Bryan Fuller and Bryan Singer’s reboot of “The Munsters” has found a home, albeit not currently the home the high-profile creators were hoping for.
NBC announced on Thursday (October 11) that “Mockingbird Lane” will air on Friday, October 26 as a one-hour pre-Halloween “special program.”
“Mockingbird Lane” was original developed for the 2010-2011 development season, ordered to pilot in November 2011, delayed til summer and teased in a four-minute clip package at Comic-Con in July. Two weeks ago, it was widely reported that NBC wouldn’t be sending the show to series, a contention Fuller quickly denied on Twitter.
This seems like a compromise, since “Mockbird Lane” still hasn’t been ordered to series, but presumably NBC still has options on the cast and crew in case the pilot bucks the odds and draws a big audience, leading into a new episode of “Grimm.”
“This exciting new take on a memorable series will definitely blow out conventional wisdom and create its own legacy,” blurbs Jennifer Salke, President, NBC Entertainment. “Teaming this new show with a terrifying episode of ‘Grimm” makes the perfect pre-Halloween fright-fest.”
Written by Fuller (“Pushing Daisies”) and directed by Singer (“House”), “Mockingbird Lane” stars Eddie Izzard as Grandpa Munster, Jerry O’Connell and Portia de Rossi as Lily and Herman and Mason Cook as Eddie Munster.
It’s still fairly uncommon for networks to air unsuccessful pilots for the masses. This “Mockingbird Lane” airing is probably more in line with FOX’s 2009 screening of the two-hour “Virtuality” pilot, which hadn’t officially been taken out of series contention, but lost all hope of a pick-up after drawing only 1.8 million viewers in a Friday airing. In contrast, FX aired “Outlaw Country” in August well after formally declining to order the pilot.