FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS - MARILYN MUNSTER

Sorry I’m late with this.  I was in the hospital all week.  Home now; all’s good.

But enough about me.  Let’s get inductin’!

As our last October/Halloween Friday Hall of Famer, there has been recasting involved.  And Team Toobworld knows how I feel about recastaways.  But I’ve got some splainin to do!

And that’s going to help when it comes to inducting our latest member….

MARILYN MUNSTER!

From Wikipedia:
Marilyn Munster is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom ‘The Munsters’, originally played by Beverley Owen and later by Pat Priest. In the original series she is the daughter of Lily Munster's sister, with Herman alluding to her "plain" looks coming from Lily's side of the family.

Played first by Beverley Owen and then by Pat Priest, Marilyn lives with the Munsters throughout the series run. It is never made clear why Marilyn lives with the Munsters, rather than with her parents, who are said to still be in Transylvania. Although she is Lily's niece, she is always referred to as "Marilyn Munster" (while the character was being developed, her name was Marilyn Mundane).

Marilyn is a fetching young woman and the only family member who is not ghoulish in appearance; by the Munsters' aesthetic standards, she is distressingly unattractive.

The family views Marilyn's appearance as an affliction, but still treat her with kindness and love. Marilyn herself is all too aware of her "homeliness" and bemoans that she keeps scaring off potential boyfriends, having no clue that the young men are in fact frightened away by her monstrous family.

She attends Westbury College in Mockingbird Heights. She is devoted to her family, and the surest way for a suitor to alienate Marilyn (rather than vice versa) is to disparage them. She considers her Uncle Herman and Grandpa the "two [finest] men [who ever] walked this earth."

Despite being a “normal” beauty by society standards, the Munsters' strange subculture of vampires, werewolves, zombies, sorcerers, mad scientists, et al., have made her a ghoul at-heart (she regularly assists Lily in cooking rodents, & festooning the house with cobwebs).

Like the rest of her family, she believes that the Munster lifestyle is normal, and dissenters are out-of-step. In one episode, Herman was temporarily transformed into a normal, clean-cut man. The family, including Marilyn, was appalled and physically repelled by the tragic event.

Despite standing out amongst the cast more than any other character, Marilyn was the least developed character in the series. She usually served as an ear for Lily's expeditions, or a subject for Grandpa's foiled potions.

Here are the four actresses who played Marilyn:

Beverly Owen
('The Munsters'
Season 1, 15 episodes)

Pat Priest

('The  Munsters'
57 episodes)


Debbie Watson
("Munsters, Go Home!")


Jo McDonnell
("The Munsters' Revenge")

As far as the audience in the Trueniverse was concerned (Sorry, I’m speaking for you all.), it wasn’t just that Marilyn was beautiful (or as the Munsters believed, homely), but that she wasn’t a monster like the rest of them.

I disagree.

The family has at least one vampire, a werewolf, a gill-man, at least two reanimated corpses, and perhaps a succubus (if Lily isn’t a vampiress herself.)

One “monster” not in that family dynamic?

A shape-shifter.

If they had not done a recastaway during that first season in order to give Beverly Owen the chance to go back to her boyfriend in New York, then I might have just relegated the two movies into two different dimensions – the first to the Cineverse, the other to a TV Movie dimension.  Who knows?  Perhaps even to the one which has all those alternate TV Movie Presidents.

But since precedent was set by the TV show itself, my decree is that the two movies should instead be absorbed into Earth Prime-Time as part of ‘The Munsters’ as a whole.

We don’t know what Marilyn was studying in college, but I’m going to claim that she was studying to become a nurse.  The reason for this will become clear in this post later.

Here’s another point to consider – Marilyn is the daughter of Lily’s sister.  At the time of the original series, Lily Dracula Munster was 304 years old.  Sam Dracula, her father, was 378 years old.

So let’s say his other daughter was perhaps 200 years younger than her sister Lily.  Maybe closer in age, and perhaps even older than Lily since she had Marilyn before Lily gave birth to Eddie.

