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A family of friendly monsters that have misadventures all while never quite understanding why people react to them so strangely.
Fred Gwynne
Herman Munster
Yvonne De Carlo
Lily Munster
Butch Patrick
Eddie Munster
Al Lewis
Grandpa
Pat Priest
Marilyn Munster
1965
Eddie is upset that his family does not treat him cruelly because he thinks this means they don’t care about him. When Eddie decides to run away from home, Herman employs a little child psychology, which naturally backfires. Various circumstances eventually lead to Herman’s getting involved with a dancing bear.
In this Cold War episode, a Russian fishing trawler picks up a scuba-diving Herman in its haul of fish and mistakes him for the missing link. The crew members report their find to Moscow, claiming it puts the Soviets ahead in the “missing link race”. The response from the Commissar is that Herman is an American spy.
In yet another example of Eddie’s misguided regard for his father’s natural abilities, the young Munster enters Herman’s name in the bucking bronco contest at the local rodeo. Lily is unable to talk Herman out of such a dangerous task: he is intent on being a hero to his son in spite of the fact that he’s scared stiff. Meanwhile, the promoters plan to have Herman ride a horse that is guaranteed to break every bone in his body.
Herman takes up amateur photography and accidentally snaps a picture of two men making their escape from a bank robbery. Herman has visions of getting a big reward for his evidence, but the bank robbers track him down and decide to hold up with the Munsters until the heat is off. This episode revisits the show’s recurrent fascination with criminality, especially bank robberies.
When Eddie is called Lead Foot by the other kids on his track team, Herman offers to become his athletic coach. While demonstrating his out-of-this-world prowess in shot put, discus-throwing and pole-vaulting, Herman causes untold destruction and makes a fool of himself. Grandpa decides to come to the rescue by creating a magic speed pill that will make Eddie a champion runner.
Herman and Lily want to buy each other an elaborate gift for their 100th Anniversary. Without telling each other, they both take night jobs as ship welders. Since the job requires them to wear protective helmets that conceal their faces, they don’t realize whom they’re dealing with when they start flirting with each other.
When Herman visits the hospital to see Eddie, who is having his tonsils out, he is mistaken for an accident victim and is immediately given a dose of laughing gas. Grandpa rescues him and brings him home, where Lily assumes that Herman has been drinking.
Herman becomes insanely jealous of Chester, a mysterious boarder whom Lily has bought into the household in yet another of her schemes to acquire a little extra cash. After searching Chester’s room, Herman concludes that he’s a gangster. In fact, he is a lieutenant for the police department.
A 300-pound safe drops on Herman’s head, causing him to develop amnesia. In order to get him released into her custody, Lily petitions the court to adopt Herman as her son. Until he restores his memory, he is treated as Eddie’s brother John.
To provide poor unfortunate Marilyn with a future husband, Grandpa tries to turn a frog into a prince. Conveniently, he chooses a nearsighted frog who won’t be put off by Marilyn’s hideous looks. Not realizing that the potion has failed, Grandpa and Herman mistake a passing stranger for their princely frog.
Herman gets promoted to hearse driver and has to renew his driver’s license. This requires him to take a road test, which he fails. Grandpa convinces him that he’d have better luck taking the test in a one-horse town. He turns out to be extremely correct.
Eddie borrows a tape recorder belonging to the disc-jockey father of one of his friends. Herman records a version of DRY BONES, accompanying himself on the guitar. The following day, the disc jockey plays the song on his radio show – and it becomes an instant hit. Herman identifies himself as the mystery singer and quickly turns into an egomaniacal would-be celebrity. Grandpa comes to the rescue with his Nothin’ Muffins.
The Munsters’ pet Spot runs away from home and is mistaken for a dangerous monster when he is sighted in the sewer. When Herman goes down the manhole to search for Spot, he too is mistaken for a dangerous monster. The Mayor vows to rid the city of these menaces by using TNT.
While searching for a fuse box in the dungeon, Herman and Grandpa discover a secret chamber and a clue to the pirate treasure hidden on the Munsters’ property.
