THE MUNSTERS TODAY

 

THE MUNSTERS TODAY
(Syndication, October 8, 1988-May 25, 1991)
 
The Arthur Company, MCA TV

 

 

MAIN CAST:

John Schuck – Herman Munster

Lee Meriwether – Lily Munster

Jason Marsden – Edward “Eddie” Wolfgang Munster

Mary-Ellen Dunbar (pilot) & Hilary Van Dyke – Marilyn Munster

Howard Morton – “Grandpa” Vladmir Dracula

 

 

 The Munsters franchise was built on the premise of a sitcom starring some of Universal’s famous monsters. The gag? They didn’t know they were any different from the ordinary human beings that inhabited the world around them.

The Munsters: Grandpa, Herman, Marilyn, Lily and Eddie.

The notion was first suggested to Universal Studios by animator Bob Clampett as a series of cartoons. He worked on concepts from 1943-45, but the project ended up stalling. In 1963, a similar idea was submitted by writers Allan Burns and Chris Hayward and given to writers Norm Liebman and Ed Haas for further development, writing a pilot titled Love Thy Monster. The original idea took great inspiration from The Addams Family cartoons by Charles Addams, but because Universal owned the rights to Frankenstein’s Monster and Dracula, they decided to inject them into the idea. A push was made for it to be animated, but ultimately it was decided to proceed with live-action.

"Happy" Derman as Eddie and Joan Marshall as Phoebe.

Fred Gwynne was cast as Herman Munster, who was basically a goofy and lovable version of the Frankenstein monster. Cast alongside him was his Car 54, Where Are You? co-star Al Lewis as Count Dracula, Herman’s father-in-law who was irritable, sarcastic and often antagonistic towards Herman, but doted on his daughter when not working on crazy inventions in his basement dungeon. Joan Marshall was cast as Herman’s wife, Phoebe, who had a gothic look to her and a very abrasive and tense relationship with Herman while also being seductively lovey with him. “Happy” Nate Derman was cast as their son Eddie, who displayed werewolf-like qualities such as a floofy widow’s peak hairstyle and pointy ears. Beverly Owen rounded out the cast as Marilyn, Phoebe’s niece who stayed with them while she attended a local college. The gag with Marilyn is that she appeared as a normal human girl. While this made her attractive to outsiders, she was considered hideous by her own family and often drew their sympathies. It was this inherent “ugliness” that was often believed to drive off Marilyn’s suitors, rather than the shock of meeting the other members of her family. Together they lived in a decaying Victorian Gothic-style mansion at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Mockingbird Heights--complete with all the dust and cobwebs you could ask for, as well as a pet dragon named Spot living under their stairs--after having immigrated from Transylvania.

A full-color pilot was filmed titled “My Fair Munster”, running 16 minutes (later cut to just over 13), and was used to sell the series to CBS. A second pilot was also filmed; this time in black-and-white and with some tweaks to the final make-up designs for the characters; particularly Herman, who was given more padding to hide Gwynne’s naturally thin frame. Realizing Phoebe was just a carbon copy of Morticia Addams in her appearance and mannerisms, the producers decided to revamp and recast the character as Lily Munster with Yvonne DeCarlo, who used Donna Reed as an inspiration for her performance. Lily had more of a bat motif in her wardrobe and was a lot gentler towards Herman; however, she was capable of displaying a fiery temper when pushed. Derman was also replaced as Eddie by Butch Patrick. Eddie’s personality was initially more feral like his wolf brethren and in general fairly awful, but was adjusted to make him more respectful. Owen would end up replaced by Pat Priest after 13 episodes as she was miserable being away from her boyfriend in New York due to contractual obligations.

The Munsters debuted on CBS on September 24, 1964, running for two seasons and 70 episodes. Bud Westmore was responsible for the show’s make-up design, and the theme song was composed by Jack Marshall. Its first season scored high in the ratings, easily besting the television version of its inspiration The Addams Family on ABC, and earning itself a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Television Series. Unfortunately, its second season was thoroughly trounced by Batman and was cancelled by its conclusion. A spin-off film, Munster, Go Home! was produced and released immediately following the series’ end—with Debbie Watson replacing Priest as Marilyn—as a means to introduce international audiences to the characters ahead of international syndication. It followed the clan as they journeyed to England to take possession of an inherited English manor called Munster Hall; however, their British cousins wanted it for themselves and sought to get rid of their American counterparts. The film was presented in color.

