Monday, August 15, 2011

NBC Resurrecting "The Munsters"

Executive producer Bryan Fuller ("Pushing Daisies") continues developing an NBC TV pilot, rebooting the cult classic TV series "The Munsters".

Fuller describes his new take as "...'Modern Family' meets 'True Blood'..."

The original 1960's sitcom depicting the home life of a family of Universal Studio monsters, was created by Allan Burns and Chris Hayward, starring dramatic actor Fred Gwynne ("On The Waterfront") as good-natured Frankenstein's Monster 'Herman Munster' and Yvonne De Carlo as his vampiric, loving wife, 'Lily'.

The idea of a family of comical monsters was first suggested to Universal Studios in the late 1940's by animator Bob Clampett ("Merrie Melodies", "Beany and Cecil") who wanted to produce a series of cartoons.

The project didn't see development until the early 1960's, when a treatment for a similar idea was submitted to Universal Studios by "Rocky & Bullwinkle" writers Burns and Hayward. This format was later handed to writers Norm Liebman and Ed Haas, who wrote the pilot script, "Love Thy Monster", retitled as "My Fair Munster".

A live-action sit-com presentation was taped by MCA Television for CBS and the new series, was greenlit for 70 episodes, airing once a week in black-and-white on CBS, September 24, 1964 to May 12, 1966.
"The Munsters" grew in popularity during decades of syndication, warranting a spin-off series, several TV films, comic books, magazines and a color, theatrical motion picture release.

The twist to the series was that The Munsters family, including 'Wolfman'-looking son 'Eddie' (Butch Patrick), 'Dracula'-looking Grandpa' (Al Lewis) and beautiful, normal-looking 'Marilyn' (Beverley Owen and Pat Priest), considered themselves typical working-class Americans of the era.
They were totally unaware that there was anything unusual about their look, eccentricities or gothic house, situated at 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

Click the images to enlarge...