50 Fun Facts About The Munsters

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

It aired Thursdays at 7:30 and drew higher ratings than The Addams Family, which ran at the same time on ABC.

What is the Munsters' street address?

An earlier draft put them at 43 Mockingbird Lane in Camelot, New Jersey; the fictional city became Mockingbird Heights.

What kind of creature is the family pet, Spot?

He lives under the stairs and mostly makes his presence known with a jet of flame.

Who plays Herman Munster?

The Harvard graduate and former Lampoon president was over six and a half feet tall before the platform boots.

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

Their chemistry as Officers Muldoon and Schnauser got them cast first, in February 1964, before the rest of the family.

Which classic movie monster is Grandpa based on?

The show could use Universal's copyrighted monster designs because the studio co-produced it.

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?

Joan Marshall played her but was judged to look too much like Morticia Addams, so the part was recast and renamed.

Two actresses played niece Marilyn during the series. Who took over from Beverley Owen after episode 13?

A third Marilyn, Debbie Watson, appeared in the 1966 film Munster, Go Home!

Who plays Eddie Munster?

The original pilot's Eddie was played as a nasty brat by a different boy and recast; the new Eddie later starred in a Krofft show.

Which voice actor, famous as Bugs Bunny, voiced Charlie the Raven in the cuckoo clock?

Bob Hastings also voiced the bird in some episodes.

Where does Herman work?

His boss, Mr. Gateman, was played by horror veteran John Carradine.

According to the episode 'Happy 100th Anniversary', in what year were Herman and Lily married?

Which puts their centenary in the show's own 1965.

The show's producers, Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, had previously created which wholesome family sitcom?

Which is why The Munsters is such a precise parody of the well-meaning-dad, nurturing-mom formula.

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

The Looney Tunes director developed it 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?

Universal simply swapped in the Frankenstein and Dracula characters it already owned the movie rights to.

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

'Batman just came along and took our ratings away,' the actor who played Eddie said; the show made only 70 episodes.

How many episodes of the original series were produced?

Two seasons; the first tied with Gilligan's Island at number 18 in the Nielsens.

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

The same shop built the 1966 Batmobile; both Munster cars were designed by Tom Daniel.

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

The finished car was 18 feet long, cost almost $20,000 and, in the story, was Lily's birthday present to Herman.

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

Barris said a real one was bought for the build; Grandpa races it to win back the Koach after Herman loses it.

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

The same musician wrote and directed the 2022 Munsters film, shot in Hungary.

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

One writer called it a 'Bernard-Herrmann-meets-Duane-Eddy sound'; the lyrics written for it were never broadcast.

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

Type O Negative also credited the show's composer for the scene-transition music behind their track 'Thir13teen'.

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

After the show it was restored and later appeared in Coach and, remodelled again, Desperate Housewives.

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

When Lily 'dusts', her vacuum cleaner blows clouds of dust onto surfaces rather than off them.

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

Herman's look was the Jack Pierce Frankenstein design from 1931; Pierce's successor at Universal handled the series.

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

Decades later the show collected TV Land Award nominations, including Most Uninsurable Driver for Herman.

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

Shot on videotape and aired once, it was thought lost until a copy surfaced at the Paley Center in 1997.

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

The scheming cousins were played by Terry-Thomas and Hermione Gingold, and the basement hid a counterfeiting ring.

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

The syndicated revival starred John Schuck as Herman and Lee Meriwether as Lily and ran for 72 episodes, two more than the original.

Which Pushing Daisies showrunner created Mockingbird Lane, the 2012 reboot pilot NBC aired as a Halloween special?

The network passed on a series over the pilot's dark tone.

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

He wanted to shoot in black and white; the studio refused, so he went for a super-saturated look instead.

Who plays Lily in the 2022 film?

Jeff Daniel Phillips is Herman and Daniel Roebuck is Grandpa; the film is an origin story set before the series.

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

His 52,533 votes cleared the 50,000 threshold and won the party an automatic ballot line for four years.

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

He also spent years fudging his birth year, claiming 1910; his son insisted it was 1923.

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

He died the following year; his Jud Crandall in Pet Sematary had been modelled on Stephen King himself.

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

In 1983 he recorded 'Whatever Happened to Eddie?' with a group called Eddie and the Monsters.

Herman and Grandpa rode the Munster Koach in full costume in which 1964 event?

Gwynne's first TV appearance as Herman was actually on The Danny Kaye Show, before the series premiered.

The 1960s Munsters comic book could show Lily and Grandpa despite the Comics Code banning vampires. Why?

The comic ran 16 issues from 1965 to 1968 with photo covers from the show.

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

Dom DeLuise took over the character for a single later episode.

A 1965 speech by Herman telling Eddie 'it doesn't matter what you look like' went viral in which year?

The show reflected civil-rights-era attitudes; Al Lewis said the format let them make pointed satire an ordinary sitcom could not.

In which fictional city do the Munsters live?

An early draft had the family at 43 Mockingbird Lane in Camelot, New Jersey, before the address was changed when filming began.

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

The run lasted from September 24, 1964 to May 12, 1966, before Batman's arrival on ABC sank the ratings.

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

After another remodel the same house appeared on Desperate Housewives; the mansion's interiors were shot on Stages 30 and 32.

Who designed the Munster Koach and DRAG-U-LA before George Barris built them?

Grandpa builds DRAG-U-LA in episode 36, 'Hot Rod Herman'; Lily had earlier bought a hot rod and a hearse in 'Rock-A-Bye Munster'.

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

The co-producer's words were never aired on CBS, which used only Jack Marshall's instrumental version.

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

It was one of several later incarnations, followed by The Munsters Today in syndication from 1988 to 1991.

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

Lee Meriwether played Lily, Howard Morton was Grandpa and Jason Marsden played Eddie across 72 episodes.

In Atari's 1990 game Midnight Mutants, why was Al Lewis's character called only 'Grampa'?

The Atari 7800 title still used Lewis's likeness in his Grampa Munster costume on the box and label.