One of the highlights of NBC’s Comic-Con panel this year was Mockingbird Lane. This project is intended to be a faithful remake to the Munsters, but also modern as well. Normally people tend to shy from remakes, but this one seems to have a few things going for it. The main one is that original Eddie Munster, Bruce Patrick, has given his nod of approval for this series. Later on, however, he would love see some more of the iconic stuff from the original, but he’s happy with it now.

The cast chosen for this project seems to be appropriate for the tone of the new series. The always good-natured Jerry O’Connell will star as Herman Munster. The mysterious Portia Di Rossi will be Lilian Munster. And the often crazy Eddie Izzard will be Grandpa Munster.

It would seem that calling it a straight-up remake is inappropriate. It is better to think of Mockingbird Lane as an update and not a remake. An update would bring the concept to a modern world. A remake would try to copy as many things from the original as possible without a thought about how well they might fit in the modern world. Despite being populated by Universal Film Monsters, the Munsters was nothing more than a 1950‘s style sitcom with a lot of the situations coming straight from Leave it to Beaver. That simplistic view of the world does not work in modern times because society is different. Any new show must reflect those changes to be successful.

This iteration appears to be faithful to the original, but still has enough modern updates. From the 4 minute teaser of the pilot shown at comic-con last week, it would appear that a lot of the plot lines will be based on the unique nature of the characters. For example, Herman is a rotting corpse and is jealous of his wife’s ageless beauty. Also, Eddie transforms into a werewolf and bites his scout leader. Towards the end of the series, I expect pitchforks, torches, monster hunters, and angry villagers, but that might be too cliché.

Mockingbird Lane is in production right now and is scheduled to premiere in early 2013.

What do you think of this? Do you think the remake will be faithful to the original, but still be modern enough for today’s audiences? Or are you going to hate it because it is a remake and for nothing else? Please leave comments below.