How strong is Herman Munster? 19 examples from The Munsters
“You just don’t want me to sit there and look stupid, do you?”
Herman Munster, the dad in the family comedy The Munsters, is a version of Frankenstein’s Monster. Over the course of the series—and its many reboot, reunions, and revisits—Herman has proven to be a powerhouse, way stronger than any normal human being.
While it’s generally assumed that Frankenstein’s Monster is strong—it’s logical to believe that he would only be as strong as, well, a human. Because in Mary Shelley’s original novel he’s, you know, made from human parts.
However, some adaptations have found that the monster can be really strong. For example, let’s think about Herman Munster. The father figure on The Munsters, Herman is clearly a variation on the Universal Monsters version of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster.
But he is strong. Really strong. How strong is Herman Munster? Well, take a look at the examples below from the original series…
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The Munsters episodes that show Herman’s superhuman strength
#1 Pounding his fist on the living room floor, Herman shakes the house. (1.2, “My Fair Munster”)
In this episode, Grandpa is trying to help Marilyn find love—so he creates a love potion. However, after a mix-up in the kitchen, Marilyn doesn’t actually get any of the potion—but Herman, Lily and Eddie do. As a result, the three become irresistible to the opposite sex. At the end of the episode, as Herman and Lily laugh over the situation, he pounds his fist on the floor and it shakes the house.
#2 Herman picks up a mugger and hangs him from a tree limb. (1.3, “A Walk on the Mild Side”)
In this episode that includes a couple of “strength” examples, Herman is dealing with stress and starts taking short walks in the park at night. Unfortunately, the park is also plagued with a mugger that has been terrorizing people. (Which, of course, leads to some mix-ups among witnesses.) After a fearful time at Mid City Park, Herman runs back into the house and piles large furniture in front of the door. Finally, Herman, the mugger and an undercover police officer all cross paths and Herman saves the day.
Related: The Munsters: 10 Crime Stories
#3 Herman super-humanly lifts Lily to sit her at the breakfast table. (1.4, “Rock-a-Bye Munster”).
When Herman and Grandpa eavesdrop on a conversation between Lily and Marilyn, the men get the wrong idea that Lily is pregnant with another child. This episode includes the first appearance of Paul Lynde as the family’s doctor, Dr. Edward Dudley. (However, perhaps because of a shift in production order vs. when the episodes actually aired, Herman actually meets Dr. Dudley for the first time in 1.6, “Low-Call Munster.”)
#4 Offering a visitor a seat, Herman lifts the sofa off the floor. (1.5, “Pike’s Pique”)
The gas company wants to install a pipe under the house, but crashes through the dungeon under the Munsters’ home. When the gas company representative comes to ask Herman to sign over rights to continue the process, Herman lifts the whole sofa to offer their guest a seat. (During their talk, the gas company representative tries to lift the sofa himself and determines that it’s quite heavy.) Later, when Herman is mad and slams his hand on the table, the table breaks. Following a phone call, Herman angrily hangs up the phone and the phone breaks apart.
#5 Herman knocks over the stone wall in front of the house. (1.6, “Low-Call Munster”)
At the beginning of the Thanksgiving episode of The Munsters, Herman is strapped to the lab table in Grandpa’s laboratory when he goes crazy from hunger. (It will turn out he’s been dieting before a reunion with his army buddies.) He snaps through the straps on the table, bursts through the house’s front door, and knocks over the stone wall out front. He goes to the neighbors’ house and knocks over the door to break in. During a flashback, when Herman is upset, he stomps and makes the Munsters’ house shake. Back at the neighbors’ home, he pounds his fist on their dining room table and it shakes their house.
#6 Herman punches his fist through the safe to grab money. (1.8, “Knock Wood, Here Comes Charlie”)
Herman’s twin brother, Charlie, visits the family with an invention that he claims can get uranium from seawater. Knowing thayt his brother is a con man, Herman is upset wishes Charlie would leave. Putting money in the bedroom safe, Herman accidentally breaks off the door hiding the safe. Later, when he can’t remember the safe’s combination, he plunges his fist through the safe door to pull the money out.
Related: The Munsters: 10 Crime Stories
#7 In the wrestling episode, Herman twists iron bars into pretzels. (1.9, “Herman the Great”)
Worried about saving enough money to send his son Eddie to college, Herman takes on a night job as a professional wrestler. In addition to twisting an iron bar into a pretzel (which is part of what gets him the job), he remarks that he has to hold up the car while Grandpa changes the tire; happy that he’s been offered a second job to pay Eddie’s way through college, tosses Eddie in the air—which sends Eddie crashing through ceiling, making plaster and wood fall; training in the dungeon, Herman breaks the rowing machine and slides across the dungeon floor and crashes into a table, knocking over lab supplies; during one of his wrestling matches, Herman throws his opponent against the ropes and it makes the whole fence fall down.
