| The
Munsters was developed, written, and produced by Joe Connelly
and Bob Mosher, both writers for The Amos & Andy Show
who teamed up to create, write and produce Leave It to Beaver.
The Munsters debuted on CBS on September 24, 1964 and
completed its original prime-time run on September 1, 1966.
Arriving in American homes at a time when classic horror
characters were in vogue with audiences, The Munsters
celebrated the macabre humor of ghoulish creatures with wisecracking
dialogue, outrageous visual gags and fast motion photography.
The series revolves around a loving family of misfits who
reside in a spooky cobweb-filled house at 1313 Mockingbird
Lane in Mockingbird Heights. The head of the family, kindhearted
Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne), bears a close resemblance to
the Frankenstein monster as originally portrayed by Boris
Karloff. His wife Lily (Yvonne DeCarlo) resembles Vampira,
TV's creepy-but-sexy hostess of horror. Lily's father, Grandpa
(Al Lewis), is actually Count Dracula from Transylvania. Herman
and Lily's son, Eddie (Butch Patrick), looks like a junior
wolfman. The final member of their household is Herman and
Lily's niece, Marilyn (played first by Beverly Owen and then
by Pat Priest), who is considered the ugly duckling of the
family although she is a beautiful, blonde, all-American teenager.
Just as important as the characters are the family cars,
Herman's Munster Koach and Grandpa's Dragula. These vehicles
were designed by Kustom Kar King George Barris, who also created
the Batmobile and the Monkee Mobile. All four of these became
big-selling toy models when their shows were first broadcast.
Episodes of The Munsters generally deal with the difficulty
of trying to be a solid, upstanding family of decent citizens
when everyone in the outside world reacts to you with horror.
The Munsters is similar to The Addams Family,
a contemporary series about a bizarre family. Clearly, American
television was trying to make a statement about nonconformism,
an issue which would become increasingly important as the
counterculture moved into mainstream America during the late
1960s. |
