![]() When Connelly and Mosher pitched their series idea, CBS executives knew that they had one advantage that ABC lacked with The Addams Family: the ability to use the Universal monster characters. 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. Universal Studios also owned the copyrights to most of the classic monsters, including Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s monster. Universal Studios owned Universal Television, which owned The Munsters. THE CHOICE OF MONSTER CHARACTERS WAS STRICTLY INTENTIONAL (AND ROYALTY-FREE). All in all, a nice slice of down-home Americana. The mother was caring and nurturing, even if she did serve rolled hyena foot roast for dinner, and an aging grandparent (who had a laboratory in the dungeon) lived with the family. ![]() They didn’t want children to be frightened of the characters (as they might be when watching Frankenstein or Dracula during the Saturday afternoon “Creature Feature”), so they made Herman a typical working dad who carried a lunch box to work every day and who imparted homespun wisdom to his young son. They used this same philosophy when they created a sitcom about a suburban blue-collar family that just happened to be comprised of monsters. Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher’s credo while producing and writing for the classic family sitcom Leave it to Beaver was “write what you know.” Between them they had six children and they based a lot of their plots on their own home lives. ![]() THE SHOW WAS CREATED BY THE SAME TEAM BEHIND LEAVE IT TO BEAVER. Here are some behind-the-scenes facts about the goings-on at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. The wacky antics of childlike patriarch Herman and his unusual (but not really scary) family originally ran for two seasons (70 episodes), but has remained on the air in some form ever since in syndication. The Munsters premiered on September 24, 1964, and was an immediate ratings success.
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