Os Monstros

I'll say that "The Addams Family" was actually cleverer, but still, "The Munsters" definitely had its merits. Basically the story of a household in which the father, Herman (Fred Gwynne), is Frankenstein's monster, the mother, Lily (Yvonne DeCarlo), is a vampire, the son, Eddie (Butch Patrick), is a werewolf, the grandfather (Al Lewis) is Count Dracula, and the niece, Marilyn (played by two different people), is the ugly (make that "pretty") duckling in the family. While the Munsters' everyday routine is the same as everyone else's, everything that's normal to them (e.g., a house that looks like a Halloween party should be held there) is weird to the rest of the world, and vice versa. Every human who sees them freaks out, and yet the Munsters can never figure out why everyone finds them strange.

It's completely silly, with a string of gruesome, sardonic jokes, but it's always really funny. Truly one show that you gotta admire.

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.

Being only 27 years old I was not around when this series was actually being made but I remember watching this series in the eighties when I was around 9-12 years old. I remember enjoying every minute of it.

The catchy theme tune, the spooky house, the dinosaur under the stairs, Grandpa's experiments and the brilliant central performance from Fred Gwynne all added up to a terrific half hour comedy.

Watching it ten years on it seems a little more cheesy than I first remember it to be - but it is one of those shows I will always fondly remember.

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.