America is going to get a chance to see NBC’s rebooted Munsters pilot Mockingbird Lane after all.
Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the network has decided to air the pricey $10 million pilot, which has been in development for two years, as a Halloween special. Mockingbird Lane will air Friday, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. before Grimm (Oct. 31 is a Wednesday).
NBC declined to comment.
Based on the goofy 1964-66 CBS comedy series about a Frankenstein-ish dad and his monstrous relatives, NBC’s new version is from writer-producer Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) and director Bryan Singer (the X-Men movies, House) with a cast including Jerry O’Connell as Herman Munster, Portia de Rossi as Lily Munster and Eddie Izzard as the Dracula-esque Grandpa.
STORY: NBC Struggles to Salvage $10 Million Munsters Reboot
As THR has detailed, Mockingbird Lane has endured a long, tortured history at NBC, and the network was considering whether to scrap the project altogether. The reboot was originally launched before current chariman Bob Greenblatt came on board in early 2011, but Greenblatt redeveloped it extensively.
Yet Fuller and Singer are said to have had differing opinions about the style of the pilot, and the final version is said to have come in below the network’s expectations. With Fuller now busy shooting NBC’s 13-episode Hannibal series, he’s not able to work on Mockingbird. So NBC has been considering all options to salvage the property.
Email: Matthew.Belloni@thr.com
Twitter: @THRMattBelloni
