99 Words About … NBC’s recycled ‘Munsters’ reboot

At least it wasn't a total waste.

After rejecting the high-profile "Munsters" reimagining from "Pushing Daisies" mastermind Bryan Fuller, NBC is treating the $10 million pilot episode as a Halloween special.

The far-from-perfect "Mockingbird Lane" (8 p.m. Friday, KSNV-TV, Channel 3) is at least interesting, with Eddie Izzard as a lothario/gargoyle Grandpa, Portia de Rossi as a sexier Lily and Jerry O'Connell as a Herman who's less Frankenstein's monster than a regular dad cobbled together from spare parts.

It's certainly no worse than the rest of NBC's lineup.

And it requires much less active suspension of disbelief than "Revolution."

- CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE