Talk:The Munsters

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Contents 1 Munsters and The Addams Family 2 Allegory 3 Does Eddie change into a werewolf? 4 Necrophilia 5 Silly point 6 More removals 7 Opening statement 8 Merge character pages into main page? 9 Lily or Lillian

[edit] Munsters and The Addams Family

Wasn't the Munsters pretty much a cheap clone of The Addams Family? -- Tarquin

Yes, just as The Monkees imitated The Beatles, or tried to.

Why can't we all just get along?

I preferred to Munsters to the original Addams family, I don't get the cheap clone bit. The new series was dire though

The humor is a bit different, and whereas the Addams were odd humans, the Munsters really are a promethean, a vampire, a vampiress, and a werewolf, respectively.

Personally, I always thought the chief difference between the two families was that the Addams were monstruous humans, while the Munsters were ver humane monsters.

[edit] Allegory

The Munsters was a veiled allegory for the plight of Jews and other minorities in America. The Munsters looked different from the majority and had seemingly peculiar habits, traditions, customs, and so forth. Yet they proudly considered themselves an eminently normal, respectable, American bourgeois family. They did not regard their strange ways as in anyway incongruent with the American Way of Life. Indeed, they were essentially benevolent; they never hurt anyone and treated others with respect. Uncle Herman was a gentle, lovable individual. Even though, due to discrimination (against the freakish, i.e., minorities) he could never advance professionally in his menial job at the funeral parlor, he resolutely refused to become embittered or even to acknowledge the truth. He believed in the System and cooperated with it; even when he was arrested he offered no resistance, and it never even crossed his mind to use his enormous strength to threaten the police and forcibly get his way.

Rejected and scorned by ordinary people, who either hated them or feared them for no reason save superficial appearances, the Munsters coped by engaging in extensive denial, doggedly clinging to the belief that they were really no different than anyone else. The inexplicable anomaly of Marilyn caps it all off: she is not only "normal," but conforms to mainstream America's conception of WASP beauty and appropriate looks--she is sweet, pleasant, and blonde. The rest of the family thinks she is strange, when in fact she is "normal." If you examine the characters' behavior closely, you can see that they resolutely stand for what we today call "family values." They eat meals around the family table, express concern about their son's welfare and social (mal)adjustment, worry about fitting into the neighborhood, and so forth. Herman tells Eddie to be respectful. He is the typical all-American dad who sees himself as breadwinner and still happily takes orders from his wife. The fact that they cannot fit in despite their best efforts makes it all the more poignant. --bamjd3d

Jews, hippies, anybody really! That's why it was popular in the 60s. How better to spoof how cool it was becoming to be different?

This is, if I recall, emphasized in an early episode. In one scene, the Munsters' neighbors fret about the declining property values since "those people" moved-in. Of course, it's difficult to fully accept the series' "enlightenment" considering Grandpa's infamous "wetback" slur. A reflection of its time, no doubt, but distracting nonetheless: http://www.tv.com/the-munsters/show/589/a-racial-slur-from-grandpa!/topic/58860-210474/msgs.html

JJP

Not sure if I would agree that it was based on the plight of Jews in America - especially since the average Jewish person (yes, even in the 1960's) doesn't look anything different than any other white person - unless you are one of those people who think that all jews look like the hasidim. I could buy your explanation with other minorities though such as African Americans and Hispanics. I just find it very interesting how you focused on Jews.151.204.145.212 00:46, 13 January 2007 (UTC)AR

[edit] Does Eddie change into a werewolf?

No, he turns into a guitar player for "Dingos Ate My Baby". ;) Trekphiler 23:23, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Necrophilia

I've heard Lily & Hermann were the first TV couple seen to share a bed, which was fairly revolutionary at the time. Trekphiler 23:23, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Lily and Herman were just one of about five different TV couples that share the distinction of being the very first couple seen in bed together on TV. Fred & Wilma Flintstone was also the first, and so was Fred & Ethel Mertz, and just ask Florence Henderson, and she'll gladly perpetuate the misinformation that Carol & Mike Brady were first. The true distinction actually belongs to some long forgotten sitcom from the early 50s, I believe. There's no point in correcting it here or in the Flintstones entry, though, because someone else changes it back. The important thing is whether the couple was shown on bed in 1955 (Fred & Ethel) or 1970 (Mike & Carol) or any time in between, they're all first in my book! --TP