Related: The Munsters: 6 Episodes Where Herman Munster Goes Out For Sports
#8 Setting up a tent in the wrong place, Herman moves the tree instead of the tent. (1.16, “Grandpa’s Call of the Wild”)
When the Munsters go camping, Herman sets up their tent out in the sunlight—and when Lily complains they need more shade, Herman yanks the tree out of the ground and moves it. Also in this episode, Herman and Eddie go fishing—and when Herman casts his line, the hook flies across lake and reaches another camping setup and hooks someone else’s dinner off the campfire.
In this same episode, Grandpa turns into a wolf to hang out with friends and gets captured. More info about the episode here: The Munsters: 5 Best Grandpa Dracula Episodes
#9 In this discussion with the college basketball coach, Herman casually picks up heavy weights to remove them from the chair. (1.17, “All-Star Munster”)
When the Munsters forget to pay for Marilyn’s college tuition, she’s told that she can’t stay in school. Herman goes to campus to talk with the dean and ends up mistakenly talking with a coach—who thinks that Homer is asking for a basketball scholarship. In addition to the weightlifting, Herman later pounds fist on the coach’s desk, which collapses into floor.
Related: The Munsters: 6 Episodes Where Herman Munster Goes Out For Sports
#10 Herman playfully swings a wrecking ball. (1.27, “Munsters on the Move”)
When Herman is offered a job promotion, the family considers moving out of town. Unfortunately, by the time they realize they aren’t moving, it turns out that Grandpa sold the house to a company planning to bulldoze the house and install a parking lot. Going out to talk to the wrecking crew, Herman casually pushes back the bulldozers and playfully swings the wrecking ball.
#11 After checking their car’s oil, Herman lifts up the back end of the car to set it on the jack. (1.28, “Movie Star Munster”)
While Herman is working on the family car, two men claiming to be filmmakers promise to make Herman into a film star. However, they’re actually planning an insurance scheme. Through the process of making their “movie,” the men keep trying to injure Herman, but find it’s harder than it looks.
Related link: The Munsters: 10 Crime Stories
#12 Showing his son how to play baseball, Herman hits a ball out of the park—and it travels several blocks and hits famed baseball coach Leo Durocher in the head. (1.29, “Herman the Rookie”)
At the park, Herman is showing Eddie how to use the baseball bat. He throws one ball way up in air, and it goes high enough that he has time to make a whole speech before it returns (and hits him in the head). Then he bats another ball out of park and, several blocks away, famed baseball coach Leo Durocher gets smacked in the head. Impressed with Herman’s batting ability, Durocher asks him to try out for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Unfortunately, Herman’s crazy strength wrecks the ballpark during his tryout…
Related link: The Munsters: 6 Episodes Where Herman Munster Goes Out For Sports
#13 Herman wrecks the country club’s gold course. (1.30, “Country Club Munsters”)
When Herman wins a membership in an exclusive country club, his family runs into a number of problems at the club. For example, Herman's clumsy golf game wrecks the golf course—including the point where e accidently yanks the pipes out of one of the holes. There’s also a moment where he’s golfing at home and his shot bounces around the living room and ends up in Grandpa’s ear. When Herman hits Grandpa hard enough that the ball crashes through the window across the room, Herman angrily twists his metal golf club into pretzel.
Related link: The Munsters: 6 Episodes Where Herman Munster Goes Out For Sports
#14 When Grandpa’s drag race coffin car won’t stop, Herman grabs the speeding car and drags his heels until it stops. (1.36, “Hot Rod Herman”)
Eddie convinces his pa to compete in a drag-car race. Herman modifies the family hearse into a dragster, but loses the car in a bet. To win back the family car, Grandpa turns a coffin into a drag racer—but when, after winning the race, his brakes don’t work, Herman has to grab the car and drag it to a stop.
Related link: The Munsters: 6 Episodes Where Herman Munster Goes Out For Sports
#15 Trying to show Eddie how to pole vault, Herman crashes through the upstairs window. (2.5, “Herman, Coach of the Year”)
When Eddie is going to enter a big track meet at school, Herman coaches his son. At one point, Herman is showing Eddie how the pole vault works—and accidently launches himself into the house.
Related link: The Munsters: 6 Episodes Where Herman Munster Goes Out For Sports
#16 Making a speech, Herman pounds on the fireplace mantle and it breaks off. (2.8, “Lily’s Star Boarder”)
When Lily decides to rent the spare room—against Herman’s wishes—only one man is willing to enter the house. Failing to share what he does for a living, Herman becomes mistakenly convinced their boarder is a criminal and plans to stop him.
Related link: The Munsters: 10 Crime Stories
#17 Hit in the head by a falling 300-pound safe, Herman loses his memory—but is otherwise fine. (2.9, “John Doe Munster”)
Walking along the sidewalk, Herman is passing some movers lifting a 300-pound safe on a rope. When the rope breaks, the heavy safe bounces off Herman’s head and smashes the sidewalk. The accident doesn’t physically hurt him—but it does give him amnesia. When the police take him into protective custody and rename him “John Doe,” the only way Lily can bring home her husband is to adopt him.