It could be that she gave birth to Marilyn as far back as the 1800s. This would make Marilyn not only a shape-shifter, but an immortal.   She may have been the actual succubus in the family which would have kept her youthful….

Such a situation would not have struck the Munsters as being abby normal, which is why they never brought it up, just as they never mentioned that she looked different from one moment in her life to the next.

However, the fact that she was so beautiful?  Qu’ Elle horror!  Her “homeliness” would always be a topic of conversation.

So it’s pozz’ble, just pozz’ble, that as an immortal, we may have seen Marilyn Munster in the past.

Long past….

The Virginian
- The Substitute (1969)
... Mary Lou

Splainin:
In order to avoid disappointing her family back in Transylvania, Marilyn changed her name to a variation, calling herself “Mary Lou” when she worked as a saloon girl back at the turn of the 20th Century.  (‘The Virginian’ began in 1898.)

Dr. Kildare
- A Candle in the Window (1964)
... Student Nurse

Splainin:
This is why I think she was studying nursing in college – six years later, she would be a fully accredited nurse.  That might be her in the background?  I couldn't find the episode online.

The Munsters
[Looking like Beverly Owen]
15 episodes

The Munsters
[Looking like Pat Priest]
57 episodes

"Munsters, Go Home!" (1966)

Bewitched
- Samantha's Lost Weekend (1970)
... Nurse

As a nurse, maybe Marilyn helped provide nourishment for Grandpa with the supplies on hand….

"The Munsters' Revenge" (1981)

I would have liked to have included other roles played by Beverly Owen, but her characters in single episodes of ‘The Virginian’ and ‘Wagon Train’ had a father or a husband and a sister respectively.  That would play hob with the basic theory of relateeveety regarding the Munsters.  And so would the long-running roles she had in soap operas.

Even if we didn’t add in the other three appearances for Pat Priest, she still has accumulated the most appearances as Marilyn.  As such, she will be the face of Marilyn Munster in the official portrait gallery for the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

Welcome to the Hall, Ms. Marilyn!  You’ll find your uncle, your aunt, and your grandfather are already members here, waiting for you.

But we're really going to have to do something about your cousin Eddie….

One last O'Bservation:
Wikipedia says Marilyn's last name might have been "Mundane".  I think that would have been fitting.  But I would have spelled it "Mundaigne".....

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 10/30/2020 - "THE MUNSTERS"

 
We inducted the televersion of ‘The Twilight Zone' last month into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, so what Toobworld TV show could we showcase now which would be perfect for the end of October?

THE MUNSTERS

With the induction this month of Eddie Munster, every member of that family is now also a member of the TVXOHOF, so this only makes sense for the Halloween season.

From Wikipedia:

‘The Munsters’ is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters starring Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein's monster-type head-of-the-household Herman Munster; Yvonne De Carlo as his vampire wife, Lily Munster; Al Lewis as Grandpa, the over-the-hill vampire who relishes talking about the "good old days"; Beverley Owen (later replaced by Pat Priest) as their teenage niece Marilyn Munster, whose non-monster persona made her the family outcast; and Butch Patrick as their half-vampire, half-werewolf son Eddie Munster. 

The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and the wholesome family fare of the era, and was produced by the creators of ‘Leave It to Beaver’. 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 the premiere of ABC's ‘Batman’, which was in color. Though ratings declined by the end of its initial two-year run, ‘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.

As a TV series within Toobworld, it was a natural about the family who lives in Toobworld.  It can’t be a documentary series like the groundbreaking one about the Loud Family, as we know from two of the listed references below in which the actors are mentioned.

Of the many references in other TV shows about ‘The Munsters’, I’m only using those which could be definitely linked to the televersion of the TV show and not to the actual family living in Earth Prime-Time.  (And if it’s a toss-up, I’m going to assume they are talking about the actual Munsters.)

Here are the references which qualify the Toobworld TV show about the Munsters to become a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

We’ll begin with the strongest verifications that it exists in Toobworld as a TV series:

The Wonder Years:

Buster (1991)
The Arnolds watch an episode of "The Munsters."

