[.ca] The Munsters: The Complete First Season

From Amazon.com:
It has its own stormy weather and fire-breathing housepet named Spot, but the mansion at 1313 Mockingbird Heights is otherwise like any other American sitcom home. This is the address of the Munsters, the family that for two seasons, 1964-66, found a permanent place in pop culture--if not "monster" success. Developed by Leave It to Beaver team Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, the series was a standard sitcom (complete with the same awful canned laughter), except that the Ward Cleaver character was a reanimated corpse. Dad Herman (Fred Gwynne) was a Frankenstein's monster, mom Lily (Yvonne DeCarlo) and Grandpa (Al Lewis) were vampires, and son Eddie (Butch Patrick) a little wolf-boy. Munster niece Marilyn was inexplicably normal, which prompted much worry from the other members of the family (she was played in early episodes by Beverly Owen, who left to get married, and then by Pat Priest). The plots revolve around typically tortured sitcom situations: Herman must lose weight to fit into his old Army uniform, Herman has insomnia, Herman takes dance lessons from a crooked instructor. (As that list would suggest, 6'5" Fred Gwynne's wonderfully agile slapstick and Borscht Belt comedy made him the center of the show.) What distinguished The Munsters from Father Knows Best was the Universal horror-movie lineage and the ghoulish one-liners (the latter growing a bit tedious after a while). The three-disc DVD has all 38 first-season episodes in excellent transfers, a 15-minute pilot with different actors as Lily and Eddie, and no extras or commentaries. High points include "Hot Rod Herman," which features the tricked-out Munster Koach and Drag-u-la (boss wagons both), and "Eddie's Nickname," the one where Grandpa gives Eddie a potion that causes the boy's beard to grow (a weirdly memorable image, if you're a kid). The show was either pure kiddie farce or a radical comment on the absurdly unreal world of sitcoms. Either way, if you grew up with them as an alternate TV family, you can't help but have warm feelings for the Munsters, as clammy as they are. --Robert Horton

MUNSTER THE MAGNIFICENT.......BRING ON SEASON TWO!!:
VERY FEW SHOWS THAT ARE 40 YEARS OLD CAN ATTRACT NEW LEGIONS OF FANS,BUT THE MUNSTER'S HAVE DONE THAT.THE MUNSTERS AIRED 70 EPISODES DURING THEIR BRIEF 2 YEAR RUN.SO MANY OF THE PREVIOUS REVIEWS ARE DONE IN ANTICIPATION OF THE DVD RELEASE,BUT NOT MUCH HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT THE SET ITSELF.WHAT YOU GET IS THE MUNSTER'S IN THEIR ORIGINAL BROADCAST ASPECT RATIO OF 1.33:1 WITH THE UNAIRED PILOT IN COLOR AND THE FIRST 38 EPISODES OF THE SHOW IN BLACK & WHITE.OTHER THAN A FEW MINOR PROBLEMS,THE SET IS WELL DONE AND UNIVERSAL SHOULD BE COMMENDED FOR GIVING US THE MUNSTER'S SEASON ONE.THE SOUND IN DOLBY DIGITAL 2.0 IS VERY CLEAN AND WELL DONE.CONSIDERING THAT THIS SHOW IS 40 YEARS OLD,THE PICTURE QUALITY IS SUPERIOR TO ANY OF MUNSTER'S EPISODES I HAVE SEEN BEFORE.THERE ARE SOME VERY MINOR SPECKS AND DEBRIS,BUT REALLY NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT.THERE ARE ALSO A NUMBER OF SCENES IN VARIOUS EPISODES WHERE THE PICTURE CONTRAST IS ON THE DARK SIDE AND IT'S HARD TO MAKE OUT SOME OF THE IMAGES OR FINE DETAIL IN THE SCENE.OVERALL THESE MINOR PROLEMS DO NOT TAKE AWAY FROM THE GREAT QUALITY OF THIS SET.THE PACKAGING IS WELL DONE WITH NICE ARTWORK THROUGHOUT.THE 38 EPISODES ARE ON DUAL SIDED DISC'S.WHILE I'M NOT A BIG FAN OF THIS METHOD,IT DOES KEEP THE COST DOWN.AFTER SEEING THE ORIGINAL PILOT IN COLOR THE STUDIO MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE TO FILM THE SHOW IN BLACK & WHITE.OVERALL THE MUNSTER'S SEASON ONE IS HILARIOUS AND QUIRKY FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY.THERE'S REALLY NOTHING TO THINK ABOUT ,GRAB YOUR SET TODAY!!.

