Both The Addams Family and The Munsters hit the airwaves in 1964: the former, based on the classic Charles Addams cartoons from The New Yorker featured a kind of clever, deadpan class and sophistication with a hint of darkness, while the latter was decidedly more lowbrow, content with being cuddly and redundant. In fact, in The Munsters a single idea is the basis for virtually every joke: an out-of-touch family is continually unaware that their monster-like appearance makes everyone else uncomfortable. Fred Gwynne stars as the Frankenstein-ish Herman Munster, a buffoon with a breathy, squeaky laugh. Yvonne De Carlo co-stars as Lily, his Vampira-ish wife. Butch Patrick appears as the family's youngest, lycanthropic Eddie, and Al Lewis plays Grandpa, Lily's neck-biting pop. Played first by Beverly Owen and later (from episode 14 on) by Pat Priest, the family's teenage niece Marilyn is cute and blond and thus the butt of many family jokes. Shot on black-and-white film, all 38 episodes of the first season are presented here with sharp DVD transfers on three double-sided discs, and extras that include a 14-minute full-color pilot that was never aired (in color, the creatures' gray/green makeup is even more garish than one might expect). Optional. (J.M. Anderson)
The Munsters: The Complete First Season
Universal, 3 discs, 966 min., not rated, DVD: $59.98 Volume 19, Issue 6
The Munsters: The Complete First Season
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