Grandpa and Herman from The Mini-Munsters.

Munster, Go Home! wasn’t a commercial success on its release, but the series certainly was in syndication; finding a whole new audience and popularity in the following decades. 1973 saw the first attempts at a revival, returning to the animated form originally desired. The Mini-Munsters saw the Munsters visited by Transylvania cousins who start the titular band with Eddie (Bobby Diamond). Meanwhile, Grandpa (Lewis, the only one to reprise his role) makes it so that a haunted hearse Herman (Richard Long) bought for the band could run on music when it ran out of gas. That ended up putting them directly at odds with gangsters who recently took over a gasoline company. The special was aired as an installment of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, but wasn’t picked up for a series.

A second revival attempt came in 1981 with the telefilm The Munsters’ Revenge, which aired on NBC. The original cast was reunited, with Jo McDonnell taking over Marilyn and K.C. Martel taking over Eddie since Patrick had aged out of the role. It dealt with Herman and Grandpa having to clear their names when a pair of robots resembling them was used by a mad scientist to commit robberies. CBS was so convinced that it would be a hit for NBC that they posted an airing of The Wizard of Oz against it. However, it ended up being a dud and was quickly forgotten.

The Munsters Today cast.

In 1987 another revival attempt had begun development. The idea would take the form of a sequel series to the original, using one of Grandpa’s experiments to put the family in suspended animation for 22 years and have them awaken in the present day. Lewis attempted to reprise his role but he was either insulted by being asked to audition or the producers just decided to start fresh with an all-new cast, and Gwynne was asked to reprise the role of Herman but he outright refused. The cast would end up including John Schuck as Herman (who only took the job for the money), Lee Meriwether as Lily (who starred as Catwoman in the film for Batman, the original Munster-killer), Jason Marsden as Eddie, Hilary Van Dyke as Marilyn (replacing Mary-Ellen Dunbar from the pilot), and Howard Morton as Grandpa. While many of the original Munsters props were recycled, a whole new set needed to be designed to accommodate a multi-camera set-up and a studio audience. The series was also shot on videotape rather than film, giving it a different look from the original.

Pat Morita stops by.

The Munsters Today debuted on October 8, 1988 in syndication. A pilot depicting the suspended animation story was shot but never aired. Instead, that plot device was relegated to the intro and explained in the lyrics over an arrangement of Marshall’s original theme. It was written by Haas, Liebmann, Burns, Steven Baum, Ted Bergman, Barbara Berkowitz, Donna Blinder, Andrew Borakove, Marc Brown, David Carren, J. Larry Carroll, Mark Cassutt, William Cyr, Michael Davidoff, Lisa DeBenedictis, Lisa Eberhard, Howard Friedlander, James Gates, Ann Gibbs, Laura Glendinning, Patty Gordon, Joy Grdnic, Carol Hatfield, Chris Hayward, Bob Destri Hilgenberg, Barbara Hobart, Ron Jarvis, Bryan Joseph, Kathy Joseph, Hope Juber, Craig Kellem, Joel Kimmel, Paul Lander, Neil Alan Levy, Michael Lyons, Mark C. Miller, Danny Morris, Kim Mortensen, Alan Moskowitz, Ken Peragine, Janice Pieroni, Scott Redman, Billy Riback, Neil Rosen, Bill Rosenthal, Daryl Rowland, Jeffrey Russel, Jeffrey J. Sachs, Lane Sarasohn, Robert Schechter, Elroy Schwartz, Lloyd J. Schwartz, Philip A. Scorza, Adele Styler, Burt Styler, Noah Taft, Bruce Teicher, George Tricker and Kimberly Wells, with Rosenthal, Gibbs and Kimmel serving as story editors. David Abbot served as the head make-up artist with Gilbert A. Mosko, and Jody Lawrence was the key hair stylist. Bill Fulton and Lisa Brochet handled the series’ score.

Lily and Herman getting with the times.

