Updated: January 27, 2024

The Munsters was developed, written, and produced by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, both writers for The Amos & Andy Show who teamed up to create, write and produce Leave It to Beaver. The Munsters debuted on CBS on September 24, 1964 and completed its original prime-time run on September 1, 1966.

Arriving in American homes at a time when classic horror characters were in vogue with audiences, The Munsters celebrated the macabre humor of ghoulish creatures with wisecracking dialogue, outrageous visual gags and fast motion photography. The series revolves around a loving family of misfits who reside in a spooky cobweb-filled house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Mockingbird Heights. The head of the family, kindhearted Herman Munster ( Fred Gwynne ), bears a close resemblance to the Frankenstein monster as originally portrayed by Boris Karloff. His wife Lily ( Yvonne DeCarlo ) resembles Vampira, TV's creepy-but-sexy hostess of horror. Lily's father, Grandpa ( Al Lewis ), is actually Count Dracula from Transylvania. Herman and Lily's son, Eddie ( Butch Patrick), looks like a junior wolfman. The final member of their household is Herman and Lily's niece, Marilyn ( played first by Beverly Owen and then by Pat Priest ), who is considered the ugly duckling of the family although she is a beautiful, blonde, all-American teenager.

Just as important as the characters are the family cars, Herman's Munster Koach and Grandpa's Dragula. These vehicles were designed by custom car King George Barris, who also created the Batmobile and the Monkee Mobile. All four of these became big-selling toy models when their shows were first broadcast. Episodes of The Munsters generally deal with the difficulty of trying to be a solid, upstanding family of decent citizens when everyone in the outside world reacts to you with horror. The Munsters is similar to The Addams Family, a contemporary series about a bizarre family.

Clearly, American television was trying to make a statement about nonconformism, an issue which would become increasingly important as the counterculture moved into mainstream America during the late 1960's. Shown here are just a few of the many collectibles released during the TV series.