Munster Masquerade

Munster Masquerade

Well, we started out with two bags of sweets yesterday morning, and despite my 'GRONFF!!!'-ing and 'SLOO!!'-ing in last night's video, the contents are are still intact.

This situation is expected to change over the next few days, however...

We're still deciding exactly which episodes to watch for our coverage of 'The Munsters' and 'The Addams Family'. We'll concentrate on the original 60s episodes, but some extra background material never hurts, so we'll glance at the various other versions and even watch some 'Car 54, Where Are You?'. Never let it be said that we shirk our duties!

But having done 'The Addams Family Goes To School' (18th September 1964), it should come as no surprise that we also took a look at the first episode of 'The Munsters', in the form of 'Munster Masquerade' (24th September 1964).

It's perhaps a bit strange that having had several attempt at making the pilot episode ('My Fair Munster'), the production team actually launch with 'Masquerade' instead, but there you go.

One thing that will be interesting about covering some US shows in 'Round The Archives' is that some of the more obscure cultural references will either completely pass us by, or need a bit more in the way of fact checking.

Marilyn dressing as Priscilla (Alden nee Mullins - though sadly nothing to do with Talfryn Thomas from 'Spearhead From Space') caused us a bit of head-scratching, but Lisa's eye for detail headed us in a Puritan direction, allowing us to make the link with the ship 'Mayflower', oddly taking us back to the later chapters of 'Charlie And The Great Glass Elevator'...

Lisa also talks about the use of the word 'Starring' in the title sequence, as only Fred Gwynne is awarded that honour, despite Yvonne De Carlo appearing first. Full marks also for the editing in this sequence, as they get exactly the right frame of Butch Patrick doing that thing with his eyes.

And there's also some dramatic stunt work from the feline branch of HAVOC as Martha Cat launches herself off the back of the sofa, thankfully landing safely, in case any viewers are concerned.

Our video about 'The Munsters' can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)