NBC at the TCA Summer Press Tour: Thanks to Mockingbird Lane and Dracula, monsters have never looked more handsome

Picking up on the thread of “mass appeal” that’s being applied to the network’s new comedy series, monsters are looking less monstrous than ever on NBC. Following the revelation that The Munsters of Bryan Fuller’s Mockingbird Lane will resemble a Tommy Hilfiger ad as art directed by Tim Burton (though Eddie Izzard’s flowing red gown appears to come from the Prime Evil collection), NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt announced that the fangs of The Peacock’s new Count Dracula will be contained by the chiseled jawline of Tudors star Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Meyers will star in a back-to-the-1890s take on Dracula, which has received a 10-episode straight-to-series order from Greenblatt and company, confirming that previous descriptions of the series as “Dangerous Liaisons meets The Tudors” was dead on. (Or, as The A.V. Club’s Sean O’Neal suggested—before unleashing a fit of cackling laughter—“undead on.”) Fitting for this new age of not-so-scary monsters and super-cute creeps, Dracula will be partially produced by Carnival Films & Television, which, with Downton Abbey, has proven that neither insurmountable class systems nor The Great War can stop beautiful people from being beautiful. Too bad Rhys Meyer’s Dracula and Portia de Rossi’s Lily Munster will never be able to look into a mirror and see how great they look.