Mockingbird Lane (2012) "Herman Concept" by John Gallagher

The Munsters reboot pilot-turned-TV-movie Mockingbird Lane aired last Friday and the ratings were decent. A lot of speculation ruled around the Internet of what it would be like and now we know.

When the pilot was being developed in Canada, concept artist John Gallagher (official site) developed a ton of designs for it.  He shared some exclusive early designs with me and you can see very different Herman, Eddie Munster and Grandpa. Karl J. Martin and Steven M. Saylor did set designs and production design was by
Michael Wylie. Here's what John told me about the designs.



Where did the designs come from?
"It's fairly common for me to throw out a few notions that have only superficial connection to the actual marching orders of the show." Gallagher said, "We all have our required tasks to complete and once in awhile, if it's between approvals or being negotiated with vendors or what have you, I'll play with some of the motifs of the show just for my own reference and headspace."

Where do the ideas come from?
"They're rarely created for any other function than to get my palette and form language started heading in the right direction. Herman was a quick and dirty I did just to get the juices flowing and explore some elements I find interesting. That being said, as is often the case, what I find interesting and what production feels serves the story best are two different things but I'm happy to contribute however I can. To that, Masters and his crew did a splendid job with the challenge and the material is clever and subversive so I'm trusting if it's picked up as a series we'll see much more of their wonderful work."

Click below to see the art in hi-res!

Mockingbird Lane (2012) "Munsters Mansion" by John Gallagher

Mockingbird Lane (2012) "Homecoming" by John Gallagher

Mockingbird Lane (2012) "Mansion Foyer" by John Gallagher

Mockingbird Lane (2012) "Eddie on the prowl" by John Gallagher

 

Mockingbird Lane (2012) "Eddie Attacks" by John Gallagher

Mockingbird Lane (2012) "Eddie" by John Gallagher

Mockingbird Lane (2012) "Grandpa's Cellar" by John Gallagher

Here's what the final show looked like.

http://www.nbc.com/mockingbird-lane/video/mockingbird-lane/1422032/You can read my other interview with John here

Official Synopsis:

"Mockingbird Lane," based on executive producer Bryan Fuller's ("Pushing Daisies," "Heroes") script and directed by executive producer Bryan Singer ("X-Men" film series, "House"), is a new, reimagined version of the classic 1960s comedy "The Munsters," now as a visually spectacular one-hour drama with a darker edge and tone. The cast includes Jerry O'Connell ("The Defenders") as Herman Munster, Portia de Rossi ("Arrested Development") as his wife Lily, Eddie Izzard ("United States of Tara," "The Riches") as Grandpa, Mason Cook ("Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D") as Eddie and Charity Wakefield ("The Raven") as Marilyn.

In the original 1964-66 series "The Munsters," the odd, but lovable family lived on 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

In "Mockingbird Lane," sweet little Eddie Munster (Cook) is a normal kid about to enter the horrors of puberty. The truth is, he's about to discover that, for him, becoming a teenager means growing hair in truly unexpected places - as in all over his body - every time the moon is full! Eddie's got it pretty good though. His loving, supportive, run-of-the-mill family includes his mom Lily (de Rossi), the daughter of Dracula, his dad Herman (O'Connell), who brings new meaning to "Frankenstein," and Grandpa (Izzard), who would give Dracula a run for his money if he weren't actually Dracula! Of course, there's creepy cousin Marilyn (Wakefield), who's really the odd one because she's so completely normal.

Buying a house these days is a nightmare, so Herman and Lily are shocked that no one scooped up the rambling Victorian mansion at 1313 Mockingbird Lane that was the site of a series of grisly hobo murders. Settling into their new place, they're quickly onto the mission at hand: to gently ease Eddie into the reality of his werewolf adolescence. But it's not always so easy to accept that your child is a little "different" from the rest of the kids. Meanwhile, Herman, who works as a funeral director, is suffering from a heart condition. Since he's made up mostly of spare parts, he knew his makeshift heart would eventually give out. No worries though, because Grandpa, who is pretty good at procuring body parts, is on the case. All Herman cares about is finding a new heart with the same capacity to love Lily as much as he has for so many decades.