Everybody Hates Chris:

Everybody Hates the English Teacher (2008)
Mr. Omar watches the show along with Drew and Tonya.

Caroline in the City:

Caroline and the Desperate Cat (1997)
Richard and Charlie watch and discuss "The Munsters".

That '70s Show:

Down the Road Apiece (2005)
Kelso, Red and Kitty watches TV. Kelso tries to explain the show, Red hates it.

Dirty John:

Lord High Executioner (2018)
Teenage John and Teenage Denise watch an episode of this show.

The Twilight Zone:
Six Degrees of Freedom (2019)
The Bradbury mission picks up an audio transmission of an episode of ‘The Munsters’ (1964) en route to Mars.

Scrubs:
My Point of No Return (2007)
the Janitor says he's old because he's the only to have seen this show.

Newhart:
Newsstruck (1988)
Michael recalls an episode.

George Lopez:
Leave It to Lopez (2004)
One of George's dreams.

O’Bservation – Michael was a figment of Dr. Bob Hartley’s imagination.  So if Dr. Hartley and George Lopez dreamed of ‘The Munsters’ in their respective sitcoms, then it was a sitcom for them.

Full House:
Joey Gets Tough (1988)
Jesse mentions the show while explaining that no family is perfect.

Gilmore Girls:
The Road Trip to Harvard (2001)
Lorelai mentions that Fred Gwynne went to Harvard and references Herman Munster.

Happily Divorced:
The Back-Up Fran (2012)
Peter mentions that Yvonne De Carlo played Lily Munster.

American Dreams:
R-E-S-P-E-C-T (2003)
Jack refers to the series.

The Kids Are Alright:
Low Expectations (2019)
Joey says The Brady Bunch vs The Patridge Family debates is like this show vs. The Addams Family.

Monk:
Mr. Monk and Little Monk (2005)
Lily refers to Young Adrian Monk as "the real life Eddie Munster".

'Til Death:
The Ex-Factor (2009)
Eddie imitates Herman Munster

Psych:
Lassie Jerky (2013)
Shawn enrolls Gus in a class on hermeneutics, which he believes is the "study of ‘The Munsters’."

Red Dwarf:
Legion (1993)
Kryten's line "Just because I look like Herman Munster's stuntman doesn't mean to say I can't appreciate art."

Psych:
He Dead (2009)
Gus says that a street address mentioned by Shawn is actually that of the Munsters.

The Nanny:
Franny and the Professor (1995)
Fran mentions the show by name.

Millennium:
...Thirteen Years Later (1998)
Lily Munster costume

EastEnders:
Episode dated 19 October 2015
Elaine and Linda are talking about Halloween. Linda says, "You know we like to dress up as The Munsters every year". Elaine replies, "That was old-fashioned 20 years ago!"

The following references could go either way, but I can’t be sure:

Rhoda:
Five for the Road: Part 1 (1978)
Brenda mentions the title characters.

Happy Days:
The Other Guy (1981)
Referenced by Marion Cunningham

Cheers:
How to Win Friends and Electrocute People (1988)
Mentioned by name.

It's Garry Shandling's Show.:
Home Sweet Home (1988)
title mentioned

One Foot in the Grave:
Secret of the Seven Sorcerers (1993)
Mentioned by Patrick.

Tales from the Crypt:
People Who Live in Brass Hearses (1993)
Mentioned in dialogue

The Nanny:
A Kiss Is Just a Kiss (1995)
Fran mentions the characters, Lily and Herman, by name.

The Nanny:
Dope Diamond (1995)
Fran likens the grey streak in Maxwell's hair to Lily Munster.

The Sopranos:
Rat Pack (2004)
Tony B makes a "Grandpa Munster" comment about Paulie's hair.

Extras:
Ben Stiller (2005)
Maggie says a man's orthopedic shoe reminds her of Herman Munster from this show.

The Nanny:
The Yummy Mummy (1999)
Fran mentions the character, Herman Munster.

Supernatural:
Bugs (2005)
mentioned by Dean

The Goldbergs:
The Beverly Goldberg Cookbook: Part 2 (2019)
Mentioned by Barry.

