Mockingbird Lane - aka The Munsters

Starts tonight at 8p EDT NBC.

Now I loved Bryan Fuller's Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies so I'm going to give his take on The Munsters a chance. I'm looking for the wit and comedy he brought to his previous series here.

Yes it's going to be odd that they are playing the cast as looking human instead of classic Universal monsters that in the original series everybody else seemed to politely ignore. Without the advantage of being in black and white, the Universal classics just don't translate well into color.

Not sure if Jerry O'Connell is tall enough to play Herman but that may just be part of making them more human like.

I had heard it's just a one-time "event" with basically just showing the pilot. I don't think any other episodes were picked up and no idea how many they made anyway. I have a feeling if it does "well" by NBC standards they might pick it up for a few more episodes?

Is it supposed to be comedic? Or more like dramedy? The wife will probably make me watch it but I don't have any good expectations for it. I did enjoy Daisies quite a bit however.

I've already forgotten about most of you

Damn, didn't realize that. I'm sad now. I was expecting this to be a regular lead in to Grimm.

Myskats, a couple of weeks ago, Linked a sneek peek of the show here in CHVC. It is intended to be a dramedy, but I don't think NBC picked it up fully.

I'm not 100% sure it's gonna work and I can agree with her views on it. If you're expecting it to be like the source material, you might be disappointed.

I'm willing to watch it, but I just don't have a good feeling about it. I'll be surprised if I'm wrong, though.

Thank you for the time...

@Travlr (Main) / @Tymers Realm (Test)

That ended up being much better than I expected! It's a long shot, but here's hoping the ratings convince NBC to give the series a try after all.

I did not like the fact that they were eating people, yes I know they are monsters, but the oringinal Munsters weren't evil.

I thought it was much better than I expected and I would watch a series about it if it ever got picked up.

Finally got around to watching the show (DVR'ed it...).

As a Pilot, it was OK. Gut feeling is that they were trying too hard in the dramedy tone. Interesting ideas, but it just felt a little off.

Liked Eddie Izzard as Grandpa. Serious enough, but with just a little Camp to keep things lite. I liked that.

I'm not sold on O'Connell as Herman. There's was something off about the Character as a whole.

Lily was OK, but like Herman, something just didn't feel right.

Eddie is a little harder to get a handle on. He seems aware of the Family History, but I think his development would of been covered in a full season.

Marilyn, though, actually scared me the most. Not because of appearance, but Characterization. It's like there's a true monster under her sweet, and at times Genre Savoy, demeanor. I might be a reading too much into it, but it wasn't that she put me off like Herman and Lily, but rather creeped me out a couple of times. Like she was actually enjoying moving into the new house and helping Eddie in understanding the 'Circle of Life'. And She's supposed to be the "Normal one"?

I can see why NBC didn't pull the trigger on a full season run. I think with some Characterization tweaks, it could be a interesting take on the Munster Mythos.

Thank you for the time...

@Travlr (Main) / @Tymers Realm (Test)

Yes Marilyn was the creepiest one of them all. She has no problem helping Grandpa with his plans.

Lily was okay. The idea that Eddie is a child with special needs and showing Herman and Lily trying to cope with that was an interesting but I felt unsuccessful idea. But since the original series was a twist on the family sitcom tropes of the 1960s, doing a more modern family sitcom/drama trope seems only natural.

Herman, well the original Herman was jolly, this one was more of a worry wart. A definite change in his basic character.

You could really see Bryan Fuller's sense of funny macabre like what he did with Pushing Daisies. Wish they ran with this but I guess he's now off doing his Hannibal TV series (it's a prequel set before Red Dragon).

At least they found time to included Spot.

I cringed during this whole thing. I really did not like it. The idea was okay, but half the characters just didn't work for me. Izzard was the only interesting performance and yes, Marilyn was the creepiest of them all. I actually think she was always the creepiest from the original but they never really went that direction before.

There was no Herman Munster in this show. That wasn't even close.

I've already forgotten about most of you

I would have preferred to have Brad Garrett (Everybody loves Raymond) as Herman Munster.

Not only does he have the right look & height (6' 8½"), I think he would have played the role better than Jerry O'Connell.

I liked it. It was like Pushing Daisies meets Addams Family. Maybe not the right direction for fans of the old show? But I felt it was a nice update and yah, I'll add it is kind of a shame it didn't get picked up, I think it would've been at least a season or two.

It really seems like they were trying to remake the Addams Family, but using a theoretically-similar but actually entirely different IP.

The Munsters was essentially a show about a family that looked weird but acted mostly normal; in comparison, the Addams Family was a show about a family that looked mostly normal but acted weird. This new Munsters was more in line with the latter than the former.