In an effort to resurrect everything we ever once held dear, it looks like NBC is rebooting The Munsters for some reason. The ’60s sitcom that was a cheap knock-off of the far superior Addams Family, revolved around a family of generic horror monsters who try living in the modern world. It rarely went well; hilarity ensued.
The rebooted series will bring the Munster family to hipster Brooklyn where they will inevitably hobnob with the hipster elite while making goth puns. If it weren’t for Seth Meyers’ comedic sensibility in the mix with him signing on as producer, the show would have ‘why is this necessary?’ written all over it. However, this Munsters reboot may just have a chance to not suck if it does these things:
Not Take Itself Too Seriously
They’re horror monsters, let’s not take it too seriously. One of the great things about the original Munsters was that it was fairly aware of how ridiculous the premise was and they were able to get on with the job of attempting to be funny.
Setting the reboot in Brooklyn is a positive start. The serious-not-serious hipster stereotype will work as a good counter to the horrorshow of a family. But it could equally lend itself to the characters becoming too attached to the idea of the monster archetype. Just be dumb. The world could use some good, dumb fun these days.
Play Up the Fish-Out-of-Water Scenario
Given the make up of the Munster family, they’re clearly going to stand out on the streets of Brooklyn. Let’s push that to its extreme and see what happens. With immigration a hot-button topic at the moment, this family of oddballs could do what Star Trek did so well and reframe a modern problem using a different context.
With the exception of Marilyn Munster, the family doesn’t look like “us”, so how will that play to a city of theoretically open-minded hipsters? Ignoring that they’re different would go against everything that the original show was, and although the fish-out-of-water angle is fairly cliched, a decent comedy team could make it a lot of fun.
But Don’t Get Too Political
While playing with the broad topic of being different would make the show great (again?), getting too deep into political allegory would just get tiresome and immediately date the show.
With Seth Meyers producing the show, it’s hard to tell how political he’ll make it. With regular politically-focused segments like “A Closer Look” on his late night talk show, Seth has a tendency to wear his politics on his sleeve. And it suits him and the Late Night voice he’s created. But, there’s so much commentary on day-to-day politics already infiltrating our news, comedy, and fiction that we don’t need yet another reminder of what’s going on outside the comfort of our living rooms.
Be Dark AF
You know what TV is missing these days? Puns. Bad ones. Groaningly painful, dad-joke-worthy, throw things at the TV puns. Herman Munster was great at playing the lovable idiot and ripping out some of the best/worst puns TV has ever seen, and frankly, it’s just what TV needs.
But what was particularly great about Herman’s terrible jokes was that they were also dark AF. Herman’s chirpy demeanor was perfect for delivering some deeply disturbing jokes, and doubling down on these dark puns not only balances out his character but also makes up for the (hopefully) low political content.
Bonus Points: Grandpa is Ted Cruz
Ok, I know I said the reboot shouldn’t get too political, but this is just too delicious for them not to make it a thing. Now, I’m not suggesting that Grandpa should literally play the character as Ted Cruz, but the occasional nod to their uncanny resemblance would be hysterical. It might be an obvious joke, but sometimes you’ve gotta go for that low-hanging fruit.