'The Munsters' Reboot Will Be Set In Hipster Brooklyn

The Munsters are moving to Brooklyn. The macabre 1960s sitcom is getting a reboot in the hipster New York City neighborhood.Seth Meyers and Odd Mom Out creator Jill Kargman will be reviving the monster-comedy at NBC, several years after NBC's failed attempt to resurrect the series with American Gods showrunner Bryan Fuller at the helm.

The original The Munsters series ran on CBS for two seasons from 1964-1966, gaining a cult following. And now, like the similarly spooky TV family The Addams Family who got a series of '90s movies, The Munsters are moving into the modern age.

Deadline broke the news about Meyers and Kargman's The Munsters reboot:

Inspired by the original series, the half-hour single-camera The Munsters, now in development, follows members of an offbeat family who are determined to stay true to themselves but struggle to fit in in hipster Brooklyn. (In the original, the Munsters resided at the famous 1313 Mockingbird Lane address in the city of Mockingbird Heights, a fictional suburb in California.)

Kargman reportedly pitched the idea to NBC, teaming up with Late Night host Meyers, who has a producing deal with the Universal TV. Kargman will write the script and executive produce The Munsters with Meyers and Mike Shoemaker from Sethmaker Shoemeyers Productions.

The original The Munsters series followed a family of classic movie monsters living in a mansion at the aforementioned 1313 Mockingbird Lane — except for one normal niece, Marilyn (who very much looks like a Marilyn Monroe lookalike). The dad, Herman, is based on Frankenstein's monster, the mother Lily and the grandpa are vampires, and the young son is a werewolf.

I don't know much about the original Munsters except that it was the TV rival to The Addams Family, and were part of a macabre wave of sitcoms in 1960s television. The '90s film reboots of The Addams Family were hugely successful at bringing the Gothic family into modern day, so it stands to reason that this revival could do the same for The Munsters.

However, I am wary about beloved properties getting too much of a modern reboot à la the overly cynical take on The Muppets at ABC in 2015. The Addams Family movies kept much of the original series' aesthetics and characters intact, with a few modern and self-aware twists. The fish-out-of-water stories may work in The Munsters favor however, in distinguishing itself from the more well-known The Addams Family. Watching a vampire try cold brew coffee or navigating the world of male rompers already sounds like it has loads of comedy potential.

NBC made an attempt at reviving The Munsters as an hour-long comedy called Mockingbird Lane in 2012. Directed by Bryan Singer, developed by Bryan Fuller — bringing his trademark Pushing Daisies stylings — and starring Jerry O'Connell as the patriarch Herman, NBC ultimately passed on the series and aired the pilot as an hour-long Halloween special.