Rob Zombie’s color tease of The Munsters honors the show’s original pilot. In a throwback fashion, Zombie’s teaser trailer for his campy Munsters movie finally pays tribute to how it all began on TV. The original television pilot is given proper respect in the director’s reboot of The Munsters.
A classic sitcom broadcast on CBS in the 1960s, The Munsters (1964) ran for two seasons and tallied an impressive 70 episodes. The supernatural family living at 1313 Mockingbird Lane is making a huge comeback after a few minor returns on TV. After the series was canceled, Munster, Go Home! (1966) was the only major motion picture adaptation released in cinemas. The Munsters will hit the big screen in late 2022, while streaming as a day-and-date release on Peacock.
Horror filmmaker Rob Zombie gives honor to the show’s pilot by revealing that The Munsters are “now in living color!” Although the series notoriously aired as a gothic B&W sitcom, there was speculation if Zombie's Munsters reboot would be black and white. However, the teaser trailer’s ending calls back to how The Munsters originally started — in eye-popping color. As their first episodes officially started in black-and-white, the trailer mirrors The Munsters' beginnings. The Devil’s Rejects director Rob Zombie has resurrected The Munsters in full-color glory, but as a wink toward one historic choice. Check out the teaser below for the color reveal:
More exactly, CBS switched The Munsters from color to black-and-white after the network aired its pilot episode. Some series in the 1960s were starting to air TV episodes in full color. To save money, the network made this change and ended up filming The Munsters primarily in B&W thereafter. Still, Universal Studios’ original color pilot that was used to sell the show to networks had multiple items to fix before airing. The episode titled “My Fair Munster” was reshot at standard episode length for proper runtime of The Munsters show. Newly edited scenes made The Munsters pilot ready to sell to advertisers.
Now that the family is back and in living color on the silver screen, Rob Zombie's The Munsters will try to live up to longtime fan expectations. Looking back, The Munsters’ early color pilot was made as an attempt for a new show in 1964. However, the pilot went through multiple changes before being reworked into a final version made for broadcast as The Munsters’ second episode. This pilot presentation included the famous opening and closing credit scenes in crisp black-and-white, which Zombie fondly recreated in the sneak peek trailer. Rob Zombie’s The Munsters tease is a fun nod to the original pilot shot in full color. A throwback to this monstrous family could never be contained to black and white.