Welcome back to 1313 mockingbird lane...:
Nice to see the munsters episodes again. The shows sooooo funny!! Herrman especially!! The box with the dvd box inside is great. And the 15 minute unaired pilot is included and in color! This is a must buy for your dvd collection!!

The Munsters-Still great family fare!!:
Welcome to 1964.And one of the "in" things that year for kids was monsters.All sorts and shapes could be seen on the airwaves in reruns but especially those of the old Hollywood variety like Dracula,the Mummy and of course Frankenstein.Monster magazines like "Famous Monsters" was in its' heyday and Aurora the model makers issued its' officiially licensed versions of many of them. Thrown into this mix was TVs' takes on the fad and one of the best was The Munsters. It had a wonderful cast,was wonderfully scripted and very well acted throughout its' too short run.Family shows were prevelant on TV at this time like Father Knows Best,The Danny Thomas Show,The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Donna Reed Show.The latter of which,if memory serves correctly,was the inspiration for the Munsters opening sequence. Having viewed the entire three disc first season set I am amazed at how well the humour of the series still stands up today.In fact it's humour and other basic qualities are something that remind me,to my great chagrin,of something that is completely devoid in TV today.Good FAMILY entertainment.Something everyone could watch and enjoy. Another aspect of The Munsters I must mention is that after viewing this show again for the first time in about 40 years(has it been that long??)I am amazed at how well Fred Gwynne did at his part.With what surely must have been a long and gruelling day from the application of his make up to his performance in front of the hot studio lights,etc he still managed to bring off a wonderful performance and made it look so effortless.A real trouper and a testament to his acting skills. The entire cast in fact seemed to bond together quite well and quickly as this show seemed to hit the ground running from the start. I urge all parents out there that are looking for wholesome and family oriented shows that the ENTIRE family can sit and watch together to get this set and the next season that will accompany it in time.And start an NEW old tradition.

Good family fun.:
First shown on American TV in the 60's, the Munsters is about a family who the outside world views as odd to say the least, while they themselves see 'normal' looking people as strange. Herman Munster is a Frankenstein look-alike, wife Lily and her father, Grandpa, are vampires while son Eddie is a werewolf. Also living in their mausoleum type house is Lily's beautiful niece Marilyn whom the Munster's pity as they see her looks as 'unfortunate'. This DVD set features all 36 episodes from season 1 and is presented on 6 discs. It is a typical comedy of that era, simple family values and good clean fun with the underlying message that it is ok to be different. The set features no extras, not even subtitles for the hard of hearing hence the four stars rating rather than five. It doesn't look as if there has been much cleaning up of the picture either, although overall the quality is not bad. It's a shame more effort wasn't put into the DVD release but that aside, it is a worthwhile addition to the collection of any Munsters fan.

The Munsters on DVD:
What can I say? This is the second-best t.v. show ever. The Beverly Hillbillies comes in first. I saw all of the original series as a kid, first run then as re-runs. I last saw the Munsters over 10 years ago, and got to tape all but 2 or 3 episodes. This set is a welcome addition to my collection. The terrible pilot included! I've been watching this boxset with my 10 year old daughter, and she laughs almost as much as me. Although I have to explain the odd play on words to her, it's still highly amusing. We can't wait for the second series to be released.