For the first season, Today largely emulated the original series with the added “fish out of water” element. Despite some questionable quality in the final presentation that made it to screens, Today ended up finding a large pre-teen audience. The producers decided to better connect with that demographic and made some changes going forward. Beginning with the second season, the out-of-time element was dropped and the family was allowed to join everyone else in the 80s. Their appearances were slowly updated beginning with Eddie’s hair and attire, and then-current pop culture references found their way into their dialogue. For a period, the Munsters even moved into a modern apartment after their house was destroyed by a storm, although this ended up being short-lived. Celebrity guest stars would be brought in for occasional appearances, such as Zsa Zsa Gabor, Pat Morita, Eddie Mekka, and Marcia Wallace, and new characters were introduced such as Grandpa’s favorite ex-wife, Katja (Jo de Winter), and brother, Yorga (Sandy Baron). By the third season, it was clear that ideas were getting harder to come by as they started recycling storylines from the original series, such as Herman being turned into a regular human in “Just Another Pretty Face”, or engaging in outlandish plots, like Marilyn finding a shifty genie (Billy Barty). Ratings declined as a result and it was cancelled; having run 1 season and 2 episodes (not counting the unaired pilot) longer than the original.

The Munsters Today largely faded into obscurity, having seen no home media releases and only being re-aired from 2008-11 on digital subchannel Retro Television Network. But Universal wasn’t done with the Munsters yet—although none of their attempts manage to garner or duplicate the acclaim of the original. In 1995, a new telefilm was released on FOX as a Halloween special called Here Come the Munsters; a prequel of sorts that depicted how the Munsters came to America from Transylvania. De Carlo, Lewis, Patrick and Priest all made a cameo as restaurant patrons. The next year, FOX aired the The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas, which featured an entirely different cast that included Baron as Grandpa. ABC Family (now Freeform) would add Scary Little Christmas to their 25 Days of Christmas marathon line-up in 2009. In 2012, a new attempt at a television series was produced called Mockingbird Lane, which skewed the franchise into darker territory and shied away from the classic Universal Monsters depictions of the characters. The pilot aired on NBC in October, but it was never picked up as a series. The most recent attempt was a 2022 Netflix film written and directed by Rob Zombie, a self-professed lifelong fan of the series. Produced by Universal’s direct-to-video division Universal 1440 Entertainment, the film was again a prequel showing how Herman (Jeff Daniel Phillips) met Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie). Priest again cameoed as a Transylvania Airlines announcer. The film received mixed to negative reviews.

 

EPISODE GUIDE:

Season 1:

“Still the Munsters After All These Years” (N/A) – After getting into Grandpa’s sleeping machine, a malfunction causes the Munsters to sleep for 22 years and awaken in the 1980s.

 

“Vampire Pie” (10/8/88) – Herman decides to win a cooking contest, but Grandpa discovers one of his ingredients causes something in ordinary people.

 

“A Little Russian Dressing” (10/15/88) – Grandpa is awarded 3 wishes in a Transylvanian sweepstakes and ends up wasting 2 of them.

 

“Flyweight Champion of the World” (10/22/88) – Grandpa gives Eddie a strongman formula to help him deal with videos, but it inflates his ego as well as his muscles.

 

“Magna Cum Munsters” (10/29/88) – Herman goes back to school so that Eddie will want to ask him questions when he needs help and ends up in Eddie’s class.

 

“Designing Munsters” (11/5/88) – Lily enters the world of fashion, leaving Herman and Grandpa to do all the housework.

 

“Farewell, Grandpa” (11/12/88) – Grandpa ends up in trouble when its revealed he never got his Green Card when he came to America.

 

“Corporate Munsters” (11/19/88) – Herman’s stocks have led to him getting a position in the company, but he must juggle his new job with being a good dad.

 

“Herman the Astronaut” (11/26/88) – Grandpa and Lily aren’t as thrilled as Herman is that he’s going to Venus as a civilian astronaut.

 

“Rock Fever” (12/3/88) – One of Marilyn’s favorite bands, the Lizards, are turned into real lizards the day before their TV debut by one of Grandpa’s inventions.

 

“Professor Grandpa” (12/10/88) – Grandpa takes a chemistry class to improve his skills after his latest formula destroys his lab.

 

“Say Ah!” (12/17/88) – Herman takes a sick Eddie to the doctor, but all the doctor can focus on is Herman’s appearance.