"Mockingbird Lane" is from Bad Hat Harry Productions and Universal Television. Executive producers include Fuller, Singer and Sara Colleton ("Dexter"). Singer also directed the pilot.

Official Site: http://www.nbc.com/mockingbird-lane/video/mockingbird-lane/1422032/

See more of the artist portfolios

• John Gallagher http://www.Uncannyknack.com 
• Jonathan Wayshack http://www.scrapbookmanifesto.com/

What do you think of the illustrations?
 
@ Copyright 2012 Universal Television, John Gallagher. All rights reserved 

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P is For Peek
If you were disappointed by, or delighted with the the reveal of the aliens in the 2009 reboot of V they could have looked very different.

V is an American science fiction television series that ran for two seasons on ABC, from November 3, 2009 to March 15, 2011. A remake of the 1983 miniseries created by Kenneth Johnson, the new series chronicles the arrival on Earth of a technologically advanced alien species which ostensibly comes in peace, but actually has sinister motives. V stars Morena Baccarin, Lourdes Benedicto, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Logan Huffman, Charles Mesure, Elizabeth Mitchell, Laura Vandervoort and Scott Wolf, and was executive produced by Scott Rosenbaum, Yves Simoneau, Scott Peters, and Jace Hall. - Wikipedia 

So, what would the aliens look like? We heard a lot about "skinning" Vs (the nickname for the aliens),and the anticipation was pretty high. In the final episode, after months of hints, peeks and skeletons we finally got a look at them in the season finale "Mother's Day." But, it could have looked very different.



John Gallagher's portfolio has a bunch of concept paintings of the aliens, ship and hybrid baby. When asked about his inspiration for the designs, here's what he said.

 A fairly conservative marching order. Given that the series was a reboot of the Kenneth Johnson 80's series, it was clear from the outset that there was a creature under that harvested human suit. This wasn't a closely guarded secret or prestige reveal: they're green aliens. So the conceit in our minds had to evolve out of a no-surprise scenario. We played with multiple iterations, from reptilian to insectoidal to a protean mixed bag of looks. We wanted at least some cool creepy surprise. a visual hook. There were certain constraints however. The alien was required to be slightly slimmer and smaller than humans, bilaterally symmetrical, either appropriate for an actor in an effects suit or a CG counterpart. They were to share the same engineering as humans.

So from that we extrapolated some versions where they folded their legs up to their chest and cocooned, with the legs functioning as prosthetic appendages, others where the arms and legs were reversed, vestigial arms, two legged, four legged etc. All fell within the limits of the conversations and usually discarded through cost or time or just too outside the lines.

The inspirations were to create within those parameters and offer a fresh spin on what would amount to an updated version of the original Sleestak style creature. Conventional and interesting but we weren't jumping into the magical, esoteric, dark horror or wild spaces. It wasn't the type of show for that sort of exploration.

So we pushed around all sorts of variants until we arrived at what made it to screen which became the spirit of what we'd designed combined with television effects delivery schedule and budget.

Here are my favorite Visitor concept designs. First, what the V actually ended up looking like.

Now, some variations on the design.

Pretty wild hunh?

Thanks to Gallagher for the images and the quotes. You can see more of John Gallagher's work at http://uncannyknack.com



This post is part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For 27 days, I'll be choosing a letter from the alphabet and crafting a post around it. To read more of the posts in the series click here. To find out more about the challenge go here.

Hosts: Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, Matthew McNish at The QQQE, Tina Downey atLife is Good, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Elizabeth Mueller, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, and Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. Check the Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge.  

What do you think of the illustrations?

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M is for Munsters
An exclusive interview with concept artist John Gallagher about the Munsters (1964) reboot Mockingbird Lane.

You know that scary house on the corner you were scared of as a kid? Imagining all the horrible monsters inside? Well, it turns out you were right about this house.

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly has concept art of the new reboot of the 60s comedy The Munsters. Bryan Fuller is developing a dramatic re-telling of the show called Mockingbird Lane for NBC.

“We want this show to be an American Harry Potter,” Bryan Fuller says. “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.”

Here are some comments from the creator Bryan Fuller and some exclusive comments from the concept artist, John Gallagher, on the designs. Gallagher breaks down some of the elements of color and design and even gets into some of the things we'll see in the house. It's all pretty exciting.

