The Munsters: America's First Family of Fright

"The Munsters: America's First Family of Fright" is a nice little show celebrating the classic TV program and its effect on pop culture. Fortunately, when the show was made, most of the original series members were still living (except for Fred Gwynne) and eat appears throughout the show in order to contribute to the program.

I enjoyed this tribute very much and it was made back when TV Land really had a love of old television programs...oh so long ago. My only complaint about all this is that sometimes the quality and impact of the show was clearly overstated--especially when folks compared Herman and Grandpa to the likes of Laurel & Hardy or Abbott & Costello. No...this comparison is patently ridiculous. But an enjoyable show nonetheless.

For reasons I've never quite understood, The Addams Family has always had an edge over The Munsters in the popularity department. At least I thought this was the case until I saw this informative and captivating documentary included on the box set I have for the show. The set is really nice, and not once have I had an episode freeze on me (quite a rare thing for DVDs), but it also helps out that the producers threw in some brilliant additions to the show itself. This one is an overview of The Munsters, and covers how it got started, what CBS did to promote it, how big of a phenomenon it was (and continues to be), the challenges behind its production, and how it was eventually forced off the air by the wildly successful Batman tv series. The earliest seeds of The Munsters were planted when Bob Clampett, an animator for Bugs Bunny, suggested to Universal Studios that they should develop a cartoon series based on a friendly family of monsters. This seemed a match made in heaven, as Universal was well known for titles like Frankenstein and Dracula. It wasn't until almost 2 decades later (in 1963) when executives finally decided to take the proposal seriously, after receiving an idea submitted by Allan Burns and Chris Hayward, who had previously worked on Rocky and Bullwinkle. Once writers Norm Liebman and Ed Haas got wind of this, they started drafting a script for a pilot episode entitled "My Fair Munster". It seems hard to believe, but debate about whether the new show should involve real life actors or be a cartoon continued right up until it was actually made. The Munsters pilot, shot in color, was released in October of 1964. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman, the Frankenstein monster who is head of the household, and Al Lewis as Grandpa, a cross between Dracula and a mad scientist. To viewers of the show proper, the pilot is unusual for several reasons. One, it's in color, which CBS decided to change once the time came for making the actual show. Shooting in color costs a lot of extra money, and the network just couldn't cope. Further, making it black and white made the show bear a resemblance to old Universal horror movies, which, for a show like this, is very desirable. Secondly, the actors weren't fully established yet. Gwynne and Lewis, both talented veterans of Broadway, would stay for the rest of the series, but Joan Marshall, who played Herman's vampire wife Phoebe, would be later replaced. "Happy" Derman, who played Herman and Phoebe's werewolf son Eddie was also scrapped, along with his aggressive demeanor. Executives were keen to keep Lewis and Gwynne together, as both had starred on the popular cop series Car 54, Where Are You? And were up there with comedy duos such as Laurel and Hardy in terms of chemistry. Once The Munsters started production, Beverly Owen (who was in the pilot) continued to play Marilyn; the Marilyn Monroe-esque blonde who is the only normal human member of the Munster family, and thus not considered attractive. Happy Derman was replaced by Butch Patrick to play Eddie. The most important casting change however would be the one made to Herman's wife. Viewers of the pilot had noted that Phoebe looked very much like Morticia, Gomez's wife on the Addams Family. Not wanting a lawsuit, sultry actress Yvonne De Carlo was hired to play Herman's new vampire wife, now renamed Lily. De Carlo was the only member of The Munsters cast to actually be a legitimate movie star, and the other cast members were afraid they would always be in her shadow. After a while, they accepted her, and her hair was stylized to have white streaks in it as a nod to Bride of Frankenstein. As the series wore on, Beverly Owen began to get real sad about having to be so far away from her boyfriend (who lived in New York) while she was acting in California. Eventually, she is too depressed to continue with the series and quits after only about a dozen episodes. To take her place, producers hire Pat Priest, who looked so much like Marilyn that most viewers didn't even notice a change. By the Spring of 1965, The Munsters had become a hit and toys, merchandise, and other things feeding off its success started popping up all over. The cast participated in many outdoor events in order to promote the show, and all the kids coming to see their tours identified with Eddie. However, behind the cameras, things were quite hard. The cast of the show had to put on a lot of makeup to play their parts, and in Gwynne's case, he was forced to wear a hellishly hot suit in order to make himself appear bulkier, and then wear clothes on top of that. He ended up losing a lot of weight over the course of the show, despite his best efforts to chug lemonade. The car The Munsters used was also a sight to see. Designed by custom car designer George Barris, the Munster Koach was essentially 3 Model T bodies welded together, and featured a raised platform in the back with a bench, lantern styled headlights, exposed frontal mufflers, and a grill that resembled a gravestone. While The Munsters was still popular, it only remained a hit for roughly two years. Eventually, the colorful new Batman series proved to be its undoing, as The Munsters couldn't really compete with a color show that was attractive to the same age demographic. The cast did more public appearances to boost popularity of the series, but it was no use. By May 1966, the show was cancelled. The Munsters attempted to reclaim its glory by making a Technicolor feature film entitled Munster Go home, which included the show's original cast (minus Pat Priest). It received only lukewarm reviews. ABC also released an animated special, The Mini-Munsters, but only Al Lewis participated. There have been some movies based on The Munsters since, including one released as recently as last year, but nothing comes close to the joy people got watching the black and white series during its heyday. After almost 6 decades, The Munsters has endured, and the show continues to be a smash with those who saw it during its original run, their children, and will no doubt be celebrated for a very long time. This is a prime example of how to make a documentary. It includes interesting information, the original cast members giving interviews (except Gwynne), and is just entertaining to watch. Fans of the series will no doubt find a lot of worthwhile information, and will have a greater respect for the series after seeing how difficult it was to make. The cast of the show may die, but as long as there are those who remember it, it will remain a classic of tv's golden age.