Les monstres

Although I liked the Addams Family quite a bit, the Munsters were it for me. Let's face it, grandpa make the show: without him a lot of the flavor would have been lost. I felt that he should have been on much more than he was. Marilyn, on the other hand, could have completely disappeared and I would never have noticed. Of course, the entire cast was great, the jokes were side splittingly corny, and the atmosphere of the house was nice and spooky.

Oh, I wish they made shows like The Munsters today. I have many happy memories of watching it. It was so innocent and so amusing. Somebody should release it onto DVD as soon as possible.

The Munsters were the perfect family. They may have been ugly, they may have been weird and they may have been totally eccentric but they loved each other and cared so much about each other.

The Munsters emphasized traits such as loyalty to your family and love (qualities not found in many shows today). But once you get past all that you had many highly amusing stories. One that springs to mind for me is when Herman and Grandpa Munster get locked in a bank vault one night just as a pair of robbers are about to steal the loot.

The one thing I enjoyed about The Munsters was it's total innocence. No bad language, no sex, no violence, just pure entertainment. Oh, it was brilliant. I cannot praise it enough.

The simultaneous runs of Munsters and Addams Family doomed both to two-season lifespans. Much of the audience became polarized. Munsters fans would not watch Addams Family and vice versa, but if either show had been on without the other it would have attracted almost the full audience of the other.

Either could have become a major, long-running classic. Addams Family had the better chance, being a comedy/social commentary of the type that later became the major hits, All in the Family and The Simpsons. But Munsters also could also have had its seasons in the sun. After scrapping the ill-conceived and twice miscast role of Marilyn, the enormous talent and charisma of Fred Gwynne and his chemistry with Al Lewis (good friends off-camera, too) could have carried that show for many years.

My all-time favorite sitcoms would start with The Honeymooners and find room for (in no particular order): Seinfeld, Cheers, Taxi, Beverly Hillbillies, Dick Van Dyke, and The Munsters would be in the mix.

Superb writing (it worked as a young kid and it still works for me today), amusing plots, great family dynamics and a terrific, multi-faceted performance by the late, great Fred Gwynne. Hwerman Munster was at once truly monstrous in size and appearance, yet vain, vulnerable, goofy and baby-ish. Just a wonderful, lovable character who was well assisted by Lily and Grandpa. Eddie was okay, and Marilyn superfluous, and the occasional guest characters were almost always very good. Great fun that stands up beautifully about 40 years later --I'm getting old1

Credit where credit is due: Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo and Al Lewis are what keep you coming back to the Munsters. Yes, the look of the show (Universal Horror all the way) is great, the writing often clever, the numerous sight gags usually entertaining. But if you didn't have good (very good) acting from the leads this show would have tanked.

Boiled down, the Munsters is a typical family sitcom in a bizarre setting. And while most of the episodes are fun, if feather-light, it didn't take long until the first clunker (#14: Grandpa Leaves Home). And that wasn't the last one but, thankfully, it's in the minority. The reason, again, is that Herman, Lily and Grandpa (along with the kids and numerous guest star appearances) are, frankly, endearing. You become so fond of them that some episodes actually become touching (Happy 100th Anniversary).

Only 70 episodes but that was about the limit of what you could crank out without it becoming painful. Too many sitcoms run on past their welcome. This one managed not to.