How good was Fred Gwynne on "The Munsters?"

Millennial here and I grew up watching The Munsters on TV Land. I have always been a fan. I thought the show was fun and light hearted. I always thought The Addams family was…depressing? I can’t really explain it but I never got the hype.

As good as he was, Gwynne hated the role.

The makeup and costume were uncomfortable and constricting, plus the association with the character long after the series ended bothered him.

Fred seemed to be having so much fun as Herman. He truly seemed to love the role.

I wonder how long he had to be in makeup each day?

Addams Family fan here. They were so much more sophisticated than the blue collar Munsters.

Munsters fan here.

There's a reason there have been multiple Aadams Family iterations that have succeeded while no one was has ever been able to recapture that Munster magic.

The Munsters were working class trying to move into the middle class.

The Addams were the aristocracy suddenly swamped by the middle class (I always saw their house as a Victorian survivor in a trim post-war suburb).

Their expectations were different.

I enjoy the theme songs of both the Munsters and Addams Family.

I will stop and watch the Munsters when I come across it but not the Addams Family.

While starring on “The Munsters”, Yvonne De Carlo had no idea FOLLIES was in her future.

Stuttering John interviews Fred Gwynn

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Herman and Grandpa were always up to shenanigans down in Grandpas laboratory

His real star turn was in "Car 54, Where Are You?"

I always thought he was playing Herman as gay.

Herman had an Enormous Schwanzstucker

The Munsters has always been one of my favorites when I need an escape. The must talked about The Nanny is another one that is mindless entertainment.

Never hysterically funny, really, but The Munsters did have some great episodes. In the second season Herman became much more camp and Grandpa more droll. Will Success Spoil Herman Munster? was a good one where Gwynne does a great take on that mid-60s trend of making fun of Hollywood cliches. Grandpa's Lost Wife is funny, especially seeing Jane Withers as the conniving woman seeking a fortune.

loved him in episode "Lily Munster-girl model' When Lily becomes a fashion model for Lazlo Brastoff . Herman pretends to be a rich Texas oil man (super big hat and all) with grandpa transformed as his sexy date.

The Munsters is just silly and fun - I always got a kick out the corny jokes, which constantly emphasized how “spooky” they and their lives were. I loved the set design: the huge dragon under the stairwell, the dust that always puffed up whenever anyone sat down, the funeral home curtains, the car, and on and on. The Addams Family was droller and didn’t try as hard but there’s room for both.

It was prefect casting on the Munsters and I still love watching it today and frequently bust out laughing. Not much on TV today makes me do that. It's a testament.

I remember hurrying home from school to watch the Munsters reruns. I loved that show and I loved Herman and Lily. It was filmed in black and white and I loved how it always looked like fall with the leaves blowing everywhere. My favorite episode was when the bear fell in love with Herman and Lily called her a home wrecking hussy. The Adams Family was , meh.

Fred Gwynne came from money and was liked by NY stage actors. I always wondered why he chose to do Car 54 and The Munsters. He didn't need to do either financially. He was the best part of My Cousin Vinny.

He was also good in the Stephen King movie, Pet Sematary.

Saw him play Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway and he was incredible.

Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis were personal friends before either Car 54 or Munsters, which was reflected on-screen.

I seem to recall that Gwynne tried to play down the fact he literally came from a Park Ave co-op and all that, thinking it would hurt his image. I also seem to recall reading he drove his Park Ave neighbors nuts most of the time (as his Herman persona was not radically different from his own), which maybe is why he left and moved elsewhere ultimately. Anybody have more definite knowledge of this?

Best Big Daddy I've ever seen. And Elizabeth Ashley was no slouch either.

R25- I would have loved to watch that!

Fred Gwynne was perfection as Herman.

John Schuck played Herman on "The Munsters Today" and he said in an interview his kids were going to college and it was the only job he ever took just for the paycheck.

There's a Munsters pilot on YouTube where Herman is married to "Phoebe" (played by a different actress) and Eddie is played more as a disturbing feral child than a wolf creature.

Fred Gwynne is totally brilliant as Herman Munster. It is a true acting coup on his part. His take on the character is completely original, funny, fresh and charming. He is fully committed to the reality of middle-class, suburban dad Herman Munster.

I was thinking if I could remember a better match between tv actor and role, and only Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, and Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo came to mind, but Fred Gwynne was playing basically Frankenstein's monster AS the classic 60s dad, so his role had a completely added layer. He's totally brilliant and the show remains very funny even almost sixty years later.

Only three nominees at the Emmys in 1966 for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy, Dick Van Dyke, Don Adams and Bob Crane. I would say Gwynne was better than at least two of them.

He was brilliant, charming, endearing, and funny. That laugh just made you smile whenever you heard it. The Munsters and Dark Shadows were my childhood shows, my after school must see shows. That show brought me so many happy moments.

When I saw Follies as a boy the only person I ever heard of was De Carlo. At least there was one person people knew. I saw Gwynne in Our Town in Stratford CT. A great production.

Good makeup job but I can' remember much about the show. I don't rewatch the old shows, they were of a certain time.

He was the best part of Pet Semetary.

R32- I read that he actually got heat exhaustion from all of the thick makeup it took for the Herman character. He was miserable in it.

If I got up early enough I could watch The Munsters and My Three Sons before school. Hogan's Heroes after school. The best Munsters episode was when grandpa built the go-cart.

Fred Gwynne was an extremely talented actor. I loved him in The Boy Who Could Fly. (Great film, worth checking out.)

He had a (very) brief run on Broadway in the musical Angel, which was based on Look Homeward, Angel. He sings a couple of songs on the cast album -but I couldn't find them on YouTube to share here.

"I'm going to out on a limb and say that I preferred Beverly Owen to Pat Priest as Marilyn."

You are stunning and brave.

Al Lewis as Grandpa, sometimes referred to Herman as a, "shmuck" ( or shmok), it was my first introduction to Yiddish.

The Hidden Life of Fred Gwynne Herman Munster

"Sometimes dead is better" r33.

It's one of my favorite lines and has come in handy more than once.