to stay true to themselves but struggle to fit in in hipster Brooklyn. (In the original, the Munsters resided at the famous 1313 Mockingbird Lane address in the city of Mockingbird Heights, a fictional suburb in California.)


Kargman will write the script and will executive produce with Sethmaker Shoemeyers Productions’ Meyers and Mike Shoemaker. Universal TV is the studio.

I hear the project originated with Kargman, who came up with a new take on the classic sitcom, which ran on CBS for two seasons from 1964-66. Her team tracked down the rights to Universal TV, where she teamed up with Late Night host Meyers, who has a producing deal at the studio.

NBC and Universal previously took a stab at rebooting The Munsters several years ago as an hourlong series written by Bryan Fuller. It resulted in the big-budget pilot Mockingbird Lane, directed by Bryan Singer and starring 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, which aired as a Halloween special in 2012.

While NBC ultimately passed on the project going to series, the network did not close the door to bringing the family of monsters back.

“I won’t say we won’t do another version of The Munsters again,” NBC chief Bob Greenblatt said in January 2013. “We tried to make it an hour, which ultimately has more dramatic weight than a half-hour.”

The Munsters now is reverting to its original half-hour comedy format.

Kargman is the creator, executive producer and star of the critically praised Bravo comedy series Odd Mom Out. Kargman, who also is a bestselling author, is repped by ICM Partners.

Meyers and Shoemaker also executive produce the upcoming NBC comedy series A.P.Bio. 

The Munsters marks the second reboot of an old series for NBC next season. Last week the network announced a new version of the 1980s “MTV cops” drama Miami Vice, to be produced by Vin Diesel and Chris Morgan.

[SOURCE: Deadline Hollywood]

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