 The Munsters was a comedy classic that transcends time it's almost as popular today as it was when it originally aired and in this video I'm going to take you on a journey through the history and origins of this amazing sitcom But first make sure you hit the subscribe button and the notification bell so you can stay up to date on all our videos Produced by the same company that brought us leave it to beaver The Munsters was a satirical sitcom made to directly compete with ABC's the Adams family for CBS from September 1964 until came to an end on May 12th 1966 the series was made of 70 episodes with two seasons and starred Fred Gwynn Yvonne Decarlo, Al Lewis, Pat Priest, Beverly Owen and Butch Patrick The costumes and appearances of the family members other than Marilyn were based on the classic monsters of Universal Studios films from the 1930s and 1940s you see Universal owned the copyrights to most of the classic monsters such as Dracula the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster the studio had been running their old classic horror films on television since the 1950s and Found that there was still an impressive audience for these decades old monster movies when Conley and Mosher pitched the series idea CBS executives knew that they had one advantage that ABC lacked with the Adams family the ability to use the universal monster characters in The series pilot Lily was actually Phoebe and looked nearly identical to Morticia Adams Phoebe was portrayed by Joan Marshall because of the similarity CBS worried that Phoebe was too similar to Morticia And so they recast her while also changing her appearance and name the new Mrs. Munster was now Lily played by Yvonne Decarlo when Yvonne Decarlo was cast to replace Joan Marshall Tensions ran hot on the set as Fred and Al were worried that due to Yvonne being a serious film actress her acting style Wouldn't fit well with theirs however as time has shown they were dead wrong The series was originally supposed to be made in color But was ultimately filmed in black and white save money and resemble the black and white monster films when production began on the series Producers looked no further than car 54 Where are you stars Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis who perfected their comedy timing on the series from 1961 to? 1963 and had become close friends the family of the monsters was made of Herman who is a Frankenstein like Mortician and head of the household Lily who is the vampire matriarch of the family Grandpa was Lily's father who happens to be a vampire mad scientist and part-time sorcerer. I guess you would call it There's also Eddie who's Lily and Herman's half vampire half werewolf son Then we have Marilyn who's the monsters niece being the daughter of Lily's sister and only normal member of the monsters clan Grandpa Munster's full name was actually Vladimir Dracula Count of Durant, Slovenia and is said to be 378 years old and having been married a hundred and sixty-seven times and even though his wives are all dead He still keeps in touch with them in the series the monsters live at 1313 mockingbird Lane in the city of mockingbird Heights a Fictional suburb in California the running gag of the series is that the family while decidedly odd Considered themselves fairly typical working-class people of the era in series cannon Herman was created in 1815 by Dr. Victor Frankenstein and has a twin brother named Charlie After Herman left Germany. He was adopted by the monsters a noble family living in Shroudshire, England He eventually moved to Transylvania where he met Lily Dracula who has two siblings a werewolf brother and a sister who gave birth to Marilyn in 1865 Herman and Lily were married They soon moved to the United States with grandpa and Herman joined the army to fight in World War two Marilyn is the niece of the monsters clan being the daughter of Lily's sister even though She's referred to as Marilyn Munster her real name is actually Marilyn mundane and in other spinoffs Marilyn Hyde in 1966 the monsters was cancelled around the same time as the Adams family due to the popularity of Batman However, they did end on a high note with the maid for TV movie Munster Go Home in the film the monsters go to England to claim Munster Hall after the death of an old relative Film starred the original black-and-white series cast with the exception of Pat Priest who's replaced by Universal Pictures by its teenage Contract player Debbie Watson priest culminated in the A&E biography Documentary produced on the monsters that she was devastated at the producer's decision not to include the then 29-year-old actress The film gave the fans a chance to see the monsters in color during their original 1960s era run for the first and only time the film also featured the famous Dragula souped up dragster hot rod monsters car Which is where Rob Zombie came up with the idea for his hit song of the same name However, the car used in the dragula music video was not in fact the dragula, but instead the monsters coach as of 2012 this film has only been released on DVD in the USA over time the monsters found lasting success in reruns through syndication an attempt was made in 1973 to bring back the monsters in animated form via a one-hour special for ABC