'X-Men' director Bryan Singer will direct NBC's 'The Munsters' reboot. 'Pushing Daisies' creator Bryan Fuller wrote the project.

According to Deadline, Singer will also serve as an executive producer on the pilot.

Fuller started work on the project in 2010, but redeveloped the reboot under NBC's new brass. The new take on 'The Munsters' will be a one-hour drama and is described as an "imaginative reinvention" of the cult-classic sitcom.

Remakes are still all the rage in TV, despite the fact for every 'Hawaii Five-0' success there's a 'Charlie's Angels' failure. NBC has ordered a pilot for a new version of the 1960s classic 'The Munsters.'

Written by 'Pushing Daisies' scribe Bryan Fuller, the new version of 'The Munsters' will be an hour-long and more serious than the campy sitcom it's based on. According to EW, the series will explore how the Munsters came to be.

Fuller first began working on a 'Munsters' reboot in 2010. This isn't the first modern take on 'The Munsters.'

Damon Wayans is heading back to ABC.

According to Variety, the 'My Wife and Kids' star is teaming up once again with Don Reo to develop a new comedy for ABC. The project, currently untitled, would follow Wayans as an actor who plays a beloved sitcom father, but his family is not quite ideal in real life.

Wayans and Reo worked together to create 'My Wife and Kids' and worked on a comedy in 2008, but the project never took off at ABC.

In other TV news ...

• 'Mad Men' star John Slattery is stopping by '30 Rock.' Slattery will play a candidate for congress in the seventh episode of the Tina Fey comedy. [Ausiello Files]

• 'The O.C.' alumna Kelly Rowan will star in a series of TV movies. Rowan will play the lead, a secretary/sleuth to the chief of police in a small town, in the 'Rebecca Kane' films. [Hollywood Reporter]

• 'Glee' is going to elementary school. Sort of. The series is looking for young actors to portray Puck, Santana, Rachel, Brittany, and Mercedes. Flashbacks, anybody? [Ausiello Files]

Time to fire up the DRAG-U-LA and let grandpa out of the cellar: The residents of 1313 Mockingbird Lane are coming back!

According to The Ausiello Files, NBC has teamed up with 'Pushing Daisies' creator Bryan Fuller to reboot the classic '60s creepshow, and the new version has been described as 'Modern Family' meets 'True Blood.' So, funny and blood-spattered, then?

NBC is said to have ordered a pilot already, but there's been no word yet on casting. However, rumors are circulating that none other than Guillermo 'Hellboy' Del Toro has expressed an interest in taking part behind the scenes. (Ron Perlman as Herman Munster, anyone?)

'The Munsters' was a sitcom about an average blue-collar American family. Average that is, apart from the fact that all the family members were legendary movie monsters. All apart from "plain" cousin Marilyn, that is. ... Filmed in black-and-white it ran for 70 episodes between 1964 and 1966, and was canceled when ratings plummeted after 'Batman' debuted in full color.

Porn movies are well known (so I've heard) for taking film titles and making them a little bit dirtier (so I've heard). Now Hustler is taking TV shows and creating a whole series of films based (or debased) or them. I'm kind of surprised that they're allowed to use Star Trek in the title of a film, like they have with This Ain't Star Trek XXX. I guess the "this ain't" part saves them from legal problems. There's also one called Not The Cosbys.

Other shows get pornified: Happy Days, The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, and Hell's Kitchen, which seems like a weird choice for a porn movie that I don't want to think about. There's also something called Everybody Loves Lucy, which is really self-explanatory.

You can't stop those Wayans brothers when it comes to doing anything for a laugh. Apparently, one of their long time dreams has been a big screen remake of a 1960's sitcom.

They've been working on a script since 2004, but they are saying now that The Munsters movie is nearly ready to roll. I know, I know, how many times have we seen beloved TV series turned into horrible features? For every good one -- The Brady Bunch -- there's a lemon like Leave It to Beaver. The Wayans Brothers clearly believe that they have the goods to make The Munsters like the former rather than the latter.

However, I have to worry about how well they know the material when Shawn Wayans says, "Their characters are still who they were in the '50s. It's just in modern day." Umm, excuse me -- the '50s? The Munsters premiered in 1964 and ran till 1966; it was set in present day. Didn't the Wayanses notice that?

