Mockingbird Lane (NBC "Munsters" Halloween Special) (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

I enjoyed it. My favorite part was the music; so happy they kept the old theme.
I also thought Charity Wakefield brought something really interesting to the role of Marilyn; she brings a sense of wry irony to the role, as opposed to the original character, who simply was ironic.

Grandpa wasn't a vampire I pretty sure he is a demon at least that's what he liked like plus his cookies were a D.

If they're keeping to the original mythology, the "D" is for Dracula, the first vampire.

 

[TonyD]

Oof, jeez you're right Dracula.

 

[JonZ]

I liked the werewolf in the beginning. I also laughed at The Prophecy homage with the kid in the sleeping bad.

I thought the Marilyn and Grandpa scenes were really enjoyable and found myself smiling and giggling through the entire visit to the neighbor bit.

Lily, and to a much lesser extent, Herman are the problem. This version of Herman is pretty consistant with the original. What made the original work so well, was you essentially had Frankensteins monster who was a big softie, loved his family, was a scarycat, etc and Fred pulled it off perfectly. This version lacks the essentrics and the visual (and of course Freds talent), but avoiding the slapstick, its a pretty faighful update of the character. As for Jerrys makeup, I did notice that his body and head complexion didnt quite match seperated at the stitch at his neck, and it looked to me like his right arm was from a smaller person than his left. A nice touch.

Portia's Lily is just bland. Im not sure why, considering shes Draculas daughter, they didnt go a bit more vampish. Even paling her skin, and a simple hint of white stripe, a Lily trademark, would have helped her appearance.

It looked great. I liked the werewolf, I hated the ManBat design. I did laugh quite a few times - the previous mentioned visit to theneighbor, the dinner scnes(Eddie playing with his food), and Herman falling off the roof. There were also a couple good one liners "I cant be a vegetarian werewolf"

It's got issues, but if this went to series, Id tune in and see how it goes.

 

[Malcolm R]

Loved the look of the show. Art direction and set design seem to share a lot of qualities with Fuller's Pushing Daisies. Not so sure about the new versions of the family, though. With the exception of a few Grandpa scenes, they just don't seem monster-ish enough to be the Munsters. Part of the fun of the original was seeing regular people react to Herman's Frankenstein monster look, or vampirish Lily. The new family can blend relatively easily into any public setting.

 

[AlexF]

I was never a huge fan of the original Munsters, always more of an Addams guy myself, but I tuned into this to check it out specifically because of Bryan Fuller (I didn't realize that Bryan Singer directed it until the credit came up), and quite enjoyed it.
From what I've read, Fuller is working on completing his Hannibal series, all of the actors are locked in until July 1, 2013, and that if the ratings are high enough, NBC will pick things up, potentially as a summer series. Fuller's also stated that he's got scripts for the next three episodes (including one with the Creature from the Black Lagoon), and that he's got a 6-episode story arc laid out too.

 

[Joe Bernardi]

One and done for me and my wife. Why call it The Munsters when it's not.

 

[JonZ]

Fuller's also stated that he's got scripts for the next three episodes (including one with the Creature from the Black Lagoon)

^ This is why I kind of have hope for this show, and that it gets picked up.

Theres potential for all sorts of monster goodness.

 

[Nelson Au]

This caused me to finally get the original Musters DVD set and it was even on sale at Amazon!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Once again, we get a "reimagining" whose only real connection to the original is the names of the characters. If they'd taken the script and dropped the Munsters references entirely, it might've been OK, but the violence and nastiness attached to the Munsters name just made it freakish and shocking. I'm glad my kid (who would've loved the original show) got bored and left the room before there was too much blood. (Naked Grandpa eating a live deer with its blood all over his face was pretty much the jump-the-shark moment, and the overly contrived accidental death of the nice scout leader was the proverbial nail in the coffin.)
Interestingly, purely out of inertia I left NBC on afterward and watched Grimm for the first time. That show wasn't half bad! I'm not a Nielsen house, but there ya go.

 

[Ockeghem]

Once again, we get a "reimagining" whose only real connection to the original is the names of the characters. If they'd taken the script and dropped the Munsters references entirely, it might've been OK, but the violence and nastiness attached to the Munsters name just made it freakish and shocking. I'm glad my kid (who would've loved the original show) got bored and left the room before there was too much blood. (Naked Grandpa eating a live deer with its blood all over his face was pretty much the jump-the-shark moment, and the overly contrived accidental death of the nice scout leader was the proverbial nail in the coffin.)

Aaron,
I appreciate what you wrote here. Since it has nothing to do with the original series (and includes what you've written above), I'm quite pleased that I missed it.

 

[SD_Brian]

This felt more like American Horror Story than The Munsters. Something (well, several things) was just off. The timing and the tone were inconsistent and very heavy-handed. As a comedy it might work better as a 1/2 hour and with someone like, say, Tim Burton behind the scenes. As a drama, it doesn't work.

 

[Nelson Au]

Scott, You really didn't miss much!
I was trying to be objective above in my comments. I think the original is a better show and I even went and finally got around to buying the original series on DVD.
From what I have been reading, this airing of Mockingbird Lane sounds like a one off timed well with Halloween.

 

[Ockeghem]

Scott, You really didn't miss much!
I was trying to be objective above in my comments. I think the original is a better show and I even went and finally got around to buying the original series on DVD.
From what I have been reading, this airing of Mockingbird Lane sounds like a one off timed well with Halloween.

Nelson,
Thanks for the comments above. I am going to pick up the complete The Munsters series soon. I enjoyed it as a child, and I do like Fred Gwynn.

 

[Nelson Au]

I also enjoyed it in my youth. It was part of that wall of syndicated shows that ran in the afternoons!

 

[Greg_S_H]

It holds up really well. I bought the DVDs when they came out and maybe even enjoyed it more than when I was a kid.
Aaron, Grimm is a good show. Monroe (the guy scaring the trick or treaters) is a hoot.

 

[Stan]

I actually enjoyed the "reimagining" of the series, but it was terribly expensive for a pilot. Everything I've seen says it all depends on what its final ratings are, then the decision will be made to order more or pass on it.
Even if it had the ratings to be picked up, I'd imagine it would be months before new episodes would make it to broadcast, by then all interest may have faded.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Thanks, Greg. I tend to watch one episode of new shows and then forget about them (whether I like 'em or not), but maybe I'll check out Grimm on disc or On Demand. That Monroe guy was definitely a hoot. My son seemed pretty intrigued even though it was scary, but my wife freaked out and made him leave the room. Daddy got in big trouble!
I used to watch Munsters reruns all the time back in the '70s and early '80s. Nice to hear that it holds up; maybe I'll get it to share with my kid.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Grimm might be too much for the kids. They do have this modern show fixation on graphic gore.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Thanks for the tip. The episode I saw was about a ghost who drowns children, so there wasn't any blood.

 

[EricSchulz]

A must-have for fans of the original....http://www.hometheaterforum.com/content/type/61/id/169724/