The Munsters

Buy The Munsters on DVD

Complete First Season (1964)
Complete Second Season (1965)

September 24, 1964 – May 12, 1966
70 half hour episodes (2 seasons) on CBS in B&W
Produced by: Joe Connelly, Bob Mosher and Irving Paley
Filmed at: Universal Studios, Hollywood, CA

CAST

• Fred Gwynne ……. Herman
• Yvonne De Carlo … Lily
• Al Lewis ………. Grandpa
• Butch Patrick ….. Eddie
• Beverly Owen …… Marilyn (part of Season 1)
• Pat Priest …….. Marilyn (remainder of Season 1 and Season 2)

Opening Theme

“The Munsters’ Theme” by Jack Marshall
Bob Mosher wrote some lyrics to he music but they were never used in the show

STORYLINE

Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne) was your typical working father and husband he carried his lunch box and commuted each day (in his coffin-mobile) to his office. His wife lily (Yvonne De Carlo) was a typical stay-at-home mom who looked after the house and raised the children. The kids Eddie (Butch Patrick) and Marilyn (Pat Priest) were regular kids who went to school everyday. There was also a grandpa (Al Lewis) who lived with the family.

This all sounds very “Fathers Knows Best” except this family were all monsters.

Herman was actually a Frankenstein type character, Lily and Grandpa looked like vampires and Eddie sort of a wolf-boy. Only Marilyn was spared the monster treatment but she lived comfortably with the others never noticing their peculiarities. Actually no one in the family thought they were any different than regular people and were always dumbfounded whenever anyone treated them “differently”.

The humor came from the situations that arose when the family tried innocently to fit into normal society.

The monsters portrayed in the show were actually rehashed Universal Studios characters from decades earlier horror movies. Since Universal also produced the Munsters they had free access to use these characters and likenesses. The characters were toned down from their silver screen appearance to make them less scary for a television comedy.

Video Clip of The Munsters

Passings

Fred Gwynne succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 1993 he was 66 years old
Yvonne De Carlo passed away of natural causes in 2007 she was 84
Al Lewis died in 2006 of complications from heart surgery, he was 82
Beverley Owen passed in 2019, she was 81

         

TRIVIA: A reboot of the show titled The Munsters Today showed in syndication for 3 seasons from 1988 -’91. Although no original actors were involved the story was exactly the same only set 22 years later. The explanation…grandpa had invented a sleep machine that went haywire and kept them asleep for two decades!