We wanted [the mansion] to have feeling of the original. We wanted a house in the neighborhood that children would walk past faster than other houses. - Fuller

The image below shows the concept designs for Grandpa and Lily. Charity Wakefield has been cast as the "freakishly" normal Marilyn and Eddie Izzard as Grandpa.

We’re not doing bolts in the neck and Bela Lugosi. It’s almost the Real Housewives of Transylvania. These are a blinged-out representation of what monsters would be doing if they lived in our society today. How they would look, how they would interact. Our wardrobe is heavily influenced by Alexander McQueen and his use of animal textures. For instance, with [the vampire] Lily, all of her wardrobe comes from nature. The first time we see her this nest of spiders weaves her dress on her body as she’s standing there. We’ll see ravens come in and assemble her blouse out of their feathers. We won’t see animal skins because the animals are donating as opposed to dying for it. She has domain over nature and nature has a fantastic aesthetic. - Fuller

And now here are the words of the illustrator

Pilot season is always a busy time in Vancouver and this year was no exception. I got a call from Don MacAulay, the art director, checking on availability. For the Munsters? I was all in. In fairness, as a kid I was more Addams Family than The Munsters but you couldn't beat some of the core elements of the original series and its off-center satirical skewering of mainstream sensibilities. But I jumped at the chance and was especially looking forward to reading the script given Bryan Fuller's pedigree and they didn't disappoint. The script crackled with smart, sharply-drawn characters and a delightfully wicked worldview. In other words, not simply a branded rehash but a bold and clever cache rethink. So after broad strokes conversation and a meeting of design minds off we went.


The marching orders from Don and Michael Wylie, the production designer, on palette and aesthetic is the dark fantasy convention of desaturated and muted cool tones punctuated by bold punched through with warm textural flourish...golds, reds, yellows. The world they inhabit isn't exactly overflowing with technicolor mirth so the visual metaphor needs to reinforce that prevailing mindset. In terms of the house, this is a virtual extension, a green screen second story incorporated over an existing location. The main floor was to be recladded and fitted with scalloped siding, window caps, wrought iron railings, tiled diapers and moulding to dovetail with the neo-Victorian look and the second floor festooned onto the roofline of the original building. We co-opted details everywhere from Queen Anne finishes to the Carson House. The home is meant to engage as a regal slightly tarnished mansion. Not so outright haunted but with a slightly menacing grandeur. The interior grand foyer borrows from Everton Station to the Titanic grand staircase. Again, an old world opulence with some significant new world finishes. And of course Spot's home beneath the stairs is there, along with the twin perched vultures at the railing foot. They've moved in and some of the previous owners tastes linger in places. And given that the Munsters don't stand on ceremony they don't seem to be in any hurry to unpack. Grandpa's Cellar will be a delight to behold for fans of design: Barrel vaulted polished tile meticulously applied with a moody chiaroscuro mad coroner's decorative choices. I can't reveal details but the previous owner was inclined to strange and specific practices.

We did look at the original house but what is often lost on viewers is how small the original actually was. It's marginally larger than a two story bungalow size footprint. By loosely defining the immensity of the house's form on our version, the writers are freer to explore the space given that it hasn't been strictly locked and we have room to enlarge or compress for creating scale for interiors. In the case of a re-imagining like this one, capturing the spirit of the original is critical. Alienating fans by disregarding the show's visual cues is disaster in my opinion. So they're everywhere and I think fans will get a big kick out of spotting them. Michael and Don are very smart guys. They know the score. And this one will be that delicate balance between respecting all the trappings of the original and introducing this new property rethought from the ground up by a very sharp team.

Thanks John! You can see more work from John Gallagher at http://uncannyknack.com/.

I was a huge fan of the show, so I'm looking forward to it.

@ 2012 Universal Television, John Gallagher

Via Entertainment Weekly

Image source: Entertainment Weekly and http://www.comingsoon.net






This post is part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For 27 days, I'll be choosing a letter from the alphabet and crafting a post around it. To read more of the posts in the series click here. To find out more about the challenge go here.

Hosts: Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, Matthew McNish at The QQQE, Tina Downey atLife is Good, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Elizabeth Mueller, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, and Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. Check the Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge.

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