A word of warning to visitors to the TVXOHOF:

Every Toobworld TV series which has been inducted has their own soundproof viewing room.  There you can watch non-stop episodes of those shows.  BUT!  The episodes which make up the Toobworld versions of the shows we know might not be episodes which were available to the Trueniverse audience.

And the actors who played the roles in Toobworld might not look exactly like the actual “people” being portrayed.  At least we know that in the case of ‘The Munsters’, Herman and Lily were portrayed by the televersions of Fred Gwynne and Yvonne DeCarlo....
 

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMER, 10/26/18 - HERMAN MUNSTER (AGAIN)

We’re celebrating Halloween with our last two Friday Hall of Famers for the month.  Last week it was Barnabas Collins as a multi-dimensional and now we have perhaps one of the most prominent of TV characters connected to horror fiction, albeit in a twisted version.

Technically, Herman Munster is already a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  The Hall was “founded” in 1999, but before that I did write extensively about certain iconic characters who were certainly qualified to have already been in the Hall if it existed.

And among those were all of the Frankenstein creatures, including Herman Munster.  But unlike the others who were mostly one-shot appearances (and still growing!), Herman had quite the body of work. 

But before we get into that, let’s take a look at the “life” of Herman Munster in the main Toobworld:

From Wikipedia:
Herman Munster is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom ‘The Munsters’, originally played by Fred Gwynne. The patriarch of the Munster household, Herman is an entity much like Frankenstein's monster, comparable to Lurch on the show's competitor, ‘The Addams Family’.

 In the context of the series, Herman was created in 1815 at the University of Heidelberg by Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Work on him was finally completed around 1850 (neither Lily nor Grandpa is quite sure when) along with his twin brother Charlie. Leaving (Germany) for Great Britain at a young age, Herman was adopted by the Munsters of Munster Hall, a noble family living in the fictitious Shroudshire, England.

At some point Herman moved to Transylvania (a region in Hungary, from 1920 part of Romania), where he met Lily Dracula. In 1865 (technically at the age of 15, but physically older) Herman married Lily, and eventually the couple and Grandpa (Lily's father) moved to America, where Herman joined the U.S. Army, fighting in World War II.  In episode 34, Grandpa says that it was thanks to Herman that he was able to leave Transylvania and have a better life in America.

Here are the credits which cemented Herman’s claims to be in the TVXOHOF as a citizen of Earth Prime-Time:

‘The Munsters’ 
72 episodes

“Munster, Go Home!” 
The Munsters travel to England after Herman discovers he's the new Lord of the Munster Hall.  

“The Munsters' Revenge” 
When a wax museum owner attempts to frame the Munsters for pulling a jewelry heist, they must both prove their innocence and find out the true thieves.

Two of those qualifications were movies and only one of them, “The Munsters’ Revenge”, is a TV movie.  “Munsters Go Home!” was a theatrical release which, like several other movies, has been absorbed into the greater TV Universe out of the Cineverse.

With that hefty amount of credits, and still being so popular that he commands a two-hour block of programming on the COZI-TV retro network, Herman Munster does deserve to have a listing for himself, apart from his many “brothers” and “cousins” (those created by Frankenstein cousins.)
  
But as I said, he is already a member of the Hall; I just wanted to salute his contribution to the main Toobworld first.

Herman Munster is a multidimensional as well as a multiversal.  And so today we’re celebrating Herman Munster – but the one to be found in Skitlandia. 

Hopefully you know that Skitlandia is the sketch comedy TV dimension in which all of those comedy skits over the years share the same world – characters from ‘Saturday Night Live’, ‘Fridays’, ‘MadTV’, ‘The Carol Burnett Show’, ‘The Dean Martin Show’, ‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour’ and the many late-night talk shows; where Miss Swan could rub shoulders with the Coneheads, for example, or Norma Desmond could make a movie with Master Thespian.

So Herman Munster is one of those comedy sketch characters and luckily he covers the minimum requirements for membership in the Hall:

‘The Red Skelton Hour’ 
- Ta-Ra-Ra-Bum-Today (1965) 
Fred Gwynne appears as Herman Munster in a 'Freddie the Freeloader' comedy sketch.

