The Munsters - The Complete First Season (DVD)

Are you a Munsters person or an Addams Family person? Although I do enjoy both shows in bite-sized chunks, there is a definite division of camps. Some people only watch one to the exclusion of the other. The Munsters is a bit less sophisticated and snappy than its 60s TV show rival, but it's also sweeter. There's a funny kind of innocence to the vampires, the wolf-boy, the Frankenstein-style monster, and the pretty blonde young woman all living together under one crooked, leaky roof at 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

The Munsters sitcom, aired in creepy black and white, starred Fred Gwynne as 7-foot tall zombie Herman Munster and the established movie star Yvonne De Carlo ("The Ten Commandments") played his corpse-like vampiric wife, Lily. The running gag on the show was that The Munsters never realized they were monstrous to the rest of the world and many episodes followed their exploits with the "regular" people they had to deal with on a daily basis. This 3-disk DVD set, almost completely devoid of additional release material, might be a good rental for the curious but is only a "must have" for diehard fans or families with small children.

The only additional feature is the short (about 10 minutes) unaired Pilot episode with the plot of "My Fair Munster", filmed in color, which shows different actors in the roles of Eddie and Lily (then called Phoebe). Happy Derman really hams it up as the growling, frothing wolfboy, and he's quite bad. Joan Marshall, on the other hand, is an interesting peek into how Herman's wife might otherwise have been portrayed. It's also interesting to see how the characters of Herman and Grandpa were slightly modified when the show was picked up.

Episode List:

1.         The Munsters: Unaired Pilot

2.         Munster Masquerade

3.         My Fair Munster

4.         A Walk on the Mild Side

5.         Rock-a-Bye Munster

6.         Pike's Pique

7.         Lo-Cal Munster

8.         Tin Can Man

9.         Herman the Great

10.       Knock Wood, Here Comes Charlie

11.       Autumn Croak-us

12.       The Midnight Ride of Herman Munster

13.       Sleeping Cutie

14.       Family Portrait

15.       Grandpa Leaves Home

16.       Herman's Rival

17.       Grandpa's Call of the Wild

18.       All-Star Munster

19.       If a Martian Answers, Hang Up

20.       Eddie's Nickname

21.       Bats of a Feather

22.       Don't Bank on Herman

23.       Dance With Me, Herman

24.       Follow That Munster

25.       Love Locked Out

26.       Come Back, Little Googie

27.       Far Out Munsters

28.       Munsters on the Move

29.       Movie Star Munster

30.       Herman the Rookie

31.       Country Club Munsters

32.       Love Comes to Mockingbird Heights

33.       Mummy Munster

34.       Lily Munster: Girl Model

35.       Munster the Magnificent

36.       Herman's Happy Valley

37.       Hot Rod Herman

38.       Herman's Raise

39.       Yes, Galen, There Is a Herman (aka My Friend Herman)

(by Staci Layne Wilson)