The Munsters

Oh, I wish they made shows like The Munsters today. I have many happy memories of watching it. It was so innocent and so amusing. Somebody should release it onto DVD as soon as possible.

The Munsters were the perfect family. They may have been ugly, they may have been weird and they may have been totally eccentric but they loved each other and cared so much about each other.

The Munsters emphasized traits such as loyalty to your family and love (qualities not found in many shows today). But once you get past all that you had many highly amusing stories. One that springs to mind for me is when Herman and Grandpa Munster get locked in a bank vault one night just as a pair of robbers are about to steal the loot.

The one thing I enjoyed about The Munsters was it's total innocence. No bad language, no sex, no violence, just pure entertainment. Oh, it was brilliant. I cannot praise it enough.

Being only 27 years old I was not around when this series was actually being made but I remember watching this series in the eighties when I was around 9-12 years old. I remember enjoying every minute of it.

The catchy theme tune, the spooky house, the dinosaur under the stairs, Grandpa's experiments and the brilliant central performance from Fred Gwynne all added up to a terrific half hour comedy.

Watching it ten years on it seems a little more cheesy than I first remember it to be - but it is one of those shows I will always fondly remember.

I'll say that "The Addams Family" was actually cleverer, but still, "The Munsters" definitely had its merits. Basically the story of a household in which the father, Herman (Fred Gwynne), is Frankenstein's monster, the mother, Lily (Yvonne DeCarlo), is a vampire, the son, Eddie (Butch Patrick), is a werewolf, the grandfather (Al Lewis) is Count Dracula, and the niece, Marilyn (played by two different people), is the ugly (make that "pretty") duckling in the family. While the Munsters' everyday routine is the same as everyone else's, everything that's normal to them (e.g., a house that looks like a Halloween party should be held there) is weird to the rest of the world, and vice versa. Every human who sees them freaks out, and yet the Munsters can never figure out why everyone finds them strange.

It's completely silly, with a string of gruesome, sardonic jokes, but it's always really funny. Truly one show that you gotta admire.

I think the problem with TV sitcoms these days is that 90% of the them are filmed in front of studio audiences. Save for the cable-TV comedies, adventurous shows like "The Munsters" don't get made today. They went OUTSIDE, they drove around. Everything wasn't confined to the sets, although their house was a doozy and I loved it every time action took place down in Grandpa's basement. What a bunch of great characters these were (with kudos to Al Lewis and--God bless him--Fred Gwynne). Many of the episodes--such as the classic one where Eddie runs amok on a popular ghoul-TV program, "Zombo"--are still very pointed today, and just as funny. Herman's super strength was always good for a colorful sight-gag, Yvonne De Carlo's Lily was the perfect straight-face for Herman's antics. And don't forget that Drag-U-La...what a beauty!

This show can easily be dismissed as being so stupid it's funny, but there's more to it than just obvious jokes with a laugh track. The cast was fabulous but also talented; many having Hollywood careers or television experience prior to the show. Look at all the reincarnations (sorry) of the show and then compare the cast to the original set. No contest. Also the sets and costumes were really cool, who doesn't like Granpa's dungeon or their telephone "booth" or the Munstermobile? Some of the story lines were hilarious but my person favorite is "A House Divided." The only regret I have is that it didn't go on for one more season, who knows, maybe it would have been in ghoulish color!