‘Eternally Yours’ reimagines vampires through a 500-year married couple

That’s how long the creators of “Eternally Yours” have been honing their series about vampires.

The concept seemed dead when Joe Wiseman and Joe Port, the creators, were hired to shepherd “Ghosts,” an equally high-concept idea.

“Now, because of the success of ‘Ghosts,’ we get to revisit this,” says Wiseman.

In the comedy, a vampire couple (played by Ed Weeks and Allegra Edwards) has been married for 500 years. They’re experiencing what others call the “seven-year itch” and don’t know how they’re going to spend an eternity together.

Attitudes change when their daughter (played by Helen J. Shen) brings home a human (played by Jaren Lewison) who doesn’t know they’re vampires.

“The secret is obviously a big part of vampire show and movies,” Port says. “And that’s certainly going to be something that’s a risk for our family. Even in the pilot, you see that they’re worried about exposure. We learn they’ve had to move quite frequently over the centuries.”

While some tropes are part of the vampire legend, “Eternally Yours” hopes to dispel others.

Sunlight, for example, doesn’t kill them instantly. “It makes them sparkle,” says Wiseman. “We wanted to make sure our characters could go outside during the day.”

To adjust, they set the series in Seattle. “We referenced that they watched ‘Twilight’ and realized, ‘Oh, that was a good idea they moved to Seattle,” Wiseman says. “It’s always raining and there’s a sunscreen they discovered that’s in the 60s or 70s that actually provided considerable protection. The sun is still a threat, but it’s one that is under control.”

Garlic? It’s referenced in the pilot and becomes a source of vampire groans.

To play off stereotypes, another couple (played by Parker Young and Rose Abdoo) stretch the boundaries of age. She looks older; he’s actually 100 years older.

“If (‘Twilight’s’) Edward Cullen were to marry Bella but instead of turning into a vampire, she got to age beautifully until people sometime mistook her for his mother,” Young says. “It’s a hilarious dynamic.”

What the creators hope to do is give their vampire characters many of their human counterparts’ shortcomings. Chief among them: Throat clearing. Wiseman has the habit, which bothered Port. They wrote it into the script and, Port says, “it’s inspired by our longtime friendship and business partnership. It’s a show for people who have been married or have been friends for a long time and get on each other’s nerves but love each other.”

To further the idea, Young and Abdoo have twin sons who differ. “One of them got all the good vampire traits and the other can only read a dog’s mind,” Port says.

The human in their midst gets them to question the choices they made centuries earlier. “It’s more likely to change our own behavior than if a friend or a spouse were to tell us,” Edwards says. “If our kid is looking to us for what to emulate in a relationship that, after hundreds of years, might actually elicit some change.”

Shen says there may be differences on the surface, but what matters is their willingness to love despite those things.

“What jumped out to me about this (series) was the way married couples talk to each other,” Abdoo says. “It was the most authentic script I’d ever seen. I’ve said all these things to my husband. I’m delighted by it.”