From Hal Erickson:
Fred Gwynne, then starring in the sitcom ‘The Munsters’, is Red Skelton's guest on this episode from April 27, 1965. In a "Freddie the Freeloader" comedy sketch, hobo Freddie (Red) camps out in the spooky domicile of Herman Munster (Fred, of course). 

‘The Danny Kaye Show’
- Episode #3.30 (1966) 
Spoofing Gwynne's role on ‘The Munsters’ and NBC newscasters Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, the cast performs a sketch with Danny as 'David Dracula' and Fred as 'Chet Munster' as the broadcast team behind "The Munster-Dracula Report" with Edie as Fred's neglected wife 'Lily'.   

“Salute to Stan Laurel” 
A program featuring original comedy skits written as a tribute to Stan Laurel.

O’Bservation: Fred Gwynne’s contribution as Herman Munster was that he burst through a door while playing a violin in a sketch about making a silent movie.  Nothing to do with Stan Laurel, and it’s pretty grim viewing.  (Others in the sketch include Cesar Romero, Tina Louise, Louis Nye, and Leonid Kinsky.) But nevertheless it counts towards Herman’s tally.

I doubt there’s anybody out there who writes Skitlandia fanfic, specifically, but there you go – Herman Munster is part of that TV dimension.  So you could have a teenaged Eddie Munster bringing home a classmate – Ed Grimley, which would freak the kid out, I must say.  Or any combination with other sketch comedy characters.  That's up to you.  But if you do write Herman of Skitlandia fan fiction, let me know where I can read it.

So now we have two Herman Munsters in the Hall.  When it comes to fictional TV characters, that may be a first.  (We already have Adam West, a member of the League of Themselves, included for both the main Toobworld and for the Tooniverse.)

Welcome to the Hall, Herman.  Again….

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 10/09/2020 - EDDIE MUNSTER

 
With this week’s Friday Hall of Famer, we complete the inductions of the Munster family into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  (Herman Munster was inducted three times – once as himself, once as part of all of Dr. Frankenstein’s creations, and once in Skitlandia.)

I wasn’t sure Eddie Munster could get into the Crossover Hall of Fame except as a multidimensional, as he only had the TV series and the movie with Butch Patrick playing the role. (All other actors as Eddie are banished to other Toobworlds.)

But one good thing to come out of 2020 was a third appearance of Eddie Munster in Toobworld.

So let’s complete the set!

EDDIE MUNSTER

From Wikipedia:
Eddie Munster is a fictional character on the CBS sitcom ‘The Munsters’. He was portrayed by Butch Patrick in all episodes of the original series except for the pilot, where he was portrayed by Happy Derman. The only child of Herman and Lily Munster, Eddie is a werewolf. The role was later played by Jason Marsden in ‘The Munsters Today’.  

Eddie is a typical all-American boy apart from being a werewolf and, in some episodes, showing some signs of being part vampire. Most noticeable is the fact that he sleeps in a chest of drawers. He has a stuffed toy werewolf named Woof-Woof, which bears an uncanny resemblance to Lon Chaney, Jr.'s portrayal of Larry Talbot in the 1941 feature film, “The Wolfman”. He attends elementary school, and aside from his pointed ears, severe widow's peak, and Fauntleroy suit, he is a normal kid.

Eddie is very proud of his father, to the point of bragging about Herman's abilities and deeds to his friends... although these boasts are often outright fabrications. In fact, Eddie volunteering Herman for a heroic deed (which is clearly beyond Herman's capabilities, but one Herman nonetheless undertakes for Eddie's sake) is a central theme in many episodes.

Here is the tally of appearances which qualifies Eddie Munster to join the rest of his family in the TVXOHOF.  (Yes, even Marilyn is in the Hall – being played by three different actresses has a good splainin – she wasn’t so normal after all.  Marilyn Munster was a shape-changer.)

The Munsters

71 episodes
1964-1966

Munster, Go Home!

