The Best Episodes of The Munsters

Leo Durocher, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, needs a power hitter for his team. When he gets conked on the head by one of Herman’s line drives from seven blocks away, he believes he has his man. He tracks Herman down and asks him to try out for the team. After Herman demonstrates his powerful force as a batter, Durocher comments: “I don’t know whether to sign him with the Dodgers or send him to Vietnam.”

Director: Jerry Paris

Writer: Bob Mosher

Herman is struck in the head by a bolt of lightning from one of Grandpa’s experiments. It causes him to become so disfigured that he ends up resembling officer Francis Muldoon from CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU? (or how Fred Gwynne looks without makeup). Lily hopes to restore Herman’s old face with plastic surgery.

Director: Gene Reynolds

Writer: Richard Baer

When Eddie reads a school composition entitled “My Parents – An Average American Family” to his class, his teacher believes the boy is exhibiting symptoms of an overactive imagination. The school principal suggests that Eddie’s wild exaggerations might be motivated by an underprivileged home life. It is decided that a visit to the Munster home is in order.

Director: Ezra Stone

Writer: Bob Mosher

Eddie, under the impression that his father is the greatest driver in the world, volunteers Herman in a drag-strip competition. After souping up the Munster Coach and dressing up like Marlon Brando in his Wild One days, Herman loses his car in a drag race. In a rematch, Grandpa races in the Dragula, a motorized coffin on wheels.

Director: Norman Abbott

Writer: Bob Mosher

Herman gets promoted to hearse driver and has to renew his driver’s license. This requires him to take a road test, which he fails. Grandpa convinces him that he’d have better luck taking the test in a one-horse town. He turns out to be extremely correct.

Director: Ezra Stone

Writer: N/A

Eddie borrows a tape recorder belonging to the disc-jockey father of one of his friends. Herman records a version of DRY BONES, accompanying himself on the guitar. The following day, the disc jockey plays the song on his radio show – and it becomes an instant hit. Herman identifies himself as the mystery singer and quickly turns into an egomaniacal would-be celebrity. Grandpa comes to the rescue with his Nothin’ Muffins.

Director: Ezra Stone

Writer: Bob Mosher

With inheritance money from Cousin Wolverine, Grandpa and Herman develop an invention for transporting an electrical current without wires. Lily and Marilyn use the rest of the money to operate their own beauty salon. Both endeavors turn out to be disasters, causing various parties to take legal action.

Director: Ezra Stone

Writer: N/A

Eddie gives Marilyn a ring he found in the attic as a birthday present. Grandpa recognizes it as the Fregosi Emerald, a centuries-old ring with a Transylvanian curse. Herman doesn’t believe in such a silly superstition; he is intent on proving that the ring does not bring about bad luck. He quickly regrets trying to do this.

Director: Ezra Stone

Writer: Richard Baer

Eddie, an avid fan of ghoulish TV host Zombo, becomes the winner of the “Why I Like Zombo Contest” and gets to be on the Zombo show. Herman becomes jealous of Eddie’s new hero and wants to appear equally outlandish. But his efforts to impress his son fail. Eddie eventually learns that Zombo is not a real person but a phony character played by an actor.

Director: Ezra Stone

Writer: N/A

Herman buys a convertible for Marilyn from a fly-by-night used-car dealer named Fair Deal Dan. Once he gets it home, it explodes into a piece of junk. Herman later finds out that the car is a stolen piece of junk when he is placed under arrest.

Director: Ezra Stone

Writer: Tom Adair

Herman wants to go to a reunion with his army friends. Unfortunately he can’t seem fit into his uniform. Lily doesn’t want him to go, but decides to make a deal with him. If he can lose enough weight to fit into the uniform, he can go...

Director: Norman Abbott

Writer: N/A

Herman goes out each night in order to practice becoming a real detective. Lily thinks he’s having an affair with another woman and hires the same detective agency Herman is working for to have Herman followed. In a Plot twist Herman gets the assignment to follow himself.