The first show where the couple had a double bed was Mary Kay and Johnny. Format 07:16, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Silly point

This section seems very silly: "No explanation is ever given as to why Eddie is a werewolf, as he is the son of a Frankenstein-esqe monster and a vampire. It is assumed that this was done for the sake comedy without much thought about plot continuity, but many fans have postulated that perhaps either Grandpa was once married to a werewolf (making Lily half-werewolf, half-vampire) or that Eddie was simply bitten by a werewolf at one time. This question was addressed in an episode of the Simpsons in which Butch Patrick was a guest star."

Afterall this show is a sitcom/fantasy. Nothing in the show is meant to really make sense, and it is full of things like magic spells and potions which are pure fantasy, and even different weather conditions over the Munster home. Just because the show mixes together various fiction and fantasy elements shouldn't really be an issue and barely needs to be mentioned. Having a werewolf son of a vampire-like mother and a frankenstein's monster type father hardly causes "continuity" problems because werewolf, vampire and frankenstein figures are all pure fantasy to begin with. Alleged fan postulation sounds like weasal words. Which fans? Is this postulation documented?? Format 04:13, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Deleted this entry entirely. As the werewolf page states, werewolves transform either through their own will or via magic or a curse. Since The Munsters frequently featured magic spells and potions and these were ever-present and consistent elements in the show's story-world, Eddie could easily have partaken in such a magic spell, and really there's nothing special or notable about it. Format 02:45, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Regardless of the accuracy of the comments made on _The Simpsons_, the fact that they mentioned the show is notable as a pop culture reference. I'd rework the deleted passage as being about the reference first, and perhaps mention the "werewolf, son of a Frankenstein monster and vampire" as being the joke they told on the show. Croctotheface 09:10, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Since Herman's made up of lots of different parts, surely his genetic material could have come from a werewolf that died and was added to the monster, and Eddie's clearly a vampire when he's in his 'human' form, so he's a vampire-werewolf. Makes sense to me.

[edit] More removals

Why all the persistemt chat about why Marilyn has the name Munster or calls Grandpa, "Grandpa"? For all we know, she has lived with the Munsters since birth, so would readily have done both these things. Who really cares about her name? Maybe ghoul families have different ways of passing down their last names!? In a show where bizarre and inconsistent fiction and fantasy elements were the norm, who really cares about Marilyn's last name!!??!! The change to Marilyn's bloodlines in a later film can be mentioned (it was probably a scripting mistake), but we can't include fan postulation. Format 05:52, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

According to her bio section, Marilyn is Lilly's sister's daughter. Her grandfather would (probably) be Lilly's father, Grandpa. Nothing strange in that part. Jordan Brown 19:16, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Opening statement

I think the intro to the article is a bit off. It's not that they don't realize they're different, it's that they don't realize they're _strange_. They believe they're perfectly normal, and unique in their neighborhood in being so.. that they're superior to the other 'ugly' (normal) people and their silly mixed-up ways, but they're too polite to act that way.

[edit] Merge character pages into main page?

Of the five main characters, two (Herman and Marilyn) redirect back to this article and three (Lilly, Grandpa, Eddie) have tiny stub articles with no more information than is presented here.

Seems to me that those stub articles should be eliminated in favor of redirects, moving whatever additional information they might have. Jordan Brown 19:23, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Exactly. I put tag on them for a starter.-- Matthead ^discuß!     O       14:51, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Agreed........good plan to make them redirects. PKT 15:12, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I have completed the merging. I suggest additional trimming on the Lily section, as it has way too much info, and the pictures for Grandpa and Eddie need to be better formatted, but the info merging and redirecting is done. In addition, I have cleaned up and eliminated the trivia section. The trivia is till in there, it has just been integrated.TheGreenFaerae 08:30, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

The problem is the other characters need their info expanded, not Lily's depleted. Eddie in particular deserves more info.".Matthew." 06:48, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lily or Lillian

Interesting, because I always thought her name was Lillian - or were both names used in the series?151.204.145.212 00:54, 13 January 2007 (UTC)AR