#18 Outside work, Herman witnesses a car wreck—and casually pulls the cars apart. (2.15, “Herman’s Peace Offensive”)
When Eddie is being bullied at school, Herman is also plagued by tricks being played one of his co-workers at the funeral home. At first Herman tells his son he should to turn the other cheek—but when they both end up with black eyes, they decide it’s time to fight back. As Herman is headed back to work, his co-workers see him out the window—and witness just how strong he is…
#19 Caught in the crosswalk, Herman is hit by a car—which smashes up, but leaves him standing there. (2.31, “Herman’s Lawsuit”)
Bothered by the flickering sign at the crosswalk, Herman is accidentally hit by a car. While the driver—who thinks she’s scarred Herman for life—offers him a cash settlement, the Munsters mistakenly think they’re being sued. Thinking he owes too much cash, Herman abandons his family to take on new jobs to come up with money.
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Who Is Herman Munster?
Herman is father of the Munster family, husband of Lily Munster (vampire), father of Eddie Munster (werewolf), son in law of Grandpa (Count Dracula), uncle of Marylin Munster (who passes for human, poor thing).
Herman was portrayed by Fred Gwynne in the original series (1964-1966), and in later revivals and reboots by Richard Long in Mini-Munsters (1973), John Schuck in The Munsters Today (1988–1991), Edward Herrmann in Here Come the Munsters (1995), Sam McMurray in The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas (1996), and Jerry O’Connell in 1313 Mockingbird Lane (2012).
He was built in Germany by Dr. Frankenstein in the mid to late 1800s. In the series, the family lives in a broken down mansion at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in the small town Mockingbird Heights. Herman works at the funeral home Gateman, Goodbury, and Graves. (Fun sidenote: Herman’s boss is played by horror film icon John Carradine.)
What’s the deal with Dr. Frankenstein?
Although Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the German scientist responsible for creating Herman, is never seen on the show, he is often mentioned in conversation. In fact, Herman sings about him in “Will Success Spoil Herman Munster?”
Dr. Frankenstein had a friendship or working relationship with Count Dracula—also known as Grandpa, Herman’s father-in-law. In “Just Another Pretty Face,” Grandpa discovers he has a copy of Herman’s original blueprint, autographed by Dr. Frankenstein.
Herman’s Twin, Charlie Munster
We first discover there’s more than one Frankenstein’s Monster in “Knock Wood, Here Comes Charlie.” Charlie Munster—Herman’s twin brother—is a con man who puts on a sophisticated air. In that episode, he even tries to con his own family by selling them a phony machine that he claims can extract uranium from sea water.
Herman’s Other Identical Brother, Johann
We discover there’s another Frankenstein’s Monster in “A Visit from Johann.” Dr. Frankenstein IV, the great-grandson of the original Dr. Frankenstein, arrives with Johann, whom he found wandering in the woods in Germany—and who appears to be the same Monster from the original Universal Monsters movies. Although he is played by Fred Gwynne (1960s sitcoms loved the mixups caused by identical characters), Johann’s behavior indicates he’s the same Frankenstein’s Monster portrayed in the movies originally by Boris Karloff. He’s even dressed the same way he appears in Son of Frankenstein.
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ABOUT THE MUNSTERS
In the pantheon of sitcom families, there are few (if any) as memorable as The Munsters. With 70 episodes airing on the CBS network across two seasons (1964-1966), the show featured Herman Munster (a patchwork Frankenstein’s Monster) and Lily Munster (the daughter of Count Dracula), portrayed by Fred Gwynne and Yvonne De Carlo, Grandpa (Al Lewis), Eddie Munster (Butch Patrick), a werewolf who just wants to be a typical, all-American boy, and Marilyn Munster (first by Beverley Owen, then Pat Priest). Despite airing only two seasons, the show has continued to delight viewers through reruns and a series of reunions, revisits, and reboots.
ABOUT THE ORIGINAL FRANKENSTEIN
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, published in 1818, is a novel full of grief and longing and the struggle with isolation, as well as the hubris of climbing the ladder of science without regard for morality or the ramifications (and responsibility) of unexpected success, Shelley’s “Frankenstein” has survived 200 years of creative adaptations and intellectual discussions. The version of the monster in the original novel is quite different from what we often see in adaptations—he is articulate, conflicted, and actually looks quite different than we’ve been trained to assume.
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was written to meet a challenge to “write a ghost story.” When Mary Shelley began work on her story, she was only 18 years old.
The novel Frankenstein has endured because it represents so much to so many. A classic of western literature, a rousing story of terror, a Gothic romance, a tragedy—it is also considered one of the first (if not the first) works of science fiction.
In the more than 200 years since its first publication, the legend of Frankenstein has been recounted, remixed, retread, and rebooted into so many formats. The monster of Frankenstein has been adapted in books, films, television, cartoons, comics, audio dramas, stage productions, theme park attractions, and more.
ABOUT UNIVERSAL MONSTERS
From the 1920s through to the 1950s, Universal Monsters was the go-to place for classic monster movies. Over the years, as they latched onto franchise characters that could carry a film series, soon came the urge to have the various monsters meet up.
As such, they found ways to combine monster movie icons Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the Wolf Man, into a single narrative. It wasn’t always great, but it sure was fun.
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