Herman advises Eddie to turn the other cheek when he gets pushed around by a bully. Shortly thereafter, Herman is the victim of a practical joke at work. Grandpa takes the situation in hand by teaching both Eddie and Herman how to box.
Herman tries to teach Eddie a lesson about the folly of gambling: he takes the money in Eddie’s piggy bank and bets it on a long shot at the racetrack. When the horse comes in a winner, it ruins the point of Herman’s lesson and leads to his entanglement with organized crime.
Herman is struck in the head by a bolt of lightning from one of Grandpa’s experiments. It causes him to become so disfigured that he ends up resembling officer Francis Muldoon from CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU? (or how Fred Gwynne looks without makeup). Lily hopes to restore Herman’s old face with plastic surgery.
The Munsters are heading for a vacation in Buffalo Valley when Herman gets off for a rest stop at Indian Flats. He wanders into the village of an Indian tribe that specializes in luring the tourist trade. The tribe’s eldest member mistakes Herman for an ancient spirit leader.
With inheritance money from Cousin Wolverine, Grandpa and Herman develop an invention for transporting an electrical current without wires. Lily and Marilyn use the rest of the money to operate their own beauty salon. Both endeavors turn out to be disasters, causing various parties to take legal action.
A lady in Sioux City, Iowa, has placed an advertisement offering a reward for the return of her lost husband, who is Grandpa. Grandpa claims to have never seen this woman before in his life – but when he discovers that she’s filthy rich, he’s ready to sign an affidavit stating that she is his spouse.
Eddie gives Marilyn a ring he found in the attic as a birthday present. Grandpa recognizes it as the Fregosi Emerald, a centuries-old ring with a Transylvanian curse. Herman doesn’t believe in such a silly superstition; he is intent on proving that the ring does not bring about bad luck. He quickly regrets trying to do this.
Eddie, an avid fan of ghoulish TV host Zombo, becomes the winner of the “Why I Like Zombo Contest” and gets to be on the Zombo show. Herman becomes jealous of Eddie’s new hero and wants to appear equally outlandish. But his efforts to impress his son fail. Eddie eventually learns that Zombo is not a real person but a phony character played by an actor.
After Herman has his poetry published in The Mortician Monthly, a shy coworker named Clyde asks him to compose love letters to help him attract the attention of a young lady he’s fallen for. Herman obliges, but soon Lily discovers samples of this mushy writing and becomes suspicious. After a re-enactment of the “hiding in the bushes” scene from CYRANO DE BERGERAC, the object of Clyde’s desire falls for Herman. Meanwhile, Herman mistakenly suspects that Clyde’s object of desire is Lily.
Grandpa’s magic transforms Eddie from a rotten trumpet player into a classical music virtuoso. But when he needs to duplicate the potion for a command performance for Herman’s boss, Grandpa can’t remember the exact formula. Eddie is accidentally turned into a jazz-playing, jive-talking hipster.
Herman has his ego flattered twice by his family. First, Eddie wants to enter him in the Father of the Year Contest. Next, Marilyn wants to sculpt a clay bust in his likeness. When she tells her art professor that the sculpture represents a living person, he plans to make a bundle from his discovery of a missing link. Herman is summoned to his office for an examination, but he’s under the impression he’s about to receive an award and a bunch of neat prizes.
Dr. Victor Frankenstein IV from Germany visits Mockingbird Heights and brings with him Johann, Herman’s look-alike cousin. Johann is quite primitive and behaves like the Frankenstein monster from the movies. It is up to Herman to try to civilize him and teach him English. Lily is not informed of this; mistaking Johann for Herman, she takes him away for a romantic weekend getaway.
Eddie longs for the companionship of a younger brother, so Grandpa builds him a robot named Boris. Eddie becomes resentful of this silent, mechanical boy who is so considerate and well-behaved that he garners all of Herman’s attention and admiration.
Herman buys a convertible for Marilyn from a fly-by-night used-car dealer named Fair Deal Dan. Once he gets it home, it explodes into a piece of junk. Herman later finds out that the car is a stolen piece of junk when he is placed under arrest.
