Disc One

The first disc consists of four 43-minute documentaries, all in 4:3 format. The Munsters: America's First Family of Fright zeros in on the show, tracing its development at Universal Studios for CBS, as a deliberate rival to ABC's concurrent The Addams Family. Though a wholly-animated program was considered, in the end a live-action monster comedy was put into production, with Car 54, Where Are You? alums Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis as Frankensteinian father Herman and his Dracula-like father-in-law, "Grandpa"; Yvonne De Carlo as Herman's vampire bride-like wife Lily; Butch Patrick as their wolfish son Eddie; and Beverley Owen as Marilyn, the Munsters "unfortunate" niece, beautiful by anyone's standards except the Munsters, who consider her frightfully unattractive.

The show was basically a spoof of the generic suburban family sitcom that had dominated TV comedies for the past decade, including Leave it to Beaver, made by the same producer team of Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher. The Munsters regard themselves as an ordinary American family, and much of the humor is derived from their inability to grasp how terrified everyone is of them. In this sense the documentary also makes a convincing case that the writers were also soft-peddling stories with themes of racial intolerance -- that the misunderstood Munsters were wrongly looked upon with fear and suspicion by nosy neighbors.

The documentary points to the show's basic charms: the terrific comic timing of Gwynne and Lewis who, as Butch Patrick rightly observes (no less than three times, as it turns out), had terrific chemistry and superb comic timing worthy of the best comedy teams. Former screen siren De Carlo also proved herself an extremely good comic actress, and functioned as the show's emotional center. So vital were these actors to the show's success, subsequent attempts to remake the series have been met with almost total failure. (Included is a clip from one such version, 1995's Here Come the Munsters, in which actor Edward Herrmann, as Herman Munster, is sadly made up to resemble Fred Gwynne as Herman, and performs the role deliberately imitating Gwynne's mannerisms and speech.)

The documentary is a perfect blend of interviews, scenes from the show, and rare footage. Except for Gwynne, who died in 1993, the entire regular cast is interviewed, including (most impressively) all three Marilyns. Owen, heartsick at being separated from her New York-based boyfriend, left the show after 13 episodes and was replaced by Pat Priest. As the show was nearing the end of its two-year run, the theatrical feature Munster, Go Home (1966) was put into pre-production, and while the TV show was still filming Priest was unceremoniously dumped for the movie in favor of Debbie Watson, a younger and more saleable name.

Also interviewed for the documentary are Mike Dann (former head of programming at CBS), series director Norman Abbott, makeup man Karl Silvera, writer Richard Baer, custom car builder George Barris, and monster experts Don Glut and Bob Burns. The program is narrated by Bill(y) Mumy.

Extra Features

Accompanying the main documentary are three more documentaries, all of which apparently first aired as A&E biographies. One would think there would be a lot of repetition in Fred Gwynne: More Than a Munster, Yvonne De Carlo: Gilded Lily, and Al Lewis: Forever Grandpa, but none lingers too long on the series, and all do an excellent job chronicling the stars' fascinating lives. The Gwynne bio discusses the actor's lifelong passion for drawing and painting wry and often ironic work. Lewis is shown as a myth-making jack-of-all trades who at various times worked as a carnival barker, basketball scout, restauranteur and political activist. Long before he ran for New York Governor on the Green Party ticket he hosted Black Panther meetings in his home (!). It's also a real shock to learn that Lewis originated the role of Pat McGloin in The Iceman Cometh! The Lewis show also debunks many of the myths the actor himself has created over the years. Though he long-claimed to have been born in 1910 and in Vaudeville by the early '20s, the show gives his correct date of birth as 1923, making him younger than the actress who played his TV daughter!

The Yvonne De Carlo documentary is also very good, filled with lots of great clips from her early career as an exotic ingenue in Universal's exotic melodramas and Westerns of the 1940s and early-'50s. It also traces her impressively star-studded, prolific sexual liaisons and whirlwind romances with movie stars, billionaires, and Middle Eastern royalty. And yet, for all her escapades De Carlo is shown as a loyal wife who took the role of Lily Munster to pay the medical bills of stuntman husband Bob Morgan, who was critically injured on the set of How The West Was Won.