The Munsters travel to England after Herman discovers he's the new Lord of the Munster Hall.  

TV Therapy

- Eddie (2020)
Eddie from THE MUNSTERS has a therapy session with Dr. Nielsen. Growing up a Munster has its issues.

Maybe so, but at least it got him into the Crossover Hall of Fame.

Welcome to the TVXOHOF, Eddie! Enjoy the family reunion….    

THE HAT SQUAD: AL "GRANDPA" LEWIS

I want to take a moment to mark the passing of Al Lewis today at the age of 95. I'll have more thoughts later on the passing of the man who Brooklynized Dracula, but I wanted to make sure Toobworld tipped its hat to a very funny man as soon as possible.......

TV SERIES
"The Munsters" (1964) TV Series .... Grandpa
"Car 54, Where Are You?" (1961) TV Series .... Officer Leo Schnauser (1961-1963)

THE TOONIVERSE
The Mini-Munsters (1973) (TV) (voice) .... Grandpa Munster

TV MOVIES
Here Come the Munsters (1995) (TV) .... Cameo appearance
Save the Dog! (1988) (TV)
The Munsters' Revenge (1981) (TV) .... Grandpa Munster
Ring of Passion (1978) (TV) .... Mike Jacobs
The Night Strangler (1973) (TV) .... Tramp

TV RELATED MOVIES
Car 54, Where Are You? (1994) .... Leo Schnauzer
Munster, Go Home (1966) .... Grandpa Munster

TV GUEST APPEARANCES
"Hi Honey, I'm Home"
- Grey Skies (1991) TV Episode .... Grandpa Munster
"Mathnet"
- The Case of the Masked Avenger (1990) TV Episode .... Ring Announcer
"Best of the West"
- They're Hanging Parker Tillman: Part 2 (1981) TV Episode .... Judge
- They're Hanging Parker Tillman: Part 1 (1981) TV Episode .... Judge
"Taxi"
- On the Job: Part 2 (1981) TV Episode .... Night Watchman
"Here's Lucy"
- Lucy Plays Cops and Robbers (1973) TV Episode .... Lionel Barker
"Love, American Style"
- Love and the Amateur Night/Love and the Cheaters/Love and the Love Nest/Love and the Unbearable Fiance (1972) TV Episode .... (segment "Love and the Love Nest")
"Green Acres"
- Star Witness (1971) TV Episode .... Charlie
"Night Gallery"
- Make Me Laugh (1971) TV Episode .... Myron Mishkin
"The Jackie Gleason Show"
... aka The Honeymooners (USA: rerun title)
- Episode #4.15 (1970) TV Episode .... Himself
"Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."
- Hit and Write (1968) TV Episode .... Harry Whipple
"Lost in Space"
- Rocket to Earth (1967) TV Episode .... Zalto
"Route 66"
- A Long Way from St. Louie (1963) TV Episode .... Wait
"Naked City"
- No Naked Ladies in Front of Giovanni's House! (1963) TV Episode .... Mr. Carrari
- ...And If Any Are Frozen, Warm Them... (1962) TV Episode .... Mr. Tanner
- The Pedigree Sheet (1960) TV Episode (as Albert Lewis) .... Gus
- Ten Cent Dreams (1959) TV Episode
"The Phil Silvers Show"
- The Weekend Colonel (1959) TV Episode .... Bruno
- Bilko's Credit Card (1959) TV Episode .... Mike
"The United States Steel Hour"
- Trouble-in-Law (1959) TV Episode (as Albert Lewis) .... Paul Gordon
"Decoy"
- Queen of Diamonds (1959) TV Episode .... Chi Chi
[thanks to the IMDb.com]

BCnU, Grandpa.....
Tele-Toby

"MUNSTERS" ZONK! RALLY

In a terrible attempt to compliment/hit on 'Veronica Mars', Duane the convenience store clerk said, "But if we've been getting a lot of Munsters in here, I'd say that you're the Marilyn, hon, 'cause you're pretty."

