The Munsters escape from TV Land

By Jerene-Elise Nall

As with any of our favorite reruns, The Munsters has managed to entertain more than one crop of TV junkies.

When I heard that NBC had this CBS classic in the early stages of a remake, I was immediately both doubtful and intrigued. Is it possible to resurrect The Munsters, or should NBC learn to let sleeping shows lie? The Munsters has been remade as a series before with little to no success, but that doesn’t say much about the series’ potential as a rewrite.

In fact, I’d grant control of the remote to anyone who could name a TV remake that hasn’t tanked other than Battlestar Galactica. The 2002 remake of The Twilight Zone? The only head-turning part about that disaster was Forest Whitaker. And 2009’s Melrose Place? No thanks, Ashlee Simpson. At this point, the phrase “successful TV remake” seems almost as oxymoronic as “jumbo shrimp” or “Quiet Riot.”

However, this reincarnation of The Munsters has one promising perk: Bryan Fuller, who directed such notable hits as “Pushing Daisies” and “Dead Like Me,” has taken on the somewhat daunting task of directing this remake. While I don’t think signing his name on a flop of a remake would ruin him for good, I doubt that a television director with a relatively short but nonetheless promising career would take on a project that is absolutely doomed to fail. If nothing else, seeing a modern-day remake is sure to intrigue at least two generations of cable TV watchers enough to get a few bites.