Like America's First Family of Fright, all the documentaries were produced by Kevin Burns (Behind the Planet of the Apes, Lost in Space Forever) who, as it turns out, is a huge fan of The Munsters and who has given these documentaries obvious care and affection.

Disc Two

The extra features continue on Disc Two, beginning with My Fair Munster, the pilot that sold the series. Actually, there are at least three versions of the same basic material, all of which appears in some form on this disc. Included is a "Short Version" of the pilot, mostly in color (the film is a little battered, sometimes looking almost like projected 3-D without the glasses) and running 13 minutes. This version was filmed mostly on standing sets and features Gwynne, Lewis, and Owen, but Joan Marshall (Homicidal) as Herman's wife (here called Phoebe) and David "Happy" Derman as Eddie. Also included is a "Long Version" in black and white only, though it runs barely two minutes longer and is not substantially different. Next up is "Presentation #2," which includes the same opening, but uses the show's familiar sets and with De Carlo and Patrick in their familiar roles. Some of the other extras included on this disc feature yet another version. It appears the script was expanded and apparently re-shot because of the subtle makeup changes made as the program was being developed.

Even non-fans might want to look at this material, for it's quite interesting to see, for instance, Gwynne's performance improve with each version, how Lewis nails it the very first time, and how the show's producers smartly softened certain elements for the series. Eddie, for instance, is very Wolf Man-like in the first pilot, and essentially turned into a pointy-eared Beaver Cleaver by the time the series went on the air. Marshall was recast supposedly because she looked too much like Morticia Addams, but actually her Vampira-like manner and unenthused delivery is clearly at odds with the spirit of the show. Like Lewis, De Carlo is nearly perfect from the get-go; her underrated playing was a major asset.

The balance of the disc consists of full versions of various scraps excerpted in the larger documentaries. The Munsters Main Title Sequence is an unaired version of the first season opening, this with Portuguese subtitles. Seven Wonderful Nights is two minutes on the show as seen in a CBS special hosted by Buddy Ebsen to kick off the 1964-65 season. A CBS Network Promo running two minutes plugs the special, as well as other new shows like "My Living Doll" and "Gilligan's Island." Canadians Wayne and Shuster Take an Affectionate Look at the Monsters, which runs five minutes and is mostly a clip from the series featuring Al Lewis.

Marineland Carnival is an excerpted TV special running one minute with the cast in full makeup in the incongruous surroundings of Palos Verdes' Marineland of the Pacific. Big G, Little O is a cereal commercial featuring Gwynne and Patrick in character. Also included is a rather embarrassing Trailer and several TV Spots for the ill-fated Munster, Go Home. Syndication TV Spots round out this material, which runs three minutes.

Four minutes of Universal Newsreels, certainly the death rattle of that type of short, features incredible footage of Universal Studios on the first anniversary of its theme park. MCA heads Jules Stein and Lew Wasserman appear, as do actresses Maureen O'Hara and 'Tippi' Hedren, as well as California Governor Pat Brown. The newsreel offers a fascinating glimpse at the burgeoning amusement center, which includes a Munster attraction. Gwynne and Lewis are seen in other clips, in makeup for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and out of makeup looking exhausted to promote Munster, Go Home.

It's What's Happening, Baby is a weird public service announcement featuring the painfully unamusing Murray the "K" and Gwynne (as Herman) on the beach in what looks like Malibu. We Don't Knock is a news segment of undetermined origin in which Kevin Burns shows off his collection of Munsters memorabilia.

Video & Audio

The four documentaries are on par with other A&E Biography shows. The rare clips are in various condition, but overall look quite good considering. Nothing is worse than fair, and most of it looks good for its age.

Parting Thoughts

With Universal's First Season set of The Munsters due out the same day, on August 24th, Image's The Munsters: America's First Family of Fright is a must-have companion piece. (One would like to see this done with all classic series.) There are certainly those out there who can't stand the show, or prefer the anarchic wit of The Addams Family, aesthetically the Duck Soup to The Munsters' A Night at the Opera. But fans of the series will be delighted at this fun and informative collection, one of the best of its kind.

Postscript: August 9, 2004

Probably due to rights issues, Image cancelled this title little more than two weeks prior to its release date. Whether this material will be issued by another distributor (i.e., Universal) or in another form is unknown. (SG4)

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf -- The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. His new book, Cinema Nippon will be published by Taschen in 2005.