Several movies based on The Munsters have been released, three featuring original cast members.
The Munsters go to England to claim Munster Hall after the death of an old relative. The film starred the original black & white series's cast, with the exception of Pat Priest who was replaced by Universal Pictures by its teenage contract player Debbie Watson. Priest commented in the A&E Biography documentary produced on The Munsters by the A&E (Arts and Entertainment) cable TV network, that she was devastated at the producers' decision not to include the then-29-year-old actress. The film gave fans a chance to see the Munsters in color during their original 1960s era run for the first and only time. The film also featured the famous "DRAG-U-LA" souped up dragster/hot rod Munsters car. As of 2020, this film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray and streaming services.
A one-hour animated TV-movie that was part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie ran on the Saturday Morning circuit. Al Lewis provided the voice of Grandpa. As of 2020, this film has yet to be released on official home media but is available on streaming services.
A made-for-TV movie. The owner of a wax museum creates robots of Herman and Grandpa and uses them as part of a plot to rob a traveling Egyptian antiquities exhibit. Gwynne, De Carlo, and Lewis recreated their roles, but Eddie and Marilyn were played by K.C. Martel and Jo McDonnell respectively. As of 2020, this film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray and streaming services.
Another made-for-TV movie. The family searches for Herman's brother-in-law Norman Hyde, only to find out that he has unknowingly turned himself into Brent Jekyll, who is running for Congress. An all-new cast now plays the main characters (see chart below), although the film features a cameo scene of De Carlo, Lewis, Priest, and Patrick (Gwynne died in 1993) as a bickering family in a restaurant who were served by (the new) Herman Munster who was a waiter. Herman Munster is played by actor Edward Herrmann. It has been released on VHS but is out of print and hard to find. This film was released on DVD, but only for region 2, [1] and on streaming services.
Grandpa has accidentally captured Santa Claus and two of his elves, while Lily is trying to win the local neighborhood Christmas home decorating competition. Meanwhile, Marilyn has invited family and friends from the "old country" to stay for Christmas. Despite being released only a year after Here Come the Munsters, the film features an entirely different cast. This film has been released on DVD and streaming services.
In 2021, Rob Zombie was hired to write and direct a Munsters movie. In October 2021, Zombie released a photo confirming some of the cast being that of Jeff Daniel Phillips (Herman Munster), Sheri Moon Zombie (Lily Munster) and Dan Roebuck (The Count). [2] The film was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital formats on September 27, 2022, and also available to stream on Netflix.
Film | Year | Character | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Herman Munster | Lily Munster | Grandpa / The Count | Eddie Munster | Marilyn Munster | ||
Munster, Go Home! | 1966 | Fred Gwynne | Yvonne De Carlo | Al Lewis | Butch Patrick | Debbie Watson |
The Mini-Munsters (animated, voices only) | 1973 | Richard Long | Cynthia Adler | Bobby Diamond | ||
The Munsters' Revenge | 1981 | Fred Gwynne | Yvonne De Carlo | K. C. Martel | Jo McDonnell | |
Here Come the Munsters | 1995 | Edward Herrmann | Veronica Hamel | Robert Morse | Mathew Botuchis | Christine Taylor |
The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas | 1996 | Sam McMurray | Ann Magnuson | Sandy Baron | Bug Hall | Elaine Hendrix |
The Munsters | 2022 | Jeff Daniel Phillips | Sheri Moon Zombie | Dan Roebuck |
The Munsters is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters. The series stars Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein's monster Herman Munster, Yvonne De Carlo as his vampire wife Lily, Al Lewis as Grandpa the aged vampire Count Dracula, Beverley Owen as their niece Marilyn, and Butch Patrick as their werewolf-like son Eddie. The family pet, named "Spot", was a fire-breathing dragon.
Frederick Hubbard Gwynne was an American actor, artist, and author widely known for his roles in the 1960s television sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later film roles in The Cotton Club, Pet Sematary, and My Cousin Vinny.
House of 1000 Corpses is a 2003 American black comedy horror film written, co-scored, and directed by Rob Zombie in his directorial debut, and the first film in the Firefly film series. It stars Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon, Karen Black, Rainn Wilson, Chris Hardwick, Tom Towles, Erin Daniels, Jennifer Jostyn, Walton Goggins, and Dennis Fimple in his final role. The plot centers on a group of teenagers who are kidnapped and tortured by a psychotic family during Halloween after traveling across the country to write a book.
Herman Munster is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom The Munsters, originally played by Fred Gwynne. The patriarch of the Munster household, Herman is one of Frankenstein’s monsters, created in a lab in Germany in the nineteenth century.
Butch Patrick is an American actor and musician. Beginning his professional acting career at the age of seven, Patrick is perhaps best known for his role as child werewolf Eddie Munster on the CBS comedy television series The Munsters from 1964 to 1966 and in the 1966 feature film Munster, Go Home!, and as Mark on the ABC Saturday morning series Lidsville from 1971 to 1973.