 

“A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Cereal” (1/28/89) – Herman gets a cereal endorsement deal when he becomes a hero, but wonders if he should do it when he discovers the cereal isn’t any good.

 

“Computer Mating” (2/4/89) – Grandpa uses a computer dating service and ends up with a lady who may be a black widow.

 

“McMunsters” (2/11/89) – The Munsters turn their house into a bed and breakfast to bring in some extra money when times are tough at the funeral parlor.

 

“One Flu Over the Munsters’ Nest” (2/18/89) – Marilyn runs away when she’s forced to break a date to babysit Eddie for a sick Lily.

 

“Green Eyed Munsters” (2/25/89) – Herman gets jealous when Lily spends all her time with her instructor preparing to enter the Mrs. Transylvania contest.

 

“The Not So Great Escape” (3/4/89) – Grandpa wants to enter an escape-artist competition, but Herman and Lily aren’t supportive of his hobby.

 

“Two Left Feet” (3/11/89) – The family of Marilyn’s crush try to break them up after meeting the Munsters.

 

“Lights, Camera, Munsters” (4/29/89) – The Munsters debate on what kind of film Marilyn should do for her project while Eddie’s teacher dreads the need for a meeting with his parents.

 

“Neighborly Munstrers” (5/6/89) – The Munsters’ new neighbors do everything they can to dig a pool into the Munsters’ property—except talk to them.

 

“Munster’s Hoopsters” (5/13/89) – Eddie takes up basketball so that Herman can brag about him…unfortunately, he’s terrible at it.

 

“Don’t Cry Wolfman” (5/20/89) – Two burglars decide to infiltrate the Munster family in order to get to the stolen loot they buried in their house while they were in stasis.

 

“The Howling” (5/27/89) – Grandpa devises a solution to help temper Eddie’s howl so that he can join the glee club.

 

“Eau de Munster” (6/3/89) – Herman tries to keep their house from being torn down for a museum, but Grandpa accidentally douses him with a love potion that makes the councilwoman in charge fall for Herman.

 

Season 2:

“Threehundredsomething” (10/7/89) – Lily attempts to put some romance back into her marriage, but it just leads to a fight with Herman.

 

“There’s No Place Like Home” (10/14/89) – Herman and Lily embrace modern living when storm damage forces them to move into an upscale apartment complex.

 

“Raging Hormones” (10/21/89) – Eddie decides to adopt a new look as he struggles with being a teenaged werewolf.

 

“Murder in Munsterland” (10/28/89) – Losing their invitation causes the neighbors to believe a murder party at the Munsters’ is an actual murder.

 

“The Trial” (11/4/89) – Herman ends up in court after saving a choking man’s life.

 

“It’s A Wonderful Afterlife” (11/11/89) – Grandpa shows Herman what life would have been like if he was never built.

 

“The Eyes Have It” (11/18/89) – Grandpa shows Eddie how to use the “evil eye” to deal with a bully, but it working ends up causing Eddie’s ego to go out of control.

 

“It’s a Sad, Sad World” (11/25/89) – Misfortune causes Herman’s downer of a co-worker to move in with them.

 

“The Melting Pot” (12/2/89) – A bored Grandpa ends up gambling with more than his soul when he plays with the Devil.

 

“Once in a Blue Moon” (12/9/89) – Grandpa’s favorite ex-wife returns to make amends.

 

“Drac the Ripper” (12/16/89) – When murders occur during Grandpa’s absences, Herman suspects he’s the culprit and reports him to the police.

 

“Gateman and Son” (1/27/90) – Chaos ensues when Herman lets his boss’ son stay with the family.

 

“Reunion” (2/3/90) – A wedding leads to a family reunion—which includes Herman’s hated brother Frank.

 

“Pants on Fire” (2/10/90) – The family tells lie on top of lie to get out of helping Lily clean the house.

 

“Munstergest” (2/17/90) – Grandpa’s device to get Eddie to stop watching TV ends up zapping him into it and becoming part of the family of his dreams.

 

“Never Say Die” (2/24/90) – A group of poodles attacks Grandpa’s pet skeleton.

 

“It’s A Baby” (3/3/90) – Herman and Grandpa reminisce about the day Eddie was born when they think Spot is pregnant.

