48 Fun Facts About The Munsters

On which network did The Munsters originally air, from 1964 to 1966?

CBS carried The Munsters for two seasons, from its September 1964 premiere to the May 1966 finale, in the same years its rival The Addams Family ran on a competing network.

What is the Munsters' street address?

The Munsters' home is 1313 Mockingbird Lane, a doubled unlucky 13 for a family of monsters; the house facade was a standing set on the studio's Colonial Street backlot.

What kind of creature is the family pet, Spot?

Spot is a fire-breathing dragon who lives under the Munsters' staircase; he is rarely seen in full, usually announcing himself with a jet of flame from beneath the steps.

Who plays Herman Munster?

Fred Gwynne, a Harvard graduate who had been president of the Harvard Lampoon, stood six feet five inches and wore platform boots and heavy makeup to play Herman.

Herman and Grandpa were played by two actors who had just co-starred in which police sitcom?

The two actors had played Officers Muldoon and Schnauser on Car 54, Where Are You?, the police comedy that ran on NBC from 1961 to 1963, which helped win them the roles of Herman and Grandpa.

Which classic movie monster is Grandpa based on?

Grandpa is a vampire modelled on Count Dracula, complete with cape and a Transylvanian pedigree; Al Lewis played him as a comic mad-scientist version of the Bela Lugosi film character.

Which actress plays Lily Munster?

The Vancouver-born star had played Moses's wife in The Ten Commandments and later introduced 'I'm Still Here' in Sondheim's Follies.

The unaired colour pilot featured Herman's wife under what name?

In the unaired 1964 colour pilot the wife was called Phoebe and played by Joan Marshall, who was judged to look too much like Morticia Addams; the part was recast and renamed Lily.

Who took over the role of niece Marilyn from Beverley Owen after episode 13?

Pat Priest replaced Beverley Owen as Marilyn from the fourteenth episode and stayed through the series; a third actress, Debbie Watson, played Marilyn in the 1966 film Munster, Go Home!

Who plays Eddie Munster?

Butch Patrick played Eddie, the family's werewolf boy, throughout the series; a different child actor had played Eddie as a nasty brat in the unaired pilot before the part was recast and softened.

Which voice actor supplied the voice of the raven in the Munsters' cuckoo clock?

Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, voiced the raven in the cuckoo clock with its cry of 'Nevermore'; Bob Hastings took over the bird in some episodes.

Where does Herman work?

Herman works at a funeral parlor, Gateman, Goodbury and Graves; his boss Mr. Gateman was played in several episodes by horror veteran John Carradine.

What is the name of Grandpa's pet bat?

Grandpa's pet bat is named Igor; he hangs around the laboratory in the basement and turns up in several episodes as a sidekick to Grandpa's experiments.

The Munsters' producers had previously created which wholesome family sitcom?

The show's producing team had created Leave It to Beaver, the 1957-63 sitcom about the Cleavers, which is why The Munsters parodies the well-meaning-dad, nurturing-mom formula so precisely.

The idea of a family of comical monsters was first pitched to Universal in the 1940s by which animator?

Bob Clampett, the Looney Tunes director behind Porky Pig and Tweety cartoons, developed the monster-family idea as a cartoon series between 1943 and 1945; it went nowhere until 1963.

Writer Allan Burns admitted the 1963 proposal 'sort of stole the idea' from whose New Yorker cartoons?

Charles Addams had drawn his macabre family for The New Yorker since 1938; the studio reworked the borrowed premise around the classic monsters whose film likenesses it already controlled.

Which show's arrival on ABC is blamed for the ratings collapse that got The Munsters cancelled in 1966?

Batman premiered on a rival network in January 1966 in the same half-hour slot and drained the audience; 'Batman just came along and took our ratings away,' the actor who played Eddie later said.

How many episodes of the original series were produced?

The Munsters produced 70 half-hour episodes across two seasons, 38 in 1964-65 and 32 in 1965-66, before cancellation.

The Munster Koach and DRAG-U-LA were built by which celebrated car customiser?

George Barris's North Hollywood customising shop built both the Munster Koach and the DRAG-U-LA dragster for the series, and the same shop turned out many other 1960s television cars.

The Munster Koach was built on the lengthened chassis of what car?

The Munster Koach sat on a 1926 Ford Model T chassis stretched to 18 feet long; in the story Lily had it built as a birthday present for Herman.

DRAG-U-LA, the dragster Grandpa builds, was made from what?

DRAG-U-LA's body is a coffin, a real one bought for the build; in the episode Hot Rod Herman, Grandpa races it to win back the Koach after Herman loses it in a drag race.

Which rocker's 1998 single took its title from Grandpa's dragster?

Rob Zombie's 1998 single 'Dragula', the first single from his debut solo album Hellbilly Deluxe, takes its name from Grandpa's dragster DRAG-U-LA.

Who composed the show's instrumental theme, nominated for a Grammy in 1965?

Jack Marshall wrote the twangy surf-guitar instrumental theme, which earned a 1965 Grammy nomination; lyrics were written for it but were never broadcast.

Which band sampled the theme's guitar riff in the song 'Uma Thurman'?

Fall Out Boy built the 2015 single 'Uma Thurman', from the album American Beauty/American Psycho, around the twangy surf-guitar riff of The Munsters theme.

The Munster house on the Universal backlot was originally built for which 1946 film?

The house went up in 1946 for So Goes My Love, a Myrna Loy and Don Ameche comedy; after The Munsters it was restored and reused on the Colonial Street backlot for other series.