A massive argument erupts between Grandpa and Herman after Herman accidentally destroys a go-cart the two of them constructed for Eddie. Since Grandpa claims to own half of the house, Herman draws a white line down its center and insists that Grandpa remain on his side of the line.
To cure Herman of his hiccoughs, Grandpa puts him into a trance with the Transylvanian Brain Freeze. Meanwhile, a couple of fraternity pledges are sent to spend a night in the Munster house as part of their initiation. Thinking that sleeping Herman is a dummy, they bring him to a sorority house, where he awakens from his trance.
Herman is struck by a car. He isn’t hurt, but the car that struck him is totaled. The uninjured driver assumes she has disfigured Herman, and her attorney suggests that she try to settle with him for $10,000. When Herman receives the offer, he wrongly assumes that this is the amount he owes for the damage he caused to the car. He runs away from home rather than face the problem of financial ruin for his family.
When Eddie reads a school composition entitled “My Parents – An Average American Family” to his class, his teacher believes the boy is exhibiting symptoms of an overactive imagination. The school principal suggests that Eddie’s wild exaggerations might be motivated by an underprivileged home life. It is decided that a visit to the Munster home is in order.
1964
Marilyn’s boyfriend, Tom Daily, invites the Munster clan to a masquerade. Eddie remains at home with Mrs. Morton as his sitter. Marilyn goes as Priscilla, Lily is Little Bo Peep, Grandpa is Napoleon and Herman is King Arthur in a suit of shining armor.
Grandpa mixes up a love potion designed to make the opposite sex fall madly for anyone who drinks it.
Herman is suffering from insomnia. The only thing that will make him sleep is a late-night walk in the park. A 'monster' type creature has been spotted in the park at night and Lily would prefer if Herman would stay home. What she doesn’t know is that the monster is Herman!
Herman and Grandpa overhear Lily and Marilyn talking and somehow get the idea that Lily is pregnant. What’s really happening is Dr. Dudley’s son, Elmer, is coming to stay with the Munsters while Dr. Dudley and his wife are on vacation.
The gas company wants to run a pipeline 25 feet under the Munsters’ house. However, at that depth it would run through Grandpa’s dungeon lab...
Herman wants to go to a reunion with his army friends. Unfortunately he can’t seem fit into his uniform. Lily doesn’t want him to go, but decides to make a deal with him. If he can lose enough weight to fit into the uniform, he can go...
Thanks to a recommendation from an investigator of The Board of Education, Eddie is in danger of being expelled from school. The only way he can stay is if he makes an excellent project for the school’s Science Fair, so Grandpa helps him make a robot.
Herman becomes a professional wrestler called The Masked Marvel. After he shows that he has superhuman strength to a friend of Eddie’s who is the son of a pro wrestling manager. Herman uses the extra cash to save for Eddie’s college education. However Herman is so nice and gullible his opponents can take advantage of him.
Herman has a twin brother Charlie who is a con-artist. He comes to town and ends up stays at the Munster home, which doesn’t make Herman too happy. Charlie claims to have made an invention that takes uranium from seawater, he’s looking for an investor. Herman thinks that the whole thing is a scheme to get a Lily’s $5000 inheritance, he ends up being right.
Grandpa is feeling lonely and depressed so he contacts a matrimonial agency to find a mate. The agency sends over a nice looking elderly woman who find Grandpa to be delightful. She turns out to be the Black Widow: she makes her living by marrying her suitors, getting them to sign a life insurance policy naming her as beneficiary, and then murdering them.
After going to the car to find something Herman falls asleep in the back of his car with the keys in the ignition. The car is then stolen by bank robbers who don’t know that Herman is sleeping in the back seat. When Herman wakes up he wanders into their hideout and is thought to be Big Louie, a gang member who has taken twenty years of beatings in the boxing ring. Herman winds up as an accomplice in a bank robbery.
Marilyn has insomnia and in a attempt to cure it, Grandpa accidentally gives her a Sleeping Beauty potion instead. Now Marilyn can’t wake up unless she has been kissed by a prince. Lily and Herman advertise for a prince in classified section the newspaper, but this only attracts a couple of out-of-work actors. Meanwhile, Grandpa is negotiating with an oil company for the rights to use his magic pill that turns water into gasoline.