It's not often that two people are so connected in these TV obituary roundup posts I do every week or so, but these two people are worth mentioning in the same post.

Alexander Courage, who composed the theme song for the original Star Trek series, died on May 15 at age 88. He also did music for episodes of many other series, including Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Waltons, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, The Loner, Eight is Enough, Daniel Boone, Riverboat, and many others. He was also an orchestrator on several movies, including L.A. Confidential, The Haunting, The Mummy, First Knight, The Shadow, Rudy, Malice, Hook, Sleeping with the Enemy, The Poseidon Adventure, Hello Dolly, My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls, and a ton of others.

But Courage wasn't the only Star Trek figure to pass away that week...

For those wondering, it appears that Butch "Eddie Munster" Patrick is still alive. According to his official website, he's recorded a single called "It's Only Halloween". A clip of this song is played when you navigate to the site. If you want to own the collectible CD, you'd better hurry because only 300 are available.

If you check out the website, you'll see he's even keeping busy doing a lot of work you've probably never heard of. The audio clip shows off Butch's singing talents which can probably be compared to those of William Shatner. He tries to speak the lyrics in a scary voice a la Boris Pickett singing "Monster Mash". It makes me wonder whether Butch's fans are simply in it for the irony.

Identity thieves doing business online were taken in by a fan of The Munsters when they were offered the personal information of Herman Munster.

It seems that the the online criminals are based overseas and is the reason they didn't recognize the famous name. Along with the name, the thieves also purchased his address, 1313 Mockingbird Lane and his birthdate in 1964, the year The Munsters premiered.

Barney Fife, Herman Munster, James T. Kirk...and President Bill Clinton?

Yup, the former President is going to be the keynote speaker at TV Land's March 23 event to announce their lineup and programming future. It's the ultimate Baby Boomer talking about the ultimate Baby Boomer network. To quote TV Land spokesman Paul Ward, about the speech: "You better believe it's going to be about the economic and cultural and social influence of Baby Boomers (I don't know why I keep capitalizing "Baby Boomers" but it just looks right).

The event is being held to announce new shows that TV Land is going to air this year. It will be held at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.

[via TV Tattle]

Al Lewis, known to many as Grandpa Munster on The Munsters, died last night at his home in New York. Lewis had suffered from years of failing health and died with his wife at his bedside.

Lewis only spent two years on television as Grandpa Munster, but he apparently carried on the persona for years. He owned a New York restaurant called Grandpa's and, a few years ago, he ran as a Green Party candidate against NY Gov. George Pataki where he tried to have the name 'Grandpa Al Lewis' on the ballot but was unsuccessful. He did get 52,000 votes in the election, however. Most recently, he hosted a weekly radio program on WBAI-FM. This morning, in place of his regularly scheduled show, the station's program director announced Lewis' death.

All you've got is hours left. Everyone else planned ahead, bought their gifts... probably even wrapped them already. And what are you doing? Sitting here reading this post. Nice job. So what are you going to do? Fight the crowds, scour the many picked over store shelves? There's not going to be much left. It happens to the best of us, and I should know because I plan on doing most of my shopping after I finish writing this. So what's going to be left? Not much, but here's a few things you might be lucky to find sitting next to the empty spaces where Lost Season 1 DVDs and SpongeBob memorabilia used to rest.

• The Genuine Miami Vice 100% Pre-Shrunk Cotton T-Shirt! Get excited friends because everyone is going to want to shake your hand when they see Don Johnson's mug emblazoned on your chest. My kid sister is going to love this!
• Authentic Brady Bunch American Made Figurines! Okay, maybe they're not American made, but who's going to even try and question your patriotism when they see you playing with these hot items?
• 100% Recycled Paper 2006 Munsters Calendar! Again, not sure if it's actually recycled paper but that's okay because you'll be ringing in the new year with the calendar for a 40 year old sitcom.

Now as I said, you're going to be lucky if these items are still around especially because I'm probably going to scoop them up before you. Honestly though, everyone wants these... I'm telling you, that Munsters calendar? This year's "Tickle me Elmo."