Jerry O’Connell to Play Herman Munster in NBC’s MUNSTERS Reboot MOCKINGBIRD LANE

There is one—and really only one—reason I am interested in NBC’s Munsters reboot, Mockingbird Lane: Bryan Fuller.  Fuller is 3-for-3 in creating top-notch television series after Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, and his magnum opus, Pushing Daisies.  If Fuller chooses to set his sights on the Munsters or Hannibal Lecter, I will follow him there.  While Hannibal is on track for a midseason debut, Mockingbird Lane has proven much trickier.  The pilot was originally supposed to shoot in the spring, but casting difficulties pushed it back to the summer months.  Then Eddie Izzard was previously cast as the vampire Grandpa, Mason Cook was chosen to play Herman and Lily Munster’s werewolf son Eddie, and Charity Wakefield came on board as Lily’s niece Marilyn.  Now Jerry O’Connell has signed on to star as Herman.  Details after the jump.

The original 1960s series took a few of the iconic Universal monsters and stuck them in a family sitcom.  The NBC reboot, however, is billed as a “visually spectacular one-hour drama” that will focus on the Munster origin story and how they arrived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane.  Herman is inspired the movie version of Frankenstein’s monster, assembled from the parts of various corpses, living in a constant state of decay.  According to EW, a subplot in Fuller’s pilot script centers on Herman’s desperate need for a new heart, “which involves finding a living ‘donor’ for a replacement.”  Fuller elaborated on Herman’s role in a recent interview with EW:

“When you come to The Munsters and have Herman—who’s essentially a zombie in a constant state of decay—and he’s married to a woman who doesn’t age, there’s something very poignant there. These stories will surprise audiences.”

Here is Fuller’s overall pitch for the show:

“We want this show to be an American Harry Potter.  To have that sense of a magical world that you get to go to with your family and find stories told in a fantastical way that are instantly relatable. It’s an American Horror Story that the whole family can watch.”

See?  American Potter Story!  We can trust Fuller to take a potentially tired remake and turn it into something amazing.  Bryan Singer will executive produce and direct the pilot, which surely can’t hurt.  All that’s left is to Herman’s vampiress, Lily.