I don't think we have to worry about this being a Goth Zonk! because in the nearly forty years since Toobworld first gave us 'The Munsters', it's more than likely the world at large knows of their existence. They never hid themselves from public view - so many businessmen, politicians, law enforcement agents, crooks, and utility workers visited their home at 1313 Mockingbird Lane over the years, that I wouldn't be surprised if FBI Agent Fox Mulder showed up there as well eventually.

Besides, since the series ended, "People" magazine came along, and eventually everybody with a human interest story and at least the slightest visual quirk will find themselves profiled in its pages.

How could they ever have resisted a story in which the head of the family looked like Frankenstein's Monster, his wife and father-in-law were vampires, and his son was a werewolf?

And the fact that Marilyn was the pretty one would probably be the angle they'd end up using for the article. Of course, once the issue came out, hilarity would ensue as the rest of the family would keep it hidden from Marilyn's sight, so that she wouldn't feel upset at being singled out as the "oddity".

Working in the convenience store, Duane would probably have whiled away the hours by reading that particular issue of "People"; and so he would have known of the existence of 'The Munsters'.

(Being Toobworld, it didn't have to be "People". It could have been "Glitter" or "The National Inquisitor" as well.)

No Zonk! this time.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

A LOOK AT GRANDPA SAM DRACULA

Since it's Halloween, I thought we should take a more expanded look at one of the members of the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame - Grandpa of 'The Munsters', inducted in October of 2008.

There are those who think he's "Grandpa Munster", in much the same way they think that Daisy Moses is "Granny Clampett", but both those last names belong to their sons-in-law, Herman and Jed, respectively. Grandpa's name is now Sam Dracula, but some people consider him to be Count Dracula - Herman's boss even addressed him as such once. And although Grandpa might accept that honorific out of egotism, he is NOT Count Dracula. Grandpa was embraced into the Kindred of the Dracule, and so now bears the family name in honor of his sire.

But he's not Vlad Tepes. We met Vlad the Impaler in his mortal form in the TV movie "Dark Prince" and as his vampiric Majesty in the "Buffy vs. Dracula" episode of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'.

All of the other Draculas seen in TV would fall into the same category - they are "Dracula" because they have been "sired" by the Vampire Lord. (As much as I admire the "soul clones" theory of the Wold Newton Universe, I think my splainin works best for the Drac Pack of Toobworld.)

Grandpa may be a Dracula, but he's pure New York, with his accent and his attitude - more Brooklyn and the Bowery than Bavaria.

And yet the gravestone he keeps in his car says he was "born" in 1367. None but the Amerinds were in the New York area back then, so how could he be in such a New York State of Mind?

Easy splainin: Time Travel.

We know Grandpa was a crackpot inventor. He may have developed a time machine during his mortal life back in the New York City of the 1950's. Perhaps he was working off the designs first developed by previous scientists, perhaps even going back to the steampunk time machine helmet created by Professor Gilbert in upstate New York back in the 1890's. (As seen in the 'Twilight Zone' episode "Once Upon A Time".)

The mortal Grandpa (not yet a true family man) used his time machine to go back in Time, where he met such historical figures as Nero, King Arthur, and Richard the Lionhearted. (As for his encounter with Jack the Ripper, Grandpa could have eventually met the man named Sebastian while Grandpa was living out his undead life... O'Bviously at some point before the Vorlons drove the Redjac entity out of the serial killer.)

Eventually his travels - both temporally as well as geographically - landed him in the Transylvania area before 1367. There he fell in love and settled down, eventually fathering a daughter who was named "Lily".

And then his path crossed that of Count Dracula in 1367.

From that point on, Sam Dracula's life would be as it was recounted in the many episodes of 'The Munsters' - with his daughter Lily being embraced as a vampire as well.

But who was Sam Dracula in his mortal life before he was embraced?

I've looked at the roles played by Al Lewis before he was cast as Grandpa, and I think the best candidate for Grandpa's mortal life would be Mr. Carrari from the 'Naked City' episode of "No Naked Ladies In Front Of Giovanni's House!"

