‘The Munsters’ premiered 58 years ago today, September 24, 1964

While Herman is the "head of household," Lily makes many decisions, too. According to the episode in which Lily and Herman Munster were both trying to surprise one another for their anniversary, they were married in the year 1865. Despite the novel approach of the family being (mostly) supernatural creatures (except for niece Marilyn, who is "normal"), the show followed the typical family sitcom formula of the era — the well-meaning father, the nurturing mother, the eccentric live-in relative, the naïve teenager and the precocious kid.

There are some superficial similarities between The Munsters and The Addams Family, in that both were shows with a Gothic look that featured families of horror movie characters incongruent with their mainstream suburban communities. However, the two shows were quite different in tone and characterization. Overall, the characters of The Addams Family were wealthy eccentrics who generally stayed at home, while the Munsters were a blue-collar and generally outgoing family of legendary monsters.

The costumes and appearances of the family members other than Marilyn were based on the classic monsters of Universal Studios films from the 1930s and 1940s. Universal produced The Munsters as well, and was thus able to use these copyrighted designs, including their iconic version of Frankenstein's monster for Herman. Other studios were free to make films with the Frankenstein creature, for example, but could not use the costume and style of make-up originally created by Jack Pierce for the 1931 Universal Studios film Frankenstein. The make-up for the show was created and applied to the actors by horror make-up legend Bud Westmore, who pioneered many make-up effects and designs for many of the Universal Monster movies.

The idea of a family of comical monsters was first suggested to Universal Studios in the late 1940s by animator Bob Clampett, who wanted to do a series of cartoons. The project did not see development until the early 1960s, when a proposal for a similar idea was submitted to Universal Studios by Rocky & Bullwinkle writers Allan Burns and Chris Hayward. The proposal was later handed to writers Norm Liebman and Ed Haas, who wrote a pilot script, Love Thy Monster. For some time, there were executives who believed the series should be made as a cartoon and others who wanted to see it made using live-action. Finally, a presentation was filmed by MCA Television for CBS, using live-action.

The first presentation was 16 minutes and in color (later cut to just over 13 minutes) and was used to pitch the series to CBS and its affiliates. It never aired, and the script was reused as the basis for the episode "My Fair Munster". The cast in order of appearance in the title sequence were: Joan Marshall as Phoebe (instead of Lily), Beverley Owen as Marilyn, Nate "Happy" Derman as Eddie, Al Lewis as Grandpa and Fred Gwynne as Herman. Although the same house exterior was later used in the actual aired series, it was changed at that point to make it look more gothic and "spooky". Changes included adding the tower deck and Marilyn's deck, a new coat of paint, and enlarging the living room. Although Grandpa had the same dungeon, Herman did not have padding in the pitch episode and was broad but thin. The most noticeable difference was his somber expression, compared to his comical silliness during the series. All characters, except Marilyn, had a blue/green tint to their skin. The biggest character difference was that Eddie was portrayed by Derman as a nasty brat. The title sequence had light happy music (picked up from the Doris Day movie, The Thrill of it All) instead of the more hip surf theme that was to come. The episode is available on the complete first season of The Munsters DVDs. It was also decided that Joan Marshall looked too much like Morticia Addams and that Happy Derman was too nasty as Eddie, so both were replaced. On the basis of the first presentation, the new series, still not completely cast, was announced by CBS on February 18, 1964. A second black-and-white presentation was made with the new actors. In this version, Butch Patrick's Eddie appeared with a more "normal" look, although his hairstyle was later altered to include a widow's peak.

Herman struck by lightening was the beginning of the Trans movement!

[quote] the more hip surf theme that was to come.

The best!

The opening theme to this show is so iconic

Theme song got stuck in my head the moment I read the thread title. I used to love watching this show as a kid when it ran on Nick at Nite.

The visuals in “Mockingbird Lane” were exquisite.

Plus, *spoiler*, they killed off CJ years before Ryan Murphy murdered him.

There was 2 Marilyn's on The Munsters. Beverly Owen was the first, very pretty, but she left after the first 13 episodes so she could marry and have a family. Pat Priest replaced her for the duration of the show as the second Marilyn.

R9 yes. I personally always preferred Pat Priest and the theme update was more iconic that the first seasons

I just watched the Rob Zombie reboot film last night and it is atrocious. Poorly written, badly shot, cheaply made, and Zombie's wife can't act for shit. Daniel Roebuck tries hard as Grandpa (and I appreciated the effort), and I found the no-name guy they got to play Herman fairly charming and game, but the movie feels endless and it's not the least bit amusing.

The 2 Marilyns - Beverly Owen on the left and Pat Priest on the right.

R12 Another try.

Yes r13, I always preferred Pat Priest. She looked like a natural blonde who went lighter vs Beverly who you could tell was a brunette who went ultra light. At times it looked like a wig.

Anyone remember the 1988 revival? It was so bad but lasted as long as the original.

I knew a guy from a mob family. He loved The Munsters because it normalized his family in his mind.

The unaired pilot intro, with Joan Marshall as Phoebe (later changed to Lily when recast and reshot).

Joan looks very very beautiful. Much prettier than Yvonne, but also with a much softer and gentler demeanor.

I love The Munsters and The Addams Family equally. Similar, but different. From a time of TV creativity, even though their source material, at that time, was already old. The same goes for Batman and The Green Hornet.

I loved the Munsters, but to 9 year old me it was all about their cars...

They both wore a wig, R14.

R20 yes but what I’m saying is you could tell with Beverly. Pat’s looked better.

This is one of the shows I migrate towards when I need to deflect!

The show was created by the team that gave us "Leave It to Beaver."

Pat Priest's mother was prominent in Republican politics, and eventually became Treasurer of the United States under Eisenhower. (Her signature was on the currency.) She later became the California State Treasurer under Reagan.

Weren’t most people Republican back then?

I fucking love that old shit. I watch it instead of 60 Minutes on Sunday evenings via COZI.