The Munsters have been chosen by Event Magazine as the average American family. Grandpa is insulted by being labeled “average”. He disappears, jeopardizing the family’s photo opportunity and the large amount of prize money that came with it. When a journalist and photographer arrive at the Munster home, Herman and Lily think they are burglars.
Grandpa feels neglected and decides to depart the Munster Family. In the beginning Lily and Herman believe this is just a ploy to get attention and they let Grandpa leave, expecting he’ll soon come back. Shortly afterwards, they begin to miss him and try to track him down. The find out he’s doing a magic act at a local nightclub.
Lily thinks that Herman has lost all his savings through a bad investment – when in fact he loaned it to her brother, the Wolf Man. She decides to build-up the family’s funds by taking a palm-reading job in a tea room. In a plot twist Grandpa and Herman suspect that Lily is sneaking out of the house to have a love affair.
Herman takes the family on a camping trip in a national park. After a dinner by the campfire, Grandpa hears the howls of the wolves and remembers his days in the old country. The next morning, Grandpa is missing. Lily realizes that he changed himself into a wolf to roam the woods with his canine friends. When she hears a news report about the capture of a rare Transylvanian wolf, Lily goes to the authorities to reclaim her father.
Herman goes to the dean’s office of Marilyn’s college to straighten out a tuition matter. When searching for the office, he wanders into the gym and is mistaken for a student basketball star who is expected for a tryout. Herman amazes the coach with his superhuman abilities and is offered a contract to play for the college team.
When Herman fools around with a ham radio in Grandpa’s dungeon, he thinks he’s contacted Martians. But he is actually speaking to two kids who are fooling around with walkie-talkies and just pretending to be Martians. The kids think Herman is also a kid, and a stupid one too.
Eddie wants to quit school because all the kids there call him Shorty. Grandpa helps by fixing a potion to make Eddie grow six inches overnight. Instead, the potion causes the young Munster to grow a full beard and mustache.
Eddie needs an impressive pet to take to the school pet fair, but Spot, the fire-breathing monster, is too shy to come out of hiding. Eddie decides to take Igor the bat, but Igor is insulted by one of Herman’s wisecracks and flies away. Without Eddie’s knowing, Grandpa changes himself into a bat to impersonate Igor. This causes trouble when Eddie gives Grandpa to another student whose father wants to send him to outer space on a scientific mission.
When Herman and Grandpa go to the bank to make a withdrawal, they are mistaken for bank robbers and handed eighteen thousand dollars in cash. When Herman gets home and realizes the wrong he’s done wrong, he can’t rest until he returns the money. When trying to bring it back in the middle of the night, Herman and Grandpa wind up locked in the bank’s vault.
In order to accompany Marilyn to her school dance, Herman decides to take dancing lessons. He goes to Happy Havemeyer’s Dancing School, where he is suckered into signing a ten-year contract for 1500 lessons (at $7.50 a lesson). Herman is under the wrong impression that he is going to become a dancing instructor for the school.
Herman goes out each night in order to practice becoming a real detective. Lily thinks he’s having an affair with another woman and hires the same detective agency Herman is working for to have Herman followed. In a Plot twist Herman gets the assignment to follow himself.
After Herman attends an office party that goes on until the wee hours of the morning, Lily locks Herman out of their bedroom and makes him sleep on the sofa. When they are unable to reconcile, Lily and Herman each see a marriage counselor independently.
Grandpa is under the impression that he’s turned Eddie’s friend Googie into a monkey. The truth is that the little boy is hiding to fool the Munsters.
The Standells, a rock group from Hollywood, are in town for a club appearance. They want a secluded place to stay in order to escape from their screaming teenage fans. Their manager pays an exorbitant fee to the Munsters to use their house for the weekend. The Munsters pack up and relocate to a hotel, but they can’t get adjusted to its cleanliness and normality. When they arrive home prematurely, they find The Standells singing, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, and throwing a wild party filled with far-out beatniks and hipsters. The Munsters are initially shocked, but soon find that they fit in with these freaky people – who never once question their unusual appearance.
