Not only is this a fantastic piece of entertainment, it is a tutorial on how to craft a remake of a classic series, as opposed to how remakes are typically done.
The Munsters was always the blue-collar wanna-be to the class-act of the Addams Family, but Mockingbird Lane has elevated the Munsters property to potential stardom and granted it sublime style.
If NBC doesn't go for this they are passing on the best new show in decades.
I'm actually into the first twenty minutes and I like it.
I love the nod(s) to the original -- especially when we first see Herman in silhouette and we think we know what we're going to see but he's not quote the Universal/Gwynn/Karloff creature we think.
And, of course, the stairs! YES.
The special effects are great but a little too CGI for my taste.
No wonder NBC said this pilot was so expensive. :D
--
Ant @ The Ant Farm (http://antfarm.ma.cx) and Ant's Quality Foraged Links (http://aqfl.net).
Agree I like the story of Marilyn Munster sound very interesting I would love to know more about the background of her character :)
I'M SMARTBUT IN A STUPID WAY
I'm not really sure what you mean. They did make it sound like a normal child is more like food than brethren. Marilyn is normal, and that must have been a source of conflict in the family.
share150% agree! I loved this show as much as I love the original.
shareGuess it's a love/hate thing. I cannot imagine this going past "the pilot-" or rather, do not care to imagine it.
If nbc decides they want to spend $15 million per episode than let them have at it.
There are plenty of quality tv shows out there for me to enjoy.
I'll just toss this into the heap with Kardashore.
People like you are the reason most of the shows on tv these days suck and actual good shows get canceled.
-"No power in the 'verse can stop me"
"the best new show in decades"
Seriously?? Are you on drugs?
Tvline.com is also polling how people liked Mockingbird Lane, with the majority of people saying they liked it in addition to the love from critics who reviewed it, and think it deserves to be picked up and given a shot to be a series. I don't expect everyone to like it, and they can tune out. I liked it as do many. Regardless of whether or not it gets picked up to series, Bryan Fuller did a great job playing with the classic characters and infusing it with his own style.
Did Mockingbird Lane Scare Up Your Interest?
http://tvline.com/2012/10/26/mockingbird-lane-premiere-poll/
Ive always loved the original and was a little put off by the previews but after seeing it I think it was quite good. Its an interesting re-imagining.
However it is significantly different so I think it would work better as its own horror themed show inspired by the Munsters and shows of that nature.
I watch almost every pilot each year and I will say that this is easily the best new show of the year.
But I do agree it drives me batty when people say things like "best new show in years," unless said of something like BSG or Mad Men or Homeland or the such. But this would easily be one of the best current shows on TV if ordered to series.
[deleted]
As for 'Pete's Dragon'- really?Spot was a dragon. Was he supposed to look like something else? He wasnt really cartoony. He looked like a typical dragon.
I actually worked on the set of the first episode. It was a ridiculous amount of fun and rumor was that the pilot cost in excess of about twelve million. There wasn't a chance NBC was ordering this. However, celebrities galore on the set.
If you worked on the show, here's a question: one of the promo bits showed the house exterior set under construction in time lapse.
When I saw that I figured the show was sure to be greenlighted since the costs of such a thing are enormous and no one would build it just for a pilot. Shoot, they don't even build exterior sets any more for shows than run for ten years!
The only thing I can imagine, now that I see the show is not likely to be picked up, is that the exterior was a quarter-scale model. Do you know?
Watched it again and answered my own question about the house exterior set. Full size, sure enough. Impressive. Although they only built it up to the eaves and CG'ed in the roof, apparently.
It looked like most of the components were pre-fab, so as to be storable. No doubt we will see much of it again in other productions for years to come, as the investment in plywood alone must have been astronomical.
I still can't figure out why they built it in front of an existing house, unless that was just the only location they could use. It did require being in a valley so they could shoot downhill on it to get the right perspective to fake in the roof.
All in all, quite a production. Anyone from the region know if it's still standing or has it been disassembled and packed up?
It's still there. I was supposed to work on the second episode, but alas... well, I'm not sure yet.
In any case, it was fully built. They really bought in and Bryan Singer was a blast.
Entouragemailbag:
Thank you for your comments. Those of us who comment on these boards seldom, if ever, get a chance to read the opinions of someone who was right there in the thick of things of a fledgling show. As a fan of The Addams' Family, The Munsters and the new incarnations of the television horror genre, I thought the show was well written, topical (the camping scene with the scouts badgering the food thief were especially funny), and I believe worthy of further examination. Perhaps the budget can be trimmed a little, just for the chance to see where the storylines go. I hope the network finds a way to bring it back, if for no other reason than to showcase Eddie Izzard's pragmatic vampire and the talented Portia de Rossi with dark hair: I think it suits her.
Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for
I'm not sure that they did kill the scout master.
Remember, he fell down the stairs, kind of like the neighbor falling off the ladder who was presumed going to die, but then survived.
Except the scout master didn't.
They were indirectly responsible for the scout master's death.
Grandpa was going to eat him, and in attempting to escape that fate he fell down the stairs (partially by way of being pushed by Marilyn.) The intent was to kill him, he just died a different way than Grandpa had intended.