 

“Tell ‘em Herman Sent You” (4/28/90) – A fight with his boss leads to Herman deciding to open his own funeral parlor.

 

“Thicker Than Water” (5/5/90) – Grandpa threatens to rat out a fellow vampire that writes a novel that goes against the vampire code.

 

“Misadventures in Time” (5/12/90) – Herman and Grandpa end up in a future only inhabited by children.

 

“Will the Real Herman Munster Please Stand Up?” (5/19/90) – Lily and Grandpa call on one of Dr. Frankenstein’s descendants to find out why Herman’s been acting strangely.

 

“Deadlock” (5/26/90) – Herman must convince his fellow jurors that his verdict is the right one when he and Grandpa get jury duty.

 

“Take This Job and Shovel It” (6/2/90) – Herman becomes a TV addict when the gravediggers go on strike, and Grandpa ends up taking a job as a shoe salesman.

 

“That’s Gratitude” (6/9/90) – The family must keep Herman from being taken advantage of by a grieving widow.

 

Season 3:

“The Silver Bullet” (10/6/90) – Eddie goes up against his kindergarten rival in a rock video competition.

 

“The Reel Munsters” (10/13/90) – The Munsters take the director of a home-video show to court over his depiction of them as an abnormal family.

 

“Wishing You Were Here” (10/20/90) – Grandpa gives Eddie a magical shamrock for his birthday and he wishes for the love of a supermodel with it.

 

“Three Munsters and a Baby” (10/27/90) – Herman, Grandpa and Eddie end up babysitting while trying to watch a football game.

 

“It’s My Party and I’ll Die if I Want To” (11/3/90) – A party to raise Grandpa’s spirits ends up going south when the guests overstay their welcome.

 

“Makin’ Waves” (11/10/90) – A brush with death causes Grandpa to try and change his ways with the help of a surfer dude angel.

 

“Just Another Pretty Face” (11/17/90) – Grandpa’s new invention accidentally changes Herman into a “normal” human.

 

“Kiss Kiss” (11/24/90) – Grandpa whips up Marilyn’s perfect boyfriend.

 

“Mind Reader” (12/1/90) – Eddie accidentally drinks a mind-reading potion and decides to use his new abilities to his advantage.

 

“No More Mr. Nice Guy” (12/8/90) – Tired of being pushed around, Herman decides to shed his nice guy image.

 

“A House Divided” (1/19/91) – The Munsters end up having to share their house with its new owners after Herman’s promotion falls through.

 

“A Matter of Trust” (1/26/91) – Herman and Lily give Eddie a credit card to show that they trust him, but he ends up bitten by the shopping bug.

 

“Large” (2/2/91) – Grandpa’s experiment accidentally ages up Herman’s boss’ son.

 

“Genie from Hell” (2/9/91) – Marilyn frees a genie and the family competes to get his final wish.

 

“Lotsa Luck” (2/16/91) – Eddie gets good luck from Grandpa’s magic coin, but the curse on it could destroy the neighborhood.

 

“If I Only Knew Now” (2/23/91) – Herman and Eddie go into the music business when Eddie demonstrates the ability to predict a hit song.

 

“Beating of Your Heart” (3/2/91) – Eddie and Marilyn go into the future to see if their guidance counselor’s grim predictions would come true.

 

“Parenthood vs. Childhood” (3/9/91) – Herman and Lily trade roles with Eddie and Marlyn to see how the other half lives.

 

“Das Trunk” (3/16/91) – The Munsters inherit a mysterious trunk from their fun-loving aunt.

 

“A Camping We Will Go” (4/27/91) – Mother Earth convinces Herman to go with the family on an environmentally conscious camping trip.

 

“Breaking the Chain” (5/4/91) – Herman ends up causing the family bad luck when he throws away some chain letters.

 

“Diary of a Mad Munster Wife” (5/11/91) – Lily’s sorority sister writes a book on unfulfilled homemakers that hits a little too close to home for Lily.

 

“The Bet” (5/19/91) – An old vampire buddy of Grandpa’s tries to help him make Herman commit a dishonest act.

 

“Family Night” (5/25/91) – Honesty may not be the best policy when a counselor advises the family to be more honest with each other.