In order to accept a promotion, Herman has to shuffle his family off to Buffalo. Eddie, who happens to be doing great on the baseball team, throws a temper tantrum. Since Grandpa has already sold the house to a wrecking company, the Munsters have no choice but to wage war.
A pair of con artists want to stage a phony accident as an insurance company scam. All they need is someone to play the part of the victim – preferably a big stupid guy with a face that looks as if it’s been in an accident. When they stumble upon Herman, they realize they’ve found the perfect guy. Posing as a couple of movie producers, they get him to sign an accident policy by pretending it’s a movie contract for a remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY. As the crooks devise various ways to kill off their leading man, Herman becomes a stuck-up actor.
Leo Durocher, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, needs a power hitter for his team. When he gets conked on the head by one of Herman’s line drives from seven blocks away, he believes he has his man. He tracks Herman down and asks him to try out for the team. After Herman demonstrates his powerful force as a batter, Durocher comments: “I don’t know whether to sign him with the Dodgers or send him to Vietnam.”
The Munsters win a membership to the highly exclusive Mockingbird Heights Country Club. The membership board wants to get a close look at the family to see if they measure up to their standards, so they invite Lily and Grandpa to a fashion show. Meanwhile, Herman is invited to play golf. While Lily and Grandpa stand out like a couple of freaks, Herman sends golf balls soaring like missiles and wreaks havoc on the putting green. Afterwards, the Munsters decide that the club doesn’t meet their own standards.
The Munsters receive $180,000 in gold doubloons from Uncle Gilbert in Transylvania. When their bank’s assistant manager arrives to pick up the money for deposit, he instantly falls in love with Marilyn. Grandpa and Lily do their best to encourage the romance, not realizing that this gentleman is only after Marilyn for her doubloons.
Herman arranges to meet Marilyn at the natural history museum. But he accidentally gets himself locked inside an Egyptian sarcophagus, whereupon a sleeping pill he swallowed earlier takes effect. A pair of museum curators open the box the next day and mistake the sleeping Herman for an ancient mummy. When Lily reads about their supposed scientific discovery in the newspaper, she goes to the museum and requests that the curators put Herman in a cab and send him home as soon as he wakes up.
Fearing that she is not useful around the house, Lily searches for a job. She eventually lands a position as a fashion model, causing Herman to become wildly jealous as he entertains fantasies about the suave men she’s liable to mingle with. With Grandpa’s help, Herman transforms himself into a swinging playboy. Grandpa, in a disguise, poses as his beautiful blonde girlfriend.
Eddie volunteers Herman as a performer for his school’s Talent Night. Since Herman has no discernible talent, Grandpa conjures up a pair of magic ballet shoes that will transform whoever wears them into a gifted dancer. But Herman is uneasy about strapping on this footwear. Fortunately, Eddie already has him billed as the world’s greatest magician.
Herman purchases ten acres in Happy Holiday Valley through a magazine ad. It turns out to be a patch of wasteland in a broken-down ghost town, so the Munsters absolutely adore it. This makes things difficult for the fly-by-night salespeople who get a better offer for the property and want to buy it back.
Eddie, under the impression that his father is the greatest driver in the world, volunteers Herman in a drag-strip competition. After souping up the Munster Coach and dressing up like Marlon Brando in his Wild One days, Herman loses his car in a drag race. In a rematch, Grandpa races in the Dragula, a motorized coffin on wheels.
Egged on by Lily, Herman demands a raise from his boss Mr. Gateman. He is promptly fired. Herman is afraid of Lily’s reaction, so he pretends that he is still going to work when in fact he is searching for employment. He gets fired from a number of blue-collar jobs – including one at a Chinese laundry, where he wreaks total slapstick chaos.
Herman saves the life of a young boy, Galen Livingston Stewart, by bending the bars his head is stuck between. They immediately become close friends. The only problem is that Galen’s parents think Uncle Herman is a figment of the boy’s imagination. They take him to a psychiatrist, played by Harvey Korman with a broad German accent.
