Yet ANOTHER reboot: The Munsters (1 Viewer)

[EricSchulz]

‘Munsters’ Reboot in Development at NBC With Seth Meyers Producing | Variety


Please. Don't. PLEASE.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

NBC tried this not too long ago with Eddie Izzard, and it didn't make it past one episode.

 

[jcroy]

Where would the audience be for a reboot of Munsters?

 

[Malcolm R]

I'd rather see a new version of The Addams Family. As Adam said, they already tried rebooting The Munsters a couple years back (Mockingbird Lane). It's been nearly 20 years since Addams Family Reunion (TV Movie).

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'd rather see a new version of the Addams Family, too. The Barry Sonnenfeld movies were such stylistic exercises that it'd be fun to get a more grounded, character driven take. On the original show, there was a lightness and warmth to the family dynamic that offset the gothic and supernatural elements.

The biggest problem with resurrecting "The Addams Family", though, is that you'll never get a more perfect Gomez Addams than John Astin.

 

[Matt Hough]

With the feature films being popular and widely seen, I'd think there would be more of a built-in audience for The Addams Family, so I am surprised that isn't the one they're going to reboot. Of course, if The Munsters by some fluke does strike gold, The Addams Family won't be far behind.

 

[Tony Bensley]

At least The Addams Family have had successful reboots that weren't widely considered to be embarrassing, as ALL previous reboots of The Munsters have been!

I just don't get this!

I am pro Munsters, by the way! It just seems as though there is something about this franchise that isn't conducive to successful rebooting, based on past failures, at least. Sometimes lightning simply doesn't strike twice!

CHEERS!

 

[Suzanne.S]

I really liked the pilot episode of Mockingbird Lane with Eddie Izzard. I thought it had potential. Shows like that which have, for lack of a better term, "cult' followings or potential followings, need more than one episode to build a following. Of course a show will fail if you set it up to fail like that.

I think that what made Mockingbird Lane work for me was that it wasn't a copy of The Munsters, but a show that kept the premise but updated it to be less cartoonish and more modern. I think that The Munsters has something undefinable that would be difficult to recapture.

But I will keep an open mind. Hopefully they can surprise us. I just wish that the studios, networks and sponsors would have more faith in original ideas. There are more stories waiting to be told and more classics to be created. They just need to be given a chance.

 

[MishaLauenstein]

I'd think there would be more of a built-in audience for The Addams Family, so I am surprised that isn't the one they're going to reboot.

Well, I think it's kind of obvious why the people who own The Munsters aren't going to reboot The Addams Family.

 

[Stan]

I really liked the pilot episode of Mockingbird Lane with Eddie Izzard. I thought it had potential. Shows like that which have, for lack of a better term, "cult' followings or potential followings, need more than one episode to build a following. Of course a show will fail if you set it up to fail like that.

I think that what made Mockingbird Lane work for me was that it wasn't a copy of The Munsters, but a show that kept the premise but updated it to be less cartoonish and more modern. I think that The Munsters has something undefinable that would be difficult to recapture.

But I will keep an open mind. Hopefully they can surprise us. I just wish that the studios, networks and sponsors would have more faith in original ideas. There are more stories waiting to be told and more classics to be created. They just need to be given a chance.

I also really liked it. But apparently it was incredibly expensive and didn't get the ratings.

Sometimes get a bit tired of these "reboots", which often fail. This one deserves another chance.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[MatthewA]

Didn't realize the either/or crowd was so polarized.

I think that what made Mockingbird Lane work for me was that it wasn't a copy of The Munsters, but a show that kept the premise but updated it to be less cartoonish and more modern. I think that The Munsters has something undefinable that would be difficult to recapture.

The original series played on Universal horror movie tropes and characters that were still familiar to audiences because of their frequent reruns on television. Being shot in B&W benefited it because there it looked like those old movies crossed with Leave it to Beaver, which also got rebooted in the 1980s but without Hugh Beaumont just wasn't the same.

The Munsters Today, which managed to outrun the original by a year, was woefully inferior and embarrassingly cheap because it was done for first-run syndication. Even Al Lewis (replaced by Gimme A Break's Howard Morton) and Fred Gwynne* wanted nothing to do with it despite still being alive. Even The New Gidget could afford film, and frankly even Small Wonder had funnier jokes! If that wasn't enough, they actually sang along with their own theme song that explained how they were basically frozen in ice for 20 years.** Paradoxically, it may have helped make the Addams Family movies better then they might have been otherwise, and better than they had any right to be (ditto the Brady Bunch movies) because they had that as an example of how not to reboot something. Yet the whole thing was actually on Hulu a few years back.

*In an alternate TV Land, he might not have been available anyway. According to the late Brandon Tartikoff's book The Last Great Ride, he was the original choice to play Henry Warnimont on Punky Brewster, but when first testing with Soleil Moon Frye, she broke character and said "hey, aren't you Herman Munster?" It was after that that George Gaynes, who prior to original Police Academy and hitting on Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie was best known for appearing with Rosalind Russell in Broadway's Wonderful Town, got the part.
**Normally this is where I put in stealth YouTube links, but even I have my limits.

 

[Gary Seven]

The show might succeed on well written satire otherwise, not a chance.

 

[Stan]

Didn't realize the either/or crowd was so polarized.



The original series played on Universal horror movie tropes and characters that were still familiar to audiences because of their frequent reruns on television. Being shot in B&W benefited it because there it looked like those old movies crossed with Leave it to Beaver, which also got rebooted in the 1980s but without Hugh Beaumont just wasn't the same.

The Munsters Today, which managed to outrun the original by a year, was woefully inferior and embarrassingly cheap because it was done for first-run syndication. Even Al Lewis (replaced by Gimme A Break's Howard Morton) and Fred Gwynne* wanted nothing to do with it despite still being alive. Even The New Gidget could afford film, and frankly even Small Wonder had funnier jokes! If that wasn't enough, they actually sang along with their own theme song that explained how they were basically frozen in ice for 20 years.** Paradoxically, it may have helped make the Addams Family movies better then they might have been otherwise, and better than they had any right to be (ditto the Brady Bunch movies) because they had that as an example of how not to reboot something. Yet the whole thing was actually on Hulu a few years back.

*In an alternate TV Land, he might not have been available anyway. According to the late Brandon Tartikoff's book The Last Great Ride, he was the original choice to play Henry Warnimont on Punky Brewster, but when first testing with Soleil Moon Frye, she broke character and said "hey, aren't you Herman Munster?" It was after that that George Gaynes, who prior to original Police Academy and hitting on Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie was best known for appearing with Rosalind Russell in Broadway's Wonderful Town, got the part.
**Normally this is where I put in stealth YouTube links, but even I have my limits.

I loved the B&W format. Being a kid at the time, I thought it was immensely "cool" when I saw things in color. Not the regular series, but maybe mini-movies? I was 7-8, so hardly a history expert at the time.