Tuesday 13 November 2018

A House Divided


A House Divided

There are only so many plots in drama, according to some, but the same must therefore be true of comedy. (There's also the comment that history doesn't always repeat itself, but that historians often do, although that's an argument for another day)


We recently did a review video of the 'Steptoe And Son' episode 'Divided We Stand', and went into it in as much detail as we could muster, thinking that would be our final word on the subject.

But we were going through the list of episodes of 'The Munsters' to decide which episodes to take a look at for the article in 'Round The Archives' Episode 28, when Lisa noticed the story 'A House Divided' (7th April 1966, written by Dick Conway), which seemed a trifle familiar from its description.


Herman and Grandpa have been working on a go-cart for Eddie's birthday, but a test-drive goes terribly wrong, and Herman wrecks it beyond repair. Grandpa and Herman fall out and, after it transpires that half of the house is in Grandpa's name, a white line is painted down the house dividing it in two.

Herman will stay in his half with Grandpa confined to the other. Is this beginning to ring a few bells?
There's a scene involving the telly and even the bath has been divided, with Grandpa denied access to the hot water tap.


Fed up with all this nonsense, Lily demonstrates how daft the situation is by doing the same to the dining table.

Now, we're not suggesting that Galton and Simpson were necessarily regular watchers of 'The Munsters', but if we replace Herman with Harold and Grandpa with Albert, we're not a million miles away from the events of 'Divided We Stand'...


But then we have to ask the question about the 'Z Cars' story 'The Spike' from 1973, which apparently concerns a fiddle going on at Munster House, which conjures up all sorts of images of 'Carry On Screaming' in our heads...

That's the trouble with doing all this digging late at nights!


(Written by Andrew Trowbridge, with thanks to everyone who helped answer our questions about UK transmissions)

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