Mr. Carrari
'Naked City'

Mr. Carrari was one of Ben Giovanni's neighbors and he complained - often! - about Ben Giovanni's escapades. It could be that Carrari wanted Giovanni reined in because he didn't want that spotlight to fall on him and his activities (like various potions, spells, and that time machine.....)

Since his character name was simply "Mr. Carrari", it could have been that his first name was "Sam".....

Realizing that the heat was on because of the Giovanni investigation, Sam Carrari may have panicked and utilized that time machine to escape into the past.

Al Lewis played other roles in 'Naked City' and I was tempted to choose Harry McGoglan from "A Corpse Ran Down Mulberry Street". The basic plotline sounded perfect - a truck crashed into a hearse and then the body inside got up and walked away from the accident.

It turned out to be part of an illegal immigrant scheme - this was a fairly realistic cop show, after all. But wouldn't it have been the type of situation which could have involved the future Grandpa - reanimating the dead perhaps?

As for those other roles on 'Naked City', maybe they were "identical cousins" to Mr. Carrari. Maybe they were all Sam in disguise. Who knows? Maybe Carrari whipped up a "Multiplicity" potion which created those five doppelgangers? But whoever those five other Al Lewis characters were on 'Naked City', there had to be something about them that differentiated them to the detectives, if not to the TV audience.

As Sam Carrari, here are some Toobworld citizens he may have met in the New York area:

Ellery Queen
Nero Wolfe
Archie Bunker
Alan Brady
Buddy Sorrell
Patrolman Columbo
Jose Jimenez
Martin and Ida Morgenstern
Alexander Waverly
Felix Unger
Oscar Madison
George & Weezie Jefferson
Ricky and Lucy Ricardo
Fred & Ethel Mertz
Daniel J. O'Brien
Martin Kane
Martin Lane
Richard Diamond
Johnny Staccato
Adam Schiff
Phil Fish
Theo Kojak
and even Leo Schnauzer!

(Some of those he may have met later, as Grandpa. during his trips into the City from the suburb of Mockingbird Heights.)

As long as that list was, as Sam Dracula he must have met thousands of TV characters throughout History since 1367, both famous and non-famous. Far too long a list to compile even the usual suspects, but I think he must have at least encountered the Time Lord known as the Doctor - if only to guide Grandpa away from any potential cataclysm to the time-stream should he meet himself as Sam Carrari.

Then there's his life after 'The Munsters'.

There were a few TV movies and even a theatrical release that has been absorbed into the TV Universe. But I think we also saw Grandpa working as a security guard in an episode of 'Taxi'. (Maybe Grandpa needed some extra cash for one of his experiments.....)

Because the Munster family had no qualms about venturing into the world around them, eventually the whole world had to know that there was a family of monsters out there who looked just like the creatures from the Universal movies. There would have been news stories, reports on television.... Eventually the covert organization I've created for splainins such as this - "UNReel" - must have stepped in and created a TV show about them to put off any further intrusion into their lives... for the sake of the Munsters as well as the general public.  (He may also have received protection from a certain government intelligence agency... and loving it!)

And that's why there would be mentions of Grandpa and the other Munsters - and of that TV show within a TV show about their lives - in such shows as:

'Wizards Of Waverly Place'
'The Nanny'
'Roseanne'
'90210'
'Everybody Hates Chris'
'The Sopranos'
''Til Death'
'Psych'
'Ideal'
'Extras'
'Monk'
'Six Feet Under'
'Fresh Prince of Bel Air'
'Caroline In The City'
'Red Dwarf'
'Full House'
'Cheers'

It could be that Grandpa wanted a return to the anonymity of his past life; that could be the reason he took that night watchman job. There, he could use an alias (Alex called him "Henry") and not be bothered by fangbangers when the next wave of vampire fandom swept the nation.

Alex met "Henry" in 1981, and Henry said that he had been on the job for twenty years. This was either a lie to protect Grandpa's cover story, or it just felt like twenty years by that point.

(By the way, I think Judd Hirsch, who played Alex Reiger, would be the perfect choice to play Grandpa when they finally get around to recasting it once again.)

BCnU!