Director: Joseph Pevney

Writer: Bob Mosher

A pair of con artists want to stage a phony accident as an insurance company scam. All they need is someone to play the part of the victim – preferably a big stupid guy with a face that looks as if it’s been in an accident. When they stumble upon Herman, they realize they’ve found the perfect guy. Posing as a couple of movie producers, they get him to sign an accident policy by pretending it’s a movie contract for a remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY. As the crooks devise various ways to kill off their leading man, Herman becomes a stuck-up actor.

Director: Jerry Paris

Writer: Bob Mosher

Herman purchases ten acres in Happy Holiday Valley through a magazine ad. It turns out to be a patch of wasteland in a broken-down ghost town, so the Munsters absolutely adore it. This makes things difficult for the fly-by-night salespeople who get a better offer for the property and want to buy it back.

Director: Ezra Stone

Writer: N/A

Herman saves the life of a young boy, Galen Livingston Stewart, by bending the bars his head is stuck between. They immediately become close friends. The only problem is that Galen’s parents think Uncle Herman is a figment of the boy’s imagination. They take him to a psychiatrist, played by Harvey Korman with a broad German accent.

Director: Norman Abbott

Writer: Bob Mosher

A massive argument erupts between Grandpa and Herman after Herman accidentally destroys a go-cart the two of them constructed for Eddie. Since Grandpa claims to own half of the house, Herman draws a white line down its center and insists that Grandpa remain on his side of the line.

Director: Ezra Stone

Writer: N/A

To cure Herman of his hiccoughs, Grandpa puts him into a trance with the Transylvanian Brain Freeze. Meanwhile, a couple of fraternity pledges are sent to spend a night in the Munster house as part of their initiation. Thinking that sleeping Herman is a dummy, they bring him to a sorority house, where he awakens from his trance.

Director: Ezra Stone

Writer: N/A

Grandpa mixes up a love potion designed to make the opposite sex fall madly for anyone who drinks it.

Director: David Alexander

Writer: Norm Liebmann, Ed Haas

Herman is suffering from insomnia. The only thing that will make him sleep is a late-night walk in the park. A 'monster' type creature has been spotted in the park at night and Lily would prefer if Herman would stay home. What she doesn’t know is that the monster is Herman!

Director: Norman Abbott

Writer: Norm Liebmann, Ed Haas

Herman and Grandpa overhear Lily and Marilyn talking and somehow get the idea that Lily is pregnant. What’s really happening is Dr. Dudley’s son, Elmer, is coming to stay with the Munsters while Dr. Dudley and his wife are on vacation.

Director: Norman Abbott

Writer: Bob Mosher, Joe Connelly

Thanks to a recommendation from an investigator of The Board of Education, Eddie is in danger of being expelled from school. The only way he can stay is if he makes an excellent project for the school’s Science Fair, so Grandpa helps him make a robot.

Director: Earl Bellamy

Writer: N/A

Herman becomes a professional wrestler called The Masked Marvel. After he shows that he has superhuman strength to a friend of Eddie’s who is the son of a pro wrestling manager. Herman uses the extra cash to save for Eddie’s college education. However Herman is so nice and gullible his opponents can take advantage of him.

Director: Earl Bellamy

Writer: Bob Mosher

Marilyn has insomnia and in a attempt to cure it, Grandpa accidentally gives her a Sleeping Beauty potion instead. Now Marilyn can’t wake up unless she has been kissed by a prince. Lily and Herman advertise for a prince in classified section the newspaper, but this only attracts a couple of out-of-work actors. Meanwhile, Grandpa is negotiating with an oil company for the rights to use his magic pill that turns water into gasoline.

Director: Norman Abbott

Writer: Tom Adair

Herman goes to the dean’s office of Marilyn’s college to straighten out a tuition matter. When searching for the office, he wanders into the gym and is mistaken for a student basketball star who is expected for a tryout. Herman amazes the coach with his superhuman abilities and is offered a contract to play for the college team.

Director: Earl Bellamy

Writer: Bob Mosher

When Herman fools around with a ham radio in Grandpa’s dungeon, he thinks he’s contacted Martians. But he is actually speaking to two kids who are fooling around with walkie-talkies and just pretending to be Martians. The kids think Herman is also a kid, and a stupid one too.

Director: Norman Abbott

Writer: Bob Mosher