Daniel James Roebuck is an American actor and writer. In film, he is known for his roles as Deputy Marshal Robert Biggs in The Fugitive (1993) and its spin-off U.S. Marshals (1998), as well as Mr. Banks in Agent Cody Banks (2003) and Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004). He has appeared in numerous Rob Zombie-directed films, his roles including Morris Green in The Devil's Rejects (2005) and 3 from Hell (2019); Lou Martini in Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009); and The Count in The Munsters (2022). Roebuck has worked with director and producer Don Coscarelli, appearing in Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), John Dies at the End (2012), and Phantasm: Ravager (2016).
Sheri Moon Zombie is an American actress, model, dancer, and fashion designer.
The Munsters Today is an American sitcom and a revival of the original 1964–66 sitcom The Munsters that aired in syndication from October 8, 1988, to May 25, 1991.
Lily Munster is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom, The Munsters, originally played by Yvonne De Carlo. The matriarch of the Munster household, Lily is a vampire. The role was later played by Lee Meriwether in The Munsters Today and by Portia de Rossi in the unsold 2012 pilot Mockingbird Lane.
Marilyn Munster is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom The Munsters, originally played by Beverley Owen and later by Pat Priest. In the original series, she is the daughter of Lily Munster's sister, and is therefore the granddaughter of Grandpa Munster and the cousin of Eddie Munster. She was played by Hilary Van Dyke in the 1988 series The Munsters Today.
Munster, Go Home! is a 1966 American comedy film based on the 1960s family sitcom The Munsters. It was directed by Earl Bellamy, who also directed a number of episodes in the series. The film was produced immediately after the television series completed filming its original run; it included the original cast with the exception of Marilyn. Marilyn was played by Debbie Watson, replacing Pat Priest from the series.
Here Come the Munsters is a science fiction comedy television film based on the 1960s CBS television series, The Munsters and was directed by Robert Ginty and written by Bill Prady, Jim Fisher, and Jim Staahl. The film stars Edward Herrmann, Christine Taylor, Veronica Hamel and Mathew Botuchis as the Munster family and tells the story of their arrival in the US from Transylvania. It aired on Fox on October 31, 1995.
The Munsters' Revenge is a 1981 American made-for-television science fiction comedy film based on the 1964–1966 sitcom The Munsters which reunited original cast members Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo and Al Lewis. It was the last film made with most of the original actors from the 1960s TV series. Marilyn Munster was portrayed by Jo McDonnell and Eddie Munster by Canadian child actor K. C. Martel. The film was directed by Don Weis and originally aired on NBC on February 27, 1981.
The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas is a 1996 American made-for-television science fiction comedy film featuring characters from the 1960s sitcom The Munsters. It featured a different cast from the original series, the 1980s revival series The Munsters Today and the previous 1995 television film Here Come the Munsters. The movie is set around Christmas time and included character actor Sandy Baron as 'Grandpa'. Baron had played Grandpa's older brother Yorga a few years previously in The Munsters Today.
Count Sam Dracula, commonly known as Grandpa, is a fictional character from the American sitcom The Munsters, originally played by Al Lewis. He is an undead vampire and the doting, irritable, and sarcastic father of Lily Munster. The role was later played by Howard Morton in the 1980s television series The Munsters Today.
Mockingbird Lane is a 2012 American horror comedy television special that served as a re-imagining of the 1964–66 television series The Munsters. It was developed for NBC by Bryan Fuller. The pilot episode aired on October 26, 2012, as a Halloween special, and lead into a Halloween-themed episode of the television series Grimm, with the option for a series order. The special was viewed by 5.47 million American viewers and gained a 1.5/5 ratings share for adults aged 18–49, and the concept was not picked up by NBC as a series.
3 from Hell is a 2019 American horror film written, co-produced, and directed by Rob Zombie. It is the third and final installment in the Firefly trilogy, which began with House of 1000 Corpses (2003), and stars Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley, Richard Brake and Sid Haig. Ten years have passed since the events of The Devil's Rejects (2005). The plot follows an incarcerated Otis Driftwood and Baby Firefly being freed by Otis's half-brother, after barely surviving a police shootout a decade ago.
Vinegar Syndrome is an American home video distribution company which specializes in "protecting and preserving genre films". The company was founded in 2012 in Bridgeport, Connecticut by Joe Rubin and Ryan Emerson, who created it to restore and distribute old X-rated films that were lost or otherwise unavailable. Their catalog has since expanded to include other types of cult and exploitation films, including horror films and action films.
The Munsters is a 2022 American horror comedy film produced, written, and directed by Rob Zombie and starring Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Daniel Roebuck, Richard Brake, Jorge Garcia, Sylvester McCoy, Catherine Schell, and Cassandra Peterson. Based on the 1960s family sitcom of the same title, the story takes place prior to the events of the series, serving as an origin story for the characters.
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