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The Munsters

Plot

One of two "monster spoof" sitcoms debuting during the 1964-1965 season, CBS's The Munsters premiered September 24, 1964, one day before ABC's The Addams Family, and was canceled after two seasons on September 1, 1966 -- one day before The Addams Family.

Filmed at Universal, The Munsters took advantage of that studio's stable of copyright horror movie "stars," reconfiguring them in a farcical fashion. A crumbly old mansion at 1313 Mockingbird Lane was the home of Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne), a seven-foot-tall dead ringer for the Frankenstein monster, right down to the flat head and bolts in the neck. Herman's spouse, Lily (Yvonne de Carlo, top-billed because of her stellar film career), was a cross between Elsa Lanchester's Bride of Frankenstein (note that white streak in her black tresses) and TV horror-show hostess Vampira (note the garish makeup, chalk-white face, and flowing, tattered gowns). Lily's grandfather Grandpa Munster (Al Lewis), a 350-year-old vampire who looked like a desiccated Count Dracula (and who, true to his batlike heritage, slept upside down, hanging by his heels) was a genially mad scientist -- he had "built" Herman centuries before -- whose various laboratory concoctions tended to blow up in his face. Rounding out the Munster clan was Herman and Lily's son, Eddie, a ten-year-old werewolf (but a nice one), and their gorgeous niece Marilyn, the only normal-looking member of the family -- who conversely regarded herself as abnormal and blamed herself whenever her potential boyfriends fled in terror after meeting the rest of the Munsters. Though the family spent most of their time around the house, tending to such family pets as their dragon, Spot, Herman had to make a living, so he worked as general labor at the Gateman, Goodbury & Graves funeral home. Despite his fearsome appearance, Herman was a gentle, timid, childlike soul; similarly, the rest of the Munsters were basically good-natured and goodhearted, though their personal habits and tastes were macabre to say the least.

The series was sold to CBS in the form of a 15-minute pilot episode, lensed in color, in which Joan Marshall played the Munsters' beautiful niece (here named Phoebe) and Happy Derman played Eddie. By the time the series began, Beverly Owen and Butch Patrick had been respectively cast as Marilyn and Eddie. Having agreed to appear in the second pilot film but not the series, former beauty contest winner Beverly Owen left the show after 13 episodes; for the remainder of the series, Marilyn would be played by Pat Priest, whose chief claim to fame at the time was that she was the niece of former secretary of the treasury Ivy Baker Priest. Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis had previously co-starred on Car 54, Where Are You? Intriguingly, the unorthodox The Munsters boasted the behind-the-camera talents of several people who'd worked on the extremely orthodox sitcom Leave It to Beaver, including producers Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher and director Norman Abbott. (The "Munster mansion" still stands on the Universal backlot -- right next door to the former home of Leave It to Beaver's Cleaver family.) In 1966, a theatrical feature based on the property was released under the title Munster, Go Home! Originally intended as a TV movie, this film featured the entire original cast, save for Debbie Watson, who replaced Pat Priest as Marilyn. Later Munsters spin-offs included a 1978 "retro" TV special and the syndicated The Munsters Today, which boasted a brand-new cast and aired from 1988 to 1991. Though filmed in color, this latter-day incarnation of The Munsters was later put into black-and-white to be compatible with the original reruns! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Episodes

The Munsters: Season 01 (1964)
Those creepy-but-lovable residents of 1313 Mockingbird Lane are on deck for 38 hilarious half-hours during season one of The Munsters. Seen throughout the season are Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster, a softhearted replica of the Frankenstein monster; Yvonne de Carlo as Herman's voluptuously vampirish wife, Lily; Al Lewis as Grandpa Munster, a 350-year-old Dracula clone who spends most of his time cooking up mischief in his laboratory; and Butch Patrick as Herman and Lily's young son, Eddie, a budding werewolf. During the season's first 13 episodes, Beverly Owen appears as the Munsters' beautiful niece Marilyn, the only normal-looking member of the family (though she thinks she's a homely freak). Thereafter, and throughout the rest of the series' run, Pat Priest is seen as Marilyn. Some of the season's funniest entries include "Pink's Pique," in which the gas company is in for quite a shock when they accidentally build a pipeline in the Munsters' dungeon -- er, basement; "Low-Cal Munster," featuring Paul Lynde as a nearsighted doctor who puts Herman on a diet (and who, fortunately for his own sanity, can't see what Herman really looks like!); "Autumn Croakus," wherein Grandpa's nearly four-century lifespan may come to an end at the hands of a murderous widow; "Herman the Great," with Herman becoming a pro wrestler to pay for Eddie's education; "Eddie's Nickname," featuring a magical milk shake which, thanks to Grandpa's bungling, grows a thick beard; "Far Out Munsters," a spoof of "bizarre" '60s rock & roll groups featuring future softcore film producer Zalman King and The Standells; and "Herman the Rookie," the one in which Herman gets a tryout with the Los Angeles Dodgers as manager Leo Durocher and former football star Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch look on with mouths agape.

Two of the more fascinating first-season Munsters episodes are "Love Comes to Mockingbird Heights," featuring a cameo appearance by another of Universal's copyrighted monsters, the Creature from the Black Lagoon (aka the Munsters' "Cousin Gilbert"); and "Come Back Little Googie," guest starring child actor Bill Mumy, who had been the series producers' first choice for the role of Eddie Munster -- but whose mother did not like the idea of subjecting her boy to a daily two-hour makeup session. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Munsters: Season 02 (1965)
Season two of The Munsters finds that monstrous Munster aggregation -- Frankenstein Monster look-alike Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne), his vampirish spouse ,Lily (Yvonne de Carlo), their werewolf son, Eddie (Butch Patrick), and Lily's Dracula-like "Grandpa" (Al Lewis) -- still innocently terrifying their neighbors, random visitors, and potential boyfriends of the Munsters' gorgeous niece Marilyn (Pat Priest), the only normal-looking member of the family. Of course, we all know that, despite their fearsome appearance, the Munsters are gentle and good-hearted...but if the rest of the world knew this, there wouldn't be any show, would there? The first of the season's 32 episodes is "Herman's Child Psychology," in which Eddie plans to run away from the Munster Mansion (provided he can avoid the full moon, one supposes!) Later episodes of note include "Happy 100th Anniversary," with Herman and Lily taking odd jobs (the odder the better) to afford anniversary presents for one another; "Just Another Pretty Face," wherein a bolt of lightning causes Herman to become "disfigured" -- that is, he looks like handsome Fred Gwynne without makeup; "Zombo," a classic outing with Louis Nye as a dyspeptic TV horror-show host; "Herman's Sorority Caper," if for no other reason than it features a decidedly pre-One Day at a Time Bonnie Franklin; and the last episode filmed for the series, "Prehistoric Monster," in which a nutty professor (Harvey Korman) concludes that Herman is the Missing Link! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi