The Munsters Aren't (Un)Dead Yet at NBC

Mockingbird Lane may have won decent ratings when it aired back in October, but it didn't wow the [...]

Mockingbird Lane

may have won decent ratings when it aired back in October, but it didn't wow the people that it needed to at NBC, which is why ultimately the network passed on the Bryan Fuller-helmed reboot of the popular Munsters franchise. That's according to NBC chief Robert Greenblatt, speaking today at the Television Critics Association and caught on the record by Deadline. "I won't say we won't do another version of The Munsters again," Greenblatt said. "We just decided that it didn't hold together well enough to yield a series. It looked beautiful and original and creative, but it just all ultimately didn't come together…, it just didn't ultimately creatively all work." "We felt great about that cast," which included Jerry O'Connell, Eddie Izzard and Portia de Rossi, Greenblatt said. "But we tried to make it not just a sitcom. We tried to make it an hour, which ultimately has more dramatic weight than a half-hour. It's hard to calibrate how much weirdness vs. supernatural vs. family story. I just think we didn't get the mix right." Those criticisms may sound familiar to fans of Bryan Fuller's work, as some of it sounds like the kind of thing that could be said about his fan-favorite (but low-rated) Pushing Daisies, an eccentric and technically beautiful series that failed engage a mass audience. The Munsters has proven over the years to be one of television's more versatile properties; in addition to its beloved original series, there was a spinoff, The Munsters Today, which ran for nearly 75 episodes from 1988 to 1991, and several movies. The original series still runs in syndication on Boomerang.

0comments