Jim, thanks for doing that. Did you by chance get a screenshot of the search/replace settings?
The “skeleton” you’re seeing is caused by the serialized data being corrupted somehow. It shouldn’t have anything to do with the pre-built templates.
Is there any chance you could zip up the wp-content folder and send me that along with the local (clean) database? I would love to try doing the migration on my end to see if I can find any clues. You can use DropBox to share the files if they’re too large. Here’s my email:
robby [at] fastlinemedia [dot] com
I am just about to leave for the day, but I will follow up with you first thing tomorrow. We’ll get it figured out ASAP 