The Munsters: 13 Secrets Every Fan Should Know
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How well do you know 1960s Sitcom 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 and Lily Munster (portrayed by Fred Gwynne and Yvonne De Carlo), Grandpa (Al Lewis), Eddie Munster (Butch Patrick), and Marilyn Munster (first by Beverley Owen, then Pat Priest).
Airing only two seasons, the show has continued to delight viewers through reruns and a series of reunions, revisits, and reboots. The show is currently available to watch free on Peacock or you can buy episodes on Amazon.
Despite becoming an iconic show in American culture, here are 13 things you may not have known about the series. Let’s take a look...
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01 The Munsters Nearly Started In 1943 As A Cartoon By Bob Clampett.
According to legend, the origins of "The Munsters" go back to the 1940s when famed animator Bob Clampett (Looney Tunes) conceptualized a TV show titled “The Monster Family." Universal Studios never got back to Clampett.
In the 1940s, Universal Studios was still riding the wave of monster flicks—including such titles as 1940’s The Invisible Man Returns, The Mummy’s Hand, and The Invisible Woman; 1941’s The Wolf Man; 1942’s The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, and The Mummy’s Tomb; and 1943’s Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, and Son of Dracula. During this period, legendary Looney Tunes animator Bob Clampett pitched Universal the idea of a family of funny monsters. Unfortunately, the project sputtered out.
As part of Warner Bros. Animation, Clampett designed the likes of Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and Tweety. Clampett left Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1945 and turned his attention to television, creating the puppet show Time for Beany and the animated show Beany and Cecil, the first creator-driven television series.
02 The Munsters Original Pitch Was Stolen.
After a decade dominated by the wholesome family fare, network sitcoms started to try some more offbeat ideas—including several supernatural concepts like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and My Favorite Martian. TV was filled with witches, genies, aliens, talking horses, possessed automobiles…
The creators of The Munsters—Allan Burns and Chris Hayward—had previously worked together as writers for cartoons, including The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. When the duo pitched the idea of a family of “weirdos” more akin to those in Charles Addams’ cartoons, their contact at Universal passed on their ideas without crediting them.
If it weren’t for the Writers Guild of America stepping in, they would have been cut out entirely. In the series credits, their contribution is listed as “From a Format By…”
Allan Burns went on to co-create The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda.
In this video, he reveals the creation of The Munsters from his point of view:
03 CBS Changed The Munsters To Feature The Universal Monsters.
As the show was developed, one of the studio’s mandates was to change the characters to include monsters that Universal already owned. The studio had been running their old classic horror films on television since the 1950s and found that there was still an impressive audience for these decades-old monster movies.
As such, they developed a standard 1960s sitcom nuclear family, albeit with the Frankenstein’s monster as the father and Dracula as the father-in-law. From the studio’s perspective, leaning on the Universal Monsters brand made it easier to deal with rights issues, they could recycle props and costumes, and it made it easier to create merchandise.
The proposal was handed to writers Norm Liebman and Ed Haas, who wrote a pilot script, “Love Thy Monster.” Between them, Liebmann and Haas have an assortment of TV writing credits that include The Dick Van Dyke Show, Get Smart, The Jerry Lewis Show, Hazel, Good Times, Maude, Chico and the Man, and Diff’rent Strokes.
04 The Munsters And The Addams Family Were Developed On Weirdly Parallel Tracks.
Pop culture fans are always debating: Katy Perry or Taylor Swift? Xbox or Playstation? Aretha Franklin or Patti LaBelle? Star Trek or Star Wars? Marvel or DC? Narnia or Middle Earth?
A perennial debate has always surrounded The Munsters and The Addams Family. The two series debuted within a week of each other—the first episode of The Munsters, “Munster Masquerade,” aired Sep 24, 1964, whereas the first episode of The Addams Family, “The Addams Family Goes to School,” aired one week earlier, on Sep 18, 1964.
Both series lasted two seasons (70 episodes for The Munsters vs 64 episodes for The Addams Family). And both properties have been revisited numerous times in the decades since the original shows.
Which one actually came first? We’ll never really know.
This is what we do know: The Universal Monsters were kicked off in 1931 with Dracula and Frankenstein, both of which were based on earlier literary sources. Charles Addams series of one-panel comics starring The Addams Family started in 1938.
05 The Munsters Was Originally Going To Be In Color.
In the 1960s, color TV was becoming more widespread. Although the pilot for The Munsters was shot in color, after test screenings, executives decided to go with black and white. Different theories have been advanced why this choice—including keeping down costs, an attempt to make the show less scary for kids, or to keep the show in the same tone as the classic Universal Monster movies.
Whatever the reason, the choice to stick with b&w may have led to the show’s brief run. When ABC pitted Batman—a color series—against The Munsters, the ratings dropped and The Munsters was canceled at the end of the season.
06 The Munsters Family In The Pilot Was Somewhat Different From The One We Remember.
As the show was in development, some executives wanted the series to be animated, while others argued for live-action. In the end, a live-action presentation was filmed by MCA Television.
The plot of “My Fair Munster” is familiar to fans of the show: Trying to help his grandniece find love, Grandpa slips a love potion into Marilyn's oatmeal, but it’s accidentally eaten instead by Herman, Lily, and Eddie. (Hijinks ensue.)
There are some distinctions between the pilot version and the final version that aired. For one, the pilot was filmed in color. Also, Joan Marshall appeared as “Phoebe” (instead of Lily), and Happy Derman appeared as Eddie.