entitled many Monsters as part of the ABC Saturday Superstar movie But failed to get picked up for series in the animated movie only Al Lewis reprised his role in 1981 another made-for-tv movie entitled the monsters revenge reunited three of the original cast members Fred Gwynne, Yvonne Decarlo and Al Lewis in the movie the monsters pay a visit to the wax museum where they take A picture of themselves standing next to their wax replicas, but when the family leaves the statues in the museum Which are actually robots mysteriously come to life and begin wreaking havoc across the city Herman and grandpa are then arrested for various crimes They did not commit and try to clear their names in time for the Halloween celebration at the Munster home in 1988 the sitcom the monsters today hit television and syndication and ran from October 8th, 1988 until May 25th 1991 it starred John Shuck as Herman Lee Mary weather as Lily Jason Marsden as Eddie Hillary Van Dyke as Marilyn and Howard Morton as grandpa in 1995 the monsters were recast for a new made-for-tv film which Fox would air on Halloween night entitled here come the monsters the movie Start Edward Herman as Herman Munster Veronica Hamill as Lily Robert Morse as grandpa Christine Taylor as Marilyn and Matthew Butucci as Eddie it also paid homage to the original series by including a cameo of the four remaining original Munsters actors During a restaurant scene sadly Fred Gwynn passed away just two years earlier from complications due to pancreatic cancer eight days short of his 67th birthday 1996 saw another monsters holiday movie with the monsters scary little Christmas It starts Sam McCurry as Herman and Magnuson as Lily bug haul as Eddie Sandy Baron as grandpa and Elaine Hendricks as Marilyn in 2004 it was announced that Universal had negotiated to deal with the Wayans brothers to produce a contemporary film adaptation of the Monsters that would be PG 13 and yet would remain true to the original and not be an all-black adaptation Sadly the film never materialized as Universal announced in 2012 the property was being developed for television as Mockingbird Lane which aired its pilot on October 11th, 2012 However, it wasn't picked up for series Mockingbird Lane star Jerry O'Connell as Herman Portia de Rossi as Lily charity Wakefield as Marilyn Mason cook as Eddie and Eddie Isard as grandpa in 2017 is announced that Seth Meyers would be developing a modern-day interpretation of the series Which would take place in Brooklyn, New York with the popularity of the monsters Why have their later projects been so forgettable and not very well received the fact is Unlike the Adams family the monsters aren't just the characters But the actors as well when it came to the Adams family each generation had their own specific Adams family But when it came to the monsters the actors were so beloved that no one else could fill their shoes When we think of Herman and grandpa we picture Fred now. That's just the way it is However, one person came incredibly close to filling Al Lewis's shoes in the grim ones to the new batch movie when Robert Prosky was cast as grandpa Fred as he looked and sounded so much like Al Lewis It was mesmerizing so this got me thinking if we could have a monster series today That was true to the original who should we cast for Herman? We would need someone who's got great comedic timing and isn't afraid to be silly and childish We also need someone who's tall Fred Gwen with six foot five at the time he played Herman monster So we need someone pretty close in height so his platforms don't have to be huge for this role I chose Nathan Fillian standing in at six foot two Fillian has proven his comedic and acting chops with roles in castle the rookie firefly and robot chicken I think he'd be the perfect modern Herman for the role of Lily We need someone who won't look at a place in gothic dresses and makeup We also need someone who can be loving but also command a room and feels like a matriarch She also needs to be attractive for this role. I chose modern families Julie Bowen in a perfect world I would give grandpa a sex change as a character and make it grandma Simply because there's one person I think would be perfect fill Al Lewis' shoes But it's a she and that would be Betty White. However, no matter how much we love Betty White We can't change characters like that and stay true to the original for this reason And if he'd actually do a television role, I would choose Bill Murray as grandpa There's just no one else who could fill the role unless we turn grandpa into grandma Ricky Gervais might be able to pull it off But ultimately I feel his style of humor would be too dark for the series As for Eddie, I feel there's really only one choice August Mituro Then there's Marilyn. We need a girl next door type that can be funny But with more of a low-key comedy style for this role I'd choose Sony Nicole Bringus to round it out If you enjoyed that video, make sure you hit the subscribe button right there So you stay up to date on all thanks geek culture Also, go ahead and check out one of these two playlists on the side For more videos just like the one you just watched I'm Shannon from Comic-Con TV, the only place on YouTube where all geek culture collides Take care geeks