A new twist on an old show

First it was a remake of the 1980s show, “Knight Rider,” then it was a remake of “The Bionic Woman,” now producers at NBC are talking about a remake of the 1960s sitcom, “The Munsters.” What will they think of next? A remake of “I Dream of Jeannie,” or maybe “Mr. Ed?”

The original show, currently in rerun on TV Land, featured a family of monsters. Grandpa, played by Al Lewis, was a vampire, as was his daughter Lily (Yvonne DeCarlo). Herman (Fred Gwynne), Lily’s husband, was a Frankenstein’s monster that mad scientist Grandpa constructed as a mate for his daughter. The couple had a wolf boy son, Eddie (Butch Patrick) and a live-in niece, Marilyn, who was played by Beverly Owen and Pat Priest. Marilyn was the only “normal” one of the bunch.

The show was funny and weird, kind of like another 1960s sitcom, the Addams Family, which was a whole other cast of weirdos. Though the Addams Family movies that came much later were funny, I don’t think the new “Munsters” is going to see that kind of success.

First off, “Pushing Daisies” creator Bryan Fuller envisions the new show as “a visually spectacular one-hour drama.” Really? A drama? What’s Fuller thinking? The original show was entertaining and funny, not dramatic. I can’t see Lily and Herman being anything but comedic. And unless Fuller is extremely creative, I can’t see him putting a serious spin on the family. Come on, Herman worked at a morgue and the family lived in a decrepit, creepy, dusty mansion. How are you supposed to take a show that featured props like a coffin phone booth and a cuckoo clock in which a raven lived and incorporate them into a drama? Ok, so maybe it can be done. After all, ABC has taken classic fairly tale characters and incorporated them in a contemporary setting in “Once Upon a Time,” but we’re not talking about Cinderella and Rumplestiltskin here. We’re talking about a freakish family who seems oblivious to the fact that they look and live differently than most folks.

  It’s hard to imagine Herman having a serious talk with Eddie about anything, really. He is a monster created by a mad scientist and not the sharpest tool in the shed.

One of the problems with primetime television is that there are no original ideas out there. Everything seems to have already been done. Taking an old show and making it new isn’t going to make it any better. Good luck to Fuller and NBC with this endeavor. I don’t see it as a smashing success, but perhaps it will have a better run than other remakes have had.the