Executives deemed Marshall too similar to Morticia Addams, and thought Derman’s portrayal too feral. As such, Yvonne De Carlo stepped into the role of Lily and Butch Patrick was cast as Eddie.
With some new footage and re-editing, a version of the pilot became the second episode of the series.
07 There Were Four Marilyn Munsters With The Original Cast.
One member of the Munsters household was Lily’s niece, Marilyn. Although she was beautiful, the other characters’ skewed perceptions meant the family felt sorry for her because she was “unattractive.”
Through the original run of the series and theatrical release Munsters Go Home, Marilyn was played by three different actresses: Beverly Owen, Pat Priest, and Debbie Watson. Beverly Owen, unhappy living in California, left the series after 13 episodes. Pat Priest played the role for the rest of the series. For the theatrical film, the role was recast with the younger actress Debbie Watson. The role was recast again with Jo McDonnell for the 1981 reunion movie The Munsters Revenge.
The roles of Herman, Lily, and Granpa remained the same throughout the years. Butch Patrick played Eddie in the series and theatrical film, but for the 1981 reunion movie he was replaced by child actor K.C. Martel.
08 The Munsters’ Raven Was Played By Two Actors.
One noted fixture in the Munster house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane was the cuckoo clock—which housed a talking raven. A tribute to the bird from Edgar Allan Poe’s classic poem, the raven was voiced by two well-known actors.
The first actor, Mel Blanc, voiced hundreds of characters on radio and in cartoons, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Barney Rubble on The Flintstones, and Mr. Spacely on The Jetsons.
The second actor to voice The Raven was TV fixture Bob Hastings, whose most famous roles include Lt. Elroy Carpenter on 1960s sitcom McHale’s Navy and Commissioner Gordon on 1992’s Batman: The Animated Series.
[Video] The Munsters—INCREDIBLE Raven Clock Secrets You Probably DIDN’T Know About!
09 Lily Munster Was Stronger Than Herman
Although Herman Munster (a dead ringer, heh, for the Frankenstein’s Monster) demonstrated in several episodes that he had superhuman strength, there was more than one episode where his wife, Lily was shown to be even stronger than Herman. See “Follow That Munster,” etc.
10 Munsters Stars Fred Gwynne And Al Lewis Had Already Worked Together
Before they starred as Herman Munster and Grampa Dracula, Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis both starred in the police sitcom Car 54, Where are You? Detailing the workplace woes of officers at a Bronx precinct, the show aired 1961-1963 on NBC.
11 Grandpa Munster Was Younger Than His Daughter.
While Grandpa Dracula was the father of Lily Munster, actor Al Lewis (1923-2006) was six months younger than actress Yvonne De Carlo (1922-2007). In fact, Herman Munster actor Fred Gwynne (1926-1993) was younger than them both.
12 The Munsters Reconciled The Differences Between Herman Munster And The Classic Universal Version Of Frankenstein’s Monster.
I don’t know about you, but one of the questions I had as a kid was whether Herman Munster was actually the same creature that was played by Boris Karloff. Well, late in the second season, The Munsters addressed this very question in the episode “A Visit from Johann.”
In that episode, the great-grandson of Doctor Frankenstein calling on Herman. The doctor arrives with Johann, an earlier product of Frankenstein’s experiments. Johann is simple minded, he’s identical to Herman (and, in fact, played by Fred Gwynn), and he’s also dressed exactly like the Frankenstein monster as he appeared in Son of Frankenstein.
Of course, Herman had (at least) two identical brothers: In the delightfully bizarre early episode “Knock Wood, Here Comes Charlie,” Gwynn also played Herman’s brother Charlie, who was a decidedly stylish con man.
RELATED: The Munsters: Is Herman Munster Really Frankenstein’s Monster? (Well…)
13 Batman Killed The Munsters.
Although The Munsters was a hit in the ratings when it kicked off on CBS in fall 1964, it was canceled after only two seasons—and “Eddie Munster” actor Butch Patrick points the finger at Batman for cutting The Munsters short: “‘Batman’ just came along and took our ratings away,” the star told Fox News.
The Munsters ended its first season ranked #18 in the ratings. However, ABC’s Batman debuted in 1966 and just exploded. The Munsters ended in 1966 and Batman aired until 1968.
BONUS: The Munsters Have Been Reunited, Revisted, and Rebooted Multiple Times
The series was cancelled after two seasons, but not before the cast shot a theatrical film Munster, Go Home! In it, Herman inherits a fortune and a mansion from his uncle, a British earl. The family journeys across the pond to the England and stumbles across a counterfeiting operation. Since then, the charactes have been brough back in a number of projects, including…
In 1973, ABC created an animated pilot feature called The Mini-Munsters. Al Lewis voiced his old character in it.
In 1981, there was a TV reunion movie titled The Munsters’ Revenge. Gwynne, De Carlo, and Lewis reprised their original roles.
The series was rebooted in 1988 as The Munsters Today. It lasted 3 seasons with 72 episodes. The entire run is available on Hulu.
There were TV movies in 1995 and 1996, titled Here Come the Munsters and The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas, respectively.
There was the 2012 dramedy pilot Mockingbird Lane developed for NBC by Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller. The pilot aired as a Halloween special and starred Jerry O'Connell, Portia de Rossi, Charity Wakefield, Mason Cook, and Eddie Izzard. NBC did not pick up the series.
Other remakes have been floated at various times with Keenen Ivory, Shawn, and Marlon Wayans; Seth Meyers; and Rob Zombie.
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