User Reviews

While I am a fan of The Munsters tv show, most people (even those who watch it) don't even know about this episode because it was never meant to be broadcast. Before the producers behind The Munsters were sure they had a worthwhile source of entertainment on their hands, they had to pitch a pilot episode to CBS in order to see if the idea was worth pursuing. This pilot episode of the show is interesting for quite a few reasons, the biggest of which is apparent as soon as things start appearing on the screen: it's in color. Anyone who's watched this show before knows it's always in black and white, but that wasn't the original intention. The Munsters was released at a time when color was becoming more common (especially with regards to movies), with the last majority black and white year for film being 1961. Why not take this route when it came to television? People all across America were probably getting slightly tired of staring at gray on their tv's all the time, so I can't blame the show's producers for this move. By the time The Munsters was released for real, they decided to change it to black and white to resemble old horror movies, which I mentioned already in my review of the show proper. Another strange thing about the pilot is that Lily is the only character not to be in it. Some of the other characters are played by different actors, but the characters themselves would still eventually be featured in the show. Not so with Lily. In the pilot, the name of Herman's wife is "Phoebe", and she bears a striking resemblance to Morticia from the Addams Family. This is actually what got the show's producers to change her appearance, as they didn't want to be accused of plagiarism. Both shows are from 1964, but Addams Family aired a week earlier. Another difference in terms of the characters has to do with Herman. He's somewhat skinnier here than he normally is, and is more noticeably downhearted. On the actual show, he's always making jokes and being funny despite how he looks. The Munsters pilot is also much shorter than a typical episode, only being about half the length the show normally is. While the episode itself is fairly nondescript, its plot (technically incomplete) serves as the basis for the episode My Fair Munster. Describing the plot won't do much good here, as it gets cut off at the end anyway and was left unfinished on purpose. The end scene has Grandpa trying to mix a potion in his underground dungeon, and it's really refreshing to see all the colorful vials as we've never seen them before. Overall, there simply isn't much to say about The Munsters pilot episode, other than that fans of the show are no doubt thankful that CBS didn't end up turning it down. Who knows what tv would be like were it not for The Munsters.

Aside from when I was a kid, I am not particularly a fan of "The Munsters". It's a harmless enough show but it never, to me, was as clever or funny as "The Addams Family"--which aired on a competing network back around the same time period. I always thought the humor was a bit broad. However, I am a huge fan of pilot episodes--mostly because it shows a lot in the evolution of the series. Often the pilots are pretty much like subsequent episodes--and sometimes they bear very little resemblance at all (such as the original idea for "The Dick Van Dyke Show"). This pilot for "The Munsters" falls in the middle--with some big differences and some similarities. Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis, the most important two cast members were in the pilot--as was Marilyn #1, Beverly Owen. The house looks the same and the same annoying sound track is present (though it is much more inappropriate--with laughter at times when NOTHING funny is occurring). But, the show is in full color--a huge change. I always used to think that the black & white look was best for this sort of show, but the color was so perfect--they really used an amazing pallet and the colors were just amazing. Also different is Joan Marshall as Herman's wife, 'Phoebe' instead of Yvonne DeCarlo as 'Lily'. The biggest difference, however, is Eddie. The kid playing the original Eddie was simply awful--annoying and hate-worthy. Part of it is the crappy material the kid was given--part of it was that the runt couldn't act. Either way, he was terrible.

As for the show, it begins well--with Marilyn bringing an unsuspecting boyfriend how--with very expected results. I loved the original beginning, though, as the credits rolled they did a slight variation on the usual later opening for the show--but with a MUCH more amorous opening--which I really liked. Then, the plot begins--Herman, Phoebe and Grandpa are worried about Marilyn. With her looks, they figure, she'll never get a man! So, Grandpa goes down to the lab to concoct a love potion....and then the film ends!!! I assume that this was just a test and the film was never meant to be completed. All I know is that at a bit less than 15 minutes, there is no resolution to the show.

Fascinating. Well worth seeing to see how the series changed.