The family's home is described as what style of mansion?

The Munster home is a decaying Second Empire Victorian Gothic mansion with a mansard-roofed tower, kept deliberately cobwebbed; when Lily 'dusts', her vacuum blows dust onto surfaces rather than off them.

Which makeup artist was credited with the show's monster makeup?

Bud Westmore, who succeeded Jack Pierce as head of the studio's makeup department, was credited for the series; Herman's look followed Pierce's 1931 Frankenstein design, which the studio owned.

The 1965 Golden Globe for Best Television Series went not to The Munsters but to which show?

The Rogues, the caper series starring David Niven, Charles Boyer and Gig Young, took the 1965 Golden Globe for television; The Munsters was among the nominees it beat.

The lost 1965 Easter special saw the family visit which attraction to buy Eddie a pet?

The special, titled Marineland Carnival, had the family tour Marineland of the Pacific near Los Angeles in search of a pet for Eddie; it aired once in April 1965 and was long thought lost.

In Munster, Go Home! (1966), Herman inherits a title and a manor in which English county?

Herman becomes Lord Munster of Munster Hall in the fictional county of Shroudshire; his scheming cousins, played by Terry-Thomas and Hermione Gingold, run a counterfeiting ring from the manor's basement.

The Munsters Today (1988-91) explained the 22-year gap since the original how?

In the revival's premiere a lab accident put the family to sleep for 22 years, waking them in 1988; the syndicated series then ran three seasons with a new cast.

Who created the 2012 Munsters reboot pilot that NBC aired as a Halloween special?

Bryan Fuller, creator of Pushing Daisies and Hannibal, wrote the reboot pilot, which starred Jerry O'Connell as Herman and Eddie Izzard as Grandpa; the network declined to order a series.

Where was the 2022 film The Munsters, an origin-story prequel, shot?

The film was shot in Budapest, Hungary, in late 2021; the director had wanted black and white, but the studio refused, so he used a deliberately super-saturated colour palette instead.

Who plays Lily in the 2022 film?

Sheri Moon Zombie, the director's wife and regular leading lady, plays Lily opposite Jeff Daniel Phillips as Herman and Daniel Roebuck as Grandpa in the origin story set before the series.

Al Lewis ran for governor of New York in 1998 on which ticket?

Al Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate; his 52,533 votes cleared the 50,000 threshold and won the Greens an automatic ballot line in New York for the next four years.

Al Lewis opened an Italian restaurant on Bleecker Street in 1987 called what?

Al Lewis named his Bleecker Street Italian restaurant Grampa's Bella Gente, trading on his Munsters character; it opened in 1987 in Greenwich Village.

Herman's actor took his final film role as Judge Chamberlain Haller in which 1992 comedy?

My Cousin Vinny (1992) gave him his last screen role as the exasperated Judge Chamberlain Haller opposite Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei; he died of pancreatic cancer in July 1993.

Eddie's actor went on to star in which Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday-morning show in 1971?

Lidsville (1971) starred him as Mark, a boy who falls into a land of living hats; in 1983 he recorded 'Whatever Happened to Eddie?' with a group called Eddie and the Monsters.

Why could the 1960s Munsters comic depict vampires despite the Comics Code's ban on them?

Its publisher had never signed up to that authority — Gold Key never joined the Comics Code — so the vampire ban did not apply; the series ran 16 issues from 1965 to 1968 with photo covers.

Which comic actor played the family's Dr. Edward Dudley in three early episodes?

Paul Lynde, the comic actor later famous from Bewitched and Hollywood Squares, played the family's physician Dr. Edward Dudley in three 1964 episodes; Dom DeLuise took over the character for one later episode.

What is the name of Eddie Munster's werewolf doll?

Eddie's constant companion is a werewolf doll named Woof-Woof, which he carries through the series and clutches in bed, a gag that plays on the boy being a werewolf himself.

In which fictional city do the Munsters live?

The Munsters live in the fictional suburb of Mockingbird Heights, whose ordinary residents flee in terror from a family that considers itself perfectly average; the city's name recurs on local signs and newspapers.

On which night and time did The Munsters air during its original run?

The Munsters held the Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. slot for its whole run, from September 24, 1964 to May 12, 1966, until a rival network's new hit took its audience in early 1966.

Which later sitcom was filmed in the remodelled Munster house on Universal's backlot?

Coach, the Craig T. Nelson sitcom, used the remodelled house exterior in the early 1990s; after another remodel the same building appeared on Desperate Housewives as a Wisteria Lane home.

Which designer drew up the Munster Koach and DRAG-U-LA for the customiser who built them?

Tom Daniel, later famous for Monogram model kits such as the Red Baron, drew up both the Munster Koach and DRAG-U-LA for the customising shop that built them for the series.

Who wrote the never-broadcast lyrics to the Munsters theme song?

Bob Mosher, the show's co-producer, wrote a set of lyrics for the theme, but they were never broadcast; only the instrumental version was ever used on air.

Which network aired the 1973 animated one-hour special The Mini-Munsters?

The Mini-Munsters aired on ABC on October 27, 1973 as an instalment of the network's Saturday Superstar Movie anthology, one of several later incarnations of the family.

Who played Herman in the 1988-91 syndicated series The Munsters Today?

John Schuck, previously Sergeant Enright on McMillan & Wife, played Herman; Lee Meriwether was Lily, Howard Morton Grandpa and Jason Marsden Eddie across 72 episodes.