The Munsters is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters. The series starred Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein’s monster and head-of-the-household Herman Munster; Yvonne De Carlo as his wife Lily Munster; Al Lewis as Lily’s father, Grandpa, the somewhat over-the-hill vampire Count Dracula who longs for the “good old days” in Transylvania; Beverley Owen (later replaced by Pat Priest) as their teenage niece Marilyn Munster, who was attractive by conventional standards but the “ugly duckling” of the family; and Butch Patrick as their werewolfish son Eddie Munster. Produced by the creators of Leave It to Beaver, the series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and the wholesome family fare of the era. It ran concurrently with the similarly macabre-themed The Addams Family (which aired on ABC) and achieved higher figures in the Nielsen ratings.

In 1965, The Munsters was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series, but lost to The Rogues. In the 21st century it received several TV Land Award nominations, including one for Most Uninsurable Driver (Herman Munster).

The series originally aired on Thursday at 7:30 pm on CBS from September 24, 1964, to May 12, 1966; 70 episodes were produced. It was cancelled after ratings dropped to a series low, due to competition from ABC’s Batman, which was in color. “Munsters” star Butch Patrick said, “I think ‘Batman’ was to blame. ’Batman’ just came along and took our ratings away.” But The Munsters found a large audience in syndication. This popularity warranted a spin-off series, as well as several films, including one with a theatrical release.

On October 26, 2012, NBC aired a modern reimagining of The Munsters called Mockingbird Lane as a pilot. The series failed to be picked up by NBC due to disagreements on the dark nature and inconsistent tone.

The Munsters live at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in the city of Mockingbird Heights, a fictional suburb in a never-revealed state. The series’ running gag is that the decidedly-odd family considers themselves an average American family. Herman, like many husbands of the 1960s, is the family’s sole wage-earner, though Lily and Grandpa make short-lived attempts to earn money from time to time. While Herman is the head of the household, Lily also makes many decisions. According to the episode in which Lily and Herman were trying to surprise each other for their anniversary, they were married in 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 child.

The costumes and appearances of the family (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 whose costume and make-up were based on the look created by Jack Pierce for the 1931 Universal Studios film Frankenstein. The make-up for the show was credited to Bud Westmore, who pioneered many make-up effects and designs for many of the Universal monster movies.

Fred Gwynne                        Herman Munster
Yvonne De Carlo                  Lily Munster
Al Lewis                                Grandpa
Pat Priest                             Marilyn Munster (ep. 14–70)
Beverley Owen                    Marilyn Munster (ep. 1–13)
Butch Patrick                      Eddie Munster
Mel Blanc                            The Raven
Bob Hastings                     The Raven