I often find that people are either a Munsters fan, or an Addams Family fan.
I always believed The Munsters were a lot funnier than the Addams Family on TV, although I have to say the New Yorker Addams Family cartoons were pretty cool.
Still, I just loved Herman Munster, Lily, young Eddie, the irony that Marilyn’s beauty made her the weird one in the family, the theme song, it was just a much cooler show to me.
So now there’s talk of bringing back the Munsters franchise, and the same producers are also thinking about doing a Hannibal TV show for NBC.
Deadline reports that both these series are being brought to the network by Bryan Fuller, who also created the show Pushing Daisies.
I hate to sound like a broken record here with all this, but I’m not sure if either’s going to work, simply due to casting and chemistry.
You felt sorry that Fred Gwynne, who was a fine actor, would always be type-cast as Herman Munster, but he was great in the role, as were the others in the ensemble cast.
Silence of the Lambs also had great casting magic that the subsequent Hannibal Lecter movies didn’t have, even when they brought Anthony Hopkins back. It’s hard to get all the planets to align on a movie, and they did for Silence beautifully. (Remember, it’s the only horror movie to win Best Picture).
Richard Kobritz, who produced the 1979 mini-series of Salem’s Lot, once told me he was offered to turn Salem’s Lot into a series, and he turned it down.
He didn’t think the two main characters chasing down vampire of the week would work, and he added that it’s tough to do a horror series unless you give it a different spin, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I have no idea what they could do with Hannibal (perhaps have him help track down a different serial killer a week or a cannibal cooking show?), but his character is a lot more refined than the usual serial killer/cannibal, which I hope they’ll remember going in.
As for the Munsters, without the original gang, who are no longer with us or too old to reprise their roles, it’s just going to seem weird seeing different people playing them. Then again, as I often dare people behind all these remakes and reboots, surprise me by pulling it off.
